Bereshit, In the beginning. A word with which the yearly Pasha begins in the Jewish cycle of Readings. .

 

Eden that place where our first  Parents walked with God; until they disobeyed just one rule, “please,for your  own good, do not eat the fruit of this tree ”

Do you remember when  as children, your parents told you not to play in the old  quarry. Well it was me who was told, and what do you know that’s exactly what I did, there sure must have been some thing special  about that magic place! Just like that tree father God asked his  children  not to eat.

Remember The Bible wasn’t written to us.

Dissection 

According  to Rashi’s commentary there where 5 children born to Adam and Eve, before they left the Garden.  Chapter 4 verse 1, the entire commentary for verse 1 is below.

Show Rashi

Now the man knew: [This took place], prior to the above episode, before he sinned and was banished from the Garden of Eden. Also the conception and the birth [took place before], for if it were written: וַיֵּדַע אָדָם it would mean that after he had been banished, he had sons. — [from Sanh. 38b

Cain: Heb. קַיִן, based on קָנִיתִי, I acquired.

with the Lord: Heb. אֶת יהוה, like עִם יהוה, with the Lord. When He created me and my husband, He alone created us, but with this one, we are partners with Him. — [from Gen. Rabbah 22:2, Mid. Tadshei, Niddah 31a]

Cain… his brother Abel: Heb. אֶת קַיִן אֶת אָחִיו אֶת הָבֶל. The word אֶת is repeated three times to suggest additional things. This teaches that a twin sister was born with Cain, and with Abel were born two. Therefore, it is said: וַתֹּסֶף, and she continued, or added. — [from Gen. Rabbah 22:2, 3] 

O.K. why the icky dissection? 

( Dissection is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure)

I reiterate that the Bible wasn’t written for us, or even directly to us, Genesis, Bereshit contained[s] stories of HOW and WHEN and the understanding of the HOW and the WHEN, as we see from above was fraught with word play and grammar inferences understood by speakers of Hebrew only.

We have our own gurus who speak pompous words concerning the book of Beginnings such that what we do to the Bible is akin to the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure.

Dissection is for scholars

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K.I.S.S. for us, we do learn something from the commentary-that it was a family which left Eden rather than a couple. And with this we might – well I am going to say that this family has taken one foot(step) out of Eden.

Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel with their siblings came out into the wider world to begin  the life of toil and hardship, the reward for eating something they shouldn’t. So called ‘Sin’ came walking out of the Garden bundled up in the  family which would become the Families of the Nations.

Therefore there is only one Human race, none of this business of the White Race or the Black Race or the Chinese being honorary Whites.

These may be stories but they are true in that they are teaching us to love our neighbours, the refugees, people whose skin is a different colour from ours – because there is only One Human Race.

And just for the record there is no Category called Original Sin that is a nutty cruel doctrine created by the  Christians ( Jews do not believe in original sin-see below) to frighten everyone into following  man made Rules and believing Dogma, generally being afraid of the God who said that all things are good. (BUT they add)

Interpreting Scripture according to their need to control….

every time you are spooked by something in the Bible that relates to humanity as evil you must remember that God said Humanity is a good creation, that we humans make our own choices and mistakes that have nothing to do with their doctrine that humanity is fundamentally bad.

Next time, Next step

 

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 “The doctrine of original sin is totally unacceptable to Jews (as it is to Christian sects such as Baptists and Assemblies of G-d). Jews believe that man enters the world free of sin, with a soul that is pure and innocent and untainted. While there were some Jewish teachers in Talmudic times who believed that death was a punishment brought upon mankind on account of Adam’s sin, the dominant view by far was that man sins because he is not a perfect being, and not, as Christianity teaches, because he is inherently sinful.’

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/judaism-s-rejection-of-original-sin