300.23 Shorthand: Symbolism of Eden Parable (pps.86-87)

hard cover page 86

The Garden of Eden saga, properly interpreted, symbolizes the overriding cosmic inverse,³¹⁴ whose workings may not be impeded.³¹⁵

The Midrash portrays Abraham as expostulating with God: “If you want a world, you will not have justice; if it is justice you want, there will be no world. You are taking hold of the rope

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³¹⁴ See Cohen, The Tremendum, pp. 27-28. “It is of the nature of the human that we live on two sides always: one illuminated, the other remaining in darkness. . . . These bivalences of the human exist. . . these contrarieties inhere in the human . . . bifurcated creature in a bifurcated universe, man doubled in a universe that is doubled, fractured man, prisoner of contradic- tion in a universe no less cut in two.”

³¹⁵ Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 14 addresses the question of why there is a seemingly extraneous consonant y (yod) in the Hebrew Vayyizer in the phrase “Then the Lord God formed the man” (Genesis 2:7). The consensus is that the connotation is for two formations, with variations of that theme offered: (1) Adam/Eve, (2) the celestial/the earthly, (3) good/eviI, and (4) this world/the next world. We would parallel (3) and offer (5)Tree of Life/Tree of Knowl- edge; i.e., two possible world paths were open to man.
Cf. Midrash Rabbah, Genesis 21:5-6. ” ‘Behold, the man has become as one of us.’ . . . Said R. Akiba to him. . . How then do you interpret Mimmennu? It means that the Holy One, blessed be He, set two ways before him, life and death, and he chose the other path.” (Commentary: “that which God did not wish him to choose,” viz., death. Th.: R. Akiba treats mimmennu as third- person singular [“of himself”], not first-person plural [“of us”], translating: “Behold, the man has become as one who knows good and evil of himself, of his own free will, and thereby has himself chosen the path of death.”)

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