Every day of creation, Hashem says “it was good,” except for one… On the second day, there is no mention of it being good. Why not?
Rabbi Hanina said: Because on that day discord entered the world, as it says “And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters …”
Midrash Rabbah, Genesis 4:6
It’s strange though, because that is not the first time separation is mentioned in the Torah. On the first day it says:
God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:4
So is separation good or not good?
To answer that, we can look to the story of Cain and Abel. Hashem accepted the offering brought to him by Abel. Hashem did not accept the offering brought to him by Cain. Those two sentences could have nothing to do with each other. Abel did what Hashem wanted him to do, so he was rewarded. Cain did not act in the ideal manner, so he was not rewarded. Cain could have responded by looking inward at what he could do differently to improve himself. But instead he compared himself to his brother, wondering why Abel should get rewarded while he did not.
In other words, instead of focusing on how he could harness his own unique talents, Cain wanted to have the exact same situation as someone else.
We see the opposite scenario with Moses and his brother Aaron later in the Torah. They each get amazing blessings from Hashem, and those blessings are very different from each other. Moses becomes the leader of the people who teaches us the Torah, while Aaron becomes the High Priest whose descendants will always be the cohanim. Yet, Moses and Aaron loved each other very much and worked perfectly side by side because they each focused on their own unique talents that they could bring to the table. Instead of comparing blessings and getting jealous, they each happily served Hashem in their own way.
When Hashem created Light and Darkness, they were so different and special in their own way, there was no need for discord. Only when Hashem created Waters and Waters and separated them were there issues because the waters saw themselves as exactly the same and thus expected to be treated exactly the same as well.
Every single person is unique and brings something special to this world that no other person brings. If we try to be like someone else, we will only create discord. But if we work on ourselves to manifest our own talents in the best possible way, we will see, that it is good.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Altonaga and the JET Team
