Another thing

March 10, 2014
Another thing . . . (continued from yesterday)

Eve eats of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and she gives to Adam to eat, and their eyes are opened. They once were blind but now they see. And what do they see? − that they are naked.

          Yet, the story is not about sex. Or, it’s not about sex yet. It is about sexual awakening and wonder. Before they eat and their eyes are opened, Eve and Adam are like children. Now, they see each other naked, their grown-up parts.

We can’t ask what God is thinking about this − against the rules. But about God’s law − what are the big deals? Among them anyway: dietary restrictions, what you can and can’t eat when you can and can't eat it; sexual restrictions, whom you can and cannot lie with when you can and can't lie with them. Both have to do with human sensuality. Miriam cannot eat shrimp, because she might bite into one and think, “Oh, my God.” Aaron cannot lie with this woman or that during these times or those, because he might think − as his descendant David does when he only sees Bathsheba bathing on her roof  − “Oh, my God!” 

          So is this what Adam thinks when he sees Eve naked for the first time, what she thinks when she sees him − “Oh, my God”? Something like that, even if they are not thinking at all. They cannot catch their breath much less their thoughts. They are completely intrigued, excited, agitated, and dismayed. They are bewitched, bothered, and bewildered with all their hearts. They cover their nakedness not for shame but because it’s too much to bear all at once. It’s too wonderful to see.

          So they cover up until night comes, and they can figure out what to do these “things” in the dark. After that they will cleave to each other . . . even after Adam has blamed Eve for eating the apple (and she has blamed the serpent), even after they have been expelled from the garden, even or especially at the end of a long day of earning bread by the sweat of their brows. They’ll take off the skins God has made for them and lie down together and think as night deepens and the ages roll, “Oh, my God.”

Y

(icbw)