David Lurie, the main
character of Chaim Potok’s book, IN THE BEGINNING, delivered that message two
pages into the novel. This
declaration resonates with us on this Shabbat as we begin again our cycle of
reading the Torah with this week’s parashah, b’raysheet. It expresses the values embodied in the
biblical narratives about humanity’s first family, which seems to never miss an
opportunity to receive a rule and then disobey it.
The unwise ethical
choices of Adam and Eve and their son Cain were very much a part of what made
humanity’s beginnings hard in the biblical story. There are, however, positive insights embedded in
Genesis Chapter 2 about what it means to be a community. Verses 15 through 23 of
Chapter 2 begin with God placing the man in the Garden of Eden and conclude
with the Adam’s first words, a verbal response to the sight of the woman, his
EZER K’NEGDO, his helpful and equal counterpart.
As Rhonda and I have been
in Las Cruces for 15 months, and now that our home in our previous community is
no longer ours, it seems appropriate to reflect on beginnings. Any of you who have moved from
one community to another without successfully selling the house you left behind
know the feeling well. It is as if
you have ALMOST taken your “giant leap” into a new life, but no more than “almost.” You may feel like you are not yet
home in a place that you are trying to make your home. So when the “old home”
sells, it is like a new beginning, a conclusion to a process that you hoped
would take less time.
That is not the
only challenge of moving from one community to another. We are required to learn
new names and faces; street names and directions; customs; laws; and the ways
in which people are related to and relate to each other. Beginning in a new community means
having to reestablish yourself in a neighborhood and, perhaps, in a professional
position, all over again. There are aspects of this process
that are like a rebirth, which can be invigorating. Yet, it can also be discouraging, when the process of
integration in a new city doesn’t move as quickly as one would hope. Along with the adage “all
beginnings are hard” at the start of Chaim Potok’s novel is the statement, “be
patient.” Patience is a
virtue while moving through a transition and it is important to identify the challenges
that are central to any new beginning.
Genesis Chapter
2 actively hints at what those challenges might be. When we move to a new place, we need food and
shelter. The man, ADAM, upon
being placed in the Garden of Eden, had ready-made shelter – the Garden itself,
which was under God’s watchful protection. There was abundant food, so there was no need to go the
local grocery store or farmer’s market.
The ADAM could eat all he wanted from any tree in the garden. Well, not any tree – there was one
exception. If he ate of the tree
of all knowledge, he would “die,” but not immediately. Eating of that tree
would let the human being know whether or not he was satisfied with his
life. He would have to make
decisions, moral and otherwise.
Mostly, he was not allowed to possess the many types of knowledge that
we take for granted and still retain his immortality. So that was the
one “NO” for the ADAM’s existence. All the rest was a resounding YES –
almost.
God had said in
Chapter 1 of Genesis that everything was TOV – good – and that making human
beings rendered all of creation VERY GOOD – TOV M’OD. Many scholars say that Genesis Chapter 2 is a second
creation story in the Torah that serves a different purpose than the narrative
in Chapter 1. The central lesson
of the passage that I am about to read is that God saw that it was LO TOV – NOT
GOOD - for the ADAM to be alone.
The order of creation didn’t matter here. What was important was that feeling of a lack of
completeness in the human being’s existence. ADAM needed a counterpart – an equal – who could be a
challenger when necessary, but, mainly an EIZER K’NEGDO, an equal and opposite
helper and source of support.
Don’t think for a minute that this phrase meant that the helper would be
subordinate to the ADAM. The
language and several commentaries agree that God was hoping to provide the ADAM
with a true partner to stand by his side and carry the burden of their shared
life, whatever it might be.
In the same way
that we familiarize ourselves with the names of new people we meet and the
streets on which they live when we move to a new place, the ADAM gave names to
all of the animals who potentially could have been an equal helper. They could offer the man EZRA,
assistance, to some extent. None
of the animals fit the requirement of K’NEGDO – opposite him, a definite equal
who would complement and supplement the ADAM. What was missing from the Garden of Eden was
true human community. So GOD
gave the ADAM the best divine anesthetic available in the Garden, and engaged
in the first episode of human cloning, using a rib. God didn’t just MAKE – OSEH – the human counterpart
for the ADAM who would be called ISHAH.
God BUILT – BONEH – the ISHAH. God had fashioned – VAYITZER – the ADAM from the dust
of the soil like a sculptor.
God built the woman like an architect would create a building,
indicating that the EZER K’NEGDO needed to be strong in living alongside the
ADAM. The words fashion,
create and build all refer to what we do to foster a sense of community. This building process doesn’t just
happen by itself. It takes work,
time, patience, fortitude, energy, and partnership. It isn’t good to be alone, and that is what
being a community is all about. We
seek the ties of community so we will have people around us with whom to make
our lives meaningful and to whom we can turn when the challenges of inevitable
changes come our way. Fellow
community members can be our very own OZRIM – helpers to see us through
difficult times.
Finally, at the end of this
section that I will be reading, the ADAM saw the ISHAH and spoke for the first
time, offering what is actually a poetic form of address:
This
time – or, perhaps, at this moment
Bone
of my bone
Flesh
of my flesh
Let
this one be called woman – ISHAH
For
this one is taken from ISH – man.
Up to this point in the text, only
the word ADAM meant a human being.
This short poem uses two
words for human beings: ISH for the male and ISHAH for the female, with both of
them as part of ADAM, humanity.
The declaration of the ISH was not meant to lay a claim of superiority
or ownership on the ISHAH. It was
an exclamatory acknowledgement of the arrival of his EZER K’NEGO – his
counterpart that turned his solitude into community.
One of the reasons
that I like to sing “HINEI MAH TOV” at the beginning or end of a service is
that it is one of the most classic and accessible Jewish statements about what
community should look like, especially because it includes the words SHEVET –
dwell – and YACHAD, together.
We know that the tale of the man and woman, commonly known as Adam and
Eve, continues in Genesis with unfortunate violations of God’s rules about the
tree of ALL KNOWLEDGE and about the value of human life. Even then, the portion B’raysheet
concludes with the beginning of a human community that was called upon to face
life’s challenges with strength and wisdom. This story is likely in the Torah to remind us that all
beginnings are hard, but that they are just a little easier when we face them
together, even when we ourselves choose to leave everything behind to start a
new phase of our lives. So when we
see people in our community engaging in new beginnings of their own, may we
offer EZRA – help – and CHOCHMAH – wisdom – to make their path smooth and
fruitful in a way that will offer all of us strength and
hope. And let us say AMEN.
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