Beraishis

The Torah begins by telling us that Hashem created the world with all that is in it. The earth was initially dark, so one of the first things Hashem created was light. וירא אלקים את האור כי טוב ויבדל אלקים בין האור ובין החשך, and Hashem saw the light, that it was good & He separated between the light & dark.  

Rashi explains that Hashem saw that the light was good & that it wouldn't be good for the light & dark to operate simultaneously, so He separated them. One’s time He made during the day & the other’s time during the night. Sifsey Chachamim explains that it can't really mean simultaneously, because that would be impossible, rather it means either that in one town it would be light & in another dark, or it means that it would be day for an hour or two & then night for an hour or two & then switch back. So, Hashem made it uniform that we have the daytime of light & the night of darkness. 

The Chofetz Chaim, however, says the posuk is trying to teach us about separation when things are intermingled: how we have to separate between the profane & the sanctified. In Eastern Europe, traveling peddlers would come to town selling tzitzis, siddurim,‎ mezuzos & other holy articles. They would set up a table in the back of the shul near the furnace; when prayers ended, the people would come & buy what they needed. 

Once, at a shul in Poland, the Rav, Reb Chaim Leib Mishkovsky, approached the table ‎to buy something & was shocked to see that, among the holy items were books of heresy, haskala literature. Without hesitation, he took the books & threw them into the furnace. The peddler complained; “rabbi, not only did you just cause me the loss of the cost of the books; you don't let me make a living; those books were my biggest profit.” 

The rabbi replied, “I will pay you the full retail price for the books I burned. Now that you say you won't be able to support your family, I will help you find another job.” The next day, the peddler went to the rabbi to ask him if he found him a job.  The rabbi answered, “yes, he was working on something & with the help of the local priest, he might have something for him.”  

“How can the priest help?” asked the peddler. “Well, last week I met the priest & he told me that the man who used to ring the church bells every morning, died. I will ask him to offer you the job. It's a respectable & decent paying position.” The peddler was shocked & insulted! “Rabbi, do you think I would sell my soul to be an assistant to the priest?” 

The rabbi replied, “listen to yourself. To ring bells to wake up non-Jews to go to church is unthinkable in your eyes, but to sell heretical books that will entice young Jewish children to idolatry is permissible?!”

How often do we do this in our own life? We put custom on a pedestal while transgressing real Torah laws without a thought? This is why, says the gemara, that we have havdala - the bracha of separation. Additionally, the bracha of chonain hadaas contains the word wisdom, for if there is no wisdom, there is no separation. We have to realize that just as, between day & night, the difference is obvious, so, too, the difference between the holy & the mundane, the Jew & the Gentile, must never be blurred. 

Let's take this new beginning, a fresh start to the year, to focus on what's important in our lives, to be able to make the differentiation between right & wrong, holy & profane & not have them intermingle, so we will merit the eternal light!