Chavarah- Jewish Community Learning

A blog of Jewish study and traditions. Notes from classes: Torah Study with Rabbi Marder, Toledot and Shabbaton as well as other details found of interest.

IF you want to be part of our Chavarah email group let me know at carol@traditionsrenewed.com

Monday, September 01, 2008

Eden Lost - Music and Art and Poetry

Genesis 3:24 He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and everturning to guard the way to the tree of life.

In MUSIC and ART and POETRY


I came upon a child of god
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
Im going on down to yasgurs farm
Im going to join in a rock n roll band
Im going to camp out on the land
Im going to try an get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe its the time of man
I dont know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

By the time we got to woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devils bargain
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden


Woodstock.. Joni Mitchell

and art:









You could spend hours looking at the art on the site Rabbi Marder mentioned. It is a wow! There are 5 pages of links on the subject of the expulsion from Eden!

POETRY:

a poem by the great Israeli poet
Yehuda Amichai

A Child Is Something Else Again

A child is something else again. wakes up
in the afternoon and in an instant he's full of words,
in an instant he's humming, in an instant warm,
instant light, instant darkness.

A child is Job. They've already placed their bets on him
but he doesn't know it. He scratches his body for pleasure. Nothing hurts yet.
They're training him to be a polite Job,
to say 'thank you' when the lord has given,
to say 'you're welcome' when the lord has taken away.

A child is vengeance.
A child is a missile into the coming generations.
I launched him: I'm still trembling.

A child is something else again: on rainy spring day
glimpsing the garden of Eden through the fence,
kissing him in his sleep,
hearing footsteps in the wet pine needles.
A child delivers you from death.
Child, Garden, Rain, Fate.

Children may truly be the link back to the garden....

We looked at the cherubim last week

This week we considered the sword! And the different interpretations of “guarding” the way to the Tree of Life.

What is that fiery sword and how is it turning.. Are they blocking the return or protecting the garden or both?

Different readings of this:

Commentary: "double-edged sword" as a symbol of moral confusion, the merging of good and evil as a result of the fall of Adam and Eve, comes from Rabbi Elie Munk's book entitled "The Call of the Torah."

Some interpret it that you cannot return to the garden but the Rabbis say you can find the way back to the garden through the study of Torah.

Proverbs 3 - 13
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding

She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who hold her fast.
(wisdom is a feminine word – the subject of the sentence)

Rabbis took this and applied it to Torah – thus Torah is called Etz Chayim.
The Torah is a Tree of Life, It is the Torah of Truth and Eternal Life. Bring it into our daily life and it is our path back to the garden. You can find the way back through study and engagement (discussion) of Torah.


Malbim (1809-1879), interpretation of the proverb, people struggle to gain wisdom. You must hold onto it to find the wisdom but it is worth the struggle.

Torah gives access to wisdom – that access is open to everyone who holds on to it.

(no need for someone else to ‘save’ you – you can do it yourself through Torah – this teaching was made around the same time as Jesus and his followers were teaching a different view. This may have been a reaction to that.)

Blessings before and after reading of Torah – created by the Rabbis with this inspiration.
In Mishnah Megillah it describes the proper way to read Torah and the blessings before and after each part are like the blessings before and after we eat. It is also nourishment.

Book: The Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of Sefat Emet
by Judah Aryeh Leib Alter (Author), Arthur Green (Author), Shai Gluskin (Author)

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Germany, 1808-1888) inspiring explanation of this symbolism:

"We find keruvim in the Holy Scriptures having two definite meanings:

a) as watchers and protectors

b) as bearers of the Glory of God

As watchers and protectors of the way to the Tree of Life cheruvim were appointed (Gen. 3:24). ...

(found at this link) http://vbm-torah.org/archive/intparsha/shemot/22-58vayak.doc

We also discussed the relationship to raising of children as noted by Aviva Zornberg.
Book: The Beginning of Desire by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg

We DID start Genesis 4:1 and briefly discussed the term “The man knew his wife...” and if that means that sex was introduced after they left the garden OR was sex part of life in the garden as well? As usual – this is a subject of many different opinions.

This was when the poem of Yehuda Amichai was mentioned and that when you watch a sleeping child you get a glimpse of Eden!

1 Comments:

  • At 8:49 PM, Blogger Chavarah said…

    Excellent notes! Here are a few comments...

    There is an interesting, relevant essay on the Joni Mitchell/CSNY song at
    http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Woodstock-Effect:-And-Weve-Got-to-Get-Ourselves-Back-to-the-Garden&id=59212.


    I found nothing about nourishment at
    (http://www.oceansidejc.org/purim/purim4.html). Instead, the book The
    Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of Sefat Emet by Judah Aryeh Leib
    Alter, (interpreted by Arthur Green), available on Google Books, has the
    following on page 252.

    “I heard from my grandfather and teacher that the reading of Torah, preceded
    and followed by a blessing, is like a meal, when we thank God beforehand fore
    having given us this food and afterwards for having sated us and nourished us
    for life by the food. That is why the blessing after meals must be recited
    before the food had been digested. The blessing after the Torah reading is
    about the way we draw life from the words of Torah, which are absorbed into
    our soul.”

    Finally, are you certain about the link
    http://vbm-torah.org/archive/intparsha/shemot/22-58vayak.doc? As I try to
    open it, there is a virus message. I found the same information about the
    sword and cherubim at
    http://www.vbm-torah.org/archive/salt-shemot/19-7teruma.htm

    from Howard!

     

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