Dvar Torah

As a parashah, Bereshit has much to teach us about new beginnings, including a lesson I learned in the Vatican. Admittedly, most divrei Torah aren’t set in the Vatican, but sometimes there are important lessons to be learned even from unconventional situations.

This past summer, for the first time ever, our school offered alumni parents the opportunity to join us for a weeklong journey through Jewish Italy, including a Shabbat spent in Rome. Before Shabbat, our group spent the morning visiting the Vatican, and in the Sistine Chapel we gazed up at the ceiling to take in Michelangelo’s interpretation of Gan Eden from the third chapter of Sefer Bereshit. Western culture has taught us all to expect any depiction of the tree of knowledge to be an apple tree, or perhaps a lemon tree, but that is not what he painted.

Instead, Michelangelo painted a fig tree in the center of Gan Eden. While this doesn’t make sense based on all of the European artists who came before him, it does make sense if you know that in the very next pasuk, Adam and Chavah weave clothing for themselves made from fig leaves. And it makes even more sense if you know that in Rashi’s comment on that pasuk, Rashi quotes the Talmud (Sanhedrin 70b), saying that the tree of knowledge was in fact a fig tree.

I think we can learn three things from this situation, which are directly relevant to our school community, especially as we find ourselves in a transitional moment.

First, while I didn’t expect the Vatican to push me to think more deeply about and reexamine Parashat Bereshit, it certainly did, a reminder that even unanticipated situations can present unique opportunities for learning and growth.

Second, according to Rashi, we may encounter challenges in life, but Hashem always presents us with the means to address and overcome them. Adam and Chavah may have eaten from the tree and realized they were naked, but that very tree provided them with the fig leaves they needed to overcome their situation and move forward. As I experience a new beginning and complete my first week as interim head of school, I am grateful for our community and the incredibly strong faculty and staff team we have at The Leffell School — strong enough to navigate any transition.

Third, our kids should pay attention when they are learning Chumash with Rashi. Michelangelo clearly did, and he became a world-famous artist!

Shabbat shalom!