moshe kempinski
Continuing ing our study of Breishit (Genesis)G-d begins with the creation of light and then began the individuation and particularization of his creation.
In the midst of that creation we read of the creation of the fruit trees.”And G-d said: ‘Let the earth put forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit-tree bearing fruit after its kind, wherein is the seed thereof: upon the earth.” (Gen. 1:11).
Yet we see that the earth responds in a somewhat different fashion than G-d’s command;”And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind; andG-d saw that it was good” (Gen 1: 12).
The earth produced “trees producing fruit”as opposed to “fruit-tree bearing fruit after its kind”
The Midrash teaches that the original and ideal creation was that the trees themselves (their bark and trunk) would taste like the fruit that it produced, ”fruit-trees bearing fruit” Yet instead, the earth fashioned trees that only produced fruit.
Yet G- d “saw that it was good”.
G-d purposely created a reality at odds with its ideal, a tension filled imperfect world.
Rav Kook explained that one of the basic failings of our limited perception of reality is that we generally aspire to the goal and ignore the process of attaining that goal. Man often focuses on the fruit of the tree and ignores the sweetness of the tree that bore the fruit.As a result the fruit may taste bitter and unfulfilling
That is the lesson of a creation that moved from phase to phase rather than the instant creation Hashem could have achieved.
A lesson we all need to learn