Making the Mold: What if Genesis Explains Jewish Law?

 

One of the disadvantages of the way in which people read the Torah is that we often fail to see connections that span the entire text – connections that greatly enrich our understanding of what the document is trying to tell us.

I have written, for example, on how fathers become increasingly interested and involved in their children from Abraham to Jacob to Joseph – and, indeed, how the younger generation that was first rootless (Terach and Avraham) increasingly come, with the sons of Jacob, to choose to live with their fathers. Binding the generations together becomes an essential facet of Jewish life, a necessary precondition for a nation designed to survive and thrive for thousands of years.

But this is not just something that happens in Genesis. The connections span the entirety of the Five Books, and there is much we can learn from them.

“One wife loved, and the other wife hated,” describes Jacob and his wives, in 29 Genesis, and Jacob’s resulting favoritism of Joseph over Reuben. The resulting law, forbidding favoring the son of the loved wife over the firstborn son from the hated wife, appears in Deuteronomy 21. The language of the latter echoes the former, and it is clear that we are instructed to make different choices than Jacob did. It is not hard to explain why that is so – favoring Joseph did not lead to domestic tranquility.

Linguistic parallels provide the signposts for when a law given in the Torah is explained by what happened to our forefathers in Genesis. Some of these signposts, such as “Love ye therefore the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deut. 10:19) are explicit. Others are more subtle.

For example, the phrase “when the sun sets” is used only a handful of places in the Torah. The first examples talk about times of dread and fear – Avram’s covenant between the parts (Gen. 15), and the night when Jacob, fleeing from his brother, sleeps and dreams of ladders and angels and blessings from G-d (Gen. 28).

Imagine the scene. Jacob flees, alone and afraid. He has no pillow, so he uses a rock. It is a time of uncertainty – so much so that when Jacob wakes, he makes a vow to G-d, trying to ensure that he has food to eat and a garment to wear.

There is an amazing echo in Deuteronomy, when a commandment is expressly given:

Thou shalt surely restore to him the pledge when the sun sets, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless thee; and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the LORD thy God. (Deut. 24:13 – echoed also at Ex. 22-25)

Jacob took G-d’s rock, and used it to sleep – and then he woke, turned the stone upright to anoint it and mark the spot, and then Jacob blessed G-d, the divine presence that provided a rock for a pillow, inspired and comforted Jacob in his sleep, and then soothed his fears and loneliness. The restoration of a man’s pledge-garment by sunset is connected to G-d’s comforting of Jacob when the sun set, and provision of a rock-pillow. And in both cases, the benefactor is blessed by the man who was able to sleep at night.

[There is another story of a rock and the sun setting at Ex. 17:12, but I’ll save that digression for another time.]

There is much more to this story. When the sun sets, something extraordinary happens. The Torah does not say that the sun rises until, many years later, a returning Jacob wrestles with the angel. So when Jacob leaves, the world is cast into metaphorical shadow and doubt (similar to the first time in the Torah when it says that the sun sets, when Avram experiences the Covenant between the Parts). Which means that the sun set on Jacob, and there were many dark years until he returned to the land and the sun rose upon him.

What happened in the meantime? Jacob worked for Laban, a man who changed the pay scale many times, played a switcheroo with brides, and was a genuine scoundrel when it came to fulfilling his pledges. Jacob refers to working “for a week” when he meant a full seven years – and yet Laban refused to compensate him honestly.

In Deuteronomy “the sun sets” is signposted to tell us that

… You shall give the day laborer his hire before the sun sets. (Deut. 24:15)

We learn from Laban’s mistreatment of Jacob that we must pay as agreed. We are command to pay the day-laborer on time, because a day-laborer is depending on that payment in precisely the same way that Jacob was depending on Laban honoring his pledge.

There are many other examples, of course. All of these help us to understand the “why” of the commandments themselves. But they also show us how the Torah was iterated as a result of the interactions and even partnership between man and G-d. The experiences of our forefathers seem to be clearly linked to the commandments that subsequently became part of Jewish Law.

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  1. Nanda Panjandrum Member
    Nanda Panjandrum
    @

    Hypatia (View Comment):

    Nanda Panjandrum (View Comment):
    Hypatia, Fraser’s Golden Bough and other anthropological *catalogs*/case studies/observations are just that. As correlation does not imply causation, similarity in characteristics, noted by a given researcher, in various expressions of relationship to the supernatural, do not describe G-d – as much as they do the makeup of human beings – seeking a relationship to/with the Transcendent. (My B.A. is in Psychology and my M.A. is in Theology, btw.) ?

    Yes, that’s what I said.

    Thanks for clarifying…Not so sure folks got that above; again, appreciate the amplification – and the conversation.

    • #31
  2. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    A person is not static, not in Torah Judaism.

    Jacob is an example in many ways – he indeed tricked Esau, but Jacob repaid the debt in full (when he sends gifts, calls Esau “my lord”, and blesses him.

    After wrestling the “man”, Jacob never tricks again – and one interpretation is that he was wrestling with his alter ego. Jacob wrestles with himself, grows, and changes. He is an example to mankind in this way.

     

    • #32
  3. Nanda Panjandrum Member
    Nanda Panjandrum
    @

    iWe (View Comment):
    Jacob wrestles with himself, grows, and changes. He is an example to mankind in this way.

    If wrestling with himself is a positive, @iwe, where does the hip injury fit in?  What is its significance?  (I can attest to the ‘reminders’ wrestling with oneself might leave behind.) :-)

    • #33
  4. Hypatia Member
    Hypatia
    @

    iWe (View Comment):
    A person is not static, not in Torah Judaism.

    Jacob is an example in many ways – he indeed tricked Esau, but Jacob repaid the debt in full (when he sends gifts, calls Esau “my lord”, and blesses him.

    After wrestling the “man”, Jacob never tricks again – and one interpretation is that he was wrestling with his alter ego. Jacob wrestles with himself, grows, and changes. He is an example to mankind in this way.

    Wow, I never heard that!

    • #34
  5. Hypatia Member
    Hypatia
    @

    Duane Iverson (View Comment):
    OK I’ll impugn characters of the whole family. Abraham said Sarah was his sister and she escaped the Harem only because God intervened. Isaak did the same trick. Also Isaak wasn’t dying, he just thought he was. Baby! Jacob tricked Esaw because Mommy told him too. I somehow wonder about the passage that says “and the next morning? Behold! It was Leah. That family was so bad they can’t look down on me. Well not too much anyway. And if there had not been that little incident about Joseph being sold in to slavery I imagine God could have figured something else out. You got to work with what you have seems to be the motto.

    Yes.  In the OT, only one thing mattered: obeying God, no matter what–even if he told you to kill your own child.  Sometimes God loves a certain person all his life, even though he does dishonest things like Jacob, or adultery and murder like David. Sometimes it’s more of a temporary, independent contractor relationship, like with Gideon and Samson.  But the best thing that can happen is a long life and many descendants, as God promised Abraham– and the worst thing, a brutal early death.  At least you don’t get hounded down Eternity!

    Who in the Bible would you want to emulate in your own life? Maybe Job, but look what happens to him.  In the NT, the heroes are itinerant begging preachers who believe in the imminent apocalypse, taking no thought for what they shall wear, eat, etc.

    No, I think Proverbs is the only book where you find advice on how to live.  And it sounds a lot like that article by the 2 law profs that everyone is on about this week!: get, or be, a good wife, stay married, raise up your children in the way they should go, stay sober, be charitable, be  industrious..

    • #35
  6. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Nanda Panjandrum (View Comment):

    iWe (View Comment):
    Jacob wrestles with himself, grows, and changes. He is an example to mankind in this way.

    If wrestling with himself is a positive, @iwe, where does the hip injury fit in? What is its significance? (I can attest to the ‘reminders’ wrestling with oneself might leave behind.) ?

    I think it was an ever-present reminder to Jacob that he was changed, and that his creative powers (“hip” is gentle language for the real meaning) should always be constrained. From that point on, everywhere Jacob walked and in every way that he created, he was reminded that he was a different person.

    • #36
  7. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Hypatia (View Comment):
    In the OT, only one thing mattered: obeying God, no matter what

    Oh, not at all!

    Adam is told to farm.

    Cain farms – Abel pushes the envelope, and raises animals. It is Abel’s offering – NOT Cain’s – that was accepted. G-d rewards the one who did NOT listen.

    This theme repeats itself countless times in the Torah. The Jews who never sinned at all (like Benjamin) never amounted to much. It is the ones who grew who were amazing. Moses is the ultimate exemplar. And when G-d tells Moses to talk to Pharaoh, Moses does NOT listen to him – Moses argues. He is not punished for it, and indeed ends up winning the argument (Aharon does the speaking in his stead).

    • #37
  8. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Hypatia (View Comment):
    Proverbs is the only book where you find advice on how to live.

    I disagree most strenuously. The Torah was always meant as a guidebook for life. My detailed explanation can be had on Amazon for <$4, delivered…..

    • #38
  9. Nanda Panjandrum Member
    Nanda Panjandrum
    @

    iWe (View Comment):

    Nanda Panjandrum (View Comment):

    iWe (View Comment):
    Jacob wrestles with himself, grows, and changes. He is an example to mankind in this way.

    If wrestling with himself is a positive, @iwe, where does the hip injury fit in? What is its significance? (I can attest to the ‘reminders’ wrestling with oneself might leave behind.) ?

    I think it was an ever-present reminder to Jacob that he was changed, and that his creative powers (“hip” is gentle language for the real meaning) should always be constrained. From that point on, everywhere Jacob walked and in every way that he created, he was reminded that he was a different person.

    Ah, indeed so…Different as the sum total of new experiences – and entered into a new relationship – of partnership with Hashem

    • #39
  10. Hypatia Member
    Hypatia
    @

    iWe (View Comment):

    Hypatia (View Comment):
    In the OT, only one thing mattered: obeying God, no matter what

    Oh, not at all!

    Adam is told to farm.

    Cain farms – Abel pushes the envelope, and raises animals. It is Abel’s offering – NOT Cain’s – that was accepted. G-d rewards the one who did NOT listen.

    —–yes, I always kinda feel for Cain–why did God despise his offering? Although I dont remember any prohibition against herding, nor any suggestion that Abel was disobedient.

    This theme repeats itself countless times in the Torah. The Jews who never sinned at all (like Benjamin) never amounted to much. It is the ones who grew who were amazing. Moses is the ultimate exemplar.

    —–Moses is an example of someone God loves no matter what ( well, except for that time He tries to kill him and Zipporah saves him with their son’s bloody foreskin–what’s up with that?    Was it cuz M wasn’t circumcised? ) . M.has done murder too, although in righteous anger.

    And when G-d tells Moses to talk to Pharaoh, Moses does NOT listen to him – Moses argues. He is not punished for it, and indeed ends up winning the argument (Aharon does the speaking in his stead).

    —-but that’s just offering an alternative, isn’t it, like Abraham negotiating about Sodom?   Moses is eventually punished for disobedience by not getting into the Promised Land. (Was that a punishment for the murder, or for smiting  the rock when he should just have tapped it?)

     

    • #40
  11. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Hypatia (View Comment):

    iWe (View Comment):

    Hypatia (View Comment):
    In the OT, only one thing mattered: obeying God, no matter what

    Oh, not at all!

    Adam is told to farm.

    Cain farms – Abel pushes the envelope, and raises animals. It is Abel’s offering – NOT Cain’s – that was accepted. G-d rewards the one who did NOT listen.

    —–yes, I always kinda feel for Cain–why did God despise his offering? Although I dont remember any prohibition against herding, nor any suggestion that Abel was disobedient.

    We Jews tend to read very carefully. Adam was told specifically to do something – Abel did not do it. And yet, Abel was rewarded.

    G-d rewards those who push the envelope, who are not merely obedient sheep. There is in fact no word in ancient Hebrew for “obey” – modern Hebrew had to make one up. There is “listening” and there is “doing” – and one may well not lead to the next.

    This theme repeats itself countless times in the Torah. The Jews who never sinned at all (like Benjamin) never amounted to much. It is the ones who grew who were amazing. Moses is the ultimate exemplar.

    —–Moses is an example of someone God loves no matter what ( well, except for that time He tries to kill him and Zipporah saves him with their son’s bloody foreskin–what’s up with that? Was it cuz M wasn’t circumcised? ) .

    I hope you appreciate that you just negated your own statement.  <smiley>

    M.has done murder too, although in righteous anger.

    And when G-d tells Moses to talk to Pharaoh, Moses does NOT listen to him – Moses argues. He is not punished for it, and indeed ends up winning the argument (Aharon does the speaking in his stead).

    —-but that’s just offering an alternative, isn’t it, like Abraham negotiating about Sodom?

    G-d Almighty tells Moses to do something, and Moses flat out refuses, claiming disability. They have an extended argument; Moses wins it.

    Moses is eventually punished for disobedience by not getting into the Promised Land. (Was that a punishment for the murder, or for smiting the rock when he should just have tapped it?)

    There are many answers to this, but I think it amounts to one conclusion: Moses was not the right leader to go to the next step. He was the Exodus and Wilderness CEO, not the right man to enter the Land of Israel. It may be because he was no longer sympathetic to the people, and that they needed a new leader who was more connected to them.

    In many respects, Moses is the exception. Every other Jew is encouraged (sometimes required) to be married, and intimate with their wives – Moses was too close to G-d for that to be possible. Moses is not an example anyone should try to follow in this respect.

     

    • #41
  12. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Hypatia (View Comment):
    Moses is eventually punished for disobedience by not getting into the Promised Land.

    It may not have been for disobedience at all – but for not showing initiative.

    G-d wants us active and thinking and engaged, not to be mere automatons. Think of marriage again: what is the life in a marriage where one person just obeys the other? Might explain why muslims think submitting to Allah’s will is the point of Islam, and then they project that same requirement on wives, requiring them to fully submit to their husbands.

    Jewish wives are fully engaged and regularly push back when they think they are in the right. The Jewish people have the same relationship to G-d.

    • #42
  13. Hypatia Member
    Hypatia
    @

    I don’t see that I negated my argument in #40.   The Almighty is capricious on the OT occasionally. What is the meaning of the Bridegroom of Blood incident?

    (Please know that I am not arguing with you or challenging you.  It is a rare opportunity to discuss these things with a scholar of the a Torah who knows the Hebrew text!  Thank you!)

    I Reread Genesis, and , by saying Adam was “commanded to farm,” you mean after the fall, when he was cursed to hard labor cuz the ground would no longer spontaneously yield its fruits, like it had in Eden?

    Ok so in your interpretation re Moses, he was just someone God used,  then dropped, he doesn’t get the big promotion, like Gideon, who ends his days as an idolater?

    • #43
  14. Hypatia Member
    Hypatia
    @

    iWe (View Comment):

    Hypatia (View Comment):
    Moses is eventually punished for disobedience by not getting into the Promised Land.

    It may not have been for disobedience at all – but for not showing initiative.

    G-d wants us active and thinking and engaged, not to be mere automatons. Think of marriage again: what is the life in a marriage where one person just obeys the other? Might explain why muslims think submitting to Allah’s will is the point of Islam, and then they project that same requirement on wives, requiring them to fully submit to their husbands.

    Jewish wives are fully engaged and regularly push back when they think they are in the right. The Jewish people have the same relationship to G-d.

     

    i agree, God in the OT seems to love to bargain, appreciates a bit of spunk ( but, I still say, brooks no outright disobedience without awful punishment).

    And:  like Father, like Son!  See Mark 7:25-30.  the only person who ever bests Jesus in an argument is a Gentile, and a woman.   She asked healing for her daughter, and Jesus says, it is not right to take the children’s (meaning  his own people, the Jews’) food,  and give it to the dogs (Gentiles).

    She shoots back, “Yes, Lord, yet  the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.”    As a reward for her quick wit, He heals her sick daughter.

    • #44
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