GEN213 Tongs made with tongs.  Pirkei Avot, V, 8.  Tongs are like scissors; but instead of cutting, they are used to grasp and hold things. To make a pair is not too difficult. You can grasp a piece of metal and hold it over the fire until it becomes pliable; then you can work and hammer it into proper shape. But you would need something to hold the metal to the fire to soften it. You could not use your bare hands. In fact, you would need an existing pair of tongs. But then, the canny thinker will ask with a sly smile, “How was the very first pair made, when none existed yet to let a man hold metal to the flame?” As with the problem of the chicken and egg (which came first?) we find the solution in the Almighty’s six days of creation.  Herein lies a cogent thought about man’s capacities and limitations.  The human has not only a right but an obligation to master and use his world creatively, to invent, refine, transform. Scripture states: “the Almighty blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because in it He rested from all his work which He had created to act” [this verse] – i.e., for man to act. He must continue the work of creation, to bring it ever closer to perfection. Thus each generation has an obligation to improve the world it finds.  We read, “One generation to another shall praise (y’shabach) they works. [Psalms 145:5]  In Rabbinic usage, though, the verb could also mean to improve, to make better. Then the passage can be rendered, “Generation after generation shall improve Thy works.”  Certainly Western man in the last century or two has been doing so with accelerating speed. Electricity, the entire range of products created by technology, atomic power, were not known to previous generations.  In the physical, material realm man hastens to improve things. But by contrast there is the quiet reflection that man for all his inventiveness can only work with what is given, with reality as he finds it.  Man cannot account for the origin or beginnings of things.  Where did the first atom or electron come from? Why is there something rather than nothing?  To render a Biblical verse periphrastically, “The beginning is the wisdom which is reverence of the Lord” Psalms 111:10 Seek the “beginnings” of things, basic origins, and you will find the wisdom of reverence for the Almighty.  SINAI3 96