In Parshat Bereshit, we learn about God creating the world. Everything we have, every single person, and all the objects in the world were created by God. Not only did God create the world but God said “it was good.”

The phrase “it was good” was said when Hashem created light, darkness, animals, water, land, luminaries and more. It was said when they were fully completed. However, when Hashem created man and woman, it does not say “it was good.” Why is that?

Being good is a choice that as humans we get to make. Like Adam and Chava who followed the snake’s voice, we do make mistakes and we aren’t as good as we can be. We may listen to our yetzer hara (evil inclination), take revenge, speak lashon hara evil speech), make nasty comments or something else. However, Hashem gave us the ability to be good.

With what is going on in Israel, we see that there are people in this world who choose to be bad. They want to see us become like them and give up our Judaism. They want to make us look bad in the public eye. That being said, we must choose good, now more than ever. We must be a light to other nations and be proud to be a Jew. We must fight the urge to become like them and fight the terrorists to protect our loved ones and not just for revenge. We must choose good and choose to protect and not just kill out of anger. We must choose to learn Torah and retain out Jewish pride.

May each one of us choose good and start fresh with this week’s parsha. May we choose to do mitzvot and spread the love of the Jews to all. May we all look as טוב (good) in Hashem’s eyes.