Tree of Souls

by Howard Schwartz

  Sources:

  Penitence of Adam 44:16:2-44:20:1.

  566. THE QUEST FOR THE OIL OF LIFE

  As Adam lay dying, he called upon Eve and his son Seth to go off alone and prostrate themselves before God, and beg God to send an angel to the Tree of Mercy in the Garden of Eden, from which flows the Oil of Life. For he knew that if he were anointed with that oil, he would receive respite from his pain.

  So Seth and his mother, Eve, set out for the Gates of Paradise. Along the way, a beast appeared—a serpent—and attacked Seth. Eve shouted at the serpent, “Accursed beast! Keep your distance from the image of God.” Hearing this, the beast left their presence, but Seth was left with the marks of its teeth upon him.

  When Seth and Eve arrived at the gates, they put dust from the ground on their heads and prostrated themselves, begging the Lord to pity Adam and send an angel to anoint him with that oil.

  After they had prayed for many hours, the angel Michael appeared to them. The angel said, “God has sent me to you, for I have been appointed by God to look after men’s bodies. Weep and pray no more for the Oil of Life, for you can never have it, except at the End of Days. Go back to your father, for the span of his life is complete. Six days from now his soul will depart from his body. When it does, you will see great wonders in the lights of heaven and on the earth.”

  And the death of Adam came after six days, just as the angel Michael had predicted.

  This myth of the Oil of Life, said to flow from the Tree of Mercy in the Garden of Eden, is a completely new motif, missing entirely in Genesis. Here there is said to be another key tree in the Garden of Eden, in addition to the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. This is the Tree of Mercy, and the Oil of Life is said to flow from it. From Adam’s description it appears that the Oil of Life is a balm that Adam recalls from his days in the garden. Whether it not only alleviates pain but sustains life as well is not stated. If so, it would be linked with the Tree of Life. Although less well known, the myth of the Oil of Life is similar to the myth of the Waters of Eternal Life: whoever drinks of those waters will have eternal life.

  The episode in which Seth is attacked by a serpent has the effect of renewing the enmity between the serpent and human beings in the next generation, as well as serving as a reminder of the story of the Fall. The encounter with this beast, as the serpent is called, becomes a stage in the quest to retrieve the Oil of Life, every quest having its share of adversity.

  Sources:

  Vita Adae et Evae 36-45.

  Studies:

  “The Fall of Satan and Adam’s Penance: Three Notes on The Books of Adam and Eve” by Michael E. Stone.

  567. THE GENERATIONS OF SETH

  Cain was not of Adam’s seed, nor after his likeness, nor after his image. Adam did not beget in his own image until Seth was born, as it is said, He begot a son in his likeness after his image (Gen. 5:3). Indeed, Seth was the exact image of Adam. Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born.

  Adam knew the Torah, and he transmitted it to his son, Seth, and it was later transmitted to Enoch. Adam also was the first High Priest, and when he offered a sacrifice, he wore the garments of the High Priest. And when he died, they passed to Seth, and from Seth they passed to Methuselah.

  Seth was born circumcised, and he became a virtuous man, of excellent character, whose children imitated his virtues. That is why it is said about Seth that whatever he does prospers (Ps. 1:3). From Seth descended all of the generations of the righteous, while from Cain descended all the generations of the wicked. For seven generations the children of Seth inhabited the same country without dissension, without any misfortunes falling upon them till they died. They gained a great deal of wisdom about the heavenly bodies.

  Now Adam had predicted that the world was to be destroyed once by fire and another time by water. And so that their discoveries might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, the descendants of Seth made two pillars, one of brick and the other of stone. And they inscribed their discoveries on them both, so that if one or the other should be destroyed by flood or fire, the other might remain and reveal their discoveries to humankind. And God commanded two angels to guard these inscriptions so that they might not be destroyed until the final age.

  While the legendary tradition about Seth, Adam’s third son, is limited in Jewish sources, there is some evidence of the glorification of Seth, suggesting that the soul of Seth entered into Moses and will again reappear in the Messiah. Seth is a major figure in Gnostic texts, such as The Apocalypse of Adam. The myths about Seth recount how angels would rescue the seed of Seth at the time of the Flood and hide his descendants in a secret place. For more about the evil descendants of Cain, see “The Seed of Cain,” p. 448.

  Being born circumcised, as is recounted here of Seth, is a sign of greatness and purity. In Zohar 1:58a-b, Noah is also said to have been born circumcised.

  Sources:

  Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 22; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 2:3; The Book of Jubilees 19:24; 2 Enoch 33:10; Genesis Rabbah 23:5; Numbers Rabbah 4:8; Zohar Hadash 22b; Shoher Tov 9:7, 1:10.

  568. THE CREATION OF CENTAURS

  Adam was created in the likeness and the image of God, as was Adam’s son Seth, and Seth’s son, Enosh. But after that the resemblance came to an end, and the generations became corrupt.

  Beginning with Enosh, humans came to practice magic and divination, and the art of controlling the heavenly forces. Before long, their faces became apelike and they became vulnerable to demons. They had all manner of intercourse with humans and beasts, and that is when centaurs came into being. So too did people begin to gather gold, silver, and all kinds of precious gems, and with them they constructed idols, and prayed to them. They even used the Name of God for sacrilegious purposes.

  This myth demonstrates a kind of devolution in which men become corrupt and regress into beastlike beings. The sexual sins listed here, as well as the use of black magic, and the lust for possessions are offered to justify God’s decision to destroy the generation of the Flood. Although the centaur, half man, half horse, is a figure out of Greek mythology, here its existence is explained as the product of human intercourse with beasts and as further evidence of the kind of sin that led God to the decision to destroy all life on earth except for Noah and his family and the animals on the ark.

  Sources:

  Genesis Rabbah 23:6; Midrash Tanhuma, Noah 5; Zohar 1:56a.

  569. THE DEATH OF ADAM

  Adam lay dying in his tent. When he realized that the hour of his death had arrived, he cried out in a loud voice, “Let all my sons gather by me, so that I may see them and bless them before I die.” Then all his sons, from every part of the world, gathered by him, and Adam blessed them and said, “Behold, I am nine hundred and thirty years old. When I die, bury me toward the east.” And when he finished speaking, he breathed his last, and the sun and moon and stars were darkened for seven days.

  Seth bent over his father’s body and embraced it, Eve’s hands were folded over her head, and all of Adam’s children wept bitterly. And the angel Michael appeared and stood at Adam’s head, and the angels blew their trumpets and cried, “Blessed are You, O Lord, for You have had pity on Your creature.” Then Seth saw God’s hand stretched out and holding Adam. And God said to Michael, “Let him be in your charge until the day of judgment, when I will turn sorrow into joy.”

  Then God said to the angels Michael and Uriel, “Bring three linen sheets and spread them out over Adam and over Adam’s son, Abel, and bury Adam and his son.” And all the hosts of angels marched in procession in front of Adam’s body, and Michael and Uriel buried Adam in one of the regions of Paradise, in the presence of Seth and his mother, Eve, and no one else. And Michael and Uriel said to them, “Just as we have done, so too must you bury your dead.”

  All that is said in the Bible of the death of Adam is All the days that Adam lived came up to 930 years; then he died (Gen. 5:5). Here the details of Adam’s death are embellished, and
the story continued about how Adam was mourned and what took place after his death. The angel Michael appears at the time of Adam’s death, and God hands the body of Adam to Michael, to hold until the End of Days. The myth also adds God’s explicit promise to “turn sorrow into joy,” hinting at the glories of the messianic era. Most interesting, Adam is buried together with his son, Abel, who apparently had not been buried until that time. That Adam and his son are buried together is a moving image, making Adam’s death that much more poignant. Finally, this myth offers an origin myth for the practice of burying those who have died, and makes it a divine commandment, conveyed by the angels Michael and Uriel after they buried Adam.

  In The Apocalypse of Moses, which is believed to be a Jewish text with Christian interpolations, a dream of Eve is related in which Adam was taken into a tall shining Temple and seated on a throne in the presence of three divine beings, and this is to be understood as predicting that Adam would soon be in heaven. Some scholars identify the three divine beings as the three angels who visited Abraham, while others identify them with the Christian Trinity.

  Sources:

  Vita Adae et Evae 30:1-4, 45-48; Apocalypse of Moses 16-22; Penitence of Adam 30:5:1-30:5:3.

  570. PARADISE

  We were created to live in Paradise. Paradise was intended to serve us. Our destiny has changed. It is not said that the same thing would have been true for Paradise.

  We were cast out of Paradise, but it was not destroyed. Our expulsion was in a sense fortunate. Had we not been cast out, Paradise would have had to be destroyed.

  This brief parable contains Kafka’s understanding of the Paradise myth in Genesis. According to Kafka, Paradise still exists by virtue of the fact that Adam and Eve were expelled from it—otherwise, it would have had to be destroyed. Thus, for Kafka, Paradise is an archetype of perfection that still inspires us, even if we cannot fully experience it. Therefore we were lucky to be expelled, so that Paradise can continue to exist.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel also has an original view of Paradise: “After having eaten the forbidden fruit, the Lord sent forth man from Paradise, to till the ground from

  which he was taken. But man, who is more subtle than any other creature that God has made, what did he do? He undertook to build a Paradise by his own might, and he is driving God from his Paradise” (The Insecurity of Freedom, pp. 164-165). Thus Heschel proposes a reversal of the exile process, where we drive God from our Paradise, just as God drove us from His.

  Sources:

  Parables and Paradoxes by Franz Kafka.

  571. CAIN AND ABEL

  Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gained a male child with the help of the Lord.” She then bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a tiller of the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil; and Abel, for his part, brought the choicest of the firstlings of his flock. The Lord paid heed to Abel and his offering, but to Cain and his offering He paid no heed. Cain was much distressed and his face fell. And the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you distressed, and why is your face fallen? Surely, if you do right, there is uplift. But if you do not do right sin couches at the door; its urge is toward you, yet you can be its master.”

  Cain said to his brother Abel, “Come, let us go out into the field,” and when they were in the field, Cain set upon his brother Abel and killed him. The Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Then He said, “What have you done? Hark, your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground! Therefore, you shall be more cursed than the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. If you till the soil, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. You shall become a ceaseless wanderer on earth.”

  Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear! Since You have banished me this day from the soil, and I must avoid Your presence and become a restless wanderer on earth—anyone who meets me may kill me!” The Lord said to him, “I promise, if anyone kills Cain, sevenfold vengeance shall be taken on him.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest anyone who met him should kill him. Cain left the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

  The theme of competing brothers is also found in the biblical accounts of Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph and his brothers.

  No reason is given for God’s preference of Abel’s offering over Cain’s. Also, no reason is given for Cain’s attack on Abel. However, both of these questions are answered in detail in the Midrash, where Abel’s offering was preferred because it consisted of the choicest of his flock, and the struggle between the brothers is blamed on a struggle over a woman. The ultimate fate of Cain is also not mentioned, although rabbinic tradition provides four different versions of Cain’s death. See “The Death of Cain,” p. 451.

  Parallel accounts of two brothers are found in the literature of the ancient Near East. The Egyptian stories of Anubis and Bata concern two brothers who work as farmers but become enemies after Anubis’s wife falsely accuses Bata of propositioning her. Anubis, in his fury, goes to kill Bata with a spear, but the god Ra creates a lake full of crocodiles to protect Bata from his older brother. Eventually the two brothers reconcile, and each, in turn, becomes pharaoh. See Old Testament Parallels: Laws and Stories from the Ancient Near East by Victor H. Matthews and Don C. Benjamin, pp. 61-65.

  Sources:

  Genesis 4:1-16.

  Studies:

  “Cain’s Expulsion from Paradise: The Text of Philo’s Congr 171” by James R. Royse.

  572. HOW CAIN WAS CONCEIVED

  Samael was the great prince in heaven. After God created the world, Samael took his band of followers and descended and saw the creatures that God had created. Among them he found none so skilled to do evil as the serpent, as it is said, Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts (Gen. 3:1). Its appearance was something like that of a camel, and Samael mounted and rode upon it. Riding on the serpent, the angel Samael came to Eve in the night and seduced her, and she conceived Cain. Later, while Eve was pregnant by the angel, Adam came to her, and she conceived Abel.

  Others say it was the serpent himself who seduced Eve, for after he saw Adam and Eve coupling, the serpent conceived a passion for her. He even imagined killing Adam and marrying Eve. So he came to Eve when she was alone and possessed her and infused her with lust. That is how the serpent fathered Cain, who was later to slay his own brother. And that is how Eve was infected with his impurity. As a result, all of Israel was impure from that time until the Torah was given on Mount Sinai. Only then did Israel’s impurity cease.

  When Cain was born, Adam knew at once that he was not of his seed, for he was not after his likeness, nor after his image. Instead, Cain’s appearance was that of a heavenly being. And when Eve saw that his appearance was not of this world, she said, I have gained a male child with the help of Yahweh (Gen. 4:1).

  It was not until the birth of Seth that Adam had a son who was in his own likeness and image. From Seth arose all of the generations of the righteous, while all the generations that descended from the seed of Cain are wicked, until this very day.

  This myth is a response to the enigmatic verse in which Eve says, I have gotten a man with the aid of Yahweh (Gen. 4:1). Targum Pseudo-Yonathan translates this verse as “I have acquired a man, the angel of the Lord.”

  One reading of this verse in the Talmud (B. Shab. 146a) suggests that Eve had intercourse with the serpent: “When the serpent consorted with Eve, he cast impurity into her.” This interpretation is echoed in the Zohar: “From the impurity with which the serpent infected Eve emerged Cain.” Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer builds on the talmudic interpretation, but changes it in an essential way. Here the true father of Cain is the angel Samael, who came to Eve riding on the serpent. Indeed, in this passage the angel and serpent are closely linked, creating a satanic figu
re and suggesting that Eve had intercourse with the serpent, a powerful phallic symbol.

  In Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, the Torah upbraids Samael as he rides upon the serpent like a camel: “The Torah began to cry aloud, saying, ‘Why, O Samael, now that the world is created, is it time to rebel against God? Is this the time to lift yourself on high? God will laugh at the horse and its rider.’” This establishes the role of the Torah as the defender of the human race against the evil intentions of Samael.

  Zohar 1:36b explains that two came upon Eve, the serpent and Adam, and that she became pregnant from both of them, and bore two sons. The son of the serpent is, of course, Cain. In order to explain why Cain was evil and Abel was good, Zohar 1:54a explains that Cain was conceived from the side of unholiness and Abel from the side of holiness. As a result, Abel was in the likeness of God’s image, as stated in the verse And God created man in His image (Gen. 1:27). But Cain was of the likeness of the nether image. Just what this is isn’t clear, although one commentary, Ziv ha-Zohar, identifies the nether image as that of an ape. Because Cain was from the side of the Angel of Death (another possible explanation of the “nether image”), he killed his brother.

  The idea that Eve was infected by the impurity of the serpent when she had intercourse with it attempts to portray women as not only impure, but also untrustworthy. It is part of an extensive antifeminine bias found in some rabbinic texts. However, in other texts, Eve is portrayed in a very favorable manner. She is regarded as the mother of all generations, and she is called a life-giver, who nursed the whole world (B. AZ 43a).