Q&A: The First Man
The First Man
Question
How does the Rabbi explain all the stories about Adam in the Garden of Eden? Does the Rabbi believe that all these things happened literally—that the serpent spoke, and that there was a tree such that whoever ate from it became wise, and so on? Especially if the world has existed for billions of years and the assumption is that the same laws of nature always existed—what happened 6,000 years ago that suddenly there was a man in the Garden of Eden and other things that are very different from reality today?
Answer
My impression is that this is not a simple factual description. It seems to me to be an instructive myth. But if the world was created by the Holy One, blessed be He, then in principle there is no reason He could not have done all those things differently from how things are today.
First assumption: the Torah came to correct human beings.
Second assumption: the Torah describes what happened to human beings in the past.
Any sensible person understands that these are assumptions that cannot be reconciled with one another.
And also, if God wrote the Torah, it cannot be that the wicked Laban the Aramean instructed God what to write.