2:15 The Eternal God took HaAdam and placed him in the garden of Eden, to till it and tend it. 2:16 And the Eternal God commanded HaAdam, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; 2:17 but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die." 3:1 Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts that the Eternal God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say: You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" 3:2 The woman replied to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the other trees of the garden. 3:3 It is only about fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said: 'You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die.'" 3:4 And the serpent said to the woman, "You are not going to die, 3:5 but God knows that as soon as you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like divine beings who know good and bad." 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable as a source of wisdom, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate. 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they perceived that they were naked; and they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves loincloths.
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
When God first commands HaAdam not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, God says nothing about touching it. According to Eve, when the command is related to her, she may not e
at or touch the Tree. This gives the serpent a perfect in. All he has to do is get Eve to touch the Tree. Since, touching the Tree is not destined to kill her, once she touches it and lives the seeds of possibility are planted. Once she begins seeing possibilities, it almost doesn't matter if she eats from the Tree. She has already experimented. She has already tried something taboo. She has already begun thinking beyond the norm. And she has determined this Tree, this act of digression from what was expected of her, to be good, delightful, desirable.
Doesn't this sound a lot like the average person's experience with kink?
So much of the vanilla world tells us not to taste, not even to touch--in fact, you know what, don't even look at kink--don't even think about anything beyond the missionary pale. But what happens when we meet someone who tempts us with the possibility of having our eyes opened to all kinds of sexual expression? Such "serpents" ask us if it's really so off the wall to leave the lights on. Of course once we bring sex into the light, the seeds of possibility become planted within our sexual appetites. We start considering the many possibilities and all of the sudden we are craving...apples!
Let it be known that in Jewish tradition, this moment in "history" is considered inevitable, appropriate and even necessary. We were meant to eat of the fruit so that our eyes would be opened. We were meant to have knowledge of good and evil. We were meant to leave the garden so that we could truly experience the world.
Which also means, we were meant to have a sense of nakedness.
The serpent was not a minion of the devil. On the contrary, if not for the serpents in our lives, the ones who come along and tempt us to experiment, try something taboo, to think beyond the norm, we would be stuck in some vanilla world completely blind to all of the spicy possibilities.
So, go ahead, listen to the serpent and taste the apple and open your eyes to all of the kinky possibilities around you!
at or touch the Tree. This gives the serpent a perfect in. All he has to do is get Eve to touch the Tree. Since, touching the Tree is not destined to kill her, once she touches it and lives the seeds of possibility are planted. Once she begins seeing possibilities, it almost doesn't matter if she eats from the Tree. She has already experimented. She has already tried something taboo. She has already begun thinking beyond the norm. And she has determined this Tree, this act of digression from what was expected of her, to be good, delightful, desirable.Doesn't this sound a lot like the average person's experience with kink?
So much of the vanilla world tells us not to taste, not even to touch--in fact, you know what, don't even look at kink--don't even think about anything beyond the missionary pale. But what happens when we meet someone who tempts us with the possibility of having our eyes opened to all kinds of sexual expression? Such "serpents" ask us if it's really so off the wall to leave the lights on. Of course once we bring sex into the light, the seeds of possibility become planted within our sexual appetites. We start considering the many possibilities and all of the sudden we are craving...apples!
Let it be known that in Jewish tradition, this moment in "history" is considered inevitable, appropriate and even necessary. We were meant to eat of the fruit so that our eyes would be opened. We were meant to have knowledge of good and evil. We were meant to leave the garden so that we could truly experience the world.
Which also means, we were meant to have a sense of nakedness.
The serpent was not a minion of the devil. On the contrary, if not for the serpents in our lives, the ones who come along and tempt us to experiment, try something taboo, to think beyond the norm, we would be stuck in some vanilla world completely blind to all of the spicy possibilities.
So, go ahead, listen to the serpent and taste the apple and open your eyes to all of the kinky possibilities around you!
I know that this is out of order but since Simchat Torah and Shabbat B'reishit were right on top of each other, I needed a moment to reflect on the parashah. And then we were on to Parashat Noach! Once I was able to sit down with the text for enough time to really read through the entire parashah, the sex positive lesson was so clear.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your understanding!
Great devar - you should check out this podcast - it covers another take on the difference between touching and eating and some other things...
ReplyDeletehttp://web.me.com/aaaron12/Aaron_Alexander/Rabbi_Artson_Podcast/rss.xml