God's Three Keys

Parshat Tetzaveh

by Rabbi Avi Billet

With the abundance of storms that have everybody talking about the weather, one wonders how much the global warming camp can convince their opponents that "we" control the weather. Record snowfalls across the country seem to indicate to me that God, and not Hummers or Styrofoam cups, is still in charge.

The gemara (Taanit 2a) certainly concurs with this assessment, when it states, "Rabbi Yochanan said, 'There are three keys in the hands of God that are not entrusted to an agent. They are: the key of rain, the key of conception/childbirth, and the key of revival of the dead.'"

While it may be a stretch to include "snowstorms" in the "key of rain" that God controls, I am willing to go out on that limb with the confidence that not too many people will object.

The Gaon of Vilna implies from a different passage in Taanit 9a, that there is no concept in Jewish thought that is not hinted to in the Torah. For the source, or hint, to the idea of the keys God holds, he looks at Parshat Tetzaveh, Shmot 28:36 where the Torah, in describing the creation of the Tzitz (forehead-plate) says "…and engrave on it in the same manner as a signet ring, [the words], 'Holy to God.'"

In Hebrew, the last four words of this verse are, "Pituchai Chotam Kodesh LaHashem" - פיתוחי חתם קודש לה.   The Vilna Gaon takes this phrase to mean, "The openings (or 'keys') of 'CH'T'M' are distinctly set aside for God." The three letters of the word "Chotam" are an acronym for the three keys the gemara says are in God's hands.

Chet = "Chaya," the ability to conceive and give birth to a child. Taf = "T'chiya," or resurrection. Mem = "Matar," rain. 

These three powers are "kodesh la'Hashem," separate for God, and were not touched by any stranger.

It is amazing to behold the advancement of science and technology in our world. In a certain sense, we have given ourselves the opportunity to play God in so many aspects of our lives.

We can fertilize reproductive material in test-tubes to implant a viable embryo in a uterus, and we can incubate fetuses, once they've developed viable organs and features, to a point that, in some cases, they can live normal lives even if they've emerged from the womb at 24 weeks gestation.

But, we cannot create the materials that create the embryo. And we can not replicate those essential first few months in the womb. And as much as we know about medicine, there are still children who do not survive pregnancy, and there are still mothers who do not survive childbirth. The numbers are certainly better than at other times in history, but they are not yet zero. We don't know everything.

We can do all kinds of things to restimulate the heart, keep patients alive, revive those who have flatlined. A machine can keep a person's organs alive for a significant amount of time (I am not going into the hot debate of defining the end of life).

But we cannot bring back to life someone who has been dead for a few vital minutes. And, in the rare case when doctors have given up, done all they could, and the patient "comes back" nonetheless, it is generally noted that some things are in God's hands, as their advent is beyond what human science can explain. And, it goes without saying that resurrection as described in some of the Biblical stories (Elijah, Elisha) are beyond the scope of the abilities of Man.

From a religious perspective, I do believe there is nothing more arrogant than stating that humans control the weather and climate more than God controls the weather and climate.

The Torah certainly makes the case that humans ought to take care of our world to the best of our abilities because we can easily destroy it. And yet there is a seeming contradiction.

Bereshit 1:28 has God blessing the newly created humans, "...Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it; v’kivshu’ha - have dominion over...every living thing...." At the same time, in Bereshit 2:15 God takes the newly created human,"... and placed him in the garden of Eden - l’ovdah ul’shomrah - to cultivate it and to guard it."

In an article about Judaism and the environment, which originally appeared in the OU's Jewish Action magazine and can now be found elsewhere online, Rabbi Freundel concluded his analysis of the subject thus: "...The true meaning, then, of the Biblical command of 'subdue the world' is not to conquer the world by ... destroying its resources. Its true implication is found in God's other statement to Adam about how to function in the Garden of Eden, i.e. 'to work it and to watch it.' Responsible use mixed with sincere concern, progress with restraint, growth and technology with conservation and preservation, is the Torah's ecological agenda.”

That refers to our responsibility.

The bottom line remains, however, that God is still in charge.