{"id":34036,"date":"2018-07-16T14:13:16","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T11:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=34036"},"modified":"2022-02-07T14:02:13","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T12:02:13","slug":"limits-and-off-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/limits-and-off-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"Limits, and Off-Limits"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[370],"acf":{"old_id":"34036","type":"media","iframe":"","writer":34007,"related_cahpter":"2","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The world of the human being is not complete or wholly \u201cgood;\u201d it is a place in which we act for good or for evil.","content":"

The account of creation in the second chapter of Genesis begins with what is not there: there are <\/span>no<\/span><\/em> shrubs and there are <\/span>no<\/span><\/em> crops because God has <\/span>not<\/span><\/em> brought rain and there is <\/span>no<\/span><\/em> human being to work the ground. (Genesis 2:5) This multi-layered absence contrasts sharply with the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis, an account characterized by increasing, unfolding presence. Never in chapter 1 are we told what is not there. At no point is there a sense of something missing. With each creative act, God simply adds a new layer of goodness to a cosmos increasingly filled with good creations.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in chapter 2, our attention is immediately called to what is missing in the world and to what God has not yet done. This sense of incompleteness, of things not yet as they ought to be or of things potentially straying from how they should be, recurs in this story. Unlike the unqualified \u201cgood\u201d of chapter 1, chapter 2 introduces a tree of knowledge of good <\/span>and evil<\/span><\/em> (2:9). After the creation of the human being, God utters the jarring words \u201c<\/span>not<\/span><\/em> good\u201d: \u201cit is not good for the human being to be alone.\u201d (2:18) And, even after God creates every kind of beast and bird, a companion for the lonely person is <\/span>not<\/span><\/em> to be found. (2:20) The human being placed in a garden of delights is told not only what he may eat, but what he may <\/span>not<\/span><\/em> (2:16-17), and this new creature, infused with the breath of life (2:7), is warned that he can <\/span>die<\/span><\/em> (2:17).<\/span><\/p>\n

Chapter 1 is about God as creator. The human creature is an inhabitant of the cosmos which reflects the perfection and goodness of its creator. In chapter 2, the narrative lens zooms in to the world of the human being. Here, the human being is a central actor; things are created for the human being, and the human being gives names to the other creatures. The human being also has responsibilities; God places the human being in the garden \u201cto work it and to watch it.\u201d (2:15) And the human being is commanded; God gives the human being rights to the delightful trees of the garden, but God also commands the human being not to take that which God designates as off-limits. God informs the human being of the possibility of choice and of the fact that human choices bring consequences. (2:16-17)<\/span><\/p>\n

Chapter 2 is the introduction to the human drama which unfolds throughout the rest of the Torah. It is the story of a complex creature, endowed with power and privilege and bestowed with responsibility and commandedness. With the creation of the human being arises the possibility of good <\/span>and evil<\/span><\/em>, of <\/span>not<\/span><\/em> good, of <\/span>in<\/span><\/em>completeness, of <\/span>choice<\/span><\/em>. The world of the human being is not perfect or complete or wholly \u201cgood\u201d; it is a place in which each of us acts to shape self and world for good or for evil.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":84019,"id":84019,"title":"ps52-good evil","filename":"ps52-good-evil.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps52-good-evil.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/evil-v-good-falsehood-v-righteousness\/ps52-good-evil\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps52-good-evil","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":84018,"date":"2020-11-24 13:31:43","modified":"2023-07-17 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