Once Again

Bereshit

Gen. 1:1 - 6:8

 

Précis: The first Book of the Torah, Bereshit (Genesis, literally “in the beginning” or “When God began to create”) begins with the familiar story of creation. The world is created in six days and God rests on the seventh. The stories of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden are included, as is the story of Cain and Abel.

            We begin the annual reading of the Five Books of Moses immediately upon its conclusion. Why? Perhaps it is because with each passing year, our experiences allow us to understand more of what life has to offer, and what the text has to offer. Yohanan Ben Bag Bag said (Pirke Avot 5:25), “Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and gray with it. Don't turn from it, for you have no better standard of conduct.”

 

Gen. 1:26-27: “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of heaven, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every moving thing that moves upon the earth. So God created man in His image, In the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.”

 

Gen. 2:7 “The Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew in his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.”

 

As we begin our new cycle of Torah reading and studying, I find that there is always something new for me to consider, as is the case with these verses. Simply stated, there are two different stories about the creation of humanity. In the first (1:26-27) God creates “man” (although the Hebrew might more properly be translated as human, since in Hebrew “adam” can be inclusive of both males and females). In the second creation story (2:7), God clearly forms the male first, and subsequently creates a female companion (help-mate?) from the man’s rib. How do we reconcile these alternative stories?

It does seem to me that the compiler of our text was drawing from two separate oral histories when both tales were included. But what lesson can we infer from them? I suggest that the first iteration was designed to indicate full equality (indeed unity) between male and female human beings. The second was an indicator of the patriarchal society which developed in human history.

So, to those who still believe patriarchy is justified, I urge them to look again at the words of Gen. 1:26-27: “In the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.”