Summary
www.reformjudaism.org/learning/torah-study/breishit
- God creates the world and everything in it in six days and rests on the seventh. (1:1-2:3)
- Adam and Eve are placed in the Garden of Eden, where they eat the forbidden fruit and are subsequently exiled. (2:15-3:24)
- Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain kills his brother, Abel. (4:1-24)
- Adam and Eve have another child named Seth. The Torah lists the ten generations from Adam to Noah. (4:25-5:32)
- God regrets having created human beings and decides to destroy everything on earth, but Noah finds favor with God. (6:5-6:8)
D'var Torah by Joseph Rensin
When I began to write this D’var Torah I sought to point out that questions in the Torah, the order asked, who asked them, and the question itself were key to understanding the intent of what was to come. The questions are sort of predictor and guide for an explorative journey to the answers we all seek. So I was surprised to find the first question, in the Torah, asked by the serpent. Who is reported to be the shrewdest of all the wild beasts which is certainly supported by the question the serpent asked of Eve “Did God really say you shall not eat of any tree of the garden”? Any answer other than No or I do not know effectively trapped and beguiled Eve into eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad (evil).
While some will argue eating of this tree provided the knowledge of everything, it clearly did not, as Adam and Eve appeared to be concerned with their nakedness and that God would discover what was already known to God.
Unlike Eve we know that God told Adam he could eat of any tree except for the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad. So Adam could not eat of this one tree in the center of the Garden of Eden next to the Tree of Life. What was so dangerous about this tree that God would deny access to Adam, who was created in God’s own image? Did God intend to never let Adam eat of this tree? Is the whole Garden of Eden story a setup by god to force Adam and Eve out of the garden?
For me the answer of it being a trap never sat well. Why would God need to trap anyone to make a point? I suspect that God, in time, intended to feed Adam and Eve of the tree in small portions, so they could fully understand the import of the knowledge they received.
What is good and bad? Like temperature, hot and cold, it is a scale of perception established by the individual. With respect to morality it is a judgment of perception.
God made several judgments based on perception when creating the Universe. God saw and it was good, in the end before God rested, God saw and it was very good. This judgment does not hold true for God sees creation, after time has passed, and finds mankind to be evil and needing to be destroyed.
If God’s judgments are fallible how much more so are mankind’s. How did God’s mind come to change and when did it change? Interestingly the change of mind happens while God is resting, during the Sabbath, when there is time to observe the bigger picture, contemplate cause and effect, and determine the changes to make (repair) the original creation. In short time to attain the wisdom required to make moral choices of the knowledge we have acquired.
When the Garden of Eden was created there was no Tree of Wisdom alongside the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad. Maybe it was just a sapling and God was waiting for it to grow before feeding mankind with knowledge. For surely knowledge without wisdom can lead to death.
We are instructed to observe the Sabbath, keep it holy, and study the Torah. This is our path to gain the wisdom we need to repair the world. Mankind needs to observe the Sabbath and see that it is very, very good.
While some will argue eating of this tree provided the knowledge of everything, it clearly did not, as Adam and Eve appeared to be concerned with their nakedness and that God would discover what was already known to God.
Unlike Eve we know that God told Adam he could eat of any tree except for the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad. So Adam could not eat of this one tree in the center of the Garden of Eden next to the Tree of Life. What was so dangerous about this tree that God would deny access to Adam, who was created in God’s own image? Did God intend to never let Adam eat of this tree? Is the whole Garden of Eden story a setup by god to force Adam and Eve out of the garden?
For me the answer of it being a trap never sat well. Why would God need to trap anyone to make a point? I suspect that God, in time, intended to feed Adam and Eve of the tree in small portions, so they could fully understand the import of the knowledge they received.
What is good and bad? Like temperature, hot and cold, it is a scale of perception established by the individual. With respect to morality it is a judgment of perception.
God made several judgments based on perception when creating the Universe. God saw and it was good, in the end before God rested, God saw and it was very good. This judgment does not hold true for God sees creation, after time has passed, and finds mankind to be evil and needing to be destroyed.
If God’s judgments are fallible how much more so are mankind’s. How did God’s mind come to change and when did it change? Interestingly the change of mind happens while God is resting, during the Sabbath, when there is time to observe the bigger picture, contemplate cause and effect, and determine the changes to make (repair) the original creation. In short time to attain the wisdom required to make moral choices of the knowledge we have acquired.
When the Garden of Eden was created there was no Tree of Wisdom alongside the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad. Maybe it was just a sapling and God was waiting for it to grow before feeding mankind with knowledge. For surely knowledge without wisdom can lead to death.
We are instructed to observe the Sabbath, keep it holy, and study the Torah. This is our path to gain the wisdom we need to repair the world. Mankind needs to observe the Sabbath and see that it is very, very good.
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