{"id":34133,"date":"2018-07-16T15:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?post_type=wall&p=34133"},"modified":"2025-08-28T22:45:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T19:45:38","slug":"chapter-torah-genesis-3","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/chapter-torah-genesis-3\/","title":{"rendered":"chapter-Torah-Genesis-3"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"chapter","wall_id":"3","date":"20250902","books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"3","chapter_main_number":"3","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"34702","color":"#faeed8","size":"1","name":"Genesis 3 - Judy Hammond ","post_title":"Genesis 3 - Judy Hammond","slug":"genesis-3-judy-hammond","old_id":"34702","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34686,"post_title":"Soundcloud","slug":"soundcloud","old_id":"34686","first_name":"","last_name":"","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34656,"alt":"","title":"491","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","width":300,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium_large-width":300,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","large-width":300,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","1536x1536-width":300,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","2048x2048-width":300,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","post_full_size-width":300,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"4","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"The Audio Bible","tile_main_caption":"Genesis 3","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"read by Judy Hammond","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/929-bible\/genesis-chapter-3-read-by-judy-hammond","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"3","chapter_main_number":"3","date":"20250902","wall_id":"3"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":2,"id":"101627","color":"#f7e9e9","size":"1","name":"Shrewd Word Play ","post_title":"Shrewd Word Play","slug":"shrewd-word-play","old_id":"101627","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":78133,"post_title":"Josh Blechner","slug":"josh-blechner","old_id":"78133","first_name":"Josh ","last_name":"Blechner ","description":"Josh first finished the Tanach during Yeshiva in Mevaseret Zion. He and his daughter studied the Tanach again for her bat mitzvah. Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group. When not studying for 929, Josh works as an in-house lawyer in New Jersey.","short_description":"Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group, and is an in-house attorney in New Jersey. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":78134,"alt":"","title":"josh blechner","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","width":276,"height":351,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","medium_large-width":276,"medium_large-height":351,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","large-width":276,"large-height":351,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","1536x1536-width":276,"1536x1536-height":351,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","2048x2048-width":276,"2048x2048-height":351,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","post_full_size-width":276,"post_full_size-height":351,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","home_baner-width":276,"home_baner-height":351}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The naked shame of it\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Chapter three tells the famous story of the Garden of Eden. We also are introduced to the first clever wordplay of Tanach. The chapter uses versions of a shared Hebrew root, \u05e2-\u05e8-\u05de \u2018<\/em><\/span>a-r-m<\/span><\/em>, to mean two different things.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\r\n

\u201c<\/b>Now the serpent was the shrewdest (\u2018<\/em><\/span>arum<\/span><\/em>) of all the wild beasts that the L<\/span>ORD<\/span> God had made. He said to the woman, \u2018Did God really say: You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?\u2019(verse 1).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The root comes up again in the chapter, but there it means \u201cnaked\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cThen the eyes of both of them were opened and they perceived that they were naked (\u2018<\/em><\/span>erumim<\/span><\/em>); and they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves loincloths\u2026\u201d \u201dHe replied, \u2018I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked (\u2018<\/em><\/span>erom<\/span><\/em>), so I hid.\u2019 Then He asked, \u2018Who told you that you were naked (\u2018<\/em><\/span>erom<\/span><\/em>)? Did you eat of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?\u2019 (verses 7, 10-11).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The use of similar words is not an accident. The snake is happy with his status as an <\/span>\u2018arum<\/span><\/em>. He moves around without hiding himself. It is a mark of honor. When Adam and Eve realize they are \u2018<\/em><\/span>eromim<\/span><\/em>, however, they run and hide and try to cover themselves up. Nothing has changed in their appearance. Presumably they were naked before and then became aware of the nakedness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If we look beyond this plain meaning, perhaps the text intended \u2018<\/em><\/span>arum<\/span><\/em> to mean the same for Adam and Eve as it did for the snake. Now that the first man and first woman did something wrong and acted in a shrewd manner, they were embarrassed. They tried to run and hide from what they did because, unlike the snake, they were afraid of God and embarrassed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Notice that God wants them to appear before him and not hide. To assist in this, he fashions them a skin covering. On the face of it, it seems like he made them a nice leather jacket. But, if we continue with our metaphor, maybe what God made them was a \u201cthick skin\u201d to be able to face their shame and stand before God even when they realize they have done something wrong.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Their punishment is clear: the woman must have painful childbirth and the man has to work the field. If God metes out these punishments, why then does he also expel them? Perhaps God expels them from Eden not for what they did, but for what may happen now that God provided them with their thick skin. In the very next verse, after God grants them a thick skin, he is concerned that they will eat from the Tree of Life. God wanted to protect humans from being paralyzed by shame, but God is also concerned when we have no shame, like the snake.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image:\u00a0Fernand Pelez, Adam and Eve, 1876\/ 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Our Sages use biblical exegesis to derive the formal Noahide laws (2:16) as well as the basic ground rules that the Torah sets up: evil inclination, free will, reward, and punishment (1:31). But it is not adequate for the Torah to communicate everything in such a veiled fashion.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Chapter 3 includes several examples where the Torah provides a rich narrative to communicate these teachings on a more visceral level. Adam and Eve listen to the snake and eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Some (e.g., Sforno) explain that the snake is a metaphor for the evil inclination \u2013 in other words, the story is demonstrating that the evil inclination is powerful, but humans have free will as to whether they agree to be influenced.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The consequences of utilizing one\u2019s free will to disobey God\u2019s commandments are also on display. God metes out punishments as a signal to humanity that we are to follow God\u2019s will.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The banishment from the Garden of Eden is a metaphor as well. The Garden of Eden can be seen as a metaphor for the World to Come. It is understood in this way in some prayers that link the two (such the prayer before donning the tallit).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The idea that these metaphors are meant for all the nations of the world is developed in my<\/span> Genesis: A Torah for All Nations<\/span><\/em> (Gefen Publishing House)<\/span><\/a>. For instance, Maimonides points out that the righteous of all nations have a share in the World to Come (<\/span>Hilchot Melachim<\/span><\/em> 8:11). If the story of the forbidden fruit is a live description of reward and punishment, the metaphor extends even further. For violating a commandment, Adam is thrown out of Paradise. If humanity subdues the evil inclination and follows the commandments, then everyone (Jews and non-Jews alike) has a share in the World to Come \u2013 the heavenly Garden of Eden.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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Serpent, After Eden ","post_title":"The Serpent, After Eden","slug":"the-serpent-after-eden-2","old_id":"101624","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36669,"post_title":"Yakov Azriel","slug":"yakov-azriel","old_id":"36669","first_name":"Yakov ","last_name":"Azriel","description":"Yakov Azriel, who lives in Israel, has published five books of poetry in the USA and hundreds of poems in journals and magazines. His poems have won twenty-two prizes in international poetry competitions, and he has twice been awarded fellowships from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.","short_description":"Yakov Azriel is an English language poet who lives in Israel","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36670,"alt":"","title":"Yakov.Azriel.Photo","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668.jpg","width":1099,"height":1519,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-217x300.jpg","medium-width":217,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-741x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":741,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-741x1024.jpg","large-width":741,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668.jpg","1536x1536-width":1099,"1536x1536-height":1519,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668.jpg","2048x2048-width":1099,"2048x2048-height":1519,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-868x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":868,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-304x420.jpg","home_baner-width":304,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"I slither, soulless, limbless, mute and thin \/ How poor a diet is the dust of sin\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

\u201cAnd the Lord God said to the serpent, \u2018Because you did this, you shall be accursed more than all creatures, domestic and wild; on your stomach shall you creep, and dust shall you eat, all the days of your life.\u201d<\/em> (Genesis 3:14)<\/p>\r\n

How difficult to speak, devoid of voice,
\r\nUnable to request a second chance,
\r\nOr to admit I made a wretched choice
\r\nDictated by my pride and arrogance.<\/p>\r\n

How difficult to write, devoid of arms,
\r\nOf fingers and of hands that hold a pen
\r\nAnd scrolls on which I\u2019d copy fervent psalms
\r\nExpressing how I wouldn\u2019t err again.<\/p>\r\n

How difficult to pray, devoid of soul,
\r\nThat inner arm which pulls away from wrong,
\r\nThat inner voice which teaches self-control
\r\nAnd whispers in the dark, half-cry, half-song.<\/p>\r\n

I slither, soulless, limbless, mute and thin;
\r\nHow poor a diet is the dust of sin.<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":68804,"alt":"","title":"is65-snake","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake.jpg","width":1920,"height":1339,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-300x209.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":209,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-768x536.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":536,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-1024x714.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":714,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1071,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1339,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-1200x837.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":837,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-602x420.jpg","home_baner-width":602,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"929 Poetry Corner","tile_main_caption":"The Serpent, After Eden","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"I slither, soulless, limbless, mute and thin \/ How poor a diet is the dust of sin","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":68804,"alt":"","title":"is65-snake","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake.jpg","width":1920,"height":1339,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-300x209.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":209,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-768x536.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":536,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-1024x714.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":714,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1071,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1339,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-1200x837.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":837,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is65-snake-602x420.jpg","home_baner-width":602,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"3","chapter_main_number":"3","date":"20250902","wall_id":"3"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"362","name":"Poetry","old_id":"762"}]},{"order":5,"id":"34066","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"I Gave You One Rule! ","post_title":"I Gave You One Rule!","slug":"i-gave-you-one-rule","old_id":"34066","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33859,"post_title":"Avidan Freedman","slug":"avidan-freedman","old_id":"33859","first_name":"Avidan","last_name":"Freedman","description":"Rabbi Avidan Freedman is the Rabbi of Hevruta, the Shalom Hartman Institute's post high school program for Israelis and North Americans, and an educator in the institute's high school. He is an activist advocating for moral limits on Israeli arms exports, and on behalf of African refugees, and a proud husband and father of 5. He received his rabbinical ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York, and from the Israeli chief rabbinate.","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Rabbi Avidan Freedman is the Rabbi of Hevruta, the Shalom Hartman Institute's post high school program for Israelis and North Americans, and an educator in the institute's high school. ","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33860,"alt":"Avidan Freedman","title":"Avidan Freedman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","width":856,"height":1024,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-251x300.jpg","medium-width":251,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-768x919.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":919,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-856x1024.jpg","large-width":856,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","1536x1536-width":856,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","2048x2048-width":856,"2048x2048-height":1024,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-800x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-351x420.jpg","home_baner-width":351,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"A recasting of the world in the snake's image","post_main_content_content":"

Self-limitation is the most profound expression of God's grace (<\/span>hesed<\/span><\/i>), as we saw in chapter 2. \u00a0It is thus also the greatest gift that He gives humankind, by asking us to follow just one, simple rule.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

By limiting Himself, and leaving space for us, God transformed the relationship between Creator and creation from one of mastery, to one of partnership. By commanding humankind not to eat from the fruit of a single tree, he invited us to engage in this self-limitation as well. This rule would serve to remind us that our ultimate goal, even as we \"rule over and conquer\" the world, is to engage in a partnership, to \"serve and guard\" it, and not to subjugate it to our every desire.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But the snake doesn't see it this way. While all of the creatures in Eden are naked, the snake is the \"most naked\" (the most straightforward reading of verse 1, following the word's usage in the previous verse). For him, nakedness represents an ideology which opposes any outside imposition on the state of nature, any infringement on absolute autonomy. And so when he asks whether God really said \"not to eat <\/span>any<\/b> of the trees of the Garden\", he isn't making an innocent mistake. Rather, he is intimating that if God is going to tell you not to eat one thing, he may as well have forbidden everything. The snake sees God's rule as hierarchy and domination, as a power play. If you submit, you have lost.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

God's punishment is no more than a recasting of the world in the snake's image, as a place defined by power dynamics. Humans will now need to struggle against nature- against wildlife, childbirth, the earth, and against themselves- man against woman. When life is seen in this way, humankind is tragically doomed to failure. We are ultimately always defeated by our own mortality. Ironically, our refusal to limit ourselves brought the limits of our humanity crashing down on us.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69688,"alt":"","title":"jer9-snake tongue","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue.jpg","width":1080,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-169x300.jpg","medium-width":169,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-576x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":576,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-576x1024.jpg","large-width":576,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue.jpg","1536x1536-width":864,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue.jpg","2048x2048-width":1080,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-675x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":675,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-236x420.jpg","home_baner-width":236,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"I Gave You One Rule!","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"A recasting of the world in the snake's image","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69688,"alt":"","title":"jer9-snake tongue","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue.jpg","width":1080,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-169x300.jpg","medium-width":169,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-576x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":576,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-576x1024.jpg","large-width":576,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue.jpg","1536x1536-width":864,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue.jpg","2048x2048-width":1080,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-675x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":675,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer9-snake-tongue-236x420.jpg","home_baner-width":236,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"3","chapter_main_number":"3","date":"20250902","wall_id":"3"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"376","name":"Choice","old_id":"776"},{"term_id":"383","name":"Death","old_id":"783"}]},{"order":6,"id":"34068","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Seeking and Hiding ","post_title":"Seeking and Hiding","slug":"seeking-and-hiding","old_id":"34068","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33692,"post_title":"Alex Israel","slug":"33692-2","old_id":"33692","first_name":"Alex","last_name":"Israel","description":"Alex Israel teaches Tanakh at the Pardes Institute, Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi and Matan, Jerusalem. His first book \"I Kings - Torn in Two\" was published in 2013. See his website www.alexisrael.org, and his podcasts at https:\/\/elmad.pardes.org\/ and https:\/\/tanachstudy.com\/ \r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Alex Israel teaches Tanakh at the Pardes Institute, Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi and Matan, Jerusalem.","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33693,"alt":"","title":"alex israel","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel.jpg","width":1657,"height":2500,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-199x300.jpg","medium-width":199,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-679x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":679,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-679x1024.jpg","large-width":679,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel.jpg","1536x1536-width":1018,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel.jpg","2048x2048-width":1357,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-795x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":795,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-278x420.jpg","home_baner-width":278,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"You yourself are Adam, you are the one whom God asks: \u2018Where are you?'","post_main_content_content":"

When Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit, God asks them \u201c<\/span>Ayeka<\/span><\/em> - Where are you?\u201d(3:9) Doesn\u2019t God know where Adam is? Why does He ask this question?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When Cain kills his brother, God approaches him and asks: \u201cWhere is your brother Abel?\u201d(4:9)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Why does God ask these leading questions? What does he expect Adam or Cain to answer?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

How does Adam respond? Adam shifts the blame away from himself. He blames his wife: \u201cThe woman <\/span>whom You gave<\/strong> to be with me<\/span>, she <\/span>gave<\/span> me of the tree and I did eat.\u201d (3:12)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Cain too denies responsibility for the murder: \u201cI do not know! Am I my brother\u2019s keeper?\u201d (4:0)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

These responses share a common feature. They deny wrongdoing. Adam goes further. He blames somebody else. Why do people shift blame from themselves?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Martin Buber suggests that all of us should feel that God is addressing the \u201cWhere are you\u201d question to us, but instead, we hide, just like Adam, and shift blame, just like Adam and his son Cain:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou yourself are Adam, you are the man whom God asks: \u2018Where art thou?\u2019\u201d \u2026 God does not expect to learn something he does not know; what he wants is to produce an effect in man which can only be produced by just such a question, provided that it reaches man\u2019s heart \u2014 that man allows it to reach his heart.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Adam hides himself to avoid rendering accounts, to escape responsibility for his way of living. Every one hides for this purpose, for everyone is Adam and finds himself in Adam\u2019s situation. <\/span>To escape responsibility for his life, he turns existence into a system of hideouts<\/span><\/em>. <\/span><\/i>And in thus hiding again and again \u201cfrom the face of God,\u201d he enmeshes himself more and more deeply in perversity\u2026 but in trying to hide from Him, he is hiding from himself.\u201d (Martin Buber, The Way of Man<\/em> pg.8-10)<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":95188,"alt":"","title":"job34-dark hide 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Artson is married to Elana Shavit Artson, and they are the parents of twins, Shira and Jacob.\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"short_description":"Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson is the Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles.","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33993,"alt":"","title":"Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","width":204,"height":199,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-256x300.png","medium-width":256,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","medium_large-width":204,"medium_large-height":199,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","large-width":204,"large-height":199,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","1536x1536-width":204,"1536x1536-height":199,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","2048x2048-width":204,"2048x2048-height":199,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","post_full_size-width":204,"post_full_size-height":199,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","home_baner-width":204,"home_baner-height":199}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"What might have happened if God had included Eve in the conversation?","post_main_content_content":"

One of the divine attributes of the Torah is that, emerging within the confines of an Iron Age patriarchy, it nonetheless offers explosive, subversive insights that undulate just under the surface. Dominant patriarchy above, life-giving egalitarianism pulsating within, waiting for our attentive read to reveal the divine within the hardened crust.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

So it is in Genesis 3. God speaks to Adam and tells him not to eat of the fruit of the tree, lest they die. But God doesn\u2019t speak directly to Eve, so somehow the message gets muddled. The cunning snake takes advantage of her exclusion to tell her that it isn\u2019t true that if they touch the tree they die; the rabbis spin a midrash that the snake shoved her against the tree. When she didn\u2019t die, she assumed (reasonably) that the entire prohibition was Adam\u2019s distortion. The rest, if not history, is world shaping.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Biblical wisdom lures us to wonder: what might have happened if God had included Eve in the conversation? What if ancient patriarchies had been bold enough to see women as sources of resilience, strength, wisdom sufficient to include in leadership? How might this entire story have played out differently! As we have received it, alas, it is a testament to the life changing damage that occurs when women are marginalized and excluded. When God and men decide humanity\u2019s fate, then cunning serpents are given openings to work their mischief, and all people \u2013 women and men \u2013 suffer as a result. The seeds of patriarchy\u2019s undoing are contained within patriarchy itself. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

And you don\u2019t need to be a snake to see that!<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":52084,"alt":"","title":"dt30-classic Talmud pic with women 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For many years I have been thinking to myself about the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. As the years passed, the story became more enigmatic, and what was previously understood became difficult.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

At the very moment when God said to His newly created humans, \"Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you must not eat of it\u201d (Genesis 2:17), the seeds of disobedience had already been planted. Why then did God put the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden if He did not want them to eat from it? And why, in the first place, is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil forbidden to eat from? Our education is predicated on the belief that that knowledge of good and evil is the essence of what it means to be created in the \"image of God.\u201d Did God create a human being who could not choose between good and evil and want him to stay like that? These reflections and others bring me to read the story differently.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I read it as the story of the human race\u2019s adolescence, which is analogous to the story of an individual's adolescence. Every first-time parent knows that the stage in which the child says \u201cno\u201d to his parents is a necessary stage in the child\u2019s development. It is a stage when children learn that they are an entity in and of themselves and not an extension of their mother or their parents. Indeed, this stage can be annoying for parents, but it is a very important stage for the proper development of a person\u2019s independence and cannot be skipped. The child learns by refusing the boundaries of the ego and distinguishing himself in his choices and wishes. The option that any person has to obey or violate a law is what makes him a being with choice, and that is \"the superiority of humans\" (Ecclesiastes 3:19) over animals.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Therefore, if there is a fault in Eve's behavior, it is mainly in avoiding responsibility, by placing the blame on the serpent. Taking the fruit from the forbidden tree is not negative, for it is this action that turned Eve and her husband into \"knowing good and evil\u201d (Genesis 3:5). In other words, they realize the human potential inherent in their ability to decide. They become human by virtue of making a decision, become subjects with a will of their own and with a sense of autonomy, and not only objects created by God.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":34996,"alt":"","title":"\u05d2\u05d9\u05dc\u05d9 \u05d6\u05d9\u05d5\u05d5\u05df 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Relationships in Context ","post_title":"Fractured Relationships in Context","slug":"fractured-relationships-in-context","old_id":"34076","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33982,"post_title":"Judy Klitsner","slug":"judy-klitsner","old_id":"33982","first_name":"Judy ","last_name":"Klitsner ","description":"Judy Klitsner is a senior lecturer in Bible at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. She lectures internationally and is the author of the award-winning book Subversive Sequels in the Bible: How Biblical Stories Mine and Undermine Each Other, which has recently been released in Hebrew. Judy is the founding board chair of Sacred Spaces, an organization that seeks to prevent abuse in Jewish institutions.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"short_description":"Judy Klitsner is a senior lecturer in Bible at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34231,"alt":"","title":"judy","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/judy-1.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/judy-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/judy-1-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/judy-1-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/judy-1-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/judy-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/judy-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/judy-1-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/judy-1-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The disintegration of male-female equality is neither natural nor desirable","post_main_content_content":"

What are we to do with God\u2019s pronouncement to woman: \u201cto your husband is your desire and he shall rule over you\u201d? Some 21<\/span>st<\/span> century readers respond with disgusted dismissal; others, with fundamentalist apologetics. I prefer a third path: carefully rereading God\u2019s words in Genesis 3, while considering their place within their immediate context and within the context of the larger creation story. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When humanity is first created in Genesis 1, man and woman share a name, \u201cHa-adam<\/em>,\u201d along with all the characteristics invested in that name. Both woman and man are created in God\u2019s image, unique and infinitely valuable; both confront the world as subjects, not objects. God blesses both equally and charges both to fill the earth and conquer it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

How different are God\u2019s words in Genesis 3, in which rulership (the Hebrew root <\/span>m-sh-l<\/span><\/em>) replaces equality. Woman is now object to man\u2019s subject; she yearns for him as he controls her.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

How can this dramatic descent in woman\u2019s status be explained? Context is key. In Genesis 3, humanity has rebelled against God, and as a result, many essential relationships are negatively affected: between men and the earth, between women and animals, between women and their offspring, between men and women. Viewed in context, we may reasonably conclude that the disintegration of male-female equality is neither natural nor desirable. As with all the other relationships fractured at this moment, it is the unfortunate consequence of humanity\u2019s disobedience.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Moreover, as we read on in the book of Genesis, it becomes evident that God\u2019s pronouncements in Genesis 3 were never meant as permanent mandates. Although God proclaims that man will eat bread by the sweat of his brow, we find that most male protagonists in Genesis are shepherds, not farmers. Logic dictates that man\u2019s subjugation of woman is intended to be no less reversible than his choice of livelihood. While Genesis 3 describes much of what will characterize behaviors and relationships throughout much of human history, at the same time its words challenge readers to seek to repair these fractured relationships. Repair includes overturning gender hierarchy and returning to the state of equality presented in the original creation story.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It is worth noting that in Genesis 1, in which all of creation is deemed by God to be \u201cgood,\u201d the only rulership (<\/span>m-sh-l<\/span><\/em>)<\/span><\/i> mentioned is that of the sun and the moon, created to illuminate the earth.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In this age of \u201cme too\u201d exposures, these biblical messages resound. Rulership in interpersonal relationships\u2014denying the divine image and infinite value of the other, treating the other as object, not subject-- is a sign of the collapse of God\u2019s wishes for equality among human beings. It signals a move away from the luminous sunlight of Genesis 1 and a return to the darkness that preceded God\u2019s creation. In God\u2019s ideal world, the only license to \u201crule\u201d is granted to heavenly objects, charged with shedding light on humanity, perhaps toward a better, more equal, future. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

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Snakes and Evil Inclinations: Two Reactions to Adam Mintz\u2019a Audio Lesson ","post_title":"Of Snakes and Evil Inclinations: Two Reactions to Adam Mintz\u2019s Audio Lesson","slug":"of-snakes-and-evil-inclinations-two-reactions-to-adam-mintza-audio-lesson","old_id":"34078","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":false,"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":" Readers Respond: Two Reactions to Adam Mintz\u2019s Audio Lesson\r\nWhen is an Allegory? \/ Head over Heart?","post_main_content_content":"

When is an Allegory?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Rabbi Mintz, in your podcast description of Eve\u2019s encounter with the Serpent<\/span> suggesting that the Serpent is really the <\/span>yetzer harah<\/span><\/em>, you blithely edge toward, maybe lapse into, the idea that Eve never really spoke to a snake \u2014 snakes don\u2019t speak to humans (and likely never did). \u00a0Rather you almost argue that the story is merely allegorical. Just as Balaam never actually spoke with his donkey; this too was clearly allegorical. What does this mean? <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Does it mean that the Bible chooses to use allegory only where a story is obviously fabular on its face \u2014 those two Biblical encounters, but also, for me at least, the story of Creation, the Ten Plagues and the Splitting of the Sea of Reeds too? \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If we are willing to accept the notion that the Bible sometimes dispenses allegorical content which may be understood as such, can we arrive at a reasonable construct that the Bible may properly be viewed<\/span>,<\/span> when it tells stories, as allegorical? In this way, we could see<\/span> Biblical events as having occurred in some sense, but maybe view them in a totally different light \u2014 more as teachable moments, parables if you will, to promote morality and proper human behavior.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Maybe the Serpent was right after all \u2014 we should engage with \u201cKnowledge\u201d in all kinds of ways in order to open our eyes wide!<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Joel Cohen is a white-collar criminal defense lawyer, a former state and federal prosecutor, and an Adjunct Professor at Fordham Law School. He has published three works of Biblical fiction.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Head over Heart?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Rabbi Mintz mentions that human nature is such that even when we know that there are negative consequences, we still acquiesce to the evil inclination within each one of us. In his Tanya, the seminal work of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi states: \"By its very nature, the mind rules the heart.\" This axiom, known as the 'Aleph of Chassidus', forms the cornerstone of the Chabad-Chassidic approach to life. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

While it is not necessarily easy, we know that each individual has the ability to control his desires by allowing his rational self to manage and control his physical desires. While Eve lived many millenia before the formulation of this principle, her sin rested on her inability to allow her rational sense to control her physical temptations.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Eli Popack, <\/span>Spiritual leader of the Beach Minyan in Westhampton Beach<\/span><\/em><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":101681,"alt":"","title":"-620111deb3b12--620111deb3b13gen3-feedback response.png","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-300x200.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-768x512.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-1024x683.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-1200x800.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-630x420.png","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":" Readers Respond: Two Reactions to Adam Mintz\u2019s Audio Lesson","tile_main_caption":"Of Snakes and Evil Inclinations","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"When is an Allegory? \/ Head over Heart?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":101681,"alt":"","title":"-620111deb3b12--620111deb3b13gen3-feedback response.png","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-300x200.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-768x512.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-1024x683.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-1200x800.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/620111deb3b12-620111deb3b13gen3-feedback-response.png-630x420.png","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"3","chapter_main_number":"3","date":"20250902","wall_id":"3"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"373","name":"Literature","old_id":"773"}]},{"order":11,"id":"35099","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"Forbidden Fruit: A Scarlet Dome ","post_title":"Forbidden Fruit: A Scarlet Dome","slug":"forbidden-fruit-a-scarlet-dome","old_id":"35099","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34255,"post_title":"Shira Hecht-Koller","slug":"shira-hecht-koller","old_id":"34255","first_name":"Shira","last_name":"Hecht-Koller ","description":"Shira Hecht-Koller is the Director of Education for 929 English. She received her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and is a graduate of the Bruriah Scholars Program in Advanced Talmud Studies at Midreshet Lindenbaum. \r\n","short_description":"Shira Hecht-Koller is the Director of Education for 929 English. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34256,"alt":"","title":"Shira head shot","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shira-head-shot.jpg","width":3456,"height":5184,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shira-head-shot-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shira-head-shot-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shira-head-shot-683x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":683,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shira-head-shot-683x1024.jpg","large-width":683,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shira-head-shot.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shira-head-shot.jpg","2048x2048-width":1365,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shira-head-shot-800x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shira-head-shot-280x420.jpg","home_baner-width":280,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Forbidden Fruit: A Scarlet Dome\r\nPoem by Yehuda Halevi, excerpted and translated by Shira Hecht-Koller\r\n\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

photo by: Shira Hecht-Koller, \"Shuk Mahane Yehuda,\" 2012<\/em><\/p>\r\n

An ark, of scarlet
\r\n<\/span>Round, not square
\r\n<\/span>Two or three segments within
\r\n<\/span>Like the seal of a ring, fitted, fair<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Before the time of the flood, before Noah,
\r\n<\/span>Created and by the hand of God
\r\n<\/span>She appears like the sun and then is found hiding
\r\n<\/span>Rises for a moment and then sets<\/span><\/p>\r\n

She blossoms like an iris
\r\n<\/span>Dividing herself in four<\/span><\/p>\r\n

She raises her head
\r\n<\/span>And when full
\r\n<\/span>Lowers herself to the ground<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Her inhabitants are naked
\r\n<\/span>But they are not filled
\r\n<\/span>With the shame of knowledge<\/span><\/p>\r\n

They embrace desiring body
\r\n<\/span>to body, to touch, to enjoy<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Colored like coral
\r\n<\/span>Without scarlet or dye<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In the beginning, she was like a first fruit
\r\n<\/span>till in their hands and swallowed<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":34990,"alt":"","title":"forbidden fruit","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit.jpg","width":1600,"height":1067,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit.jpg","2048x2048-width":1600,"2048x2048-height":1067,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"

photo by: Shira Hecht-Koller, \"Shuk Mahane Yehuda,\" 2012<\/p>","tile_top_caption":"a poem by Yehudah Halevi (c. 1075\u20131141)","tile_main_caption":"Forbidden Fruit: A Scarlet Dome","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"excerpted, translated and illustrated by Shira Hecht-Koller","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":34990,"alt":"","title":"forbidden fruit","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit.jpg","width":1600,"height":1067,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit.jpg","2048x2048-width":1600,"2048x2048-height":1067,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/forbidden-fruit-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"3","chapter_main_number":"3","date":"20250902","wall_id":"3"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"362","name":"Poetry","old_id":"762"},{"term_id":"369","name":"Visual Arts","old_id":"769"}]},{"order":12,"id":"34082","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"MiliMiliM - The Hebrew Corner ","post_title":"MiliMiliM - The Hebrew Corner - Gen3","slug":"milimilim-the-hebrew-corner-3","old_id":"34082","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34011,"post_title":"Jeremy Benstein","slug":"dr-jeremy-benstein","old_id":"34011","first_name":"Jeremy","last_name":"Benstein","description":"Dr. Jeremy Benstein is the managing editor of 929-English. He is one of the founders of the Heschel Center for Sustainability. He writes the MiliMiliM - Hebrew Corner on the site, and is the author of a book about the Hebrew language, \"Hebrew Roots, Jewish Routes: A Tribal Language in a Global World\" (Behrman House, 2019). ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"short_description":"Dr. Jeremy Benstein is the managing editor of 929-English, and is the author of a book about the Hebrew language, \"Hebrew Roots, Jewish Routes: A Tribal Language in a Global World\" (Behrman House, 2019). ","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34232,"alt":"","title":"Jeremy Benstein","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"\u05d7\u05d9\u05d9\u05dd \u05d5\u05de\u05d5\u05d5\u05ea _ Chayim\/Mavet - Life and Death","post_main_content_content":"

Two trees in the Garden. One is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (or good and bad, as our JPS translation renders it), and the other, \u05e2\u05e5 \u05d4\u05d7\u05d9\u05d9\u05dd, The Tree of Life. This chapter deals a great deal with death, dying, not dying, what causes death, living forever, bringing forth new life, etc. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

A key detail of the plot is that eating from that Good and Evil Tree is liable to get you killed (or alternatively, metaphysically introduce death to the heretofore undying human race). That makes it the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and Death, leaving Life on its lonesome over there in the other Tree. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cLife\u201d is of course \u05d7\u05d9\u05d9\u05dd, chayim<\/em>, as in the well-known toast: \u05dc\u05d7\u05d9\u05d9\u05dd! Le\u2019chayim<\/em> - \u201cto life!\u201d Many people wear a \u05d7\u05d9 Chai<\/em> necklace, which they may be surprised to learn does not mean \u201clife\u201d (the noun), but rather: \u201clives\u201d (verb), \u201calive\u201d (adjective) or even: \u201cLive!\u201d (imperative). The root for life also appears prominently in the familiar blessing said on joyous occasions, new purchases, and all holidays: \u05e9\u05d4<\/span>\u05d7\u05d9\u05d9<\/b>\u05e0\u05d5 \u05d5\u05e7\u05d9\u05d9\u05de\u05e0\u05d5, Shehe<\/em><\/span>cheya<\/em><\/strong>nu<\/em> vekiyemanu<\/em>, \u201cwho has kept us alive and sustained us\u2026\u201d <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Also from this chapter is the name Eve, which in English doesn\u2019t sound related at all, but the Hebrew is \u05d7\u05d5\u05d4, Chavah<\/em>, and she was named that here because: \u201c...she was the mother of all the living.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Regarding \u201cdeath\u201d: here\u2019s a great story. According to the famous legend, when Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague, known as the Maharal (d. 1609), created a clay figure called the <\/span>Golem<\/span><\/em>, he brought the creature to life by inscribing the word \u05d0\u05de\u05ea, emet, \u201ctruth\u201d on its forehead. When the Frankenstein-like creation ran amok, the Maharal was able to subdue it by erasing the first letter, \u05d0, alef<\/em>, leaving the word \u05de\u05ea, <\/span>met<\/span><\/em>, which means \"dead.\" \u00a0English speakers know this word, via the Persian: when we finish a game of chess with \"checkmate\" \u2013 we are saying the shah (or sheikh) is <\/span>met<\/span><\/em>, dead. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Dead or not, we can always set up the pieces again for a new game: \u05d1\u05e8\u05d5\u05da \u05de<\/span>\u05d7\u05d9<\/b>\u05d4 <\/span>\u05de\u05ea<\/b>\u05d9\u05dd - baruch me<\/em><\/span>chay<\/b>eh <\/span>met<\/b><\/em>im <\/em>- \u201cblessed be the One who enlivens the dead\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":101632,"alt":"","title":"-6200ed264c4ee--6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet milim.jpg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","width":745,"height":586,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg-300x236.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":236,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","medium_large-width":745,"medium_large-height":586,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","large-width":745,"large-height":586,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":745,"1536x1536-height":586,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":745,"2048x2048-height":586,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","post_full_size-width":745,"post_full_size-height":586,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg-534x420.jpg","home_baner-width":534,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"MiliMiliM - The Hebrew Corner","tile_main_caption":"\u05d7\u05d9\u05d9\u05dd\/\u05de\u05d5\u05d5\u05ea - Chayim\/Mavet - Life\/Death","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"... a word from the daily chapter...","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":101632,"alt":"","title":"-6200ed264c4ee--6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet milim.jpg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","width":745,"height":586,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg-300x236.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":236,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","medium_large-width":745,"medium_large-height":586,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","large-width":745,"large-height":586,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":745,"1536x1536-height":586,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":745,"2048x2048-height":586,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg.jpg","post_full_size-width":745,"post_full_size-height":586,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6200ed264c4ee-6200ed264c4efchaim-mavet-milim.jpg-534x420.jpg","home_baner-width":534,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"3","chapter_main_number":"3","date":"20250902","wall_id":"3"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"361","name":"Hebrew language","old_id":"761"}]},{"order":13,"id":"34084","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"To Hide or to Listen? ","post_title":"To Hide Or To Listen?","slug":"to-hide-or-to-listen","old_id":"34084","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33923,"post_title":"Jonathan Sacks","slug":"rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks","old_id":"33923","first_name":"Jonathan ","last_name":"Sacks","description":"An international religious leader, philosopher, and award-winning author of over 35 books, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as the International President of 929.\r\nRabbi Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth years between 1991 and 2013, and was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 2005 and made a Life Peer. Rabbi Sacks passed away on 7th November 2020, aged 72. He was one of the greatest Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, who bridged the religious and secular world through his ground-breaking canon of work.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"short_description":"Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z\"k (1948-2020) was the former Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth, and the International 929 president.","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36222,"alt":"","title":"JSacks","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","width":437,"height":548,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-239x300.jpg","medium-width":239,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-768x448.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":448,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-1024x597.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":597,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","1536x1536-width":437,"1536x1536-height":548,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","2048x2048-width":437,"2048x2048-height":548,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","post_full_size-width":437,"post_full_size-height":548,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-335x420.jpg","home_baner-width":335,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Listening alone bridges the abyss between soul and soul, self and other, I and the Divine","post_main_content_content":"

The first humans \u201cheard God\u2019s voice moving about in the garden with the wind of the day.\u201d Replying to God, man says, \u201cI heard Your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.\u201d Note the deliberate, even humorous irony of what the couple did. They heard God\u2019s voice in the garden, and they \u201chid themselves from God among the trees of the garden.\u201d <\/span>Hide<\/span><\/i> from a voice? How could that be so? Before hearing God\u2019s voice, Man sinned by eating from the tree of knowledge. Eating from the tree of knowledge did indeed inject man with a heightened wisdom. He acquired a knowledge of good and evil when it comes to physicality \u201cI was naked, so I hid\u201d. He ought to have learned instead the art of listening. After failing to heed God\u2019s instructions he should have learned to answer when God calls. Listening is not easy. But listening alone bridges the abyss between soul and soul, self and other, I and the Divine.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

excerpted from:\u00a0http:\/\/rabbisacks.org\/the-art-of-listening-bereishit-5776<\/span><\/a><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":73078,"alt":"","title":"ez2-listen in","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in.jpg","width":1499,"height":1277,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-300x256.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":256,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-768x654.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":654,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-1024x872.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":872,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in.jpg","1536x1536-width":1499,"1536x1536-height":1277,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in.jpg","2048x2048-width":1499,"2048x2048-height":1277,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-1200x1022.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1022,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-493x420.jpg","home_baner-width":493,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"To Hide Or To Listen?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Listening alone bridges the abyss between soul and soul, self and other, I and the Divine","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":73078,"alt":"","title":"ez2-listen in","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in.jpg","width":1499,"height":1277,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-300x256.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":256,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-768x654.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":654,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-1024x872.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":872,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in.jpg","1536x1536-width":1499,"1536x1536-height":1277,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in.jpg","2048x2048-width":1499,"2048x2048-height":1277,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-1200x1022.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1022,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-listen-in-493x420.jpg","home_baner-width":493,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"3","chapter_main_number":"3","date":"20250902","wall_id":"3"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"354","name":"Rabbi Sacks","old_id":"754"},{"term_id":"370","name":"Divine\/human","old_id":"770"}]},{"order":14,"id":"34668","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Eve\u2019s Elegy ","post_title":"Eve\u2019s Elegy","slug":"eves-elegy","old_id":"34668","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34252,"post_title":"Shayna Abramson","slug":"shayna-abramson","old_id":"34252","first_name":" Shayna ","last_name":"Abramson ","description":"A native Manhattanite, Shayna Abramson currently resides in Jerusalem, where she's pursuing master's degrees in Political Science and Jewish Education from Hebrew University. A graduate of Drisha's Beit Midrash program, Shayna has also studied at Midreshet Harova and Pardes. She holds a B.A. in History, with a minor in Jewish Studies, from Johns Hopkins University, and recently started the International Women's Talmud Day project.\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Shayna Abramson is pursuing master's degrees in Political Science and Jewish Education from Hebrew University.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34254,"alt":"","title":"Sarah R","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-1.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-1-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-1-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-1-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-1-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-1-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"What if God would have said nothing at all?","post_main_content_content":"

What if God would have said: <\/span>Thou shalt not eat from any fruits of the garden.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\r\n

Would we then, have slowly died?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

measuring out the time of starvation, cramming our passion and love and pain<\/span><\/p>\r\n

into a fig season,<\/span><\/p>\r\n

a transformation of green bulbous beauties<\/span><\/p>\r\n

into purple skins<\/span><\/p>\r\n

that shred beneath our fingers -<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

You crush the little seeds<\/span><\/p>\r\n

with your thumb,<\/span><\/p>\r\n

forgetting that it is they<\/span><\/p>\r\n

who will decorate our freshly dug graves.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But of these fruits you shall eat freely: Passion and Love and Pain.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\r\n

No food touches our lips; instead we feel<\/span><\/p>\r\n

the lightness of air upon our cheeks,<\/span><\/p>\r\n

and your lips are sucking me like a raspberry.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

The fig leaves crumble.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

They look - \"Parched\",<\/span><\/p>\r\n

you try to say,<\/span><\/p>\r\n

but your lips are shriveled up like dry figs,<\/span><\/p>\r\n

so I move our bed into the center of the garden.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The apple-tree blossoms<\/span><\/p>\r\n

slowly turn into fruit,<\/span><\/p>\r\n

a harvest neither one of us will see.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

The figs fall gently<\/span><\/p>\r\n

into the brown earth<\/span><\/p>\r\n

as you and I will fall<\/span><\/p>\r\n

into the dust,<\/span><\/p>\r\n

decaying into each other<\/span><\/p>\r\n

like the purple pulp that lines the pathway to -<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

What if God would have said nothing at all?<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":78255,"alt":"","title":"mic4-grapes figs","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"929 Poetry Corner","tile_main_caption":"Eve\u2019s Elegy","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"What if God would have said nothing at all?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":78255,"alt":"","title":"mic4-grapes figs","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic4-grapes-figs-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"3","chapter_main_number":"3","date":"20250902","wall_id":"3"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"362","name":"Poetry","old_id":"762"}]},{"order":15,"id":"34080","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Chapter 3 Summary: Here is where the trouble began ","post_title":"Chapter 3 Summary: Here is where the trouble began","slug":"chapter-3-summary-here-is-where-the-trouble-began","old_id":"34080","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":false,"related_cahpter":"3","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"

To sum it up in three words: seduction, sin, punishment. In between these words is a great drama. Adam, the first earthling, made from the earth, and the first woman, made from the first man, begin their life together in the Garden of Eden, and already standing between them from the start is the snake.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The snake presents the temptation to eat. But temptation is not just a sensory desire. It is a temptation to be like God who knows good and evil. And eating seems to do the job, and the woman and man\u2019s eyes are opened. And surprisingly, or not, the first thing they discover in a world of knowledge is sexuality and shame.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The punishments, or the price tag of knowledge, are in some ways the existential problems that human beings face: the pain of childbirth, the rule of \u201cthe stronger sex\u201d over \u201cthe more beautiful sex,\u201d the difficulty of making a living. As for the snake, his punishment is that it must crawl \u00a0on its belly--not such a big deal at all!<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Points to Ponder:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    \r\n\t
  1. \u00a0<\/span> The snake - What sort of creature is he? At the end of the chapter he is the most familiar crawling \u00a0creature in the field or in the zoo. But at the beginning, the snake is something completely different.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  2. \u00a0<\/span> The woman - She is the one who brings knowledge into the world. Is this good or bad? \u00a0It seems left for us to decide.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  3. \u00a0<\/span> On the one hand, in the story, \"knowing good and evil\" is \"to be like God.\" On the other hand, the first thing people come to know is their sexuality, which is completely realistic.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  4. \u00a0<\/span> The story also has the Tree of Life, and not just the Tree of Knowledge Good and Evil. The Tree of Life remains in the Garden of Eden, and we were expelled to work the land until we return to it.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  5. \u00a0<\/span> In Chapter 1 - The woman is called \u201cAdam\u201d (God had created the first human being male and female). \u00a0In Chapter 2 - She is called \u201ca woman\u201d (because she was taken from the body of the man). In Chapter 3 - She gets another name \"Eve\" and a new role - \u201cthe mother of all the living\u201d (Genesis 3:20).<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    \u00a0<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to ponder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"The Daily Summary","tile_main_caption":"Points to Ponder: Genesis 3","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Insights and questions for personal reflection and group discussion","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to ponder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"3","chapter_main_number":"3","date":"20250902","wall_id":"3"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":16,"id":"34074","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"We Will Die, But First, We Will Live ","post_title":"We Will Die, But First, We Will Live","slug":"at-least-we-enjoyed-ourselves","old_id":"34074","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33942,"post_title":"Hagit Bartuv","slug":"hagit-bartuv","old_id":"33942","first_name":"Hagit","last_name":"Bartuv","description":"Hagit Bartuv is the project and content leader of the Srigim initiative on Israeli moshavim whose goal is to enrich moshavim with more Jewish-Israeli culture. In 2013, as a modern Orthodox woman, she challenged the conversion court in Israel after she refused to accept their demand that she send her adopted child to an ultra-Orthodox pre-school. 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    Who knows how many times I have read this chapter, and suddenly today I noticed a surprising juxtaposition between two verses. \u00a0Verse 19 summarizes Adam's punishment: \"by the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken. \u00a0For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.\u201d And immediately after this verse, without any context or explanation, verse 20 states: \u201cThe man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Indeed, Rashi tries to explain this odd juxtaposition by saying that the story of the Garden of Eden is over, and Adam returns to what he was engaged in before the great drama - giving names to every creature. \u00a0However, his interpretation misses the beauty and drama inherent in the striking contrast between death and life in these two verses, and he ignores the simple fact that Eve was not yet the mother of anything yet.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Perhaps one can say that immediately after God explains to mankind how small and wretched their earthly life is, man understands that death is only a small part of the story of the Tree of Knowledge. The bigger and more important part of the story, the part that God hid from him, is life itself: \u00a0the fact that human beings, and perhaps specifically his daughters, create life with their bodies but also with their souls and with their love.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    It is if Adam says to God: All right, we will die, but first we will live. \u00a0We will really live and bring about more and more life. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

    \u00a0<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":88410,"alt":"","title":"ps104-life 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