Bereshit

Chapter one, the whole universe. Chapter three, a talking snake.

The world opens tohu vavohu (תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ), "unformed and void." 🎶 'Undecided, undefined'. Dark water, a wind hovering over it, nothing with a name yet.

Then Hashem speaks, and it all comes pouring out:

🎶 'First came the light, then came the sound' 🎶 'Ten thousand creatures, none the same'

(Ok, in our version the sound comes FIRST. Hashem SAYS "yehi or"... and THEN there's light.)

And one of them is smarter than the rest.

Enter the snake: "וְהַנָּחָשׁ֙ הָיָ֣ה עָר֔וּם מִכֹּל֙ חַיַּ֣ת הַשָּׂדֶ֔ה" - "now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild beasts."

Onkelos translates it plain: chakim (חַכִּים)... WISE. And the Izhbitzer reads it the same way, as chochma.

Cunning at WHAT, exactly???

The Mei HaShiloach, the holy Izhbitzer, sorts the animals for us. The cow and the sheep take the yoke and let a person fill the trough... so they never have to ask Hashem for anything. The wild beasts are smarter, says the Izhbitzer. They'd rather live lean than eat from a man's hand, so their food comes straight from Hashem, and they look to the Giver every single moment. No fence, no farmer.

Free of man. Never free of G-d.

The snake wanted one more level. He wanted his life set up so airtight "שֶׁאַף לְהַשי"ת לֹא יִצְטָרֵךְ לְהַבִּיט" - "that he would not even need to look to the Blessed One."

Not one moment, ever, where he'd have to lift his eyes.

And the Izhbitzer says this is Amalek's move too: I don't need the avoda. Give me the LIGHT... skip the service.

Now look at the snake's curse.

"al gechoncha telech v'afar tochal kol yemei chayecha" - "עַל־גְּחֹנְךָ֣ תֵלֵ֔ךְ וְעָפָ֥ר תֹּאכַ֖ל כׇּל־יְמֵ֥י חַיֶּֽיךָ" - "on your belly shall you crawl, and dust shall you eat, all the days of your life."

Dust is EVERYWHERE. He'll never go hungry, never wait, never ask. 🎶 'Herbivores ate well cause their food didn't never run'... and now his food can't run from him either.

Belly in the dirt, face in the dirt, dinner in the dirt. Forever. Not one reason left to look up.

The curse IS the wish.

Then the people. The snake is arum (עָר֔וּם), cunning. One verse earlier, Adam and Chava are arumim (עֲרוּמִּ֔ים), naked, "וְלֹ֖א יִתְבֹּשָֽׁשׁוּ" - "yet they felt no shame." Same letters! The snake has every angle covered, so he never has to need anybody. Adam and Chava have nothing covered at all... standing wide open, and not one bit embarrassed about it.

🎶 'When we were talking' 🎶 'I didn't need to hide'

They eat... and suddenly they're sewing fig leaves and ducking into the trees. 🎶 'Ashamed of my reflections I reverse and try to flee'.

Hashem calls out one word: "ayeka" - "אַיֶּֽכָּה" - "Where are you?"

He knows exactly where they are. He wants them to look up.

And the last thing He does before they leave: "וַיַּ֩עַשׂ֩ ה' אֱלֹקִ֜ים לְאָדָ֧ם וּלְאִשְׁתּ֛וֹ כׇּתְנ֥וֹת ע֖וֹר וַיַּלְבִּשֵֽׁם" - "and Hashem made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them."

He makes them clothes and dresses them HIMSELF, like a father zipping a kid's coat at the front door.

The snake crawls off on his belly, with dust that never runs out. The people walk out wearing something Somebody made for them.

🎶 'I feed from the bottom, you feed from the top'

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Ok phriends, listen up. We're more snake than we'd like to admit.

We hate needing.

We haul nine grocery bags from the car in one trip, plastic handles cutting the blood off to our fingers, before we'll make a second trip or holler for help from the porch (guilty).

And we phans built the most gorgeous snake setup in history. Every show, in your pocket: soundboards, LivePhish, the whole archive, on the couch in the dark. No ticket, no ride, no lot, no stranger required (and then forty minutes in the group chat fighting over which version is definitive).

Dust that never runs out.

And still, we get in the car. Why???

Because tour RUNS on need. A finger in the air outside the gate. A guy you met six hours ago handing you half his grilled cheese. "Anybody headed back toward Burlington? I got gas money!"

Up on stage, same thing. A jam dies the second somebody plays like he doesn't need the other three... and it lifts off when all four are listening for each other.

December 31, 1999, Big Cypress: Phish played straight through the night into the first morning of 2000. And the one thing nobody on that stage could do was make the sun come up. All they could do was keep playing... and wait for it.

"vayehi erev vayehi boker" - "וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר" - "and there was evening and there was morning." The Torah starts every day in the dark. Morning is something that happens TO you.

This week, catch yourself doing what the snake did:

→ Payday clears Thursday, the fridge is full... and you fly through bentching after lunch without looking up once.

→ You map the route, check the radar, set three alarms for Monday... and Shemoneh Esrei is the only part of the morning running on autopilot.

→ A friend offers to help you move the couch, and you say "nah, I got it," because saying yes feels like owing him.

Make the plan. Pack the cooler. That's hishtadlut, and it's holy. But don't build it so airtight you never have to ask. Hashem... or anybody else.

The Izhbitzer's word is lehabit (לְהַבִּיט), to look. So once a day, lift your face out of the dust and look up. Even the lion, who answers to nobody... still lifts his head for every meal: 🎶 'Always give me what I lack'.

I bless all of us to be a little less afraid of needing... to leave room in every plan to look up, and find Hashem right there, still calling ayeka, still holding the coat open for us.

Good Shabbos, phriends.