Welcome to the short, practical Lelamed Weekly Dvar. After a few weeks with no Parsha, we get to start a new cycle hopefully filled with fun new insights to learn and grow from. Please consider passing along to others, or adding their email(s) by responding to this one. Enjoy... _______________________________________________ Bereishit begins with the story of creation, with the purpose and culmination of it resulting in the creation of humanity. After Adam and Eve falter by eating from the forbidden tree, they hide, which prompts G-d to ask them, “where are you?” (3:9). Why would G-d rhetorically ask for them where they were? Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky explains that G-d was impressing on Adam, Eve and teaching future generations that even when we make mistakes, He is still looking for us. G-d isn’t looking for our errors, but rather is looking for us to own up to our mistakes and improve our actions. It’s not our mistakes that define us unless we let them determine our future. May we always associate positive actions as our authentic selves and errors as simply lapses in our true character. _______________________________________________ Quotation of the week: "Circumstances don't make a person, they reveal a person."