Improving on Creation

Improving on Creation
LEVITICUS : 19: 19- 20:27

When a man and his wife are about to go out and the wife asks whether she looks okay, the appropriate answer is “You look lovely” (not “Maybe that dress and those shoes don’t go together”). If she then says, “Is that what you really think?” the answer is “My dear, you really look lovely.” It is unlikely that suggestions for improvement will be welcome. Something equivalent in relation to God may be implied by the opening ban in these verses. For ten dollars, the Shaatnez Inspection Service of Seattle will inspect your suit to make sure it does not have both linen and wool in it, and for another ten dollars it will remove the shaatnez; this is the word translated “woven” in verse 19. No one really knows what the word means, but its implications are clear. The Shaatnez Service notes that the Torah does not explain the reason for this ban and comments that Jews will obey it anyway (if God says so, that is reason enough), but it speculates that the problem with the banned mixtures is that they imply we think we can improve on creation. This seems an insult to God, who at the end of creation looked over it and thought it was quite beautiful...