Men, Women, Sex and Snakes...

we covered a lot of territory with Rabbi Marder last week:

Back to review Gen 2:20-24
“bone of my bone” and how men and women are “made for each other”

DOES GOD HAVE A BIG TOE? Stories About Stories in the Bible. By Marc Gellman.
Story: The Man Who Loved a Tree

 You can actually read part of this story on the link at Amazon – click ‘look inside’ and then ‘surprise me’
(illustration from the book)

Wonderful interpretation of this verse.


ISH & ISHA – God wanted the divine name to be attached to marriage. In the Hebrew of ISH and ISHA are the letters yud and hay that are not really needed for the sound of the word but when combined makes God’s name. When these letters are taken out it only leaves “fire” which burns out. The purpose of marriage is embedded into the grammar and the language.


Man leaves his parents and ‘clings’ to his wife:

in the physical sense
emotional cleaving – man needs to make the effort
‘one flesh’ in the literal sense with the creation of a child

The discussion on this varied from the English word ‘cleave’ as being either “together” or to “separate”, to Jess’s equation with management skills!
Economic and an agrarian interpretation of the verses were also discussed.

Book: About Love: Reinventing Romance for Our Times by Robert C. Solomon


FORWARD: Gen 3:1-5

Nakedness and Forbidden Fruit

first: no shame or embarrassment in ‘nakedness’

Reference to Nachmanides – Letter on Holiness – where he wrote to his son about sex and marriage with practical advice.
“The sexual union when done properly makes you ‘partners with God’...”




And a more current book that says we should learn about sex in the Torah

Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy by Shmuley Boteach
Another site on this one


We also talked again about the Hebrew Etymology – a pun that the word for Cunning and Naked are from the same root letters.
And I found a book all about that too – actually if you google - (Hebrew Etymology cunning naked – you get a lot of good info)

One midrash explains it that it was “naked of mitzvot” and not to do with clothing or covering of the body.


THE SNAKE

Finally we did start to discuss the ‘snake’ which promises to be more of the topic for next week.

Characteristics of snakes that might make us perceive them to be evil:
No limbs
No fur or feathers
Shed their skin – regeneration – immortality link
Kill with venom
Forked tongue
Cold blooded
Silent – Sneaky

Humans have an instinctive fear of snakes.

Snakes are big in ancient mythology and influenced in medicine – health and healing – interesting contrast.
Torah may ‘de-mythologize’ the snake.

More to follow. . .