Creation Of Adam:
Day 6, 3761 years Before The Common Era

The laws of nature, decreed by G-d, compel every part of creation to fulfill His will. There is one exception. Man is given the ability to disobey G-d's instructions.

Adam and his partner Eve live on a much higher plane of life than we do today. G-d communicates directly with them and provides them with guidelines for living. They are given a fair opportunity to very quickly achieve their perfection and the resulting eternal greatness

The responsibility to succeed is enormous, especially since they have a close and open relationship with G-d.

They fail.

Their act of sin imbeds deformities within their very being. To achieve the planned greatness they and their descendants must become purged of these deformities. Also, they must expend additional effort to reach perfection and their reward.

Mankind becomes subject to many hardships. Man will be temporarily removed from the physical world. That is, he will die. One of the reasons for death is that the foreknowledge of  death contributes to making a person humble. This can therefore make a person more inclined to do G-d's will and achieve perfection.

As a result of Adam's failing, G-d’s existence is made to appear less obvious to Mankind. This causes a corresponding reduction in risk and responsibility for Mankind.

Adam's failure does not frustrate the purpose of creation. Rather it contributes to the definition of the method which Adam and his descendants will use to obtain perfection and achieve behavioral harmony with the rest of the world.

Mankind's future history is significantly altered because of one man and one woman's behavior. This is because all of Mankind descends from this family.

We see that Man is not a mere victim of history. To some degree Mankind is also its author.

Also, we see the importance of the individual. Anyone and everyone can make a difference.

Judaism asserts that Adam's sin did not cause the rest of Mankind to be automatically damned from birth. Rather, a new starting point is established for each person and everyone must strive towards perfection. The course contains great risks.

We know from the Oral Torah that Adam's first post-Garden of Eden discovery was fire. The Jewish people make a blessing on a candle every Saturday night during the Havdala ceremony to commemorate this. From then on, Mankind assumes G-d's charge to conquer the world and improve the quality of life.

Adam's son Kayin (Cain) fights over turf with his brother Hevel (Abel) and he commits the first murder. Half of the world is not enough for a person who is out of control. Kayin wanted it all. Kayin lost it all.

Not very much is known about early civilization.

In Loving Memory Of Our Father, Mr. Joseph Black (Yosef Ben Zelig) O"H In Loving Memory Of Our Mother, Mrs. Norma Black (Nechama Bas Tzvi Hirsh) O"H

© 1996- by Tzvi Black, JewishAmerica. All rights reserved.