0 By Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, Ph.D. 1 DEDICATION To My Daughter Lana With Love 2 Contents DEDICATION ......................................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER ONE: THE LIFE OF ADAM .......................................................................... 4 CHAPTER TWO: THE LIFE OF NOAH ....................................................................... 18 CHAPTER THREE: THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM .......................................................... 30 CHAPTER FOUR: THE LIFE OF ISAAC ...................................................................... 55 CHAPTER FIVE: THE LIFE OF JACOB ....................................................................... 66 CHAPTER ONE: THE HIDDEN STORY OF JACOB .............................................. 66 CHAPTER TWO: THE HIDDEN STORY JACOB’S CHILDREN ...................... 107 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................... 137 3 CHAPTER ONE: THE LIFE OF ADAM Adam and his life partner Eve are undoubtedly the most well-known couple in the history of the world. They are the parents of all humankind. Their story is how it all began. Adam and Eve are the subjects not only of countless sermons and Bible studies, but also of classical and modern art. Although their story is one of the most familiar and discussed stories in the Western world, our understanding is usually based on translations and not on the original Hebrew text. Therefore, important nuances of the story are often overlooked. Even though many other Biblical characters had spouses, Adam and Eve are unique and cannot be discussed or examined separately from each other. Therefore, this study will look at them together. ”.adam), which is translated as “Adam,” simply means “human) אָדָ ם The Hebrew word (adam) אָדָ ם gever), but) גֶּבֶּר ish) and) אִ יׁש There are other words for “man” in Hebrew, such as adam) is connected with several other) אָדָ ם best signifies the idea of “humanity.” The word Hebrew words. This connection clarified its meaning for the original readership of the book of Genesis – the ancient Hebrews understood something we generally do not. Two ”,adamah) “ground, earth) אַדְמָ ה adom) “red” and) אָדֹם words connected with Adam are which show us that the basic meaning of Adam’s name was somehow associated with both dam) “blood,” comes from a different root) דַ ם ,redness” and “ground.” Another word“ but has similar sounds and thus may have sprung to mind via association. I am so happy that you downloaded my book. This shows real enthusiasm about discovering the true meaning of the Hebrew Bible! I invite you to explore something that will let you to get most out of this book. (place it without color, just in black). LEARN SOME HEBREW FROM HOME The First Account of Human Creation The first account of Adam’s origin is found in Genesis 1:26-31. However, it is important to read this account in the context of the whole creation story. Having presented the creation of light (Day 1), sky (Day 2), land and plants (Day 3), stars (Day 4), and fish and birds (Day 5), the stage was set for the most important work of creation on Day 6. On the sixth day, God created land animals and humans. It is striking to see that, while the human race is created last, it is nevertheless created within the same day as the animal kingdom. The moral of the story here is not that humans are animals, but that humans and land animals have a much closer relationship than anything else in creation. This will become abundantly clear later when we examine the story of the next hero of the Hebrew Bible – Noah. It all began in Genesis 1:26 when God, speaking either to Himself or to His heavenly council, said: 4 וַיֹאמֶּ ר אֱֹלהִ ים נַעֲשֶּ ה אָדָ ם בְ צַלְמֵ נּו כִדְ מּותֵ נּו וְיִרְ דּו בִדְ גַת הַיָם ּובְ עֹוף הַשָמַיִם ּובַבְהֵמָ ה ּובְ כָל־ הָאָרֶּ ץ ּובְ כָל־הָרֶּ מֶּ ש הָרֹמֵ ש עַל־הָאָרֶּ ץ׃ “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.” (Gen. 1:26) Adam (and, as we will see in the next verse, this includes Eve) was created not only to be connected with redness (perhaps from blood) and the ground, but also as the author of be-tsalmenu ki-dmutenu), which is commonly and) בְ צַלְמֵ נּו כִדְמּותֵ נּו Genesis described it דְ מּות tselem) and) צֶּלֶּם faithfully translated “in our image and likeness.” The two concepts of nu) makes-) ”-נּו“ demut) are very similar and, in fact, function as parallelism. The ending) both “image” and “likeness” qualified by the possessive “our.” Like many other languages of the world, Hebrew is a poetic language. It has its own poetic conventions and constructions. One such construction is Hebrew parallelism. This is a literary device whereby the second line (or in this case, word) says something synonymous or complementary to the first, thus expanding the meaning of the first concept. As we will tsel), an) צֵ ל ”tselem) is connected with the idea of a “shadow) צֶּלֶּם ,see in later discussions tselem) and is) צֶּלֶּם demut) is parallel to) דְ מּות .imperfect image resembling that which casts it connected with the ideas of “similarity” and “imagination.” The Hebrew words for -ke) כ- ”be-) and “as/according to) ב- ”image” and “likeness” use different prefixes, “into“ ), but this is normal for Hebrew. They could be translated differently but do not necessarily need to be. Thus the Torah begins its story-telling, seeking to persuade former Egyptian slaves – the Israelites – that not only the Pharaoh of Egypt, but they, too, have great divine origins. All humans were created in the image and the likeness of God. Together their father Adam and mother Eve were powerful rulers of all God’s creation. They were to exercise redemptive dominion over the fish, birds, cattle, the earth and every creeping thing. The yirdu) “they shall rule” in the abovementioned Genesis 1:26 is not the normal) יִרְ דּו verb verb for the simple idea of “ruling”; rather, in many contexts its underlying root connotes “dominating” or even “subjugating.” God’s creation needed a boots-on-the-ground manager, or better yet, a “dominant” “king” who would nonetheless be loving and selfless. Incidentally, the idea of the “son of God” in the Hebrew Bible essentially denotes “kingship,” meaning “being appointed by God to rule” (Ps. 2). This is probably why when Luke describes the genealogy of Jesus going back to Adam, we read that he was not only “the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam…,” but also that Adam was “the son of God” (3:36b-38). The New Testament Scriptures will later develop this connection in very significant ways, showing how Christ the King becomes the last Adam who will eventually bring fallen humanity into a new, redemptive relationship with God in a way that is much greater than it once was at the time of creation (1 Cor. 15:35-58). We read in Genesis 1:28: 5 וַיְבָרֶּ ְך אֹתָ ם אֱֹלהִ ים וַיֹאמֶּ ר לָהֶּם אֱֹלהִ ים פְ רּו ּורְ בּו ּומִ לְאּו אֶּת־הָאָרֶּ ץ וְכִבְ ׁשֻׁהָ ּורְ דּו בִדְ גַת הַיָם ּובְ עֹוף הַשָמַיִם ּובְ כָל־חַיָה הָרֹמֶּשֶּ ת עַל־הָאָרֶּ ץ׃ God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on the earth.” (Gen. 1:28) As we read about the blessing that God placed upon Adam and Eve, we must understand (barakh) בָרַ ך the basic meaning of this highly important ancient concept. The Hebrew word (berekh) בֶּרֶּ ך may literally mean either “to bless” or “to kneel.” In Hebrew the related word means “knee.” It's not clear which of the two meanings of the verb came first. It is barakh) “bless” is often juxtaposed with) בָרַ ך interesting that in the Hebrew Bible the verb arar) “curse.” The latter verb may be connected to the idea of “binding” and) אָרַ ר the verb barakh) perhaps) בָרַ ך limitation” or “restriction.” For that reason we may speculate that“ had an opposite connotation, namely “gaining freedom” or “being set free.” This concept is very hard for us to visualize because to the modern mind it remains just a concept. But for the ancients “the blessing” was something very real, possessing the enormous creative power of God that was meant to be released in His final creation – humanity. The Israelites that had just left Egypt needed to understand that they worshiped the God of all humanity, especially since this very God had singled them out for a special covenantal relationship through their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What would be the relationship between them and the nations of the world? What is the difference between the blessings of Israel and the blessings of the world? All these questions the Torah will yet raise and answer in the minds of Israelites in the stories that await us. There are other linguistic treasures that could be pointed out here, but we will continue with our story of Adam and Eve. In blessing Adam and Eve, God set their trajectory for growth and expansion. It is customary to call “be fruitful and multiply” a commandment, but the natural flow of the text rather seems to point to this being a description of the blessing given. Now that Adam and Eve are blessed by God, they are “set free” to fulfill their magnificent purpose to exercise loving and caring dominion over the created order by being fertile and increasing numerically, thereby filling the earth and mastering it.