A Commentary on the Genesis Story & Lilith
October 5th, 2018
26 Tishrei 5779
This week, appropriately, is our first official Tribe Shabbat of the year (woo!) And it also happens to be the week in which we roll the Torah all the way back to the beginning and start again. Tomorrow morning we will read the words of creation, B’reishit, and remind ourselves of the stories of our tradition about how this universe came into being. The universe was created through the power of words. God said “let there be”.. and there was… We are taught that God’s mere utterance has the power to create something where there was nothing and that we humans, are created B’tzelem Elohim, in the divine image, and thus similarly afforded great power. With the power of our voices we are able claim our own place in the vast expanse of the universe. We too have the power to speak things into being.With but a word we are given the opportunity to create and to destroy. In light of all of this, there is one thing I have been thinking about lately and I wanted to share it with you tonight.
As we all know, our country is in a state of total turmoil and no matter what side of the aisle you fall on, the one thing we can all agree on is that division, pain, frustration and anger are plaguing our national stage right now. I don’t know about you, but our country feels broken in a way that as a millennial, I cant remember experiencing in my life time before. Every time I think it cant get worse, it does. Every time I think shock value is a thing of the past - turns out, its not.
So tonight I want to talk about the creation of human kind and that’s right folks, tonight we’re gonna talk about Patriarchy!
That’s right folks. Buckle up.
Oxford English Dictionary defines patriarchy as: a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it. So how did patriarchy, a system which allows one gender to feel superior and even, at times, rule over the other, come to be. I’ll give you a hint. It starts this week, with the story of the creation of humankind and to quote my friend, Rabbi Molly Kane of Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, “Journey with me all the way back to Adam and Eve.”
Our Jewish tradition accepts that the Torah is the word of God told to Moses at Sinai, canonized in our Torah sh’b’katav – the written scroll, illuminated and expounded upon through the work of our sages and rabbis, and transmitted l’dor vador, from generation to generation, all the way down to us. But when we read the very first portion in the very first chapter of the entire thing.. we are faced with a gigantic, glaring, inexplicable contradiction.
We read in what I’ll refer to as Genesis 1 – that God creates the world, separates light from darkness, spreads the earth over the waters, makes the animals and all living things and then arrives at the decision to create Humankind. The text reads: God created human beings in God’s image, in the image of God, God created HIM, male & female, God created THEM.
God created human beings in God’s image, in the image of God, God created HIM, male & female, God created THEM.
Some scholars guess that this is just the headline and Genesis II, which I’ll tell you about in a minute, is the deep dive. Some argue that the two stories are told from the different points of view – perhaps first through God’s experience and then again, through Adam’s.
Or if you take a more academic approach, you might argue that two different Biblical editors forgot to proofread the book of Genesis and oops, 2 different versions of the same story come to be.
Either way, Genesis II is a little bit different.
In Genesis II, God creates the man, who is now given the title or name, Adam (human/man)- from the dust of the earth, and God sees that Adam is destined for loneliness. God decides, “lo tov heyot ha-adam l’vado” it is not good for man to be alone and thus God removes a piece of Adam's rib and turned that rib into a woman.
A few verses later, that woman eats from the tree of knowledge, corrupts her beloved into doing the same, and the punishment she receives is that Adam will rule over her. Curious, questioning, knowledgeable Eve, will now be subservient to her male counterpart for eternity. And God said, let there be patriarchy. And there was. And there is.
And God said, let there be patriarchy. And there was. And there is.
Now I’m not here to tell you which version of Genesis to believe. I’m not even here to tell you which one I prefer though I’m sure you could guess. I want to share with you an interpretation of the story of Genesis, I and offer it to you in the hopes that it might make this weekend a bit more palatable. That it might provide some wisdom. Or even, provide some hope. There is a midrashic school of though that began in the Babylonian Talmud, that the woman who is created in Genesis I is not Eve at all but rather, Adam’s first wife, who eventually flees the garden when their marriage fails.
Her name is Lilith. And here is her story:
When the first man, Adam, saw that he was alone, God made for him a woman like himself, from the earth. God called her name Lilith, and brought her to Adam. They immediately began to quarrel. Adam said: “You lie beneath me.” And Lilith said: “You lie beneath me! We are both equal, for both of us are from the earth.” And they would not listen to one another.
As soon as Lilith saw this, she uttered the Divine name and flew up into the air and fled. Adam began to pray before his Creator, saying: “Master of the universe, the woman that you gave me has fled.” God sent three angels and said to them: “Go bring back Lilith. If she wants to come, she shall come, and if she does not want to come, do not bring her against her will.
Eventually through a series of negotiations, Lilith is released from her marriage to Adam through a sort of Beit Din of 3 angels. She leaves and doesn’t come back.
From this we learn two things: women who are loud and stand up for themselves, sometimes get their way. But they also get kicked out of the garden and at times, even get written out of the story.
From this we learn two things: women who are loud and stand up for themselves, sometimes get their way. But they also get kicked out of the garden and at times, even get written out of the story.
In the “The coming of Lilith,” a modern interpretive midrash by feminist Torah scholar Judith Plaskow,
Lilith flees the garden because she is an “uppity woman” who doesn’t want to be pushed around by Adam or God. However, she craves female companionship so Lilith sneaks back into the garden and befriends Eve. Eve has been told Lilith is a demon, but once the two women share their stories, they become allies and companions in the search for knowledge. Perhaps it was Lilith and not the serpent that convinced Eve to eat the apple in the first place.
Perhaps it was Lilith and not the serpent that convinced Eve to eat the apple in the first place.
Perhaps we have been fighting for the ability to choose knowledge, to choose freedom, to choose at all since literally the very first moments of our creation. Women who band together and fight back whether against their husbands, their God, or even their society, have been getting punished for it LITERALLY since the dawn of time.
Oh yeah by the way, the fact that women experience pain during childbirth is also attributed to Eve’s sin of eating the apple. According to the text, even our own bodies can be used as weapons against us and lest we forget, its all our fault.
According to the text, even our own bodies can be used as weapons against us and lest we forget, its all our fault.
So Lilith, after advocating for herself, has since been villainized beyond measure. She has been characterized as a demon, or a succubus, an evil being who devours men in their sleep, eats babies, and causes infant death. She is even at times referred to as the wife of Satan.
So Genesis 1 or Genesis 2. Which version do you believe? Which one makes sense to you? Is it 2 beings birthed out of ashes, seemingly equal but destined for hierarchy? Or is the companion narrative in which women were created to be subservient helpmates to their male counterparts? They are both in the text. They are both equally fantastical. And they are both valid.
They are both in the text. They are both equally fantastical. And they are both valid.
When we are given two versions of the same story, two lenses through which to experience memory, how do we determine which one to believe? If even our holiest texts, given to us through the WORD OF GOD, is informed by contradiction and questioning, how on earth are we supposed to figure out what’s right and what’s true? How do we learn to trust our judgment, let alone our society, to put our weight behind the truth?
I don’t know the answer. But I do know that our tradition teaches us to ask the question. To pursue justice and to seek peace. As Jews we are taught to the engage in the struggle. We are Israel after all; the one’s who wrestle.
As Jews we are taught to the engage in the struggle. We are Israel after all; the one’s who wrestle.
To quote Rabbi Molly Kane one more time,
“Our biblical creation story does not END with the creation of man and woman. Rather it ends with Shabbat. Often we describe Shabbat as a day of rest but it is also a taste of the world to come.”
Whether you believe in Genesis 1 or 2, whether you resonate with the story of Lilith or Eve or Adam, one thing remains true and certain. We are all in community together and it is our job, in this deeply divided climate, in which the truth is relative and fact is sometimes fiction, to give it a rest and to do better. It is our job to engage in dialogue. To continue to question and to wonder and even to struggle. It is on us, the next generation, to change this broken world we’re inheriting from our predecessors and find a new path forward.
It is on us, the next generation, to change this broken world we’re inheriting from our predecessors and find a new path forward.
This week our Torah reminds us that this world was created for us. It is our inheritance and it is our responsibility so it is our job to live in the tension and create something new, something better for ourselves and for the generations after us.
I look forward to journeying forward with all of you as the year continues.