March 20th: Vayak’hel-Pekuday
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
There is an interesting koshi (difficulty) between the first two chapters of Genesis. In Genesis 1, God creates the whole world in six days. In Genesis 2, none of that seems to have taken place, so God starts from scratch and creates the whole world. It is as though there are two completely different creation stories. Which is the real one?
The confusion continues. In the Six Day Story of Genesis 1, God creates the human being, “in the image of God, male and female God created them,” (Genesis 1.27) so we seem to have both a man and a woman. However, in the Genesis 2 story, there is neither man nor woman. God “forms man from the dust of the earth, blowing into his nostrils the breath of life to make him a living being.” (Genesis 2.7) This man is alone. After creating all the animals—as potential companions for the man, God realizes that only something more like the man will do, so God takes a rib from the man and creates a woman. Tradition is thus tasked with trying to figure out what happened to that man and woman from Chapter 1.
This discrepancy is one of the clues for the Documentary Hypothesis—that family of theories suggesting that the Torah is not a single document, written by one Author, but rather a composite document, written by a number of different authors with different opinions and religious agendas. Documentary Hypothesis scholars explain the two contradictory creation stories as evidence of different traditions and pre-Torah texts that were, at some point, woven together into what we call the Five Books of Moses.
Modern scholars, however, were not the first to notice this major koshi. Tradition noticed it, but, committed to the authenticity and authority of the Torah, the Sages fashioned a number of Midrashic explanations. One has particular interest this week as we read about the crafting and construction of the Mishkan/Tabernacle which our ancestors use as a portable “tent temple.” After six chapters describing every single item’s design and construction and the final assembly of the Mishkan, we have this culminating blessing: “When Moses finished the work, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.” (Exodus 40.34) God plans and the craftsmen and craftswomen of Israel make it real. The plan is made real, and God dwells in the midst of the Israelites.
One way of resolving the contradiction between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 is to think of Genesis 1 as the planning phase and Genesis 2 as the construction phase. Why would not the Divine Designer have to think about and plan the world? This process took the famous six days. A clue to this design process comes in the passage about the creation of humans. Notice what God says. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1.26) Us? Our? To whom is God speaking?
A traditional answer is that God is speaking to the angels (malachim), and that the plan for humans is to make them part animal and part angel—thus giving us the ability to be both animalistic and godly. A Christian answer is to imagine a conversation among the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However, one ancient Midrash identifies God’s conversation partner as the Torah, and imagines God using it as a blueprint/design specifications for the world. In other words, God creates the world in order to fit the way of life the Torah teaches.
Thus is the contradiction rendered a sequential process—with God designing the world in Genesis 1 and actually constructing it in Genesis 2. This also explains the rather strange phrasing of the human’s creation—“male and female He created them” (which leads some to speculate about the first human being hermaphroditic, a single human being with both male and female genitalia). If Genesis 1 is the design phase, then the “male and female” can refer to the two possibilities for this basic design. It is like the way auto manufacturers create a car that comes in several models: sedan, coupe, station wagon, convertible, etc. The human comes in both male and female models.
The Kabbalists of Judaism pick up on this ancient Midrash and turn it into a moral lesson. This first human being—called Adam Kadmon, the first Adam (as opposed to Genesis 2’s second Adam whose rib is used to create Eve)—is the design prototype for humanity. Adam Kadmon is the ideal human, the one who is “in the image of God.” However, the production of human beings has resulted in models that are less perfect that our prototype. We have the potential of godliness, but, all too often, we fail to meet God’s and our aspirations.
The moral lesson, however, is that we have godliness—“the “image of God”—in us. It is our potential, and practical Kabbalah seeks to help us actualize this innate purity and holiness. The classic Kabbalistic approach is to compare ourselves with Adam Kadmon, noticing our similarities and our divergences. For the similarities, keep up the good work. For our shortcomings, seek inspiration, discipline, and techniques for improvement. In all, however, Adam Kadmon is our example and standard—our aspiration.
The story of the Mishkan has a perfect ending: at each step along the construction, we are told that Moses did everything “just as the Lord had commanded him.” Here is a case where the heavenly design and the earthly performance are identical. As such, it represents a hopeful plan for humans: we, whose design is based on a perfect human being, have the ability to improve. Yes, we can become the blessings we were created to be.