Sources:
Lamentations Rabbah, Proem 24.
553. MOSES AND THE SUN
When Moses learned that the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed and the people killed or taken into exile, he lifted up his voice, saying: “Cursed be you, sun! Why did you not become dark when the enemy entered the Temple?”
The sun replied: “By your life, Moses, how could I become dark when they beat me with sixty whips of fire, saying, ‘Go pour forth your light! I had no choice.’”
At that Moses spoke to God, saying, “Master of the Universe, You have written in Your Torah, No animal from the herd or from the flock shall be slaughtered on the same day with its young (Lev. 22:28). Yet many mothers and sons have been killed. Why are You silent?”
Here Moses confronts first the sun—the earliest primitive symbol of God—and then God Himself over their failure to prevent the destruction of the Temple. There is substantial anger revealed, which, of course, is actually the anger of the rabbis, the authors of these myths. Abraham is not afraid to question or bargain with God, as was demonstrated in the case of Sodom (Gen. 18:22-33). But Moses has such an intimate relationship with God, and such an intense interest in the fate of his people, Israel, that he can even confront God as He did in Exodus 32:9-14, and as He does here.
Sources:
Lamentations Rabbah, Proem 24.
554. THE INVISIBLE TEMPLE
It only appears that the Temple was destroyed. Actually, it remains in existence, hidden from the sight of ordinary mortals, and sacrifices are still offered in the invisible sanctuary.
This is an unusual variant on the theme that the heavenly Temple continues to exist although the earthly Temple was destroyed. Here the earthly Temple is still said to exist, although it is invisible, and we are told that sacrifices are still offered there. There are other examples of invisible things found in Jewish lore. For example, some versions of the myth of the primordial light say that it was never removed from the world, but is visible only to the Tzaddikim. See “The Light of the First Day,” p. 83.
Sources:
Emek ha-Melekh 3:389.
BOOK NINE
MYTHS OF EXILE
The serpent came to Eve when she was alone and possessed her and infused her with lust. That is how the serpent fathered Cain.
Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer
555. THE EXILE FROM EDEN
Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’” The woman replied to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the other trees of the garden. It is only about fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die.’” And the serpent said to the woman, “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 good and bad.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable as a source of wisdom, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they perceived that they were naked; and they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves loincloths.
They heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of day; and the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. The Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” He replied, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?” The man said, “The woman You put at my side—she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done!” The woman replied, “The serpent duped me, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you did this, more cursed shall you be than all the cattle and all the wild beasts: On your belly shall you crawl and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; they shall strike at your head, and you shall strike at their heel.”
And to the woman He said, “I will make most severe your pangs in childbearing; in pain shall you bear children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
To Adam He said, “Because you did as your wife said and ate of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed be the ground because of you; by toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life: thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you. But your food shall be the grasses of the field; by the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground—for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. And the Lord God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad, what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!” So the Lord God banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he was taken. He drove the man out, and stationed east of the Garden of Eden the cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Along with the story of Creation in Genesis, this is probably the most famous biblical myth of all. Not only is it the first of the divine tests, but it provides an explanation for mortality and a justification for patriarchy. While Judaism does not include original sin among the consequences of Adam’s disobedience, the failure of Adam and Eve to heed God’s warning not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge is regarded in Jewish tradition as a cosmic catastrophe, equal to the Shattering of the Vessels in the myth of the Ari, or to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Above all, the story of the exile from Eden is a story of sin and punishment, and establishes a negative pattern in the relationship of God and His human creations.
At the same time, the story can be read as an allegory of innocence lost, where Adam and Eve are like children while they live in the Garden of Eden, and their expulsion from Eden, which takes place at the time of their loss of sexual innocence, represents the emergence into adulthood.
Some sources describe other consequences of the Fall that are not found in Genesis. Just as Adam and Eve suffered great losses and punishments from the sin of the Fall, so the animals lost their language. For, according to Josephus, all living things in the Garden of Eden spoke the same language (Antiquities 1:41), and The Book of Jubilees repeats this tradition, adding that “on the day when Adam went out of the Garden of Eden … the mouths of all the beasts and cattle and birds and whatever walked or moved was stopped from speaking” (Jubilees 3:27-28). There is an indication that even the world of vegetation was affected. According to 3 Baruch, God cursed the tree of sinful desire that the evil angel Satanel had planted, for that tree was the cause of the Fall (3 Baruch, Slavonic, 4:8). This refers to the Tree of Knowledge, here linked to carnal knowledge.
An intriguing parallel to this myth of eating the forbidden fruit is that of Pandora in Greek myth, who set free the evil spirits locked up in a jar (not a box) and released evil into the world. The jar contained all the Spites that plague mankind: Old Age, Labor, Sickness, Insanity, Vice, and Passion, and as they flew out in a cloud they stung Epimetheus, Pandora’s husband, and Pandora all over her body. See Graves, The Greek Myths 39j, 39.8. See also Hesiod’s Works and Days 42-105, and Theogony 565-619.
Sources:
Gen. 3:1-24.
Studies:
“The Paradise Myth: Interpreting without Jewish and Christian Spectacles” by Calum M. Carmichael.
“The Sources of the Paradise Story” by Julian Morgenstern.
“The Garden of Eden: From Creation to Covenant” by Bernard Och.
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p; 556. EVE TASTES THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT
God told Adam, “Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die” (Gen. 2:16-17). But Adam told Eve, “God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die’” (Gen. 3:3).
At that time the serpent said to himself, “Perhaps I cannot convince Adam, who heard the words of God for himself. So I will seek out Eve.”
The serpent found Eve in the garden and said, “Is it true that God has commanded you not to eat of any fruit in the garden?” Eve replied, “No, there is only one tree in the midst of the garden forbidden to us. We are not allowed to eat of its fruit or even to touch it, for on that day we shall die.”
The serpent laughed when he heard this, and said, “God has only said this out of jealousy, for He knows that if you eat of the fruit of that tree, your eyes will be opened, and you will know how to create a world just as He did.” Then the serpent went to the tree in the midst of the garden and shook it, so that some of the fruit fell to the ground. “See, I have touched the tree and I have not died. You, too, can touch it without dying.”
When Eve saw the serpent touch the tree and not die, she picked up one of the fruits that had fallen and, seeing that it was beautiful and desirable, she tasted it. But no sooner had she taken a single bite, than her teeth were set on edge, and she saw the Angel of Death standing before her, with his sword drawn. Then Eve said to herself, “Now that I have eaten of this fruit, I will die, and Adam, who has not touched it, will live forever, and God will couple him with another woman. It is better that we die together.”
So when Adam came she gave him some of the fruit to taste. And as soon as he did, he too saw the Angel of Death standing before him, with sword drawn. Then Adam knew that the fruit she had given him must have been the forbidden fruit, and he was filled with grief.
Others say that the serpent did not wait for Eve to touch the tree, but pushed her against it and said, “See, you have not died. And just as you didn’t die from touching the tree, so you will not die from eating its fruit.” So Eve plucked the fruit and held it up and tasted its skin. When nothing happened, she bit into the fruit, and that is when she saw the Angel of Death.
This myth grows out of rabbinic awareness of a problem in the biblical text where God warns Adam against eating the forbidden fruit (Gen. 2:16-17), but Eve tells the serpent that they are forbidden to eat from it or touch it (Gen. 3:3). The rabbis assumed that Adam had added on his own, a warning against touching the fruit. (After all, Eve had not been created when God gave Adam the original warning.) The myth assumes that the serpent is aware of Adam’s additional warning, and uses this knowledge to convince Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. In one version, he does this by pushing Eve against the Tree of Knowledge, then pointing out that while she has touched it, she has not died. Therefore she might as well eat the fruit, which she does.
In most versions of this myth, Eve sees the Angel of Death the instant she bites into the forbidden fruit. But in Targum Pseudo-Yonathan on Gen. 3:6, Eve sees that the wicked angel Samael, one of the names of Satan, was himself the Angel of Death.
Sources:
Targum Pseudo-Yonathan on Gen. 3:6; Bereshit Rabbah 19:3-4; Avot de-Rabbi Natan 1, 4-5, 151; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 13; Zohar 1:263b; Sefer ha-Zikhronot 12.
Studies:
Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender, edited by Kristen E. Kvam, Linda S. Schearing, and Valarie H. Ziegler.
557. GOD DIVORCED ADAM
When God drove Adam out of the Garden of Eden, He gave Adam a get, a bill of divorce, as it is said, He drove the man out (Gen. 3:24). After that, they went their separate ways. God withdrew from His earthly domicile and dwelt on high, and Adam struggled to bring forth food from the earth.
Here God’s sending Adam into exile is interpreted to mean that God divorced Himself of Adam, and gave Adam a get, a bill of divorce. A woman receives a get at the conclusion of the divorce proceedings. Then, just as a divorced couple go their separate ways, God separated Himself further from Adam by ascending on high. The biblical verse usually translated as He drove Adam out is here understood to mean instead that God separated Himself from Adam, and formalized their separation by giving Adam a get.
This myth reads like a metaphor that has become literal. After all, God and Adam were not married. But in the view of the rabbis, the separation between them was as final as a divorce. Thus the concept of a get, a bill of divorce, is expanded here to include the kind of contractual relationship found between God and Adam. According to that contract, Adam was permitted to live in the garden, as long as he did not eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. This myth also conveys the gulf of separation created between God and Adam at the time of the exile from Eden.
Other rabbinic texts also portray the Fall as a major event in the history of the universe, a cosmic catastrophe. Both are intended to convey the radical transformation of the nature of existence after this cosmos-shaking event. In fact, it is precisely parallel to two other cosmic catastrophes: the Shattering of the Vessels in the myth of the Ari and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
The majority of rabbinic references to the events of the Fall single out Adam and do not mention Eve. While this may be a form of shorthand, it also leads to the kind of pairing of God and Adam found here.
While this myth describes the bill of divorce between God and Adam, “The Wedding of God and Israel,” p. 305, describes the Torah as a ketubah, a wedding contract, between God and His people.
Sources:
Eliyahu Rabbah 1:3.
Studies:
“Exiled from Eden: Jewish Interpretations of Genesis” by Paul Morris.
558. ADAM’S DIAMOND
While Adam lived in the Garden of Eden, he could have anything he wanted, with, of course, one exception—the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. So when Adam sinned and it was necessary for God to expel him from the garden, God was reluctant to drive him out. Instead God gave Adam a good meal, with the finest foods and wines, and God said, “You know, there is a world outside this garden. Don’t you want to explore it?” Adam didn’t really want to go, but God said, “You can take anything you like with you, whatever you desire, but you must go.” Then God showed him all the treasures and hidden things in the garden, and Adam looked at everything, gardens and orchards, animals of every kind, treasures of gold and silver, and many kinds of precious stones, but Adam didn’t find anything he wanted to take with him. Then he arrived at a treasure of diamonds. The diamonds were exceptionally beautiful and shone as brightly as the sun, and Adam chose one of the largest ones.
Holding that diamond in his hand, Adam went in the direction of the gates of Eden, with an angel accompanying him. He passed through the gates, and when he looked behind him he saw the cherubim with the flaming sword and he realized he could not go back. For a moment he was sorry, then he continued on his way until he reached a river. While he was standing there looking at it, the angel pushed him from behind, and the diamond fell from his hand into the river. Adam cried out to the angel, “Why did you do that?” And the angel said, “Go down to the river and find your diamond.”
So Adam went down to the river and saw thousands and thousands of diamonds reflected in the water and he couldn’t recognize which one was his. Then the angel said, “Do you think that you were the first one who was expelled from the Garden of Eden and took a diamond with you? Thousands and thousands did as you did, and their diamonds fill the river, as you can see.”
This unusual folktale may be based on the midrashic tradition about the Tzohar, the jewel said to have been given to Adam when he was expelled from the Garden of Eden. However, this story takes the motif of the diamond in a different direction. Here Adam loses the diamond in a river after being pushed by an angel, and discovers that the river is full of diamonds as precious as his own. The angel reveals that he was not th
e first to be expelled from Eden and take a diamond with him.
While there is an extensive rabbinic tradition that God created prior worlds before this one, and destroyed them, the notion that God created human beings before Adam, who also sinned and were expelled from the Garden of Eden and took diamonds with them is entirely original. This story demonstrates the rich Jewish oral tradition, where variations of traditional tales evolve in unexpected ways.
Note Eve’s absence from this story. In many of the myths about Adam, Eve is missing.
It seems fitting that such a mythic folktale would come from Afghanistan—a bitter parable of exile, how one doesn’t appreciate one’s homeland until it is gone.
See “The Tzohar,” p. 85 and “Prior Worlds,” p. 71. For a modern story on the same theme, see “The Experimental World” in The Marriage Feast by Par Lagerkvist.
Sources:
IFA 7838.
559. THE GARMENTS OF ADAM AND EVE
When Adam and Eve were first created, they were clothed, body and soul, with garments of light. Some say those garments of light were made entirely of clouds of glory. Others say they were made of holy luminous letters that God had given them, which shed radiance like a torch, broad at the bottom and narrow at the top.
After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the garments of light were replaced by garments of skins, as it is said, And the Lord God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them (Gen. 3:21). It is said that these garments were created during twilight on the sixth day of Creation, just before the first Sabbath. Some say that they consisted of a hornlike substance, smooth as a fingernail and as beautiful as a jewel, while others say that they were made of goats’ skin or the wool of camels. Still others insist that they were made of the hide of the serpent who led them astray in the Garden of Eden.
Tree of Souls Page 93