Genesis: Radical/Traditional Interpretations[1]

In Defense of:

·         Science (from charges of heresy);

·         God (against unfairness and the Problem of Evil)

·         God’s UNITY

·         Adam and Eve (against charges of disobeying God)

·         Eve (against charges of malicious intent)

·         Defending – partially - even Cain.

 Section I)

Is Life Fair?

It is not fair to create an entity burdened by existence; and so God created the first being in an idyllic environment – “the Garden of Eden” - to gain its retroactive agreement to having been created.

It is similarly unfair to impose the obligation of moral responsibility on a being that did not choose it; in fact one could reject moral responsibility for one’s actions on the basis that one had not chosen to exist and be faced with moral dilemmas.

God desired that Adam/Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge, in order that they become capable of free-willed moral choice, facing challenges and observing a moral code. This is the path of growth rather than the stagnation of a priori spiritual perfection. But this could not be forced. A situation was therefore arranged whereby the being itself chose whether or not to bear the burden of moral responsibility. The Creator forbade the assumption of this burden, so that the responsibility of the choice became that of the chooser alone.

In the Eden account, the being who chooses to acquire a moral sense, thereby accepting moral responsibility for his actions, is named "Adam". However, rather than simply being a proper name, Adam' is the Hebrew term for 'Mankind'. Thus, the Eden account relates not merely to an individual named Adam, but rather to the entire human race. From the Biblical perspective, in some metaphysical sense all mankind chose to accept moral responsibility[2]. From this perspective, no human can claim that they were not consulted as to whether or not they wanted a moral sense and its concomitant moral responsibility, that the burden of moral action is unfair, that they are exempt.

In the terms of the creation and Eden accounts, we are all descendants of Adam and Eve, and we are all obligated by their choice, or alternatively our situation is determined as a consequence of their choice. But at a deeper level Genesis is meant to teach us that in the most fundamental sense, that which is the essence of each one of us - namely our souls – individually made the choice to exist, and to accept moral responsibility.

How Old Is the Universe?

Genesis can be read as describing God’s infusion of a soul—and perhaps a mind as well—into a humanoid emerging from “the dust of the earth,” as detailed by evolutionary theory, in a universe which developed from a big bang created by G-d.

In order for the created entities to become “moral beings”, ie to be morally responsible for their actions, they must possess a certain order of intelligence, an intrinsically free-willed consciousness, and a moral sense.

Charles Darwin wrote in “The Descent of Man”:

“I fully subscribe to the judgment of those writers who maintain that of all the differences between men and the lower animals, the moral sense or conscience is the most important.”

Free-willed consciousness and the moral sense distinguish humanity from the animals. In this sense humans were created in the image of God.

Only after assembling a complete picture of a moral being and an appropriate universe could there begin the design of the big bang and laws of nature leading to their emergence.

Creation began not with the big bang but rather with the prior idea to create a being with moral responsibility, and a mental conception of this moral being and of the universe it would inhabit. Prior to physical creation it would be necessary to mentally assemble the desired main ingredients of the universe until everything necessary to produce a moral being has been obtained. The blueprint of the universe is created one stage at a time. A new stage is initiated after the previous stage is seen to fit into the whole—“G-d saw … that it was good”—until the end product is reached. A being is created in the Divine image and is integrated into the rest of the Creation—“G-d saw … that all … was very good.”

Without free willed moral activity, everything is automatic (determined/random), and therefore not purposive to God. From this perspective Creation is completed not with the emergence of the big bang but rather fifteen billion years later when the first moral being emerges, accepting the burden of moral responsibility for its actions.

Designing the Cosmos according to the Kabbalah

Making the free-willed actions of humans truly independent of the will of their designer-and-creator involves a sacrifice of the sovereignty of the Creator’s Will, a withdrawal and narrowing of its exclusivity. This parallels G-d’s tsimtsum (contraction) before Creation, as described by the Kabbala.

In order for the Creator to bring an additional independent consciousness into existence, the pre-existent unity had to be shattered. This parallels the traditional mystical concept of shvirat ha’kelim, the breaking of the vessels.

So that it will be morally responsible for its actions, the created being is given a share of the Creator’s free will—the attribute that underlies Creation itself.  In biblical terms, humans were created “in the image of G-d” with some infusion of the Divine during the Creation process: “And G-d breathed into man the spirit of life”.

Section II) [3]                         

Fragmentation and Reintegration

            At first there is only God. Then God creates the universe, but there is no independently existent consciousness. All is UNITY.

Then comes the creation of mankind, and the infusion into man of 'the soul of life', so that there is an independent consciousness 'other than God’, but which is nevertheless part of the divine unit. Since the creation of humanity and its independent consciousness involve the perception of ‘otherness’ than God, the wording used is plural: "let us make Man in our image".

            As the Eden account relates, first there was a unitary being (‘Adam’), then a split into two. The process of fragmentation continues with the emergence into moral awareness so that there is now not only a physical universe 'other than' God, but an independent consciousness, then two independent consciousnesses, and then an independent will.

            Following this is the creation of the perception of a duality of good and evil, and the introduction of pain, suffering, and mortality, and then of the struggle between the independent free-willed consciousnesses among themselves, and between them and the divine law.

             Nevertheless, the path to the tree of life still exists, being guarded for its eventual use at some future time, when all consciousness will return to its original unity, and all free-will will be directed to the divine law, becoming thereby reintegrated into a unity, raising the physical universe and all consciousness to a purely spiritual level, reinacting in reverse the process of creation itself.

The Problem of Evil

The source of human consciousness is God’s unified consciousness. The multiplicity of consciousness as seen from the human perspective is therefore illusion. Seen as an element of this ‘fragmented’ aspect of the divine personality, then human interaction and moral struggle are actually the reintegration process of the divine fragments, as seen from the perspective of the (alleged) fragments themselves.

            Rather than seeing human beings as exterior creations of God who must suffer the consequences of God's decision to create them, not even having been consulted about whether to have been created at all, one can then see humanity as simply an aspect of God. Human suffering is then not inflicted by God on man, but rather it is part of the struggle which God has voluntarily undergone in order to grow; the fragmentation which was a necessary prerequisite for struggle and therefore growth also necessarily resulted in the creation of limited consciousnesses, unaware of their true unitary nature, and the illusory perception by these fragments of the divine consciousness that they are separate beings. Only after complete reintegration can all the components understand that all they had undergone was the result of their own undertaking.

            The allegory above addresses the kabbalistic question of how there can exist that anything other than God, by claiming that all consciousness is part of God rather than 'other than' God. The mind-body problem falls away, since all is spiritual, in analogy to the idealist position which postulates that all is mind. And, the problem of evil is dissipated, since no being is inflicting pain on any other being - rather all are in their fundamental essence part of one being, and all is occurring according to the will of that being.

Loopholes

It is interesting to note that since she was formed after the command was given to Adam, the text implies that Eve was not explicitly forbidden by God to eat of the tree of knowledge. And, furthermore, the command was to not eat "from the tree" (which according to Tradition was edible); there was no prohibition to eat "the fruit of the tree".

 Thus when Adam ate from the fruit rather than from the tree, and ate fruit which he did not take from the tree but rather from Eve, he was in a doubly-removed way[4] not violating God's command. And indeed, when confronted by God: “"Is it from the forbidden tree that you have eaten" Adam states this as his defense” “the woman gave me and I ate”. 

Partnership: The Timing of Eve’s Creation

Adam was created, then he was commanded not to eat of the tree of Knowledge, then immediately we are told that God said “it is not good that Man be alone, let me make a helpmeet for him”.

Question: Why suddenly now? What has happened to make this necessary?

Answer: Since the decision to form a helpmeet for Adam was made immediately after the command not to eat from the tree, there is surely a connection between the need for a helpmeet and the command not to eat of the tree.

The motivation for the formation of Eve, as well as the timing of her formation, may have been this division of labor between them: Adam could not eat from the tree, so a helpmeet was necessary to take it and give it to him.

The stage was set for man to choose to eat of the tree of knowledge of his own choice despite the warning that it would lead to a great burden and death, but to do so in a way which would not violate the letter of God's actual command. Since no direct violation was involved, the result was not punishment or immediate death as was implied previously, but rather only the necessary consequences of the choice made by man - mortal existence in a non-God-manifest physical universe ruled by 'natural law'.

Eve's Prototypical Female Role

            At crucial juctures in Biblical narrative, the fateful choice determining the futures of those involved is taken by the women. It is Sarah who realizes that Isaac is the true heir of Abraham and exiles Ishmael, and it is Rivka (Rebecca) who arranges to have Jacob chosen over Esau. Miriam, Yocheved, Shifra and Puah are responsible for seeing to it that Moses is born and kept safe. Tamar takes the bold initiative and chooses Yehuda, and Ruth chooses Boaz (and Lot’s daughter, the ancestress of Ruth, also takes the initiative), and from these issued David, King of Israel, and the progenitor of the messianic line of future kings. It is however Eve who is the prototype of all these, who boldy goes and chooses to eat of the tree, and to give Adam as well, thereby changing the entire course of events as recounted in the Bible.

Circularity, Existence and Free Will

            “I exist” is the quintessential self-reference. Free