Torah Lesson 2 Adam and Eve

INTRODUCTION

As you may be aware, our Torah text actually contains two stories of Creation. The first (Genesis 1:1–2:3) is the more general story and shows God creating the entire world in seven days. The second (Genesis 2:4–24) focuses primarily on the creation of human beings and their life in the Garden of Eden, the first home for people. For the purposes of this curriculum, we are not focusing on how things that are described in the Torah happened, but we are, instead, searching out the lessons that each story has to teach us. When we use this lens, myriad lessons reach out to us across the generations.

Though you may want to explain to your students that there are two stories of Creation from our tradi- tion (the “seven-day” one and the “Garden of Eden” one), this lesson will focus on God’s decision to create both male and female, enabling boys and girls alike to see themselves in the story of Torah and the Jewish people.

The text tells us, “God Eternal considered, ‘It is not good that the man be alone—I will make him a helpmate’” (Genesis 2:18). God brings before Adam all of the creatures God has created, but none are a fit- ting helpmate for Adam. Eventually, God creates Eve, because even with all of the animals, “Adam found no helpmate” (Genesis 2:20). (Chava is the Hebrew translation for the first woman and comes from the root “life.” The name “Eve,” as many of us are used to, actually comes from the Greek translation. In this lesson we will use Eve.) Human beings were placed on this earth for more than just caring for the earth: they were placed here to care for one another—to be “helpmates” to each other.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS • Torah is an ongoing dialogue between the text and its students.

• Torah is real in our daily lives; it goes with us wherever we are.

• Developing the skills to study Torah is essential to integrating Torah into our lives.

• I am part of the ongoing story of Torah and the Jewish people.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS 1. What does the Torah have to say to me and my world?

2. How can Torah study help me in my everyday life?

17 18 Torah Lesson 2 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life

3. Why is the Torah different from other books?

4. What is the story of Torah?

5. What does it mean to be part of the story of Torah and the Jewish people?

6. How can I play an active role in the story of Torah?

QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED 1. Who was the first person that God created?

2. Why did God create a second person?

EVIDENCE OF UNDERSTANDING • Students will play a game to indicate the things that they can and cannot do alone.

• Students will decorate an image of a tree with an image or a sentence describing someone who is a helpmate to them. They will affix an image of a tree to their Genesis Traveler.

LESSON OVERVIEW • Set Induction (10 minutes)

• Music and Text Study (15 minutes)

• What Adam Needed (5–10 minutes)

• Alone/Together Game (10 minutes)

• Conclusion (10 minutes)

MATERIALS NEEDED • CHAI Level 1 CD, track 4, “The Very First People.”

• Image of a tree, one per student (in student workbook)

• Glue/glue sticks.

• Letter to parents (page 24).

READING RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS Genesis 2:4–24 (p. 23)

Arkus, Elaine Posner. Torah Alive! An Early Childhood Torah Curriculum. New York: URJ Press, 2004.

“The Very First People.” Torah Alive! Music Connection: Torah Songs for Kids (CD). Available from Transcontinental Music (www.transcontinentalmusic.com). CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Adam and Eve 19

LESSON VOCABULARY

Eve The first woman.

Adam The first man. matriarch A woman who holds a leadership role in a family. In Judaism, there are four Matriarchs in the Bible: Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel. patriarch A man who holds a leadership role in a family. In Judaism, there are three Patriarchs in the Bible: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

LESSON PLAN

SET INDUCTION (10 MINUTES)

1. Sing or play the class welcome song.

2. Recite the blessing for Torah study together.

3. Create a visual on the board or on a chart that contains a circle in the middle and a larger circle sur- rounding it (like a donut). In the center circle, write the word “You.” In the outside circle, write: parents, friend, teacher, rabbi, bus driver, sister, brother, doctor, and babysitter. Read the words in the outer circle to the students.

Babysitter Doctor Parent Brother Friend You Sister Teacher Bus driver Rabbi

4. Explain to the students that the outer circle contains many of the people who help them. Ask the students what would happen if we took away all the people who help in the outer circle.1 (Possible answers: There would be no one to help me do the things I can’t do myself, I would be lonely, I wouldn’t be able to get to school, etc.)

5. Explain to the students that in this Torah lesson, they will learn why God created more than one person so that no one had to be alone.

1If a student mentions or suggests that someone no longer helps them because that person died, affirm the sadness of loss and speak to the child privately later in the class to determine if the help of the rabbi or a mental health professional is needed. 20 Torah Lesson 2 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life

LEARNING ACTIVITIES Music and Text Study (15 minutes)

1. Look together at the Genesis Journey Map and have students find the story you are going to study today—the very first story.

2. Tell the students you are going to play a song for them. Ask the students to listen carefully to learn the names of the first two people that God created. Play the song “The Very First People.”

3. Read the following story of Adam and Eve. Have the students follow along in their workbooks (pages 2–3). They can either read the words or look at the pictures (or both). The Story of Adam and Eve (Adapted from Genesis 2:1–24) When God finished creating the heavens and the earth, there were no people to care for the land. So God created Adam from the dust of the earth and made him alive.

God planted a beautiful garden, called the Garden of Eden, and gave it to Adam to live in and care for. God filled the trees with fruit for Adam to eat. God told him, “You may eat all you like of every tree in the garden—but of the Tree of All Knowledge [eitz daat] you may not eat, for the moment you eat of it you shall be doomed to die.”

God watched Adam as the days passed and saw that he was not happy being alone. “I will make him a helpmate,” God said. So God created all the cattle and all the wild beasts and all the birds of the sky and brought them to Adam to give them names. Adam named them all, but none of them were a good helpmate for him.

God put Adam into a deep sleep, and God created woman. Adam awoke and saw that she was a perfect helpmate, and he said, “Let this one be called woman.” And so God created the first two people—Adam and Eve—who would be the mother and father of the entire world.

What Adam Needed (5–10 minutes) 1. Explain to the students that we are now going to look at one reason that God created people. Read again to the students the section of the text where God looks for a helpmate for Adam. Stop reading at “but none of them were a good helpmate for him.”

2. Explain that in the part of the story that the class just read, God had created many animals so Adam would have everything he needed. Tell the students to turn to page 4 in their workbooks, “What Adam Needed,” and to look at the pictures of animals in the first column (on the left). Ask the students to work alone or with the person sitting next to them to draw a line between the animal in the column on the left and the thing that animal could give Adam, in the column on the right. (Answers: bees offer Adam honey, cow offers Adam milk, chicken offers Adam eggs, sheep offers Adam a woolly coat.)

3. When the students are finished, ask volunteers to answer the question of what each animal could give Adam. Point out that even with these things, Adam still had a problem, something he needed that the animals could not give him. Invite volunteers to guess what Adam needed. (Answer: Even with all of the animals, Adam is lonely being the only human. He needed love and friendship.) CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Adam and Eve 21

Alone/Together Game (10 minutes)

1. Line the children up in a row or in a circle and say, “There are some things we cannot do alone. When I name something that you can do alone, sit down. When I name something you need someone else in order to do, stand up.” Read the following list:

• Play hide and seek

• Go to the doctor if you are sick

• Play on a teeter-totter (seesaw)

• Play a video game

• Look at a storybook with pictures

• Play ping-pong

• Play on the computer

• Have a tug of war

• Get a hug when you are sad or scared

• Build with LEGO bricks

• Run in the yard

• Buy groceries for dinner

• Play catch

2. You may want to invite students to take a turn as “leader” and to call out things that can either be done alone or together, and have the class respond in the same way as before.

3. To conclude, point out to the students that God created people so we wouldn’t be alone. God wants us to have families and friends who can help us and whom we can also help.

Conclusion (10 minutes) 1. Explain to the students that today they learned why more than one person was created—to take care of each other.

2. Explain to the students that, just like we discussed during our last class, we are going to add something each week to our Genesis Traveler. Today, we are going to add something about the helpmates in our lives.

3. Ask students, “Take a moment to think about who is a helpmate to you. Who comforts you when you are scared or lonely? Who do you talk to when you are very happy or upset?”

4. Ask students to turn to page 5 in their workbook. Explain that at the end of each story that they learn in class they will decorate a large version of an item for their Genesis Traveler. When they have com- 22 Torah Lesson 2 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life

pleted decorating the item, they will receive a small version of the item to glue on their Genesis Traveler in the back of their book.

5. Ask students, “Why do you think that we would add a tree to our Genesis Traveler to help us remem- ber the story of God creating Eve to be with Adam?” (Answer: A tree reminds us of the Garden of Eden and how God created both Adam and Eve so they could be together in the garden.)

6. Ask students to draw or write in the tree a person who is a helpmate to them. Remind students that a helpmate is someone who is a partner who comforts you, helps you feel safe, and keeps you com- pany. When students have completed decorating their tree, have them cut out the tree image from page 31 of their workbooks. The students should color in the image of the tree. If you have posted the My Genesis Travelers on a bulletin board, take them down and hand them to the students. If not, have them open their workbooks to the My Genesis Traveler page. Give the students glue or glue sticks and have them paste the image of the tree over the dotted outline of the tree on the My Genesis Traveler page.

7. Sing or play the good-bye song.

8. Hand out the parent letter (page 24). CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Adam and Eve 23

Background: Torah Text about Adam and Eve Genesis 2:4–24

2:4] This is the chronicle of heaven and earth when they were created, on the day God Eternal made earth and heaven. 5] No shrub of the field was yet on the earth, no plant of the field had yet sprung up—for God Eternal had not poured rain down upon the earth, and there was not a soul to till the soil— 6] though a flow would emerge from the earth and water the surface of the soil. 7] Then God Eternal fashioned the man—dust from the soil—and breathed into his nos- trils the breath of life, so that the man became a living being. 8] To the east, God Eternal planted a garden in Eden, setting the man there whom [God] had formed. 9] Then, out of the soil, God Eternal grew trees alluring to the eye and good for fruit; and in the middle of the garden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of All Knowledge. 10] A river went forth from Eden to water the garden; from there it divided and became four branches. 11] The first was named Pishon—that one flows around the land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12] The gold of that land is fine; bdellium is there, and onyx stone. 13] The second was named Gihon—that one flows around the land of Cush. 14] The third was named Tigris—that one flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15] So God Eternal took the man, placing him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16] God Eternal then commanded the man, saying, “You may eat all you like of every tree in the garden— 17] but of the Tree of All Knowledge you may not eat, for the moment you eat of it you shall be doomed to die.” 18] Then God Eternal considered, “It is not good that the man be alone—I will make him a helpmate.” 19] So God Eternal formed the wild animals and the birds of the sky out of the soil, and brought the man to see what he would call each one; and whatever the man called it, that became the creature’s name. 20] The man gave names to every domestic animal and to the birds of the sky, and to all the wild animals, but for [himself] Adam found no helpmate. 21] Then, throw- ing the man into a profound slumber, so that he slept, God Eternal took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in that place. 22] Now God Eternal built up the rib taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man, 23] and the man said, “This time— / bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh! / Let this one be called woman, / for this one is taken from man.” 24] So it is that a man will leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and they become one flesh. CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life

Dear Parents,

Today in class we studied the story of Adam and Eve, the first people. As you may be aware, our Torah text actually contains two stories of Creation. The first (Genesis 1:1-2:3) is the more general story and shows God creating the entire world in seven days. The second (Genesis 2:4-24) focuses primarily on the creation of human beings and their life in the Garden of Eden—the first home for people. In studying the story of Adam and Eve, the children were “text detectives”; they searched for the clues as to why God created Adam and Eve. As they read, the students learned that after creating Adam, God realized Adam was lonely. God then created Eve so that Adam would have a companion. The text teaches us that humans are social and that we need one another. You may want to have a family conversation about how members of the family can help one another, thereby reflecting an important Torah value.

For additional information, visit Family Shabbat Table Talk at urj.org/Shabbat/genesis and select B’reishit, 5765. Here you will find another discussion of the story of Adam and Eve and how both Creation stories can be “true” in their own ways.

Sincerely,

______