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October 8, 2004/Tishri 23 5765, Vol. 57, No. 6
In the beginning
Torah study
SHLOMO RISKIN
Bereshit/Genesis 1:1-6:8
One of the most fascinating and difficult portions of the Torah is the opening portion of Genesis. There seem to be two very different accounts of the primordial creation of the human being, the first in Chapter One of Genesis and the second in Chapter Two. Additionally, the story of the forbidden fruit interrupts the second account of creation.
The Bible describes the formation of a human being (Genesis 2:7), immediately after which we read that the human being has been planted in the Garden of Eden, where there is the Tree of Life as well as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. And God commands the human being that he may not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil lest he die.
At this point in the narrative, the second story of creation continues, with Eve being formed from Adam's rib or side, and then begins Chapter Three, wherein the first couple eat the forbidden fruit and are banished from the garden.
Chapter One sees the human being very much within the backdrop of God's general creation of the world. This aspect of the human being could almost have evolved from Darwin's "Origin of the Species"; he is homo natura, natural human. He may be created in God's image, but he is still an indivisible part of the natural landscape.
Chapter Two sees the human being as apart from the natural world. He may have as his base the very physical earthly gust, but he is endowed with the divine breath of life, which grants him transcendence. It is precisely at this point in the narrative, when homo persona enters the scene - personal human rather than natural human - that we are told of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
I would suggest that the fruit of these two trees represents the desires of the human being who recognizes his unique powers within and even beyond the natural universe. He reaches out for eternal life and he wishes to taste of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. He desperately resents any higher authority - God or any divinely based halachic (Jewish law) system - instructing him as to what is good and what is evil. In this sense, homo persona is post-modern man, rejecting any objective definition for good and evil.
Hence, God commands the individual: You dare not eat of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, you dare not assume yourself to be the ultimate arbiter of what is good and what is evil. As Sigmund Freud so wisely suggests in "Civilization and its Discontents," when it comes to self-justification and subjective rationalization, every human being is a genius.
The area in which the human being is the most vulnerable is the sexual one. Hence, after God commands Adam, God creates from his very being Eve. The goal of the human being is to find his/her ultimate completion in the form of a spouse; together they will become one being and form children as partners with God in creation. Sexual expression within the context of love and marriage will produce the family stability that is the bedrock of a moral and productive society.
This is the vision of the Garden of Eden.
Tragically, the serpent tempts the human being to subjectively decide what is good or bad for him/her, and so forfeit the eternal life promised by the garden. The rest of the Bible provides us humans with the Torah, our Tree of Life, which will train us to find our way back to Eden. The Sabbath, which serves as the bridge between both aspects of the human being, provides us each week with the picture of the world of Eden as it ought to be. Our challenge is to utilize the spirit of the Divine within ourselves to repair the very human sin of trying to displace the Divine.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the leader of Efrat, Israel.
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