In "The Torah: A Modern Commentary," we read the following note to Genesis 3:3, " Eve said to the serpent that she was not even allowed to touch the fruit, although this was a not part of the original prohibition. The Rabbis consider this (and any) embroidery of the truth to be the opening wedge of sin." (pg 41).
My question is what is the difference between Eve's "embroidery" and what is known as "fencing the Torah?" Could it be that some of the Rabbis are a wee bit too hard on Eve--"Thank God I was not created a woman" and all that... a foolish prayer indeed if there ever was one.
What if Eve is simply the first theologian?
4 comments:
If God prohibited eating the fruit, why would Adam & Eve need to touch it at all?
Perhaps because they were to tend the garden and would have to pick up and dispose of the fruit when it fell off the tree.
If eating the fruit symbolizes and act of some kind, what does that imply for someone who want to remain righteous and obedient, yet must encounter censured or dangerous things? For example: viewing pornography as part of evidence in a jury trial. Anyone in the courtroom would have to encounter or handle such material, not fully take in or eat it. Or encountering any kind of vice as part of a career in a criminal justice system.
Perhaps Eve, was embroidering out of anxiety born both of fear and curiosity, both to show her zeal for the prohibition and to cover her nascent attraction for violating it. Perhaps her embroidery is also based in immaturity and lack of self-control, the kinds that would make someone in the above activities more vulnerable to being harmed by what they were encountering.
"What if Eve is simply the first theologian?" Considering the extent to which theologians have been able to both build and destroy, "simply" should probably be omitted.
"Don't we encounter terrible things just by living in the world? I mean you could stay home all day but still feel some of the sins and weaknesses of your community...After all we can't help but be effected. Right? Don't we necessarily take on the colors of our enviornment? Isn't the problem a lot bigger than you imply?..."
People often go to great lengths to insulate themselves, often with great, though not perpetual, success. Even in the very face of these things, people can insulate their minds & hearts. What you mean by "the problem", when this topic is what the Rabbis call Eve's "embroidery", why they call it that, and why she did it.
Yes, in the first answer, I'd supported the proposition that Eve mightn't have done wrong, that was "fencing" rather than "embroidering the Torah: "Perhaps Eve, was embroidering...to show her zeal for the prohibition...". Please note that using "perhaps" was intended to be precise, not a nicety.
Haven't the Rabbis have spent more time on it that we? Has any of them noted that though Eve fenced the Torah, she's also the first to disobey? Could this be the first outbreak of the disease of self-righteousness?
As for the other guy there, what do the Rabbis say about him? What responsibility to protect Eve was he shirking? There's a Catholic theologian who examines this and puts most of the blame on Adam.
I'm glad Rabbis weren't born women, too; can't imagine marrying one, with all that studying, there'd be no time to cuddle, if there ever were, well, they just wouldn't be too appealing...
As for the unavoidability, the inexorability, of bad things, isn't the real question why did God put the tree of knowledge in the Garden in the first place?
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