Transforming darkness – B’reshit
If – as we see from the first chapter of the Chumash – God created everything including light, why did He create darkness?
Maybe it was as a rival to light; we do not appreciate light without contrasting its opposite, just as we do not appreciate good without the contrast with evil.
But if we weigh up darkness against light we see that God regards light as superior.
From a human point of view this teaches us that our task when confronting darkness is to try to roll it away (look at the opening blessing of the Ma’ariv service) – not by totally eradicating darkness but by transforming as much as we can into light.
Think of the events of the past century with all the darkness that evil men and movements brought over Europe.
Darkness represents the denial of human rights and human conscience and dignity; light stands for human understanding, respect, tolerance and love.
