Bereisheet
Reading through last week's parasha with Connie, we noticed some things we hadn't thought about before -- of course, Bereseisheet is a pretty full parasha, with a lot of nooks and crannies! As always, I'm sure these are blindingly obvious to anyone with any serious torah-knowledge -- or even just basic hebrew. I'm excluding things we saw in commentaries, or things we noticed in previous years just what struck us in this reading.
(1) the commandment "Be fruitful and multiply" -- "p'ru ur'vu" in 1:28 -- is well-known as the first commandment in Torah. But it seems like the real first commandment in Torah -- the first time G-d gives an order to living things -- actually comes 10 lines earlier in line 1:18, during the fifth day, right after G-d has made the creatures that live in the sea and birds -- he blesses them with the same commandment - "p'ru ur'vu"!
(2) the parallelism between the words of G-d to Eve in 3:16 (who actually hasn't yet been named Eve (Chava), but is still simply called the woman (ha-ishah) and the words of G-d to Cain (Kayin) in 4:7. The english translations (both in the etz hayim and stone chumashim, but also elsewhere) obscure it a little, but the hebrew is directly the same. Eve is told (etz hayim translation): "yet your urge shall be for your husband [your man] and he shall rule over you". Cain is told, about "sin", which "crouches at the door": "its urge is towards you, yet you can be its master".
The keywords: "urge" or "desire" or "lust" -- "t'shukah" and "rule over, or "be master of" or "govern" (infinitive: limshol) are exactly the same.
even the "shall" vs. "can" introduced in this translation isn't clear in the hebrew (I think, I'm not very knowledgable here) -- it's the same verb form (though one is in second person and one in third) in each case, the verb form can be interpreted either way (as a prediction of what will happen, or of what is able to happen), depending on context.
Aside from the historically outmoded bit of husbands ruling over wives, I find this parallel construction very intriguing -- the relationship of the yetser hara, the evil impulse that lives within each of us and must be controlled is here being compared to the relationship of a wife to her husband -- still more, it's not that we have a desire for our worst nature, but that it has a desire for us!
Finally, our goal isn't to eradicate our instincts for sin, but to "govern" them -- some of these instincts are not entirely bad -- it's more like the id, it wants only satisfaction, with no consideration to consequences for us or others. When controlled by intellect and morality, it can help us in productive achievement -- we must be its master, but it will be our partner throughout life.
(3) Adam gave his kids pretty awful names! Cain (Kayin) is "product", Abel (Hevel) is "vapor" or "insubstantial" ["Hevel Havalim" is the beginning of Ecclesiastes,
(Kohelet), often translated as "vanity of vanities"] -- then later, when Adam has another kid after Cain murders Abel, he calls him Seth (Shet) -- "replacement".
(1) the commandment "Be fruitful and multiply" -- "p'ru ur'vu" in 1:28 -- is well-known as the first commandment in Torah. But it seems like the real first commandment in Torah -- the first time G-d gives an order to living things -- actually comes 10 lines earlier in line 1:18, during the fifth day, right after G-d has made the creatures that live in the sea and birds -- he blesses them with the same commandment - "p'ru ur'vu"!
(2) the parallelism between the words of G-d to Eve in 3:16 (who actually hasn't yet been named Eve (Chava), but is still simply called the woman (ha-ishah) and the words of G-d to Cain (Kayin) in 4:7. The english translations (both in the etz hayim and stone chumashim, but also elsewhere) obscure it a little, but the hebrew is directly the same. Eve is told (etz hayim translation): "yet your urge shall be for your husband [your man] and he shall rule over you". Cain is told, about "sin", which "crouches at the door": "its urge is towards you, yet you can be its master".
The keywords: "urge" or "desire" or "lust" -- "t'shukah" and "rule over, or "be master of" or "govern" (infinitive: limshol) are exactly the same.
even the "shall" vs. "can" introduced in this translation isn't clear in the hebrew (I think, I'm not very knowledgable here) -- it's the same verb form (though one is in second person and one in third) in each case, the verb form can be interpreted either way (as a prediction of what will happen, or of what is able to happen), depending on context.
Aside from the historically outmoded bit of husbands ruling over wives, I find this parallel construction very intriguing -- the relationship of the yetser hara, the evil impulse that lives within each of us and must be controlled is here being compared to the relationship of a wife to her husband -- still more, it's not that we have a desire for our worst nature, but that it has a desire for us!
Finally, our goal isn't to eradicate our instincts for sin, but to "govern" them -- some of these instincts are not entirely bad -- it's more like the id, it wants only satisfaction, with no consideration to consequences for us or others. When controlled by intellect and morality, it can help us in productive achievement -- we must be its master, but it will be our partner throughout life.
(3) Adam gave his kids pretty awful names! Cain (Kayin) is "product", Abel (Hevel) is "vapor" or "insubstantial" ["Hevel Havalim" is the beginning of Ecclesiastes,
(Kohelet), often translated as "vanity of vanities"] -- then later, when Adam has another kid after Cain murders Abel, he calls him Seth (Shet) -- "replacement".
posted by Ted at 8:19 AM
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