1:1בראשית In the beginning of _____ , God created… there is an insinuated blank space after “the beginning of”, to teach us that the beginning of creation is hidden from us, both on the theological and on the scientific plane. Theologically, we do not know why God created the world, and scientifically, we will always ask “and what was before that?”; ברא – from the bi-radical[1] Hebrew root בר which means to bring out, at times with a burst of energy, as in the nouns ברד, ברק – hail, lightning, and the verbs ברר, ברח – sort out, escape. אלהים – Elohim represents rigorous judgment. Only the first, perfect world[2], can be governed by that Name of God, because an imperfect world would not be able to withstand punishment.
1:2 תהו ובהו – these words are usually translated as chaos, but maybe it would be more correct to translate “terrifying emptiness”. וחושך – Darkness represents the pre-creation world because it potentially contains everything, and we usually identify it with evil and fear because we focus on the dangers lurking in it. ורוח א' מרחפת – the wind of Elohim hovers above the water: a subtle rejection of the ancient creation myths of the Near East.[3] In these myths there is a violent struggle between the gods and the powers of evil, led by the deity of the abyss. By contrast, the abyss here is subdued by a gentle wind blowing above it. Instead of a violent struggle there is a sense of calmness and total control, showing the sovereignty of the Creator.
1:3: יהי אור – let there be light: The first act of creation is separation and distinction. Both physically and spiritually, we identify light with goodness and clarity of thought, and darkness with evil and confusion. The creation of the light on the first day conveys the message that the first step in approaching a task or a problem is discerning the facts and the circumstances and clearly defining that task or problem. The light of the first day is abstract and symbolic, while the light we see will appear on the fourth day.
1:4: טוב – Good: the first world is characterized by goodness. It is a successful world which functions with precision according to the will and plan of the Creator.
1:5: ויהי ערב – It was evening, it was morning…: This formula appears at the conclusion of each day and conveys a sense of order and careful planning, unlike in the second story; יום אחד – One day: this is the first appearance of the concept of time, and since there are no other days yet, it is one day.
1:6: רקיע... בין מים למים – firmament… between water and water: This is the first case of דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם – the Torah speaks the language of humans. In the past, people believed that the sky is a transparent, physical dome, in which the stars are set like gems, and on top of which lies a tremendous water reservoir[4]. Even today, most people think of the sky as a physical entity and not as space, at least in the vernacular. ויהי מבדיל – It will separate: in rejection of the belief that natural phenomena are wars waged by the gods against humanity, the Torah describes the heavens, or firmament, as a boundary placed by the Creator between the water above it an the water below it. As in verse 1:2, there is a sense of complete control by the Creator.
1:8 שמים – The Hebrew name is derived from the human perception of the heavens as a water reservoir: שם מים – the water is there.
1:9 יקוו – let the water gather. The theme of separation and discernment continues. First between light and darkness, then the lower waters and the upper waters, and now between dry land and oceans.
1:11-12: A shower of words is used in these two verses to describe the creation of the vegetation. Unlike the previous acts of creation, here the utterance and its execution are not identical. Both the wealth of words and the discrepancy between the verses express the amazing diversity of the world’s flora.
1:14: להבדיל בין היום ובין הלילה – to distinguish between day and night: Day and night here are part of the physical, living world, and are not the same as light and darkness, whose separation is mentioned earlier, and which are conceptual. The term “luminaries” can be use only in a world where there is life, plants, animals, and humans who can perceive the light and be affected by it. For that reason, the creation of the luminaries is mentioned after the creation of vegetation.
והיו לאותות ולמועדים ולימים ושנים – they shall become signs [and mark] seasons, days, and years: The modern society is addicted to time measuring, but it wasn’t always like that. The order of the roles of the luminaries here follows the awareness of natural phenomena and time, as it has developed among ancient people. The most significant, and dreaded, role was the divine status of phenomena such as thunder, lightning, and most importantly, a sun or moon eclipse. Among pagan nations those were signs of the shifting mood of their many gods,[5] while the Torah insists on the total control God has over the elements. The seasons were the next in importance because they dictate life cycles and sustenance for both farmers and hunters. Then came the days, which were easily noticeable and marked as a cycle of light and darkness, activity and rest, and only when these were in place, there were people who started noticing the cycles of years and take note of it.[6] Until today, the ability to track greater cycles of time and have a historical awareness is the sign if a developed civilization.
1:16: המאורות הגדולים – The great luminaries: The Torah, again, speaks the language of humans. It is well known today, and has been for a while, that the moon has no light of its own, is not big, and is merely earth’s satellite, but people have perceived the sun and the moon as a reigning couple of similar importance and characteristics, and the Torah follows that perception. The great luminary governs the day, the smaller luminary governs the night, and the stars – note that the Torah does not assign government to the stars, unlike in Psalms 139:6: “the moon and stars are the governors of night.” The Torah alludes to the fact that the stars do not provide significant light at night and that in rare occasions, they can be seen during the day.
1:17-18: ויתן אותם אלהים ברקיע... למשול... ולהבדיל - Elohim placed them in the firmament… to govern… and to discern: Governing and discerning are roles associated with God, but in ancient times, people attributed such powers to the heavenly bodies. The Torah refutes that belief by saying that the luminaries do govern day and night and mark the boundary between them, but they were given that role by God, who places them in the firmament the way one places objects in his house.
1:20: ישרצו המים – let the water swarm with life: The first story of creation follows, on a general level, the cosmogony of the universe according to modern science. This is God’s way to tell us that the Torah is divine, without going into details about the creation which are well known to Him but would have made no sense to the original recipients of the Torah. The creation starts with space and the planets, of which earth is mentioned because of its significance to us. It continues with the separation of dry land and water, the appearance of vegetation, and finally life. Life starts in the oceans, continues in the appearance of flying creatures, and ends with land animals and humans. Man is created last to show that he is the final stage of creation, as well as that he is a result of all the stage which preceded him and therefore indebted to them and responsible for them.
1:21: התנינים הגדולים – the great sea-monsters: As with the abyss in 1:2, the sea-monsters populated the myths of the ancient Near East. The Torah mentions them off-handedly as part of God’s creation to show His absolute power. To further degrade these “monsters” they are described as שרץ ורמש – crawling and swarming creatures.
1:22: פרו ורבו – be fruitful and multiply: this is directed at the sea creatures and the birds, as a blessing and not as a commandment. A similar blessing is bestowed upon humans, but not upon land creatures, perhaps because great numbers of those animals might threaten humanity.[7]
1:24: תוצא הארץ – let the earth produce animals: sea creatures emerge from the water, birds are either a product of the sea or the air, and land animals emerge from the ground, but only humans are created directly by an utterance of God, giving them a special status.
1:26: ויאמר אלהים נעשה אדם – Elohim said, let us make man: The Torah transitions from “said” in the singular, to “let us” in the plural. It could be the royal “we”, but also a subliminal message about the relationships between God and man. God is one and unique, but man, though created in God’s image, is the epitome of diversity and dichotomy. This foreshadows the second story in which man sees God in his own image, leading eventually to paganism in which humans perceive their gods as amplified versions of themselves, with all of their flaws and human pursuits.
בצלמנו כדמותנו – in our image [shadow], as our likeness: צלם is derived from the word צל, shadow, and it appears in the Torah only here and in the admonition to Noah against murder.[8] דמות is likeness or resemblance, and is not identical with the original. Bothe terms are used to show that though humans are created in the image of God, the distance between them is unbridgeable. Despite this level of separation between God and humanity, the idea of the Image of God is a revolutionary idea, a cornerstone of the Torah’s theology which gives Judaism its unique power. In antiquity members of the ruling classes and the priesthood claimed that they are demigods or of divine descent, and so justified the oppression and control of others. With the statement that humans were created in God’s image, the Torah undermines such claims and delivers the message that all humans are created as equals, none is divine or godly, yet all have a divine spark and divine qualities. This idea encourages every human to achieve great heights as he or she contemplate their potential.
1:27: זכר ונקבה – male and female: the most salient physical feature which sets humans apart, especially within one ethnicity, is gender. By saying that male and female were created in the image of God, the Torah says that the gender difference does not set one’s status and that the image of God is not a physical thing.
ברא אותו... ברא אותם – created him… created them: the transition from the singular to the plural in discussing mankind signifies that there is total equality between the genders. That equality does not mean identity but rather the freedom to be oneself and to realize one’s potential. Unfortunately, that equality is found only in the first, perfect world. In the second world, man’s world, the woman is created as a helpmate and companion and is perceived as inferior to man. The role of humanity is to strive to restore the world to its embryonic, perfect status, and part of this effort is achieved by recognizing women’s rights and equality.
1:28: פרו ורבו – be fruitful and multiply: The sages interpreted this is as a commandment, but the context suggests that it is a blessing, similar to the one given to the fish and birds.
1:29-30: הנה נתתי לכם... את כל ירק עשב לאכלה – I have given you… all vegetation for consumption: in the perfect world there is no violence and humans and animals alike are vegetarians. This is clearly an unsustainable utopia. If, in the words of Isaiah (12:7), a lion will eat hay with the kettle, the food chain will be disrupted, as carnivores cannot survive without meat. It is an achievable goal only for humans, who can survive on a meatless menu, but this original utopian restriction was lifted after the flood because as humans were holding back their violent urges from harming animals, they started harming each other. The allowance to eat meat after the flood is a compromise with the needs of humanity.
1:31: יום הששי – The sixth day: The last day of the six days of creation is honored with the informative article - ה"א היידוע.
1:2 תהו ובהו – these words are usually translated as chaos, but maybe it would be more correct to translate “terrifying emptiness”. וחושך – Darkness represents the pre-creation world because it potentially contains everything, and we usually identify it with evil and fear because we focus on the dangers lurking in it. ורוח א' מרחפת – the wind of Elohim hovers above the water: a subtle rejection of the ancient creation myths of the Near East.[3] In these myths there is a violent struggle between the gods and the powers of evil, led by the deity of the abyss. By contrast, the abyss here is subdued by a gentle wind blowing above it. Instead of a violent struggle there is a sense of calmness and total control, showing the sovereignty of the Creator.
1:3: יהי אור – let there be light: The first act of creation is separation and distinction. Both physically and spiritually, we identify light with goodness and clarity of thought, and darkness with evil and confusion. The creation of the light on the first day conveys the message that the first step in approaching a task or a problem is discerning the facts and the circumstances and clearly defining that task or problem. The light of the first day is abstract and symbolic, while the light we see will appear on the fourth day.
1:4: טוב – Good: the first world is characterized by goodness. It is a successful world which functions with precision according to the will and plan of the Creator.
1:5: ויהי ערב – It was evening, it was morning…: This formula appears at the conclusion of each day and conveys a sense of order and careful planning, unlike in the second story; יום אחד – One day: this is the first appearance of the concept of time, and since there are no other days yet, it is one day.
1:6: רקיע... בין מים למים – firmament… between water and water: This is the first case of דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם – the Torah speaks the language of humans. In the past, people believed that the sky is a transparent, physical dome, in which the stars are set like gems, and on top of which lies a tremendous water reservoir[4]. Even today, most people think of the sky as a physical entity and not as space, at least in the vernacular. ויהי מבדיל – It will separate: in rejection of the belief that natural phenomena are wars waged by the gods against humanity, the Torah describes the heavens, or firmament, as a boundary placed by the Creator between the water above it an the water below it. As in verse 1:2, there is a sense of complete control by the Creator.
1:8 שמים – The Hebrew name is derived from the human perception of the heavens as a water reservoir: שם מים – the water is there.
1:9 יקוו – let the water gather. The theme of separation and discernment continues. First between light and darkness, then the lower waters and the upper waters, and now between dry land and oceans.
1:11-12: A shower of words is used in these two verses to describe the creation of the vegetation. Unlike the previous acts of creation, here the utterance and its execution are not identical. Both the wealth of words and the discrepancy between the verses express the amazing diversity of the world’s flora.
1:14: להבדיל בין היום ובין הלילה – to distinguish between day and night: Day and night here are part of the physical, living world, and are not the same as light and darkness, whose separation is mentioned earlier, and which are conceptual. The term “luminaries” can be use only in a world where there is life, plants, animals, and humans who can perceive the light and be affected by it. For that reason, the creation of the luminaries is mentioned after the creation of vegetation.
והיו לאותות ולמועדים ולימים ושנים – they shall become signs [and mark] seasons, days, and years: The modern society is addicted to time measuring, but it wasn’t always like that. The order of the roles of the luminaries here follows the awareness of natural phenomena and time, as it has developed among ancient people. The most significant, and dreaded, role was the divine status of phenomena such as thunder, lightning, and most importantly, a sun or moon eclipse. Among pagan nations those were signs of the shifting mood of their many gods,[5] while the Torah insists on the total control God has over the elements. The seasons were the next in importance because they dictate life cycles and sustenance for both farmers and hunters. Then came the days, which were easily noticeable and marked as a cycle of light and darkness, activity and rest, and only when these were in place, there were people who started noticing the cycles of years and take note of it.[6] Until today, the ability to track greater cycles of time and have a historical awareness is the sign if a developed civilization.
1:16: המאורות הגדולים – The great luminaries: The Torah, again, speaks the language of humans. It is well known today, and has been for a while, that the moon has no light of its own, is not big, and is merely earth’s satellite, but people have perceived the sun and the moon as a reigning couple of similar importance and characteristics, and the Torah follows that perception. The great luminary governs the day, the smaller luminary governs the night, and the stars – note that the Torah does not assign government to the stars, unlike in Psalms 139:6: “the moon and stars are the governors of night.” The Torah alludes to the fact that the stars do not provide significant light at night and that in rare occasions, they can be seen during the day.
1:17-18: ויתן אותם אלהים ברקיע... למשול... ולהבדיל - Elohim placed them in the firmament… to govern… and to discern: Governing and discerning are roles associated with God, but in ancient times, people attributed such powers to the heavenly bodies. The Torah refutes that belief by saying that the luminaries do govern day and night and mark the boundary between them, but they were given that role by God, who places them in the firmament the way one places objects in his house.
1:20: ישרצו המים – let the water swarm with life: The first story of creation follows, on a general level, the cosmogony of the universe according to modern science. This is God’s way to tell us that the Torah is divine, without going into details about the creation which are well known to Him but would have made no sense to the original recipients of the Torah. The creation starts with space and the planets, of which earth is mentioned because of its significance to us. It continues with the separation of dry land and water, the appearance of vegetation, and finally life. Life starts in the oceans, continues in the appearance of flying creatures, and ends with land animals and humans. Man is created last to show that he is the final stage of creation, as well as that he is a result of all the stage which preceded him and therefore indebted to them and responsible for them.
1:21: התנינים הגדולים – the great sea-monsters: As with the abyss in 1:2, the sea-monsters populated the myths of the ancient Near East. The Torah mentions them off-handedly as part of God’s creation to show His absolute power. To further degrade these “monsters” they are described as שרץ ורמש – crawling and swarming creatures.
1:22: פרו ורבו – be fruitful and multiply: this is directed at the sea creatures and the birds, as a blessing and not as a commandment. A similar blessing is bestowed upon humans, but not upon land creatures, perhaps because great numbers of those animals might threaten humanity.[7]
1:24: תוצא הארץ – let the earth produce animals: sea creatures emerge from the water, birds are either a product of the sea or the air, and land animals emerge from the ground, but only humans are created directly by an utterance of God, giving them a special status.
1:26: ויאמר אלהים נעשה אדם – Elohim said, let us make man: The Torah transitions from “said” in the singular, to “let us” in the plural. It could be the royal “we”, but also a subliminal message about the relationships between God and man. God is one and unique, but man, though created in God’s image, is the epitome of diversity and dichotomy. This foreshadows the second story in which man sees God in his own image, leading eventually to paganism in which humans perceive their gods as amplified versions of themselves, with all of their flaws and human pursuits.
בצלמנו כדמותנו – in our image [shadow], as our likeness: צלם is derived from the word צל, shadow, and it appears in the Torah only here and in the admonition to Noah against murder.[8] דמות is likeness or resemblance, and is not identical with the original. Bothe terms are used to show that though humans are created in the image of God, the distance between them is unbridgeable. Despite this level of separation between God and humanity, the idea of the Image of God is a revolutionary idea, a cornerstone of the Torah’s theology which gives Judaism its unique power. In antiquity members of the ruling classes and the priesthood claimed that they are demigods or of divine descent, and so justified the oppression and control of others. With the statement that humans were created in God’s image, the Torah undermines such claims and delivers the message that all humans are created as equals, none is divine or godly, yet all have a divine spark and divine qualities. This idea encourages every human to achieve great heights as he or she contemplate their potential.
1:27: זכר ונקבה – male and female: the most salient physical feature which sets humans apart, especially within one ethnicity, is gender. By saying that male and female were created in the image of God, the Torah says that the gender difference does not set one’s status and that the image of God is not a physical thing.
ברא אותו... ברא אותם – created him… created them: the transition from the singular to the plural in discussing mankind signifies that there is total equality between the genders. That equality does not mean identity but rather the freedom to be oneself and to realize one’s potential. Unfortunately, that equality is found only in the first, perfect world. In the second world, man’s world, the woman is created as a helpmate and companion and is perceived as inferior to man. The role of humanity is to strive to restore the world to its embryonic, perfect status, and part of this effort is achieved by recognizing women’s rights and equality.
1:28: פרו ורבו – be fruitful and multiply: The sages interpreted this is as a commandment, but the context suggests that it is a blessing, similar to the one given to the fish and birds.
1:29-30: הנה נתתי לכם... את כל ירק עשב לאכלה – I have given you… all vegetation for consumption: in the perfect world there is no violence and humans and animals alike are vegetarians. This is clearly an unsustainable utopia. If, in the words of Isaiah (12:7), a lion will eat hay with the kettle, the food chain will be disrupted, as carnivores cannot survive without meat. It is an achievable goal only for humans, who can survive on a meatless menu, but this original utopian restriction was lifted after the flood because as humans were holding back their violent urges from harming animals, they started harming each other. The allowance to eat meat after the flood is a compromise with the needs of humanity.
1:31: יום הששי – The sixth day: The last day of the six days of creation is honored with the informative article - ה"א היידוע.
[1] In biblical Hebrew, according to some scholars, the two first letters of a root can be combined with a third letter to create a series of words with related meanings.
[2] There are two creation stories in Genesis and they disagree with each other. In the first one Elohim is the creator, and He creates with speech, or utterances. The creation story opens with the heaven and the earth. The creation follows a logical sequence, each day is a contained unit, and the creation of each ends with the formula “it was night…”. God creates man and woman as equals in His image, and blesses them, and the whole story is painted in pink: everything is perfect. By contrast, in the second story the creator is YHWH Elohim, and He the creation is described in human terms. The story opens with the earth and then heaven, and it does not follow a logical sequence, as things are created in afterthought. There are no clear units of creation, and as a result, no formulaic ending for each. Man is created first and alone, and the woman is derived from him and is presented as one who is meant to serve or accompany him. Finally, the story is full of negative words. Perhaps the purpose of those differences is to tell us that none of the stories should be taken literally. The message of the first is that God is the omnipotent Creator, and that of the second is that mankind has a responsibility for the well-being of the world and its inhabitants. We could say that the first world is the ideal world that never existed, God’s world. In this world God creates man in His image and man and woman are equals. The second world is our world, humans’ world. In it we imagine God in our image, man is superior to woman, and evil is rife. The solution to the world’s problems is the Tree of Life, as will be explained later.
[3] Those myths were well known in the ancient world and they are referenced more directly in Isaiah 27 and 51 and in Psalms 74 and 148. The battle against idolatry was fierce, and the Torah alters the myths to mock or degrade pagan beliefs.
[4] Already in Isaiah 55:10 we find a reference to the water cycle as we know it. The prophet uses the rain as a metaphor to God’s word, and says that it returns to heaven after accomplishing the mission of watering the soil.
[5] See Jer. 10:2: Fear not the signs of heavens, those are for other nations to fear”.
[6] Compare the beautiful Midrash in Avodah Zara 8:1 about Adam who becomes aware of the daily and then the yearly cycle.
[7] Compare Deut. 7:22.
[8] Gen. 9:6. It also appears in Num. 33:52, but there it is qualified as the images of their molten statues – צלמי מסכותם.
2:1: ויכלו – they were finished: verses 1-3 of chapter 2 speak of the seventh day, and according to Jewish tradition and logic, belong in the first chapter. The division to chapters used today was created in the 13th century by archbishop Stephen Langton, and the separation of Gen. 2:1-3 from the first chapter was probably intended to obscure the importance of Shabbat as the original rest day.
ויכלו – the stress in the lamed shows that the word is derived from כלל – all encompassing. The Torah transitions from the passive ויכלו – they were finished, to the active ויכל – He finished. That transitions represents the gap between our perception of the creation as an active act of the Creator, and creation as an effortless process, happening as if by itself. The usage of both terms shows God as the Creator who creates effortlessly and not through toil.
2:3: יום השביעי – the seventh day: The seventh day appears as Shabbat for the first time in Exodus 16 in relation to the manna.
ויברך – He blessed: It is a blessed day because it allows us to take a break from the tumultuous workweek, refresh our mind and soul, rest physically, and foster bonds with family and friends.
ויקדש אותו – He sanctified [distinguished] it: Sanctity is a result of distinction. The seventh day is set apart and separated from the six days of creation, thus completing the process of separation and distinction which started with the creation of light and darkness. The process started with a conceptual distinction between light and darkness, continued to a physical separation of the planets, dry land, and living creatures, and it now ends with a separation in the time dimension. Unlike the other stages which are permanent and do not depend on human interaction, this separation is reserved to those who observe it, thus making a pact with the Creator.
מלאכתו – His work: the word מלאכה is derived from מלאך – messenger. God does not work but rather appoints the forces of nature as His messengers, an idea which is beautifully conveyed in the opening verses of Psalm 104.
אשר ברא אלהים לעשות – which Elohim has create to be made: ברא to create, is to make something out of nothing, in a burst of energy. Humans cannot create something out of nothing, but they are capable of introducing new ideas and innovations, and they are also capable of creativity, which one could say is the image of God, the character trait they share with God. לעשות - to make, is the continuous work of maintenance and of turning raw material into a final product. Thus, the closing words of the first story of creation tell us that God has created the universe in a burst of energy and creativity, and that this world is now being run by the rules God set for it and under the supervision of mankind.
2:4: This is the genealogy of the heaven and earth when they were created, on the day YHWH Elohim made the earth and heaven: This is a verse of transition from the first to the second world. It shifts from שמים וארץ – heaven and earth, to ארץ ושמים – earth and heaven, and from בהבראם – when they were created, a divine action, to עשות – making, which is a more human action. It also introduces for the first time the name YHWH, which connotes mercy or flexibility, because it is a combination of היה הווה יהיה - the past, present, and future tenses of the verb היה - to be. That combination turns the name into a unique verb and shows an adoptable aspect of the divine, as if saying that God’s being varies, in our eyes, in accordance with our circumstances and needs. This could be the reason that YHWH is ineffable. We are not allowed to say the name as it is written because, unlike other names which convey a rigid status, this name represents an allusive, fluid identity which can never be grasped. The combination of YHWH with Elohim is necessary in man’s world where evil is present. Without the flexibility of YHWH, the rigorous justice mandated by Elohim would either destroy the world or turn everyone into robots who are programmed to do good in order to avoid punishment.
2:5: טרם... לא המטיר... ואדם אין – Not yet… did not bring rain… there is no man: Unlike the first world in which everything was good, or very good, in the second world there is a lot of negativity, starting in this verse and continuing with the concepts of evil, prohibition, death, and loneliness. The idea that the vegetation is created after man comes from a human perspective: the whole world exists to serve me, and if I am not there, there is no need for plants and animals.
לעבד את האדמה – to work the land: the word לעבד could also be translated as “to cultivate” or “to work” which also means to serve or worship. It conveys the duality of our relationship with the natural world. On one hand we cultivate and enhance it, but on the other, we become enslaved to wealth and abundance, and we often harm each other and the natural world in our efforts to yield better crops and gains.
2:6: ואד יעלה מן הארץ – vapor would rise from the ground: this seems an unnecessary detail. It is possible that this is a rejection of pagan myths. One of the chief gods in the Near East pantheon was the storm god Addad, whose name was spelled אדד or אד. The Torah reduces the name to vapor.
2:7: וייצר – He formed: the creation of man in the second world is described in human terms. God here is a potter who molds a lump of clay to the desirable shape[1]. עפר – dust: In the first world humans are created out of nothing, thus being as close as possible to God, while in the second world man is created from dust, as mundane as can be. ויפח באפיו – He blew into his nostrils. God now is a glassblower, another manlike action. נשמת חיים – traditionally, this is translated as the power of speech, and indeed, this is what sets humans apart from animals. We are able to communicate knowledge over barriers of time, space, and cultures.[2]
2:8: ויטע – He planted: God, in manlike terms, is a gardener. גן בעדן מקדם – a garden in Eden in antiquity: the word קדם has two meanings in the bible, east and antiquity. They are interrelated because the east is where the sun rises and thus the beginning of everything. The term גן עדן, which appears in verse 15, is somewhat misleading, especially in its English translation - the Garden of Eden. It sounds as if there is a place called the Garden of Eden, but it is a limiting term: in the land of Eden, whose name is derived from the Hebrew word for pleasure or comfort, there is one section where the Garden is planted. This is important because the theme of the second world is one of erecting and breaching boundaries. וישם שם את האדם – He put there the man He created. The story of man in Eden’s Garden is an allegory to our coming of age. We are put into this world by our parents. As children we live, if we are lucky, in paradise, sheltered from physical evil and from the awareness of it. In that vein, the story of the Garden and the Forbidden Fruit is an educational guidebook.
2:9: ועץ החיים בתוך הגן ועץ הדעת טוב ורע – the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: The Tree of Life is at the center of the garden, and apparently, so is the Tree of Knowledge. Indeed, in verse 3:3 the woman refers to the Tree of Knowledge as the tree in the midst of the garden. Note that: a) the full name is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; b) that name appears only twice, here and in the prohibition in 11:17, while afterwards it is referred to as “the tree”.
2:10: ונהר יוצא מעדן להשקות את הגן – a river flows from Eden, the larger territory, to water the Garden, sectioned within Eden. ומשם יפרד והיה לארבעה ראשים – it will then split into four heads: the four rivers seem to mark the boundaries of the world. The idea of rivers as boundaries is symbolic. It means that while parents set boundaries for their children, they should practice flexibility.
2:11-14: גיחון... פישון... חדקל... פרת – the first two of the four rivers are mythical and the last two are real. Instead of fighting the myths heads-on, the Torah melds them all into one narrative, ending with an emphasis on reality. The detail in describing the rivers diminishes as they become more realistic and familiar. The first, Gihon, circles a land with legendary wealth, while Pishon circles the land of Kush. Rivers cannot go in circles, and this is the Torah’s way to tell us that those rivers are mythical. The third river, Hidekkel or Tigris, is well-known and is described in realistic terms as flowing east of Assyria. The fourth, Perath or Euphrates is the largest and most famous of the region, and it is called the Great River several times in the bible. It is therefore mentioned here tersely, without the formula “the name of the (1st, 2nd, 3rd) river is”, and without additional notes: the forth river is Perath.
2:15: לעבדה ולשמרה – to cultivate and protect it: Humanity’s first Mitzvah is to use earth’s resources skillfully and responsibly, as the Midrash says that God told man: תן דעתך שלא תחריב את עולמי – take care not to destroy my world.
2:16-17: מכל עץ הגן אכל תאכל... ומעץ הדעת טוב ורע לא תאכל – You may eat of all the trees of the garden… but you my not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: God does not forbid man from eating of the Tree of Life. This shows that the Tree of Life has no role before the forbidden fruit is eaten, and in turns points towards an allegoric interpretation. The Tree of Knowledge symbolizes the realization that we have free will. Humans might go through several stages of this understanding towards different authorities in their lives, such as God, parents, teachers, superiors and more. This realization is both empowering and terrifying because one is afraid of breaching boundaries and causing irreversible harm.
2:18: עזר כנגדו – a helpmate whom he will see eye to eye. This helpmate will eventually will be the woman, which in the second story is created as an afterthought, just because man cannot function alone. There are two elements here which represent man’s world rather then that of God. There is a perplexing lack of planning. How was the original plan supposed to work with man alone in the world and what is the point of suggesting animals as helpmates. There are no such flaws in the first world, which is God’s perfect world. In addition, instead of the full equality and the simultaneous creation of the first world, here the man and the woman are separated by the creation of flora and fauna.
Note that the order of creation is different in the two stories and cannot be reconciled. In the first it is: light, firmament, vegetation, fish, fowl, animals, humans. In the second it is: earth, heavens, man, a garden with two specific trees, animals, fowl, woman.
2:19: מה יקרא לו – how he shall name it: naming is understanding the unique character of each animal, as in today’s branding. It also creates a sense of attachment and responsibility.
2:20: לא מצא עזר כנגדו – man could not find a helpmate for Adam: God puts Adam through the process of meeting and naming all animal to impress on him the importance of companionship. The woman was meant to help him in his mission as an equal, כנגדו meaning eye to eye, but in man’s world women are considered second-class citizens. This is one of the major flaws of the second world which we must amend to bring it to the perfect status of the first world.
2:21-22: ויפל תרדמה... ויקח צלע... ויבן – God put Adam to sleep… He took a rib… He built it: God is manlike, an anesthesiologist, a surgeon, a builder.
2:22: לאשה – He made it into a woman: the term woman was not coined yet. The Torah uses a term familiar to the readers.
2:23: זאת הפעם – this one, this time: this statement expresses recognition of the exceptional qualities of the woman as a human being, in contrast to the rest of the living world. But despite that realization, man continues to say: מאיש לקחה זאת – she was taken from a man. The woman is perceived as a derivative of man and secondary to him.
2:24: על כן יעזב – therefore a man leaves his father and mother: This is not about physical location. In antiquity, women would move in with their husbands into his parents’ household and she would become part of his clan. Rather, this verse deals with emotional attachment. A woman usually remains closer to her parents then a man does, while the man clings to the woman because she is his, with a certain sense of ownership.
2:25: ערומים – naked: Being naked means being totally exposed. Only one who has nothing to hide can afford such exposure, which is both physical and metaphorical, in relation to one’s weaknesses and faults. This is the stage of childhood’s bliss of innocence. ולא יתבוששו – they had no inhibitions: the word is often translated as shameless, but the root of shame in Hebrew is בוש while בשש means to delay or tarry.[3] In this context it means that there was nothing to stop Adam and the woman from doing what they wanted to do, except, at this stage, for the prohibition placed by God.
ויכלו – the stress in the lamed shows that the word is derived from כלל – all encompassing. The Torah transitions from the passive ויכלו – they were finished, to the active ויכל – He finished. That transitions represents the gap between our perception of the creation as an active act of the Creator, and creation as an effortless process, happening as if by itself. The usage of both terms shows God as the Creator who creates effortlessly and not through toil.
2:3: יום השביעי – the seventh day: The seventh day appears as Shabbat for the first time in Exodus 16 in relation to the manna.
ויברך – He blessed: It is a blessed day because it allows us to take a break from the tumultuous workweek, refresh our mind and soul, rest physically, and foster bonds with family and friends.
ויקדש אותו – He sanctified [distinguished] it: Sanctity is a result of distinction. The seventh day is set apart and separated from the six days of creation, thus completing the process of separation and distinction which started with the creation of light and darkness. The process started with a conceptual distinction between light and darkness, continued to a physical separation of the planets, dry land, and living creatures, and it now ends with a separation in the time dimension. Unlike the other stages which are permanent and do not depend on human interaction, this separation is reserved to those who observe it, thus making a pact with the Creator.
מלאכתו – His work: the word מלאכה is derived from מלאך – messenger. God does not work but rather appoints the forces of nature as His messengers, an idea which is beautifully conveyed in the opening verses of Psalm 104.
אשר ברא אלהים לעשות – which Elohim has create to be made: ברא to create, is to make something out of nothing, in a burst of energy. Humans cannot create something out of nothing, but they are capable of introducing new ideas and innovations, and they are also capable of creativity, which one could say is the image of God, the character trait they share with God. לעשות - to make, is the continuous work of maintenance and of turning raw material into a final product. Thus, the closing words of the first story of creation tell us that God has created the universe in a burst of energy and creativity, and that this world is now being run by the rules God set for it and under the supervision of mankind.
2:4: This is the genealogy of the heaven and earth when they were created, on the day YHWH Elohim made the earth and heaven: This is a verse of transition from the first to the second world. It shifts from שמים וארץ – heaven and earth, to ארץ ושמים – earth and heaven, and from בהבראם – when they were created, a divine action, to עשות – making, which is a more human action. It also introduces for the first time the name YHWH, which connotes mercy or flexibility, because it is a combination of היה הווה יהיה - the past, present, and future tenses of the verb היה - to be. That combination turns the name into a unique verb and shows an adoptable aspect of the divine, as if saying that God’s being varies, in our eyes, in accordance with our circumstances and needs. This could be the reason that YHWH is ineffable. We are not allowed to say the name as it is written because, unlike other names which convey a rigid status, this name represents an allusive, fluid identity which can never be grasped. The combination of YHWH with Elohim is necessary in man’s world where evil is present. Without the flexibility of YHWH, the rigorous justice mandated by Elohim would either destroy the world or turn everyone into robots who are programmed to do good in order to avoid punishment.
2:5: טרם... לא המטיר... ואדם אין – Not yet… did not bring rain… there is no man: Unlike the first world in which everything was good, or very good, in the second world there is a lot of negativity, starting in this verse and continuing with the concepts of evil, prohibition, death, and loneliness. The idea that the vegetation is created after man comes from a human perspective: the whole world exists to serve me, and if I am not there, there is no need for plants and animals.
לעבד את האדמה – to work the land: the word לעבד could also be translated as “to cultivate” or “to work” which also means to serve or worship. It conveys the duality of our relationship with the natural world. On one hand we cultivate and enhance it, but on the other, we become enslaved to wealth and abundance, and we often harm each other and the natural world in our efforts to yield better crops and gains.
2:6: ואד יעלה מן הארץ – vapor would rise from the ground: this seems an unnecessary detail. It is possible that this is a rejection of pagan myths. One of the chief gods in the Near East pantheon was the storm god Addad, whose name was spelled אדד or אד. The Torah reduces the name to vapor.
2:7: וייצר – He formed: the creation of man in the second world is described in human terms. God here is a potter who molds a lump of clay to the desirable shape[1]. עפר – dust: In the first world humans are created out of nothing, thus being as close as possible to God, while in the second world man is created from dust, as mundane as can be. ויפח באפיו – He blew into his nostrils. God now is a glassblower, another manlike action. נשמת חיים – traditionally, this is translated as the power of speech, and indeed, this is what sets humans apart from animals. We are able to communicate knowledge over barriers of time, space, and cultures.[2]
2:8: ויטע – He planted: God, in manlike terms, is a gardener. גן בעדן מקדם – a garden in Eden in antiquity: the word קדם has two meanings in the bible, east and antiquity. They are interrelated because the east is where the sun rises and thus the beginning of everything. The term גן עדן, which appears in verse 15, is somewhat misleading, especially in its English translation - the Garden of Eden. It sounds as if there is a place called the Garden of Eden, but it is a limiting term: in the land of Eden, whose name is derived from the Hebrew word for pleasure or comfort, there is one section where the Garden is planted. This is important because the theme of the second world is one of erecting and breaching boundaries. וישם שם את האדם – He put there the man He created. The story of man in Eden’s Garden is an allegory to our coming of age. We are put into this world by our parents. As children we live, if we are lucky, in paradise, sheltered from physical evil and from the awareness of it. In that vein, the story of the Garden and the Forbidden Fruit is an educational guidebook.
2:9: ועץ החיים בתוך הגן ועץ הדעת טוב ורע – the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: The Tree of Life is at the center of the garden, and apparently, so is the Tree of Knowledge. Indeed, in verse 3:3 the woman refers to the Tree of Knowledge as the tree in the midst of the garden. Note that: a) the full name is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; b) that name appears only twice, here and in the prohibition in 11:17, while afterwards it is referred to as “the tree”.
2:10: ונהר יוצא מעדן להשקות את הגן – a river flows from Eden, the larger territory, to water the Garden, sectioned within Eden. ומשם יפרד והיה לארבעה ראשים – it will then split into four heads: the four rivers seem to mark the boundaries of the world. The idea of rivers as boundaries is symbolic. It means that while parents set boundaries for their children, they should practice flexibility.
2:11-14: גיחון... פישון... חדקל... פרת – the first two of the four rivers are mythical and the last two are real. Instead of fighting the myths heads-on, the Torah melds them all into one narrative, ending with an emphasis on reality. The detail in describing the rivers diminishes as they become more realistic and familiar. The first, Gihon, circles a land with legendary wealth, while Pishon circles the land of Kush. Rivers cannot go in circles, and this is the Torah’s way to tell us that those rivers are mythical. The third river, Hidekkel or Tigris, is well-known and is described in realistic terms as flowing east of Assyria. The fourth, Perath or Euphrates is the largest and most famous of the region, and it is called the Great River several times in the bible. It is therefore mentioned here tersely, without the formula “the name of the (1st, 2nd, 3rd) river is”, and without additional notes: the forth river is Perath.
2:15: לעבדה ולשמרה – to cultivate and protect it: Humanity’s first Mitzvah is to use earth’s resources skillfully and responsibly, as the Midrash says that God told man: תן דעתך שלא תחריב את עולמי – take care not to destroy my world.
2:16-17: מכל עץ הגן אכל תאכל... ומעץ הדעת טוב ורע לא תאכל – You may eat of all the trees of the garden… but you my not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: God does not forbid man from eating of the Tree of Life. This shows that the Tree of Life has no role before the forbidden fruit is eaten, and in turns points towards an allegoric interpretation. The Tree of Knowledge symbolizes the realization that we have free will. Humans might go through several stages of this understanding towards different authorities in their lives, such as God, parents, teachers, superiors and more. This realization is both empowering and terrifying because one is afraid of breaching boundaries and causing irreversible harm.
2:18: עזר כנגדו – a helpmate whom he will see eye to eye. This helpmate will eventually will be the woman, which in the second story is created as an afterthought, just because man cannot function alone. There are two elements here which represent man’s world rather then that of God. There is a perplexing lack of planning. How was the original plan supposed to work with man alone in the world and what is the point of suggesting animals as helpmates. There are no such flaws in the first world, which is God’s perfect world. In addition, instead of the full equality and the simultaneous creation of the first world, here the man and the woman are separated by the creation of flora and fauna.
Note that the order of creation is different in the two stories and cannot be reconciled. In the first it is: light, firmament, vegetation, fish, fowl, animals, humans. In the second it is: earth, heavens, man, a garden with two specific trees, animals, fowl, woman.
2:19: מה יקרא לו – how he shall name it: naming is understanding the unique character of each animal, as in today’s branding. It also creates a sense of attachment and responsibility.
2:20: לא מצא עזר כנגדו – man could not find a helpmate for Adam: God puts Adam through the process of meeting and naming all animal to impress on him the importance of companionship. The woman was meant to help him in his mission as an equal, כנגדו meaning eye to eye, but in man’s world women are considered second-class citizens. This is one of the major flaws of the second world which we must amend to bring it to the perfect status of the first world.
2:21-22: ויפל תרדמה... ויקח צלע... ויבן – God put Adam to sleep… He took a rib… He built it: God is manlike, an anesthesiologist, a surgeon, a builder.
2:22: לאשה – He made it into a woman: the term woman was not coined yet. The Torah uses a term familiar to the readers.
2:23: זאת הפעם – this one, this time: this statement expresses recognition of the exceptional qualities of the woman as a human being, in contrast to the rest of the living world. But despite that realization, man continues to say: מאיש לקחה זאת – she was taken from a man. The woman is perceived as a derivative of man and secondary to him.
2:24: על כן יעזב – therefore a man leaves his father and mother: This is not about physical location. In antiquity, women would move in with their husbands into his parents’ household and she would become part of his clan. Rather, this verse deals with emotional attachment. A woman usually remains closer to her parents then a man does, while the man clings to the woman because she is his, with a certain sense of ownership.
2:25: ערומים – naked: Being naked means being totally exposed. Only one who has nothing to hide can afford such exposure, which is both physical and metaphorical, in relation to one’s weaknesses and faults. This is the stage of childhood’s bliss of innocence. ולא יתבוששו – they had no inhibitions: the word is often translated as shameless, but the root of shame in Hebrew is בוש while בשש means to delay or tarry.[3] In this context it means that there was nothing to stop Adam and the woman from doing what they wanted to do, except, at this stage, for the prohibition placed by God.
[1] See Jer. Chapter 18.
[2] The gene responsible for language has been isolated but the appearance of language is still considered an evolutionary leap. That leap is responsible for the creation of man.
[3] In some dictionaries they appear together, but the only example for בשש as shame is this verse, which forced linguists to understand it as shame.
3:1: והנחש – the serpent is one of the three protagonists of the symbolic story of the Forbidden Fruit. The serpent represents desire which could be fatal, the woman represents emotion, and the man represents logic, all in accordance with cultural stereotypes. The serpent was a symbol of death, particularly a sudden and unexpected one, but also a symbol of rebirth, because people believed that when a snake sheds its skin it dies and is revived. The cycle of life and death is central to this narrative.
ערום – wise: the word is commonly translates as crafty or cunning, but in all of its appearances in the Tanakh, and specifically in Proverbs, which reflects many themes from Genesis, it always has a positive connotation, and is the opposite of gullible or fool. The serpent forces the man and the woman out of their bliss of innocence with its wisdom. The result is painful, but necessary, because the naïve person will never care about others’ ailments or suffering.
3:3: העץ אשר בתוך הגן – the tree in the midst of the garden: The woman refers to the Tree of Knowledge as the one which is in the midst, confirming that it was planted next to the Tree of Life, as in 2:9 above. ולא תגעו – you shall not touch it: The woman added a fence to keep herself away from temptation, and that was her downfall. Too many restrictions lead to the observance of none. This is also an educational advice to parents not to burden their children with too many laws and prohibitions.
3:5: והייתם כאלהים – you will be like Elohim: One of the powers which drive us to act, not always positively, is the fear of not being the strongest, most popular, or most famous, and it manifests itself as greed, envy, and jealousy. Another power is the unquenchable thirst for knowledge. The serpent is our inner voice convincing us to pursue knowledge and acquire power.
3:6 ותרא האשה כי טוב העץ למאכל, וכי תאוה הוא לעינים, ונחמד העץ להשכיל - The woman saw that the tree is good for eating, that it is attractive for the eyes, and that knowledge is a coveted goal: This is the process of self-persuasion. The last part of the woman’s reasoning correlates to the last of the Ten Commandments[1], which is the purpose of all ten: appreciating God’s gifts to humanity, which are presented in the first five, and learning not to take that which belongs to others, as expressed in the sixth through ninth concepts, will bring one to the state of not coveting.
3:7: ותפקחנה עיני שניהם – their eyes opened up: Eating of the forbidden fruit and breaching God’s prohibition leads to the realization that one has free will and no one can stop him from doing as he wills. There will be consequences, of course, but there were many who were not deterred by that.
וידעו כי עירומים הם – They understood that they are naked: This is the feeling of being exposed and vulnerable. The physical differences are perceived as an advantage of the other. Adam and his wife use fig leaves to cover these parts of their bodies where their differences are displayed. Exposure and nakedness also symbolize the innate human fear of being shamed and rejected. Garments allow us to blend into society, to become uniform, to hide our identity, and even to deceive others. The Hebrew root for clothes - ב.ג.ד. also means betrayal, and the root of מעיל – coat, also means breach of trust.
3:8: ויתחבא האדם ואשתו – They are hiding not only from God but also from themselves, from responsibility, and from reality.
3:9: איכה – Where are you? God, as a parent, first walks in making noise, giving the child necessary time to get ready to face Him. Them the first question is not “what have you done?” which will frame the situation as one of sin and punishment. Instead, God asks “where are you?” – physically and mentally, how do you feel now that you have discovered the power of disobedience, are you content?
3:12: האשה אשר נתת עמדי – the woman whom you put with me: Adam answers that he is hiding because of fear, and God asks him if he ate of the forbidden fruit, still leaving a possibility of confession and reconciliation, but Adam dodges responsibility by accusing God. He does not say נתת לי – You gave me, but rather עמדי - with me: “You placed this woman with me without consulting me”.
3:14: כי עשית זאת – for doing this: The woman also denies responsibility and blames the serpent, and when God addresses the serpent, there is immediate verdict of guilt. In the allegory, Adam, the woman, and the serpent, are all powers within every human being, and so this process of investigation means that we are always responsible for our actions. It is interesting that people sometimes deny responsibility by saying that they felt like another person, that they don’t know what got into them, or simply “it wasn’t me.”
ועפר תאכל – you shall eat dust: Snakes do not eat dust. This foreshadows Adam’s last curse: “to dust you shall return.”
In the allegorical interpretation, the curses were built into the world. They address the three greatest concerns humans have about the inherent evils of the world: hard work, diseases, and death. We would like to have a world without these, and in a way, we think that we could have created a better world. The story concludes with the Tree of Life, representing the Torah, to say that the remedy to the world’s ailments is the Torah. As mentioned in verse 1:1, there is still the mystery of why God created the world in the first place.
3:15: בינך ובין האשה – between you and the woman: the serpent represents death, and so its antagonist is the woman, and not man, because she is the one who creates new life. Together, they represent a cycle of life and death. The serpent, as mentioned in 3:1 above, is the movement from death to life. The woman’s cycle moves in the opposite direction. She gives life, but with every new life the countdown to death begins.
3:16: בעצב תלדי – you will give birth with great pain: delivering a baby is the guaranteed way to put one’s life at risk, even today. While a man with normal health might never need medical help, a woman will have to endure the ailment of pregnancy and delivery. Thus, she represents here humanity’s concern about diseases in general.
בנים – sons: The Torah could have said a neutral world such as זרע – offspring, as in 3:15, but the word sons is used to connote another evil of the world, which is the dominion of one gender over the other. It is man’s world, and men want to have as many male children as possible to carry their name and legacy forward.
ואל אישך תשוקתך – You will depend on your man for sustenance: the word תשוקה has been traditionally understood as sexual desire, but in the Bible it means sustenance. With that understanding, the curses of the three protagonists correspond to the act of eating. The serpent eats dust, the woman’s food depends on the man, and the man eats the fruit of the land after hard toil.
והוא ימשל בך – and he will govern you: Because man is the provider, you will depend on him. This is a curse which afflicts even developed societies today.
3:18: דרדר – thistle: The thistle’s flower is round, and this is conveyed in the name which is derived from the bi-radical root דר – which means to go in circles.[2] This is a hint to the concept of being trapped in a cycle, which is displayed in the next verse.
3:19: עד שובך אל האדמה – until you return to the soil: Humans are in an eternal cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth of the next generation.
ממנה לקחת – you were taken from it: this echoes Adam’s words about the woman “she was taken from man”. God now reminds him that if he feels superior to the woman because she was taken form him, he is inferior to the soil because he was taken from it.
כי עפר אתה ואל עפר תשוב – for dust you are and to dust you shall return: The cycle is now completed. There is a hierarchy in which man is on top as the conqueror, tiller of land, and provider. The woman is subjugated to him, as she depends on him for sustenance and has to bear him male children. The serpent is under the woman’s heel, and the only thing lower than the serpent is the dust. But, there is something under the dust - man after death. This is a vicious, purposeless cycle, which is the curse of humanity.
3:20: חוה – The woman had no name so far, and as a matter of fact, the Torah did not clearly specify that Adam was the name of man. They receive their names and their identities only after the discovery of knowledge. The name חוה resembles the Aramaic name for snake – חויא, in line with the association of both the woman and the serpent with life and death.[3]
אם כל חי – Mother of all life: this is a nice act of recognition of the woman’s unique status and her centrality to the survival of the race. The Torah later mentions other people and the wives of Adam children, so there must have been people in the world at the time. The creation of mankind, as mentioned here, should not be understood therefore as a scientific text. Rather, this is the story of the birth of humanity as we know it, and the image of God, or the spirit of life given to mankind, is the new software, or the evolutionary leap, which grants it the power of creativity and communication and sets it apart from all other living creatures.
3:21: כתנות עור – robes of skin: God recognizes the need to be covered but sends a message that clothes should not be used as deception. An honest person is one who is comfortable in his skin, in his identity.
3:22: הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו – man has become like one of us: The idea that man is godlike is man’s fantasy. God is saying that Adam will now feel divine and that there are many deities. This will become the source of paganism, where man creates gods in his image, and which puts humanity in danger.
פן ישלח ידו – lest he breaches the boundary: The term שלח יד in the Bible usually means to transgress or harm. Adam can cause damage by eating of the Tree of Life.
ואכל וחי לעולם – he might eat and live forever: the fear is not that man will become immortal and will threaten God’ status, because our bodies cannot live forever. Rather, it is the fear that man will try to acquire eternal fame, usually through destruction.
3:23: לעבוד את האדמה אשר לוקח משם – To till [also: serve] the land from which he was taken: Adam is still alive, but he is being sent back to the land from which he was taken. That land is outside the garden, an being sent there is a symbol of is mortality, since death would truly lead him back to the earth.
3:24: ויגרש – He expelled Adam: in the previous verse God sends him away, and now he is exiled. This is analogous to our coming of age and getting to know the world. We believe that the world is good, and when we discovered that it is not so, we feel cheated. We thought we were being sent into the world, but we realize we have lost paradise. However, the first, perfect world, never existed, and equally the lost paradise never did. It was only a figment of our imagination and a product of our ignorance to the true nature of the world. The fake memory is still beneficial because we strive to return to and to rebuild the paradise we once had.
לשמור את דרך עץ החיים – to guard the path of the Tree of Life: Previously, God was not concerned that Adam might eat of the Tree of Life, because it is the remedy to free will going awry, and before the Forbidden Fruit was eaten there was no need for it. In the analogy, humans have free will, which they gradually discover, and which could lead to either great or disastrous consequences. The Tree of Life helps us choose the right path, and God wants us to do so. The Tree of Life is the Torah, as revealed in Proverbs (3:18)
הכרובים – the Cherubs: further proof that the Tree of Life is the Torah is provided by the cherubs, the same ones who protect the Holy Ark in tabernacle, which contains the Tablets of the Law and the Torah scroll. The Torah in the Tabernacle[4] seems inaccessible because the High Priest is the only one who is allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, only on Kippur, and even he is not allowed to open the Ark. But this is just an illusion, since the Torah is accessible to all: וזאת התורה אשר שם משה לפני בני ישראל – this is the Torah that Moshe placed in front of [all of] Bene Israel.[5]
להט החרב המתהפכת – the illusion of the ever-turning sword: the word להט is traditionally translated as blade or heat, but it also means illusion, as in Exodus 7:11. Here, the sword which prevents us from reaching the tree of life is an illusion, and we can reach it whenever we want. It is ever-turning to symbolize the mundane concerns which change daily and the vicissitudes of life.
ערום – wise: the word is commonly translates as crafty or cunning, but in all of its appearances in the Tanakh, and specifically in Proverbs, which reflects many themes from Genesis, it always has a positive connotation, and is the opposite of gullible or fool. The serpent forces the man and the woman out of their bliss of innocence with its wisdom. The result is painful, but necessary, because the naïve person will never care about others’ ailments or suffering.
3:3: העץ אשר בתוך הגן – the tree in the midst of the garden: The woman refers to the Tree of Knowledge as the one which is in the midst, confirming that it was planted next to the Tree of Life, as in 2:9 above. ולא תגעו – you shall not touch it: The woman added a fence to keep herself away from temptation, and that was her downfall. Too many restrictions lead to the observance of none. This is also an educational advice to parents not to burden their children with too many laws and prohibitions.
3:5: והייתם כאלהים – you will be like Elohim: One of the powers which drive us to act, not always positively, is the fear of not being the strongest, most popular, or most famous, and it manifests itself as greed, envy, and jealousy. Another power is the unquenchable thirst for knowledge. The serpent is our inner voice convincing us to pursue knowledge and acquire power.
3:6 ותרא האשה כי טוב העץ למאכל, וכי תאוה הוא לעינים, ונחמד העץ להשכיל - The woman saw that the tree is good for eating, that it is attractive for the eyes, and that knowledge is a coveted goal: This is the process of self-persuasion. The last part of the woman’s reasoning correlates to the last of the Ten Commandments[1], which is the purpose of all ten: appreciating God’s gifts to humanity, which are presented in the first five, and learning not to take that which belongs to others, as expressed in the sixth through ninth concepts, will bring one to the state of not coveting.
3:7: ותפקחנה עיני שניהם – their eyes opened up: Eating of the forbidden fruit and breaching God’s prohibition leads to the realization that one has free will and no one can stop him from doing as he wills. There will be consequences, of course, but there were many who were not deterred by that.
וידעו כי עירומים הם – They understood that they are naked: This is the feeling of being exposed and vulnerable. The physical differences are perceived as an advantage of the other. Adam and his wife use fig leaves to cover these parts of their bodies where their differences are displayed. Exposure and nakedness also symbolize the innate human fear of being shamed and rejected. Garments allow us to blend into society, to become uniform, to hide our identity, and even to deceive others. The Hebrew root for clothes - ב.ג.ד. also means betrayal, and the root of מעיל – coat, also means breach of trust.
3:8: ויתחבא האדם ואשתו – They are hiding not only from God but also from themselves, from responsibility, and from reality.
3:9: איכה – Where are you? God, as a parent, first walks in making noise, giving the child necessary time to get ready to face Him. Them the first question is not “what have you done?” which will frame the situation as one of sin and punishment. Instead, God asks “where are you?” – physically and mentally, how do you feel now that you have discovered the power of disobedience, are you content?
3:12: האשה אשר נתת עמדי – the woman whom you put with me: Adam answers that he is hiding because of fear, and God asks him if he ate of the forbidden fruit, still leaving a possibility of confession and reconciliation, but Adam dodges responsibility by accusing God. He does not say נתת לי – You gave me, but rather עמדי - with me: “You placed this woman with me without consulting me”.
3:14: כי עשית זאת – for doing this: The woman also denies responsibility and blames the serpent, and when God addresses the serpent, there is immediate verdict of guilt. In the allegory, Adam, the woman, and the serpent, are all powers within every human being, and so this process of investigation means that we are always responsible for our actions. It is interesting that people sometimes deny responsibility by saying that they felt like another person, that they don’t know what got into them, or simply “it wasn’t me.”
ועפר תאכל – you shall eat dust: Snakes do not eat dust. This foreshadows Adam’s last curse: “to dust you shall return.”
In the allegorical interpretation, the curses were built into the world. They address the three greatest concerns humans have about the inherent evils of the world: hard work, diseases, and death. We would like to have a world without these, and in a way, we think that we could have created a better world. The story concludes with the Tree of Life, representing the Torah, to say that the remedy to the world’s ailments is the Torah. As mentioned in verse 1:1, there is still the mystery of why God created the world in the first place.
3:15: בינך ובין האשה – between you and the woman: the serpent represents death, and so its antagonist is the woman, and not man, because she is the one who creates new life. Together, they represent a cycle of life and death. The serpent, as mentioned in 3:1 above, is the movement from death to life. The woman’s cycle moves in the opposite direction. She gives life, but with every new life the countdown to death begins.
3:16: בעצב תלדי – you will give birth with great pain: delivering a baby is the guaranteed way to put one’s life at risk, even today. While a man with normal health might never need medical help, a woman will have to endure the ailment of pregnancy and delivery. Thus, she represents here humanity’s concern about diseases in general.
בנים – sons: The Torah could have said a neutral world such as זרע – offspring, as in 3:15, but the word sons is used to connote another evil of the world, which is the dominion of one gender over the other. It is man’s world, and men want to have as many male children as possible to carry their name and legacy forward.
ואל אישך תשוקתך – You will depend on your man for sustenance: the word תשוקה has been traditionally understood as sexual desire, but in the Bible it means sustenance. With that understanding, the curses of the three protagonists correspond to the act of eating. The serpent eats dust, the woman’s food depends on the man, and the man eats the fruit of the land after hard toil.
והוא ימשל בך – and he will govern you: Because man is the provider, you will depend on him. This is a curse which afflicts even developed societies today.
3:18: דרדר – thistle: The thistle’s flower is round, and this is conveyed in the name which is derived from the bi-radical root דר – which means to go in circles.[2] This is a hint to the concept of being trapped in a cycle, which is displayed in the next verse.
3:19: עד שובך אל האדמה – until you return to the soil: Humans are in an eternal cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth of the next generation.
ממנה לקחת – you were taken from it: this echoes Adam’s words about the woman “she was taken from man”. God now reminds him that if he feels superior to the woman because she was taken form him, he is inferior to the soil because he was taken from it.
כי עפר אתה ואל עפר תשוב – for dust you are and to dust you shall return: The cycle is now completed. There is a hierarchy in which man is on top as the conqueror, tiller of land, and provider. The woman is subjugated to him, as she depends on him for sustenance and has to bear him male children. The serpent is under the woman’s heel, and the only thing lower than the serpent is the dust. But, there is something under the dust - man after death. This is a vicious, purposeless cycle, which is the curse of humanity.
3:20: חוה – The woman had no name so far, and as a matter of fact, the Torah did not clearly specify that Adam was the name of man. They receive their names and their identities only after the discovery of knowledge. The name חוה resembles the Aramaic name for snake – חויא, in line with the association of both the woman and the serpent with life and death.[3]
אם כל חי – Mother of all life: this is a nice act of recognition of the woman’s unique status and her centrality to the survival of the race. The Torah later mentions other people and the wives of Adam children, so there must have been people in the world at the time. The creation of mankind, as mentioned here, should not be understood therefore as a scientific text. Rather, this is the story of the birth of humanity as we know it, and the image of God, or the spirit of life given to mankind, is the new software, or the evolutionary leap, which grants it the power of creativity and communication and sets it apart from all other living creatures.
3:21: כתנות עור – robes of skin: God recognizes the need to be covered but sends a message that clothes should not be used as deception. An honest person is one who is comfortable in his skin, in his identity.
3:22: הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו – man has become like one of us: The idea that man is godlike is man’s fantasy. God is saying that Adam will now feel divine and that there are many deities. This will become the source of paganism, where man creates gods in his image, and which puts humanity in danger.
פן ישלח ידו – lest he breaches the boundary: The term שלח יד in the Bible usually means to transgress or harm. Adam can cause damage by eating of the Tree of Life.
ואכל וחי לעולם – he might eat and live forever: the fear is not that man will become immortal and will threaten God’ status, because our bodies cannot live forever. Rather, it is the fear that man will try to acquire eternal fame, usually through destruction.
3:23: לעבוד את האדמה אשר לוקח משם – To till [also: serve] the land from which he was taken: Adam is still alive, but he is being sent back to the land from which he was taken. That land is outside the garden, an being sent there is a symbol of is mortality, since death would truly lead him back to the earth.
3:24: ויגרש – He expelled Adam: in the previous verse God sends him away, and now he is exiled. This is analogous to our coming of age and getting to know the world. We believe that the world is good, and when we discovered that it is not so, we feel cheated. We thought we were being sent into the world, but we realize we have lost paradise. However, the first, perfect world, never existed, and equally the lost paradise never did. It was only a figment of our imagination and a product of our ignorance to the true nature of the world. The fake memory is still beneficial because we strive to return to and to rebuild the paradise we once had.
לשמור את דרך עץ החיים – to guard the path of the Tree of Life: Previously, God was not concerned that Adam might eat of the Tree of Life, because it is the remedy to free will going awry, and before the Forbidden Fruit was eaten there was no need for it. In the analogy, humans have free will, which they gradually discover, and which could lead to either great or disastrous consequences. The Tree of Life helps us choose the right path, and God wants us to do so. The Tree of Life is the Torah, as revealed in Proverbs (3:18)
הכרובים – the Cherubs: further proof that the Tree of Life is the Torah is provided by the cherubs, the same ones who protect the Holy Ark in tabernacle, which contains the Tablets of the Law and the Torah scroll. The Torah in the Tabernacle[4] seems inaccessible because the High Priest is the only one who is allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, only on Kippur, and even he is not allowed to open the Ark. But this is just an illusion, since the Torah is accessible to all: וזאת התורה אשר שם משה לפני בני ישראל – this is the Torah that Moshe placed in front of [all of] Bene Israel.[5]
להט החרב המתהפכת – the illusion of the ever-turning sword: the word להט is traditionally translated as blade or heat, but it also means illusion, as in Exodus 7:11. Here, the sword which prevents us from reaching the tree of life is an illusion, and we can reach it whenever we want. It is ever-turning to symbolize the mundane concerns which change daily and the vicissitudes of life.
[1] Which are, more accurately, Ten Matters or Ten Concepts - עשרת הדברים. More on that in Exodus.
[2] As in דור – generation: דור הולך ודור בא – a generation goes and a [new] generation comes. And in the word דרש – to seek, which connotes going around to find an object or an answer.
[3] There is a close connection in the bible between giving birth and the serpent. See Isaiah 42:14, and compare the root פעה to Ex. 1:15. Also see the word אפעה in the context of birth an serpents in Isaiah 59:1, and Job chapter 26.
[4] There are many parallels between the Garden of Eden and the Tabernacle, which in turn resembles a house with its furnishings. There are four walls and partitions like the four rivers, for example, but most intriguing is the presence of a serpent. The walls of the Tabernacle were fastened by a בריח – bolt, which is used as a synonym for a serpent in Job (26:13).
[5] Deut. 4:44.
4:1: קין – Kayin’s name is derived from the root קנה, which means to purchase or to create[1]. It also connotes ownership, but not as verb, as there is no parallel to the verb “to own” in Hebrew.
4:2: הבל – The etymology of Hevel’s name is vanity. The two brothers represent the clash between nomad shepherds and sedentary farmers. The farmers had possessions, real estate, and their sustenance was relatively secure. The shepherds moved form place to place in search for grazing grounds and their existence seemed to be hanging on a thin thread, a vanity. Later in the Bible, the great leaders are all shepherds, and God Himself analogized to one. The shepherd, who has no real ties to the land, is considered more spiritual and closer to God and nature.
4:5: ואל קין ואל מנחתו לא שעה – He did not pay heed to Kayin and his offering: God rejects not only the offering, but Kayin as well, and He does not provide any explanation. The tragic ending of the story suggests that this is a cautionary tale. God teaches us how not to behave as parents. Kayin and Hevel are like two children who presents their father with presents. He accepts one and rejects the other for no apparent reason. As parents, even if one child does less then the other, we should encourage and not reject him altogether.
4:6: למה חרה לך – why are you angry? A typical response of parents is rebuking the rejected child for feeling offended.
4:7: הלא אם תיטיב שאת ואם לא תיטיב לפתח חטאת רובץ ואליך תשוקתו ואתה תמשל בו – This is an enigmatic verse and the traditional commentaries are plagued with multiple linguistic problems. It seems that there are two layers in the verse, and they revolve around the word חטאת – sin, which should be read here as conveying a subliminal message by being broken into two words: חִטָּ אַתְּ – The verse insinuates that Kayin can control his anger, but the translation with the two words suggestion should be: Whether the crop is good or not, you crouch by the gate of wheat [the granaries]. His [Hevel’s] sustenance depends on you and you will govern him. God tells Kayin that he should not be upset because his lot is better than that of Hevel. This statement is in line with the constant debate between farmers and shepherds. God tells Kayin that he is more powerful since he always has wheat in his granaries, while Hevel searches for seasonal grazing grounds. Hevel’s sustenance therefore depends on Kayin and Kayin governs Hevel.[2]
4:18: ויאמר קין אל הבל אחיו – Kayin told his brother Hevel what God has said. In the parental guide provided here, God shows us which approach not to use. The parent who rejects one child’s gift or attempt to win affection cannot calm the child by telling him that his better than his brother. What the child want is love and affection. The child might also tell the siblings that he is better and it will cause more tension.
ויהי בהיותם בשדה – when they were in the field: the crime happens in the place of their contention, where Kayin tills the land while Hevel lets his animals graze it.
ויקם קין אל הבל אחיו ויהרגהו – Kayin attacked his brother Hevel and killed him: God’s words to Kayin, transmitted to Hevel, did not remedy the situation and rather escalated it. Kayin’s act shows the deterioration of humanity. Adam’s transgression was against an arbitrary law, and there were no victims. Kayin’s transgression is against a logical, natural law, and Hevel is a victim. In verses 4:23-24 Lemekh will present the next step in that deterioration.
4:9: אי הבל אחיך - Where is your brother Hevel? God engages Kayin in a conversation to give him an opportunity to repents, but he misses it and answers: השומר אחי אנכי – Am I my brother’s guardian? This is more than a denial of guilt, it is an accusation.
4:10: דמי אחיך צועקים אלי – the bloods of your brother cry out to me: God accepts part of the responsibility. He acknowledges that had He not instigated the brothers the murder could have been prevented.[3]
4:11-12: האדמה – Adam was taken from the earth, and the earth takes him back upon his death. In exchange for that, the earth gives Adam food when he is alive, albeit through toil. In this case, the earth took the blood of Hevel, but his death was unnatural, and therefore, the earth will not reciprocate with the killer and will not give him its energy.
4:12: נע ונד תהיה בארץ – you will wander and move through the land: Kayin, who praised himself for his possessions and stability is turned into a nomad without possession, and he will be of a lesser status than that of the shepherds.
4:14: הן גרשת אותי... ומפניך אסתר – You have expelled me… and I will have to hide from you: Again, Kayin accuses God. He tells Him that His system is flawed because Adam had to hide and was expelled, and now the same thing happens to his son.
והיה כל מוצאי יהרגני – Anyone who will find me will kill me: The finder must be another human being, [4] and this is therefore a clear indication that there where other humans in the world at the time (see 3:20 above). The humans live in small clans and Kayin is afraid that Hevel’s clansmen, who are his as well, will revenge Hevel’s death.
4:15: כל הורג קין שבעתים יוקם – He who kills Kayin will be punished seven-fold: Kayin is the first criminal, but since there was no judicial system in place when he committed the crime, he cannot be tried or killed by a relative of the victim. This will change after the flood with God’s command to Noah to establish a judicial system.
4:16: אשתו... ויהי בונה עיר – His wife… he was building a city: These are more hints that other humans exist at the time.
4:18: Lemekh is a symbolic name. It has the same letters and vowels of מלך – king, but in the wrong order, and so he is a leader who has gone astray.
4:19-22: Lemekh’s children are archetypes of civilization. The name of all three sons are derived from the root יבל – to lead, as they were the first in their professions. Yaval, the tent dweller, represents agriculture. Yuval, the musician, represents education, since in antiquity tradition was transmitted through songs.[5] Tuval-Kayin represents technology, but he is also associated with Kayin, the first murderer, for he is the maker of metal tools. The daughter’s name, Naama, is derived from the root נעמ – pleasant, and thus might represent luxury or leisure pursuits.
4:23: שמען... האזנה – Listen… pay heed: This is an official formula, used as an opening to an important speech.[6]
כי איש הרגתי לפצעי וילד לחבורתי – I have killed [and will kill a] man for wounding me, and a child for bruising me: Lemekh declares that power reigns supreme, and that if anyone challenges him, he will be killed.
4:24: כי שבעתים – If he who kills Kayin is punished seven-fold, he who will [try to] kill me will be punished seventy-seven-fold. Lemekh uses the lenient verdict of Kayin as an excuse for committing more crimes. Humanity now sinks from the crime of passion committed by Kayin to the declaration that premediated murder is legitimate.
4:25: שת לי אלהים זרע אחר – Elohim gave me another descendant: Hava holds God responsible for Hevel’s death, and acknowledges that God paid His dues by providing her with another son.
4:26: אנוש – by reverse-engineering the wordאנשים , which is the plural of איש, we get the word אנש.[7] Enosh is named after his grandfather, the first איש, to signal the hope for new humanity, but אז הוחל לקרוא בשם ה' – the name of YHWH was being used in a non-sacred way, showing that humanity was losing its respect for the divine. That name represents mercy and flexibility, which the morally deteriorated humanity desperately needs.
4:2: הבל – The etymology of Hevel’s name is vanity. The two brothers represent the clash between nomad shepherds and sedentary farmers. The farmers had possessions, real estate, and their sustenance was relatively secure. The shepherds moved form place to place in search for grazing grounds and their existence seemed to be hanging on a thin thread, a vanity. Later in the Bible, the great leaders are all shepherds, and God Himself analogized to one. The shepherd, who has no real ties to the land, is considered more spiritual and closer to God and nature.
4:5: ואל קין ואל מנחתו לא שעה – He did not pay heed to Kayin and his offering: God rejects not only the offering, but Kayin as well, and He does not provide any explanation. The tragic ending of the story suggests that this is a cautionary tale. God teaches us how not to behave as parents. Kayin and Hevel are like two children who presents their father with presents. He accepts one and rejects the other for no apparent reason. As parents, even if one child does less then the other, we should encourage and not reject him altogether.
4:6: למה חרה לך – why are you angry? A typical response of parents is rebuking the rejected child for feeling offended.
4:7: הלא אם תיטיב שאת ואם לא תיטיב לפתח חטאת רובץ ואליך תשוקתו ואתה תמשל בו – This is an enigmatic verse and the traditional commentaries are plagued with multiple linguistic problems. It seems that there are two layers in the verse, and they revolve around the word חטאת – sin, which should be read here as conveying a subliminal message by being broken into two words: חִטָּ אַתְּ – The verse insinuates that Kayin can control his anger, but the translation with the two words suggestion should be: Whether the crop is good or not, you crouch by the gate of wheat [the granaries]. His [Hevel’s] sustenance depends on you and you will govern him. God tells Kayin that he should not be upset because his lot is better than that of Hevel. This statement is in line with the constant debate between farmers and shepherds. God tells Kayin that he is more powerful since he always has wheat in his granaries, while Hevel searches for seasonal grazing grounds. Hevel’s sustenance therefore depends on Kayin and Kayin governs Hevel.[2]
4:18: ויאמר קין אל הבל אחיו – Kayin told his brother Hevel what God has said. In the parental guide provided here, God shows us which approach not to use. The parent who rejects one child’s gift or attempt to win affection cannot calm the child by telling him that his better than his brother. What the child want is love and affection. The child might also tell the siblings that he is better and it will cause more tension.
ויהי בהיותם בשדה – when they were in the field: the crime happens in the place of their contention, where Kayin tills the land while Hevel lets his animals graze it.
ויקם קין אל הבל אחיו ויהרגהו – Kayin attacked his brother Hevel and killed him: God’s words to Kayin, transmitted to Hevel, did not remedy the situation and rather escalated it. Kayin’s act shows the deterioration of humanity. Adam’s transgression was against an arbitrary law, and there were no victims. Kayin’s transgression is against a logical, natural law, and Hevel is a victim. In verses 4:23-24 Lemekh will present the next step in that deterioration.
4:9: אי הבל אחיך - Where is your brother Hevel? God engages Kayin in a conversation to give him an opportunity to repents, but he misses it and answers: השומר אחי אנכי – Am I my brother’s guardian? This is more than a denial of guilt, it is an accusation.
4:10: דמי אחיך צועקים אלי – the bloods of your brother cry out to me: God accepts part of the responsibility. He acknowledges that had He not instigated the brothers the murder could have been prevented.[3]
4:11-12: האדמה – Adam was taken from the earth, and the earth takes him back upon his death. In exchange for that, the earth gives Adam food when he is alive, albeit through toil. In this case, the earth took the blood of Hevel, but his death was unnatural, and therefore, the earth will not reciprocate with the killer and will not give him its energy.
4:12: נע ונד תהיה בארץ – you will wander and move through the land: Kayin, who praised himself for his possessions and stability is turned into a nomad without possession, and he will be of a lesser status than that of the shepherds.
4:14: הן גרשת אותי... ומפניך אסתר – You have expelled me… and I will have to hide from you: Again, Kayin accuses God. He tells Him that His system is flawed because Adam had to hide and was expelled, and now the same thing happens to his son.
והיה כל מוצאי יהרגני – Anyone who will find me will kill me: The finder must be another human being, [4] and this is therefore a clear indication that there where other humans in the world at the time (see 3:20 above). The humans live in small clans and Kayin is afraid that Hevel’s clansmen, who are his as well, will revenge Hevel’s death.
4:15: כל הורג קין שבעתים יוקם – He who kills Kayin will be punished seven-fold: Kayin is the first criminal, but since there was no judicial system in place when he committed the crime, he cannot be tried or killed by a relative of the victim. This will change after the flood with God’s command to Noah to establish a judicial system.
4:16: אשתו... ויהי בונה עיר – His wife… he was building a city: These are more hints that other humans exist at the time.
4:18: Lemekh is a symbolic name. It has the same letters and vowels of מלך – king, but in the wrong order, and so he is a leader who has gone astray.
4:19-22: Lemekh’s children are archetypes of civilization. The name of all three sons are derived from the root יבל – to lead, as they were the first in their professions. Yaval, the tent dweller, represents agriculture. Yuval, the musician, represents education, since in antiquity tradition was transmitted through songs.[5] Tuval-Kayin represents technology, but he is also associated with Kayin, the first murderer, for he is the maker of metal tools. The daughter’s name, Naama, is derived from the root נעמ – pleasant, and thus might represent luxury or leisure pursuits.
4:23: שמען... האזנה – Listen… pay heed: This is an official formula, used as an opening to an important speech.[6]
כי איש הרגתי לפצעי וילד לחבורתי – I have killed [and will kill a] man for wounding me, and a child for bruising me: Lemekh declares that power reigns supreme, and that if anyone challenges him, he will be killed.
4:24: כי שבעתים – If he who kills Kayin is punished seven-fold, he who will [try to] kill me will be punished seventy-seven-fold. Lemekh uses the lenient verdict of Kayin as an excuse for committing more crimes. Humanity now sinks from the crime of passion committed by Kayin to the declaration that premediated murder is legitimate.
4:25: שת לי אלהים זרע אחר – Elohim gave me another descendant: Hava holds God responsible for Hevel’s death, and acknowledges that God paid His dues by providing her with another son.
4:26: אנוש – by reverse-engineering the wordאנשים , which is the plural of איש, we get the word אנש.[7] Enosh is named after his grandfather, the first איש, to signal the hope for new humanity, but אז הוחל לקרוא בשם ה' – the name of YHWH was being used in a non-sacred way, showing that humanity was losing its respect for the divine. That name represents mercy and flexibility, which the morally deteriorated humanity desperately needs.
[1] In Gen. 14:19 God is called קונה שמים וארץ- the maker, and owner, of heaven and earth.
[2] This understanding makes the verse parallel to the woman’s curse above in both format and content.
[3] According to R. Shimon bar Yohai in Beresheet Rabah 22:6.
[4] The verb מצא appears in the bible more than 150 times, always with reference to humans or abstract concepts, except for four references to animals (Gen. 8:9; Is. 34:14; Ps. 84:4; Lam. 1:6). In all four cases the text speaks of an animal finding a resting place, and never of an animal finding and killing a human.
[5] And until today, the Torah must be chanted with the trope.
[6] See Deut. 32:1 and Is. 1:2.
[7] The term אנוש or בן אנוש as a synonym to mankind is most common in Palms and Job.
5:1-2: In these two verses there is a last attempt to restore the lost glory of the first world. The name of the Creator is Elohim, the term used for creation is ברא and not עשה, and man and woman are created simultaneously, as equals.
5:3: בדמותו כצלמו – in his image and likeness. The attempt to restore the first world has failed because man already sees himself as divine. He does not see his children as created in the image of God but as created in his own image.
5:5: Nine hundred and thirty years: The extreme longevity of the first generation is a rejection of Mesopotamian and Egyptian myths, which attributed to their kings fantastic life-spans of thousands, and even tens of thousands of years. The Torah assigns a little less than a thousand years to Adam, and after him the age range keeps diminishing until the declaration, before the Flood that humans will not live more than a hundred-and-twenty years. Instead of rejecting the myths completely the Torah starts with a weakened version of the myth and brings it slowly to normal parameters.
Hanokh and Methuselah, Adam’s seventh and eighth generations, are the exceptions of the descending pattern. Hanokh is taken by God, a term which conveys sudden death, at the relatively young age of 365, while Methuselah outlives even Adam and reaches the age of 969 years.
5:29: זה ינחמנו – Noah’s name is given to him with the hope that he will comfort humanity and redeem it from the curse placed upon the earth by God. Ironically, Noah is the one in whose life earth is covered by the flood’s water and humanity is wiped out.
5:32: Noah differs from the previous generations in several points. His age, half a millennium, seems symbolic, the age of someone who is halfway between eras. He becomes a father at a much older than that of his predecessors. All others have one son who is mentioned by name, while Noah has three. The names of Noah’s sons could also be interpreted symbolically (see 9:18), and so this verse guide us to note the symbolism in the story of Noah (see footnote to 6:32 below).
5:3: בדמותו כצלמו – in his image and likeness. The attempt to restore the first world has failed because man already sees himself as divine. He does not see his children as created in the image of God but as created in his own image.
5:5: Nine hundred and thirty years: The extreme longevity of the first generation is a rejection of Mesopotamian and Egyptian myths, which attributed to their kings fantastic life-spans of thousands, and even tens of thousands of years. The Torah assigns a little less than a thousand years to Adam, and after him the age range keeps diminishing until the declaration, before the Flood that humans will not live more than a hundred-and-twenty years. Instead of rejecting the myths completely the Torah starts with a weakened version of the myth and brings it slowly to normal parameters.
Hanokh and Methuselah, Adam’s seventh and eighth generations, are the exceptions of the descending pattern. Hanokh is taken by God, a term which conveys sudden death, at the relatively young age of 365, while Methuselah outlives even Adam and reaches the age of 969 years.
5:29: זה ינחמנו – Noah’s name is given to him with the hope that he will comfort humanity and redeem it from the curse placed upon the earth by God. Ironically, Noah is the one in whose life earth is covered by the flood’s water and humanity is wiped out.
5:32: Noah differs from the previous generations in several points. His age, half a millennium, seems symbolic, the age of someone who is halfway between eras. He becomes a father at a much older than that of his predecessors. All others have one son who is mentioned by name, while Noah has three. The names of Noah’s sons could also be interpreted symbolically (see 9:18), and so this verse guide us to note the symbolism in the story of Noah (see footnote to 6:32 below).
6:2: בני האלהים... בנות האדם – The sons of Elohim… the daughters of man: Elohim here is in the connotation of judges, leaders.[1] The ideology of Lemekh spreads and the leaders feel that they are entitled to take whatever their want form their subjects.
6:3: הנפילים... הגבורים אשר מעולם אנשי השם – The Nephilim… the heroes of the past, the men of renown: The sons of the Elohim, the leaders, justify the kidnapping of the daughters of man by claiming that they have the merit to procreate heroes and famed men.
6:5: רק רע כל היום – Only evil all day: This is the conclusion of the second creation story, where evil is first presented. Humanity is now consumed by evil.
6:6: ויתעצב אל לבו – He was pained: Even God, as if it were, has become afflicted because of man’s evil. The root עצב – pain or suffering, appears twice in the woman’s curse (3:16), in Adam’s curse (3:17), and in Lemekh’s reflection on Noah’s name (4:29). Now it has reached God, and it drives Him to wipe out all creation.
6:7: אמחה את האדם... מאדם עד בהמה – I will wipe out humanity… from man to animals, crawling creatures and fowl: First God says He will annihilate humanity, but a world without humans means a world without change, and a static world has no reason to exist. This is an exaggeration, because the flood did not destroy all life on earth, and it is also in direct contrast to the ending of the Book of Jonah.
כי נחמתי כי עשיתים – I regret making them: The verb נחמ echoes Lemekh’s explanation of Noah’s name: זה ינחמנו – he shall comfort us. This intensifies the irony mentioned above (5:29).
6:8: ונח מצא חן – Noah found grace: It’s interesting to note that נח is the reverse of חן.
6:3: הנפילים... הגבורים אשר מעולם אנשי השם – The Nephilim… the heroes of the past, the men of renown: The sons of the Elohim, the leaders, justify the kidnapping of the daughters of man by claiming that they have the merit to procreate heroes and famed men.
6:5: רק רע כל היום – Only evil all day: This is the conclusion of the second creation story, where evil is first presented. Humanity is now consumed by evil.
6:6: ויתעצב אל לבו – He was pained: Even God, as if it were, has become afflicted because of man’s evil. The root עצב – pain or suffering, appears twice in the woman’s curse (3:16), in Adam’s curse (3:17), and in Lemekh’s reflection on Noah’s name (4:29). Now it has reached God, and it drives Him to wipe out all creation.
6:7: אמחה את האדם... מאדם עד בהמה – I will wipe out humanity… from man to animals, crawling creatures and fowl: First God says He will annihilate humanity, but a world without humans means a world without change, and a static world has no reason to exist. This is an exaggeration, because the flood did not destroy all life on earth, and it is also in direct contrast to the ending of the Book of Jonah.
כי נחמתי כי עשיתים – I regret making them: The verb נחמ echoes Lemekh’s explanation of Noah’s name: זה ינחמנו – he shall comfort us. This intensifies the irony mentioned above (5:29).
6:8: ונח מצא חן – Noah found grace: It’s interesting to note that נח is the reverse of חן.
[1] As in Ex. 22:7-8, and Ps. 82:6.
Parashat Noah
6:11: ותשחת הארץ לפני האלהים – The earth has become corrupt in the eyes of Elohim.[1] ותמלא הארץ חמס – the earth was filled with injustice. חמס – injustice, is the biblical term for evils performed in the name of the law. Following Lemekh, who declared that he governs by sheer power, and the sons of Elohim who oppressed the weaker classes, oppression and corruption have become the norm and the law.
6:11-13: These three verses are repetitive: the words “injustice” and “all flesh” appear twice each, “Elohim” three times, the root שחת – in the sense of destroy or corrupt appears four times, and “the earth” appears six times (these words are clustered again in verse 17). This conveys the message that the decision to destroy the earth with all flesh in it was not an easy one.
6:15: The dimensions of the ark seem disproportionate to the number of animals it was supposed to contain. It could be that God makes Noah’s survival difficult and uncomfortable. He makes Noah live in a very small place for a long period, with his family and hundreds of animals, as a rebuke for his failure to empathize with doomed humanity.
6:19: שנים מכל – two of each: In verses 7:2-3 the Torah speaks of seven each of the pure animals and of all fowl, but later in the narrative the number two appears again. It could be that Noah had to gather the animals in pairs, and that some of them were two pairs while others were seven.
6:22: Noah does as God commanded him, he does not ask questions and does not argue on behalf of humanity, as Avraham later does for Sodom. Later in the Bible, the prophet Ezekiel faults Noah for being one who cares only for his own wellbeing (Ez. 14:14).
*7:16: כאשר צוה אותו אלהים ויסגר ה' בעדו – As Elohim commanded him, and YHWH closed him inside: Throughout the story God’s name shifts between the two names which represent rigorous judgment and mercy to show the tension between administering punishment and exercising patience.
8:1: את נח ואת כל החיה – Noah and all the animals: God have forgotten Noah, or so Noah feels. The devastation could have been swifter and the salvation more comfortable, but in the parable, God keeps Noah for a long time in the ark to teach him compassion. God remembers Noah, as if it were, not for Noah’s own merit but for the domestic and wild animals as well. רוח על הארץ וישכו המים – a wind on the earth and the water calmed down: This echoes the first moments of creation, as in 1:2 above.
8:7-12: It is not clear what exactly were the tasks of the raven and the dove. It can be said that symbolically, the raven represents evil and corruption, while the dove stands for goodness and loyalty.[2] The raven goes back and forth until it has no need to return to the ark. The dove finds nothing on its first mission, but on its second one it finds an olive leaf. It could have stayed out, but it returns to the ark out of loyalty, as it wants Noah to know that earth can support life. Noah recognizes the dove’s loyalty and sends it again only after seven days, to let it rest and to guarantee that it will find a permanent resting place.
8:11: עלה זית טרף בפיה – an olive leaf, food in its mouth: the word טרף has been mistakenly understood as leaf, a meaning that is listed in Hebrew dictionaries, based on this verse and on Ezekiel 17:9. However, in both places the meaning is food or fruit. Here it means that the only food the dove was able to hunt for was an olive leaf.
8:21: ריח הניחח – the soothing smell: ניחח is derived from the same root as Noah’s name, and it means to soothe and calm down. This represents a primal understanding of the relationships between God and humans, which sees the sacrifice as a gift which soothes and calms God, just as the smell of good food can calm an angry person. Eventually, this understanding will be rejected by the prophets[3], but it is already denounced in the Torah. First in Leviticus (26:31) where the word ניחח is used in a negative connotation, and then in the story of Bil’am, who fails to please God despite erecting twenty-one altars and offering a bull and a ram on each.
לא אוסיף לקלל – I will not curse earth again because of man: The earth was struck or cursed three times, for Adam, for Kayin, and during the flood. After the third strike God changes tactics. This is a message to humans that punishment is not the best approach and that if one approach fails to address a difficult situation, there must be evaluation and adaptation.
8:22: לא ישבתו – they will not cease: This declaration seals the story of the flood and opens a new page, almost a new creation. That new creation establishes the importance of the natural orders and the word ישבתו echoes the final act of the first creation – שבת.
6:11: ותשחת הארץ לפני האלהים – The earth has become corrupt in the eyes of Elohim.[1] ותמלא הארץ חמס – the earth was filled with injustice. חמס – injustice, is the biblical term for evils performed in the name of the law. Following Lemekh, who declared that he governs by sheer power, and the sons of Elohim who oppressed the weaker classes, oppression and corruption have become the norm and the law.
6:11-13: These three verses are repetitive: the words “injustice” and “all flesh” appear twice each, “Elohim” three times, the root שחת – in the sense of destroy or corrupt appears four times, and “the earth” appears six times (these words are clustered again in verse 17). This conveys the message that the decision to destroy the earth with all flesh in it was not an easy one.
6:15: The dimensions of the ark seem disproportionate to the number of animals it was supposed to contain. It could be that God makes Noah’s survival difficult and uncomfortable. He makes Noah live in a very small place for a long period, with his family and hundreds of animals, as a rebuke for his failure to empathize with doomed humanity.
6:19: שנים מכל – two of each: In verses 7:2-3 the Torah speaks of seven each of the pure animals and of all fowl, but later in the narrative the number two appears again. It could be that Noah had to gather the animals in pairs, and that some of them were two pairs while others were seven.
6:22: Noah does as God commanded him, he does not ask questions and does not argue on behalf of humanity, as Avraham later does for Sodom. Later in the Bible, the prophet Ezekiel faults Noah for being one who cares only for his own wellbeing (Ez. 14:14).
*7:16: כאשר צוה אותו אלהים ויסגר ה' בעדו – As Elohim commanded him, and YHWH closed him inside: Throughout the story God’s name shifts between the two names which represent rigorous judgment and mercy to show the tension between administering punishment and exercising patience.
8:1: את נח ואת כל החיה – Noah and all the animals: God have forgotten Noah, or so Noah feels. The devastation could have been swifter and the salvation more comfortable, but in the parable, God keeps Noah for a long time in the ark to teach him compassion. God remembers Noah, as if it were, not for Noah’s own merit but for the domestic and wild animals as well. רוח על הארץ וישכו המים – a wind on the earth and the water calmed down: This echoes the first moments of creation, as in 1:2 above.
8:7-12: It is not clear what exactly were the tasks of the raven and the dove. It can be said that symbolically, the raven represents evil and corruption, while the dove stands for goodness and loyalty.[2] The raven goes back and forth until it has no need to return to the ark. The dove finds nothing on its first mission, but on its second one it finds an olive leaf. It could have stayed out, but it returns to the ark out of loyalty, as it wants Noah to know that earth can support life. Noah recognizes the dove’s loyalty and sends it again only after seven days, to let it rest and to guarantee that it will find a permanent resting place.
8:11: עלה זית טרף בפיה – an olive leaf, food in its mouth: the word טרף has been mistakenly understood as leaf, a meaning that is listed in Hebrew dictionaries, based on this verse and on Ezekiel 17:9. However, in both places the meaning is food or fruit. Here it means that the only food the dove was able to hunt for was an olive leaf.
8:21: ריח הניחח – the soothing smell: ניחח is derived from the same root as Noah’s name, and it means to soothe and calm down. This represents a primal understanding of the relationships between God and humans, which sees the sacrifice as a gift which soothes and calms God, just as the smell of good food can calm an angry person. Eventually, this understanding will be rejected by the prophets[3], but it is already denounced in the Torah. First in Leviticus (26:31) where the word ניחח is used in a negative connotation, and then in the story of Bil’am, who fails to please God despite erecting twenty-one altars and offering a bull and a ram on each.
לא אוסיף לקלל – I will not curse earth again because of man: The earth was struck or cursed three times, for Adam, for Kayin, and during the flood. After the third strike God changes tactics. This is a message to humans that punishment is not the best approach and that if one approach fails to address a difficult situation, there must be evaluation and adaptation.
8:22: לא ישבתו – they will not cease: This declaration seals the story of the flood and opens a new page, almost a new creation. That new creation establishes the importance of the natural orders and the word ישבתו echoes the final act of the first creation – שבת.
[1] The Flood: already the sages of the Midrash said that the flood was not a global event. R. Levy saysמארץ ישראל הביאה שלא נשטפה במבול – [the olive leaf] was brought from the Land of Israel which was not inundated by the flood (Pesikta Zutreta), and Midrash Rabbah (Eikha, Petihta 23) identifies Babel as the center of the flood: בבל... ששם צללו מי מבול – Babel… where the water of the flood gathered. The Torah refers to a flood which has affected the Fertile Crescent, and which was preserved in the history of neighboring nations in the famous myth of Utnapishtim, which is part of the Epic of Gilgamesh (for further reading, see Noah’s Flood by William Ryan and Walter Pitman). The Torah modifies and uses the myth as a moral lesson. Whereas in the myth the survivor is chosen because he is the favorite on one of the deities, Noah is saved because of his righteousness. In the myth, the gods destroy humanity because the noise it makes disturbs the gods’ afternoon nap, while the Flood is described as a punishment for rampant injustice and for humans’ transgressions against each other. Still, the idea of total annihilation is one shunned by the Bible, as in the narratives of Sodom, the Golden Calf, and Jonah, and combined with verse 5:32 above, we can understand the story of the Flood as a parable about the disasters humans can bring upon themselves with corrupt behavior.
[2] It is interesting to note that in Hebrew a raven is masculine while a dove is feminine.
[3] See I Sam. 22-23; Is. 1:10-17, and chapters 58-59; Jer. chapter 7; Malachi chapters 1-2; Psalms chapter 50.