Torah Study Blog

There are two distinct creation stories in the Torah. The first story says, “And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27) In this story God created man and woman at one time. In the second, more popular story God created man first, and then woman out of man’s rib.

The second story was likely written first and has echoes of Atra-Hasis, which is a Near Eastern epic that dates at least as far back as the 18^th century BCE. In that story there are primary gods and lesser gods. The lesser gods were given the task of maintaining the earth through farming, etc. The lesser gods got tired of the drudgery, so they went on strike. The primary gods slaughtered a lesser god and mixed his blood with the earth, in order to create humans. In this story, human beings are partly of the earth and partly divine, and the humans do the work of creation.

In the biblical story it is the breath of God that brings the humans to life. But the humans are not immortal, like the gods. This Bible story provides us with a reason for why people, unlike the gods, do not live forever.

Our story continues that God planted the Tree of Life and the Tree of All Knowledge. (The Tree of All Knowledge is translated in our Bible as “the tree of knowledge of good and bad,” but Rabbi Jaech says a more precise translation would be the Tree of All Knowledge.) God tells the humans not to eat from the Tree of All Knowledge. He does not forbid eating from the Tree of Life, therefore, it doesn’t matter in this story if the humans are immortal, as long as they stay in their place of being rather ignorant.

In the story, when God tells the humans not to eat from the Tree of All Knowledge, he warns them “for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.” (Genesis 2:17) Yet, when Adam and Eve eat from the tree they do not die. God lied! The serpent tells the truth when he says, “You are not going to die, but God knows that as soon as you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like divine beings who know.” (Genesis 3:5)

Eve sees that wisdom is desirable. She makes a choice, but she is disobeying God.

The story of Lilith dates as far back as the Babylonian Talmud (3^rd to 5^th century CE) and her name likely derives from the word for “night” and may have originally been inspired by Near Eastern traditions of female demons. Over the centuries, and continuing to serve as a source material even today, the stories, which are not biblical, have been expanded upon. One story is that Lilith was the first wife of Adam and she was created at the same time as Adam – which is the scenario in the first creation story – and she was too demanding and wanted to be equal to Adam, which is why Lilith was banished and replaced by Eve.

Back to the Bible: After eating from the Tree of All Knowledge, Adam and Eve, “perceived that they were naked; and they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves loincloths.” (Genesis 3:7) Adam and Eve were embarrassed by their nakedness. Why? It is possible that this part of the story is an explanation for why humans wear clothes even though the rest of the animal kingdom does not.

After God realizes that Eve and the serpent colluded and tricked Adam into disobeying God, God proclaims his curses:

1. To the serpent he says, “On your belly shall your crawl” and “I will put enmity between you and the woman [and your respective offspring] … they shall strike at your head, and you shall strike at their heel.”
2. To Eve he says, “In pain shall you bear children, yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
3. To Adam he says, “your food shall be the grasses of the field; by the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat.” (Genesis 3:14-19)

There are some less obvious ramifications of these curses, such as providing a reason for why people generally don’t like snakes and, when the curse says Eve’s husband will rule over her, pointing out that a woman is sexually dependent upon a man to procreate. It is interesting to note that humans are vegetarian at this point in the story. However, two sentences later God, in an act of loving-kindness, clothes Adam and Eve in animal skins.

The final passage in the creation story starts with God saying, “Now that man has become like one of us…” Us? There is no getting around the fact that the text says “us,” so this was written at a time when polytheism was the norm. And the final passage ends with Adam and Eve being banished from the Garden of Eden so that they cannot eat from the Tree of Life and become immortal.

Although humans are part of the animal kingdom, we are different from all other animals. In addition to wearing clothing, we also have the ability to learn all knowledge and to create civilizations and make advancements. But, unlike the gods, we are merely mortal creatures.

misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter