Dvar Torah

Throughout my academic experience, my classmates and I have often been encouraged to work together in groups. This experience, though valuable, frequently comes with many challenges. When given the choice to pick our own groups, some students are inevitably left out. When we aren’t given a choice, we sometimes end up in groups where certain members do not contribute equally, or where one person insists that everything be done their way. Working together is not always easy — it requires patience, understanding, and compromise.

This same idea extends far beyond the classroom. In life, building relationships and social connections can be difficult. Some people naturally find it easy to make friends, while others struggle to connect. Yet, we are actually taught from the very beginning of the Torah what our ideal dynamic with others should look like — right at the start of Bereishit.

As God created the world, the Torah repeatedly tells us that after each act of creation, “God saw that it was good.” But when God created man, something changed- the Torah doesn’t say, “and God saw that it was good.” It was only at the end of the sixth day, after all of creation was complete, that it says, “And God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” This subtle difference elucidates something profound: man alone was not described as “good.” Only when man existed together with the rest of creation did God call it “very good.”

Why is that? Why did man not deserve his own individual declaration of goodness?

I believe the answer can be found at the end of the Parasha, as the Torah transitions into the story of Noach. Noach was righteous, but we are told that his generation was filled with wickedness, and that this deeply saddened God. Yet, the Torah concludes the Parasha by saying that “Noach found favor in the eyes of God.” If we already know the extent of Noach’s righteousness, then why is this statement necessary? The Sforno clarifies that it was essential to bring up God’s grace, because it was not only expressed for Noach but also to save his family. Although Noach was personally righteous, he did not go out of his way to influence or uplift the people around him. He lived righteously, but in isolation. Because of this, Hashem’s special favor was needed to save those close to him.

Taken together, these two lessons — from Bereishit and from Noach — reveal something fundamental about our purpose in this world. God did not want humanity to exist in solitude. We are meant to grow, to learn, and to strive for goodness together. Righteousness in isolation is incomplete. True goodness, the kind that God calls “very good,” happens when we connect, help each other, and elevate those around us.