On Simchat Torah we finish our yearly reading of the Torah, and start again “in the beginning.” This week, we offer these reflections on the Book of Genesis (B’reishit).
The relationship between humanity and the Divine in the Garden of Eden begins with a question, and the narrative of Adam and Eve ends with one as well.
After Adam and Eve are created, and after they have eaten the forbidden fruit, God asks a seemingly simple question: Ayekha—Where are you? But, of course, from a theological standpoint, it is not so simple. If God is indeed omniscient—all-knowing—why would God have to ask? God knows exactly where Adam (and Eve) are, and God knows what they have done.
Commentators over the centuries have noted that the question is not one of physical location, but rather one of deeper spiritual presence. Later in the Torah, Abraham and Moses answer a similar question, each saying: Hineni—Here I am. Our tradition understands their answer as one of readiness, of metaphysical location and self-awareness. In this context, Adam’s answer to God—”I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”— feels particularly lacking. God is not asking for physical location, but rather for a relational answer, or a taking of responsibility.
This seems even more clear when read in conversation with the last question in Adam and Eve’s family saga. After Cain kills his brother Abel, God asks Cain: “Where is your brother, Abel?”
As with Adam, God’s question is not meant to be of physical location. As in Adam’s story, God knows where Abel is and what has happened. Instead, Rashi suggests, this is God’s attempt to enter into friendly conversation, to cool Cain’s temper, and to open the possibility that he might repent and say, “I have killed him, and sinned against You.” As with his father, God is perhaps trying to give Cain the chance to take responsibility—to enter into a real process of teshuvah. Cain, of course, does not.
I have heard it taught that while the Christian teaching on the beginning of the Book of Genesis is that of Original Sin, we read these texts through a lens of Original Repentance. These two questions, bookmarking this family saga and opening our most sacred text, remind us of the potential and the responsibility of the work of teshuvah, of not avoiding the difficult questions, and of staying present in our most important relationships.
—Rabbi Sari Laufer