A river issues forth from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four headwaters. The name of the first is Pishon; this is the one that encircles the whole land of Chavilah, where the gold is. And the gold of this land is good; crystal and the shoham stone are there as well.
The Midrash (בר"ר ט"ז ב') discusses this gold which the Torah describes to be 'good'.
וזהב הארץ ההוא טוב וכו'. אמר ריש לקיש א היה עולם ראוי להשתמש בזהב, ולמה נברא בשביל בית המקדש, שנאמר, וזהב הארץ ההיא טוב, היך מה דאת אמר ההר הטוב הזה - והלבנון.
'And the gold of this land is good'. Reish Lakish said: The world was not worthy of utilizing gold. And why, then, was it created? For the sake of the Bais Hamikdash, as it states, 'And the gold of this land is good', and 'good' refers to the Bais Hamikdash, as it states, 'This good mountain and the Lebanon'.
We need to understand why Reish Lakish felt that 'the world was not worthy of utilizing gold' and thus 'there was seemingly no reason for the gold to be created'. It cannot be that his reasoning was due to the fact that gold is so costly and thus exclusive and elite, for if so, how much more should he have stated his words in regard to precious stones which are even more costly and thus so much more exclusive, and the Torah clearly declares that land to possess as well.
The Gemara in Chagigah (יב ע"א) discusses the light that Hashem created on the first day of creation, which the Torah tells us that 'Hashem saw was good'.
אור שברא הקב''ה ביום ראשון, אדם צופה בו מסוף העולם ועד סופו. כיון שנסתכל הקב''ה בדור המבול ובדור הפלגה וראה שמעשיהם מקולקלים, עמד וגנזו מהן, שנאמר וימנע מרשעים אורם. ולמי גנזו, לצדיקים לעתיד לבא, שנאמר וירא אלהים את האור כי טוב, ואין טוב אלא צדיק, שנאמר אמרו צדיק כי טוב.
- The light that hashem created on the first day, man could use to survey everything from one end of the world to the other. However, after Hashem looked at the Generation of the Flood and the Generation of the Tower and saw that their deeds were wicked, He proceeded to hide it from them, as it says, 'And light was withheld from the wicked'. And for whom did He hide this light? For the righteous people in the future, as it says, 'Hashem saw that the light was good'; and 'good' refers to none other than the righteous person, as it says, 'Say of the righteous person that he is good'.
We learn from this Gemara that anything that is inherently 'good' can be utilized only by the righteous, for only they are worthy of benefiting from the ultimate 'good', and therefore anything that is truly 'good' must be hidden away and reserved for the World to Come, when the righteous will be able to enjoy it.
Accordingly, we can understand why Reish Lakish said that the world was not worthy of utilizing gold, for the Torah clearly tells us that the 'gold of this land is good'. Furthermore, because light is essentially made up of spiritual matter, therefore we can understand why it was created and then set aside for the World to Come which will be an entirely spiritual world. Gold, on the other hand, because it is a physical being, if it cannot be utilized in this physical world, it is difficult to understand why it was created to be put aside and retained for an entirely spiritual world; and thus Reish Lakish concludes, 'And why, then, was the gold created'?
Reish Lakish therefore explains that the gold was indeed created to be used and enjoyed in this physical world, for although the Torah describes the gold as 'good', nevertheless the Bais Hamikdash as well was described as 'good', and how worthy and proper it is for the gold that is 'good' to be used and utilized in the Bais Hamikdash that is 'good'.
זרע שמשון פרשתנו אות ט"ז
