Chasidut zu Bereschit 1:31

In the book of Genesis, after every day of God’s creation, He examined His handiwork and declared that it was good. On the sixth day He reviewed all and declared, Ve-hinneh tov me’od, “And behold it is very good” (Gen. 1:31). The Midrash²⁸⁷Bereishis Rabbah, Chapter 9. explains the phrase “very good” as referring to Gehinnom, death, and the evil inclination. How can the Midrash call these disasters “very good”? The answer is that deep down even the worst evils are good. A kelippah (a shell) fulfills an important function, it preserves the fruit. Kelippos in the moral sense, such as evil desires, help maintain the pleasure that is slated for man.²⁸⁸Innerspace pg. 71.

From the Pesach Haggadah: “And God saw all that He had made and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31): As on each day, it is stated, “And God saw that it was good” – that from God, may He blessed, seeing it, it was good. But afterwards (on the sixty day), God saw again (a second time) – and that was very good.

Genesis ‎17,13., “to be circumcised, etc.:” [what follows is not ‎documented although the author quotes Bereshit Rabbah, ‎‎49. It is not found there, nor in Bereshit Rabbah 47, where it ‎ought to be, if at all. The author himself appears to have had his ‎doubts, and this is why he attributes the so-called “quote” ‎די לעבד ‏להיות כרבו‎, “it is appropriate for a servant to emulate his master,” ‎to a statement in the Levush. The authenticity of the ‎statement has been questioned as it implies that just as G’d is ‎‎“circumcised,” so His favourite creatures must be. I will content ‎myself with paraphrasing the thoughts of the author. We know ‎that in order to create a physical world, G’d had to “reduce” the ‎impact of His emanations, or to be ‎מצמצם‎, “to understate the ‎extent of His brilliance.” In order for G’d to conclude a covenant ‎with Avraham in his capacity as the founder of the Jewish people, ‎G’d’s “junior” partner on earth, he and the people under his ‎authority had to perform a symbolic act on their body, i.e. the ‎removal of their foreskin. By doing this they emulated an ‎attribute used by their Creator. This explanation may answer the ‎question that if G’d created everything in His universe in a ‎perfect state, (compare Genesis 1,31) why would it be necessary at ‎this stage for Avraham to remove a G’d given part of his body? ‎Ed.]‎