This myth presents God debating with Himself about whether Adam and all subsequent human beings should share the characteristics of the celestial beings, especially their immortality, or those of the terrestrial beings, in particular, their inevitable mortality. God decides to leave the choice to Adam, thus setting the stage for the divine test that takes place in the Garden of Eden, where God tells Adam that he may eat of any trees in the garden except for the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Since Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, they unknowingly lose their chance to have eternal life. Thus this myth supplies the missing explanation of God’s intention in commanding Adam to avoid eating from the Tree of Knowledge.
Genesis Rabbah 14:3 explains that human beings share four characteristics with the celestial beings: they were created in the image of God, they stand upright, they speak and understand, and they have peripheral vision. Likewise, humans share four characteristics with animals: they eat and drink, they procreate, they excrete, and they die. Thus humans share characteristics with both the celestial and terrestrial beings. This explains the proverb that humans are a little lower than the angels.
Sources:
Genesis Rabbah 14:3
170. ADAM’S BREATH
On the first day God created heaven and earth. Five days were left over. He created above and below on alternate days. On the second day He created the firmament above, while on the third day He divided the waters above from the waters below. On the fourth day He created the sun, the moon and the stars above, while on the fifth day He gathered the waters below. The sixth day remained for creating. Then God said: “If I create above, the earth will be angry, but if I create below, the heavens will be angry.” What did God do? He created Adam in the world below, using breath from above.
The purpose of this myth is to demonstrate that God was evenhanded in Creation, alternating between creating above and creating below, so as not to anger either the heavens or the earth. Finally, when it was time to create Adam, He drew on elements from above—breath—and below—earth—in order to create him.
Sources:
Midrash Tanhuma, Bereshit 15.
171. THE FIRST TWELVE HOURS OF ADAM’S LIFE
On each of the first five days of Creation, God created three kinds of creatures. But on the sixth day, the day before the Sabbath, He was occupied the entire day with the making of Adam.
These were the first twelve hours of Adam’s life: In the first hour, Adam came into being as a thought. In the second hour, God consulted the ministering angels concerning him. In the third hour, God gathered the dust out of which He was to make Adam. In the fourth hour, God kneaded the dust. In the fifth, God shaped the dust into the shape of a man. In the sixth, God stood him on his feet, and he reached from earth to heaven. In the seventh hour God blew the breath of life into him. In the eighth, God brought him into the Garden of Eden. In the ninth hour, God told him that he could eat of the fruit of any tree in the Garden except for the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. In the tenth hour Adam sinned. In the eleventh hour, he was brought to justice. In the twelfth, the verdict was given and he was expelled from the Garden of Eden.
Here Adam’s life in the Garden of Eden is presented as having taken place in twelve hours, from the time he was created until the time he was expelled from Eden. Midrash Tehillim states that Adam was only saved from destruction in Gehenna by the plea of the Sabbath, which brought about his expulsion instead.
There are alternate versions of this myth about Adam’s creation. According to B. Sanhedrin 38b, Adam’s dust was gathered in the first hour. In the second hour it was kneaded into a shapeless mass. In the third hour its limbs were shaped. In the fourth, a soul was infused into that clay body and he came to life. In the fifth, he arose and stood on his feet. In the sixth, he named the animals. In the seventh, Eve became his mate. In the eighth, Adam and Eve lay down together as two and arose as four, for Cain and Abel were conceived. (Others say that two lay down together and seven arose: Cain and his twin sister, and Abel and his two twin sisters.) In the ninth, Adam was commanded not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. In the tenth, he sinned. In the eleventh, he was tried. In the twelfth hour he was expelled from Eden. There are numerous variants of this myth. Leviticus Rabbah, for example, explains that Adam was judged in the eleventh hour and pardoned in the twelfth.
Why were these events collapsed into a 12-hour myth? It is possible that the hours are God’s hours, each of which would be years for a human, just as a year of God is said to consist of a thousand human years. On the other hand, it is possible to see these 12 hours as collapsed time, where everything that happens to Adam, from his creation to his expulsion, was driven by some powerful force well beyond his understanding.
Sources:
Targum Pseudo-Yonathan on Genesis 4:1; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1:52; The Book of Jubilees 4:1, 8; B. Sanhedrin 38b; Genesis Rabbah 22:3; Leviticus Rabbah 29:1; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 21; Pesikta Rabbati 46:2; Midrash Tanhuma, Bereshit 25; Midrash Tehillim 92:2; Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu, Pekudei 3.
172. ADAM BRINGS DOWN FIRE FROM HEAVEN
Some say that before Adam existed as a mortal, he lived in heaven, and that he not only brought down fire from heaven, but he brought down light as well.
When Adam took the fire from heaven and descended with it, the whole sky was filled with fire, as if it were descending to set the world ablaze. At that moment, God signed a decree with His seal, relinquishing control of fire in the world, as it is said, “My word is like fire” (Jer. 23:29).
As for the light that Adam brought down from on high, some say that the light shone from Adam’s fingernails, which reflected brighter than the sun.
Others say that Adam used the four winds of the world to bring down the light.
Still others say that Adam used enchanted stones to bring light into the world. One was the stone of darkness, and the other, the stone of dimness, as it is said, The stones of thick darkness and the shadow of death (Job 28:3). From this we learn, though how is a mystery, that using darkness and death, Adam brought light into the world.
This is an explicitly Jewish Promethean myth, with Adam playing the role of Prometheus. Just as Prometheus lit a torch from the fiery chariot of the sun and gave the fire to mankind as an act of rebellion against heaven, here Adam is not only credited for having brought fire to earth, but also for having brought light. This addition gives Adam the status of a divine figure, perhaps even a demiurgic one. After all, bringing light into the world is a God-like act, since it is God who says “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3). It might even appear that this myth had taken the myth of Prometheus and expanded it, adding light. For more on the myth of Prometheus giving fire to mankind, see Graves, The Greek Myths, 39g.
Like Prometheus, Adam is portrayed in this myth as a divine figure, a heavenly being. Both of them steal fire from heaven and give it to mankind. While Prometheus lights a torch at the fiery chariot of the sun and gives mankind a glowing coal, Adam brings down a metaphorical fire, linked to God’s word by the verse My word is like fire (Jer. 23:29). In this regard, Adam’s gift of fire is parallel to Moses receiving the gift of the Torah from God at Mount Sinai.
Is Adam’s act in bringing down fire and light from heaven an act of rebellion as was that of Prometheus? It might be seen as another version of the Fall. Here, instead of eating the forbidden fruit, the cosmic Adam took fire and light from heaven. This interpretation is supported by Genesis 3:9: “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad.” In this context, Adam’s sin and the forces that it released into the world are parallel to stealing the fire and light of heaven.
The motif of Adam using his fingernails to bring down light from heaven is quite striking. It seems like an intentional reference to the Havdalah custom of turning one’s fingernails toward a flame so that the light reflects in them. The implication is that there was enough light reflected from Adam’s fingernails—which had been exposed to the light of heaven—to
illumine the world.
One obscure myth indicates that Adam brought light into the world by using the stones of darkness and the stones of dimness. This myth is derived from the verse in Job 28:3, The stones of thick darkness and the shadow of death. It seems to imply that light was created out of darkness and death. It also seems to imply that night was created out of darkness and death.
Another Jewish Promethean myth is found in the interpretations of Genesis 6 about the sons of God and the daughters of men. This is read as an account of angels who descended to earth, promising God to be righteous, and instead chased after the beautiful human women. See “The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men,” p. 454, for the original myth in this cycle.
Sources:
Orhot Hayim 1:68c; Se’udat Gan Eden in Beit ha-Midrash 5:45-48; Midrash Konen in Beit ha-Midrash 2:25.
Studies:
Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, 5:113, note 104.
173. ADAM THE HERMAPHRODITE
Some say that Adam was originally created with two faces, one male and one female, one facing forward and one behind, as it is said, Male and female He created them (Gen. 1:27). Others say that Adam and Eve were created as a single being, with Adam in front and Eve in back, so that Adam’s back was in the shape of Eve.
How did this happen? God had originally intended to create two people, but ultimately only one was brought into being.
But facing in two directions made walking difficult, and conversation awkward. So God changed His mind and split Adam into two, making two backs, one for Adam and one for Eve, and dividing them into two separate beings.
Then there are those who say that Adam lost his second face in a different way, through his sin. For when Adam sinned, God took away one of his faces.
The myth of Adam the Hermaphrodite grows out of three biblical verses: Male and female He created them (Gen. 1:27), He blessed them and called them Man (Adam) (Gen. 5:2), and, You have shaped me from the back and the front (Ps. 139:5). But instead of describing Adam and Eve as two people joined into one, Shoher Tov 139:5 suggests that “Adam’s back was in the shape of Eve.” The rabbis also concluded that the man’s face went first, because of the teaching that a man should not walk behind a woman on the road. One rabbi, Rabbi Jeremiah ben Eleazar, identifies Adam as a hermaphrodite, thus a being with two sexes. Another rabbi, Rabbi Samuel bar Nachman, identifies Adam as a double-faced being who was later split by God into two. Some versions say that God “sawed” Adam in two, a rather grisly image.
One reading of this myth is that such an androgynous creature as this indicates a myth that man and woman emerged from a single being. And this is also true in the sense that Eve was created from Adam’s rib. Before Eve was created, then, her potential existed within Adam. Thus Adam and Eve were once a single being, not in the sense of separate beings fused together, but in the sense of having both male and female qualities.
This myth acknowledges that God made a mistake, an idea that borders on heresy, since God is understood to intrinsically be perfect, and therefore incapable of a mistake. But the actual portrayal of God in the rabbinic texts presents God in a wide range of roles, ordering the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and then regretting it bitterly, or allowing Himself to be overruled by His children. Such a God is almost human, with a complex persona that includes the capacity of being contradictory or of making errors. See the Introduction, p. xlvi. What other errors has God made? Some regard the Shattering of the Vessels in the myth of the Ari to be another example of a divine error, since the vessels shattered before they reached their original destination. See “The Shattering of the Vessels and the Gathering of the Sparks,” p. 122.
This myth is a very clear parallel to a Greek myth found in pre-Socratic sources, and most famously in Plato’s Symposium 189a-190a, that every person seeks to find his or her other half. This myth is intended to explain the nature of Eros as a craving for completeness, since each person is only a part of what he or she once was. This meaning does not really carry over in the Jewish version of this myth, except by implication. The closest concept in Judaism is that of bashert, in which every person is said to have a destined one. This grows out of the talmudic dictum that “Forty days before a child is formed, a voice goes forth from heaven to declare that this one will marry that one” (B. Sota 2a).
The Christian biblical commentator Ephraem interpreted male and female He created them to mean that Eve was inside Adam, in the rib that was later taken out of him. There is also an Iranian myth about the first human pair, Masye and Masyane, who were joined to each other. Here, however, they were so like each other that it was not clear which was male and which female.
In Likutei Moharan, Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav reads this myth allegorically, where Adam symbolizes God and Eve symbolizes humanity. Because we have sinned, we have turned our backs to God, and therefore God has turned His back on us. But we find that we are still attached to God no matter what we do. Only when we repent our sin does the “operation” of teshuvah, repentance, take place, and then we stand face to face with God again.
Sources:
B. Eruvin 18a; B. Berakhot 61a; B. Ketubot 8a; Genesis Rabbah. 8:1, 8:10; Leviticus Rabbah 14:1; Avot de-Rabbi Nathan 1:8; Midrash Tehillim 139:5; Shoher Tov 139:5; Maharsha on Genesis 1:27; Zohar 3:44b; Zohar Hadash 55c-d; Likutei Moharan 1:108.
Studies:
Portraits of Adam in Early Judaism by John R. Levison, pp. 116-17.
174. SAMAEL AND LILITH
Samael and Lilith were born as one, in the image of Adam and Eve, who were also created as one. Thus Lilith is the mate of Samael. Both of them were born at the same hour, intertwined in each other.
But Ashmedai, the king of demons, has as his mate Lilith the Younger. This Lilith has the form of a beautiful woman from her head to her waist, but from the waist down she is burning fire. Samael grew exceedingly jealous of Ashmedai because of Lilith the Younger, and this pleased the younger Lilith immensely, as she seeks, above all, to incite wars, especially the war between herself and her mother.
From Ashmedai and Lilith a great prince was born in heaven, who rules over eighty thousand destructive demons. His name is Alefpeneash, and his face burns with rage. If he had been created whole, the world would have been destroyed in an instant.
Samael (one of the names of Satan) and Lilith represent the negative male and female sides of the Sitra Ahra, the Other Side. They are the evil mirror image of God and the Shekhinah. So intertwined are they with each other, that they are compared to the way Adam and Eve were created male and female at the same time, back to back. See “Adam the Hermaphrodite,” p. 138. Here they are said to have given birth to a demon prince named Alefpeneash, the very embodiment of evil.
Sources:
Kabbalot Rabbi Ya’akov ve-Rabbi Yitzhak by Jacob ben Jacob ha-Kohen.
Studies:
The Early Kabbalah, edited by Joseph Dan, pp. 165-182.
“The Desert in Jewish Mysticism: The Kingdom of Samael” by Joseph Dan.
175. GOD AND THE SPIRITS OF THE UNBORN
God sits in a circle with many baby spirits that are about to be born. God knows that the babies won’t experience the same joy on earth that they experienced in heaven, and He doesn’t want them to be dissatisfied. So God touches His finger just below their noses, leaving an indentation on their upper lips. This makes them forget the joys of heaven, so that they can adapt to the world into which they are born.
This is an interesting variation of the myth about the origin of the indentation on the upper lip. The best known version describes an angel, Lailah, who accompanies the child during pregnancy, teaching it all the secrets of heaven. Then the angel touches the child on the upper lip just as it is born. See “The Angel of Conception,” p. 199.
In this oral variant, recounted by Maury Schwartz of Chicago, it is God who touches the child’s upper lip and leaves the indentation. This is to make the babies forget all the joy they experienced with God in heaven, for life on earth
will be much more difficult. Indeed, this is a somewhat bitter myth, distinctly implying that life on earth is one of struggle.
Sources:
Oral version collected by Howard Schwartz from his uncle, Maury Schwartz. Variants are B. Niddah 16b, 30b; B. Sanhedrin 6a; B. Avot 3:1; Midrash Tanhuma, Pekudei 3; Zohar Hadash 68:3; Sefer ha-Zikhronot; Be’er ha-Hasidut 1:216; Avodat ha-Kodesh, Introduction.
176. ADAM AND THE SPIRITS
When Adam’s body had been completed, a thousand spirits gathered around his lifeless form, each one trying to gain entry to it, but without success. Adam’s body lay there, without a spirit, with a green pallor, with all these spirits hovering around him. Finally a cloud descended and drove all the spirits away. Then God breathed the breath of life into Adam, and brought him to life.
According to this myth from the Zohar, a thousand spirits sought to enter Adam’s lifeless body after God finished creating it, but before God breathed the breath of life into him. Each of these spirits, it seems, wanted to be the one to serve as Adam’s soul. But God himself provided Adam’s soul by breathing the breath of life into him.
The swarming of spirits around Adam resembles the myth about swarms of demons attempting to seduce Adam during the 130-year period in which he was separated from Eve. See “Adam and the Demons,” p. 215.
Sources:
Zohar 3:19a.
177. THE FIRST EVE
God wanted to create a helpmate for Adam. So God created the first Eve right in front of him. As Adam watched, the first Eve was created from the inside out—first her bones, then her flesh, and finally she was covered with skin. But when God offered her to Adam, he fled in disgust and hid in the Garden.
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