In Parshas Breishis we find the paragraph of Vayechulu. We say this every Friday night as part of Kiddush. There is a grammatical problem in the end of the last posuk of Vayechulu. The Torah writes that Hashem was ‘shavas mikol milachto,’- ‘Hashem ceased from doing all work, ‘asher barah Elokim la'asos’ –‘which Hashem had created to do.’ This is difficult. Barah is past tense, la'asos is present-future tense. The posuk seemingly should have been written asher barah Elokim v‘asah. Why the switch from past tense to present-future tense?

The Rishonim[i] have already addressed this question. I once heard an approach to this in the name of Rav Soloveitchik zt"l[ii] based on a midrash[iii]. The midrash records a question that a philosopher asked R’ Hoshiya. The philosopher asked,

“If the mitzvah of bris milah is so desired by HaKadosh Baruch Hu, then how come Adam HaRishon did not receive this mitzvah?”[iv]

R’ Hoshiya answered as follows.

“Everything that was created during sheishes yemei breishis requires further asiyah, further constructive work. Mustard seeds are sour, they have to be sweetened. Wheat kernels are hard, they have to be ground up into flour. Even man requires tikun and has to further perfect himself’” And that is the idea of bris milah.

The Rav explained as follows. This midrash is teaching us one primary message of bris milah which is also a basic yesod in Torah hashkafah. Man has an obligation to make himself a better person. Hashem wanted to teach this to us, so He purposely left the world imperfect, in a sense, so that Man would be forced to further perfect the world. For example, when a person plants wheat seeds, Hashem could have created the world in a way that the seeds grow and develop into Brooklyn Bakery brownies. And a person would go to the field and harvest thousands of Brooklyn Bakery brownies and bring them into his house. How come the development of a wheat seed ends up with a kernel of wheat that has to be ground up and made into flour? Why did Hashem do that? R’ Hoshiya is explaining that Hashem wanted Man to further the creation process. Man is supposed to be a partner in creation. Mustard seeds are sour, and it takes various other ingredients to help sweeten the mustard seeds. Why did Hashem do that? How come a person could not plant mustard seeds and they would grow into tasty Yellow mustard? Again, Hashem wanted Man to further the creation process and be a partner in creation.

Based on this midrash, the entire natural world becomes a mashal from which Man should learn that just like the natural world requires further constructive work, so too Man himself requires further constructive work. A person has to work on himself to become a better person. If you do that, you have created something totally new. You can become a partner in your own creation. That yesod is captured by the mitzvah of bris milah. This is the depth of pshat in the midrash.

Why is this midrash located here in Parshas Breishis? The meforshei hamidrash point out that this midrash is coming to answer our original question. This idea of the midrash that Hashem wants Man to be a partner in the creative process, and that ultimately Man should focus on recreating himself by making himself into a better person, is hinted at in our posuk. The Torah writes that Hashem ceased doing all His work that He had created, comma, in order for us la'asos-to do more! Hashem stopped on purpose. He left the world partially imperfect in order for us to further the creation process, la'asos- in order for us to do more.

This message fits with this time of the year[v]. We have just finished the yom tov cycle of Tishrei, and our challenge during the yom tov cycle of Tishrei is that we should leave Tishrei as better stronger ovdei Hashem. And if we are able to do that, then we have succeeded in fulfilling the message of this posuk, the message of bris milah, to recreate ourselves and further perfect ourselves into different, better people.

[i]See Rashi, Ibn Ezra,and the Ramban.
[ii] Part of what I am going to present I found in print in the name of the Rav. See Halachic Man p.102-109, and Al Hateshuva p.188-190.
[iii] Breishis Rabbah 11,6.
[iv]The meforshim on the midrash point out that the midrash says elsewhere that Adam Harishon was actually born with a bris milah already. Apparently, the philosopher did not know this or did not believe it. And the Tanna chose to answer with the mashal in order to teach the hashkafic yesod.
[v]As we have mentioned before, everything fits together in Torah Judaism.