ADAM AND EVE Genesis 2.4 to 3.24
=Interpretation.= This is one of the narratives of the Bible whose
real meaning in its entirety it is impossible to teach the child. To
understand it, would require an experience that in the very nature
of the case the child cannot have had. A partial understanding of
its moral can, however, be imparted to him and the significant facts
of the story be so impressed on his mind that he will remember them
and, in later years, perceive their deeper meaning in the light
of acquired experience. The story of Adam and Eve is the story
of man and woman as exemplified in the progenitors of the human
race. The Eden of blissful innocence is lost when there awakens in
man the appetite for a forbidden knowledge, for an experience of
evil as well as of good, an experience which in the end leaves him
conscious of his nakedness, conscious of having sinned, and of being
disillusioned, conscious of being altogether in a worse plight than
if he had never sought after the forbidden knowledge. Obviously this
deeper meaning cannot be realized by the child, but certain elements
of it can be brought home to him; he can be made to feel that the
enjoyment of the good things in life is dependent upon an implicit
obedience to the laws that God has laid down as conditioning their
enjoyment, so that disobedience means the loss of these joys.
=Aim.= The aim of the story of Adam and Eve must then be, from
the point of view of the child, the recognition of the duty of
implicit, unquestioning obedience to legitimate authority. So far
the moral is universal and not specifically Jewish. Were we to rest
here, we would not be realizing to the full the aim of instruction
in Biblical history that we had set before us in the introduction.
But, though the moral of the story of Adam and Eve is a universal
one, it can be associated, as was done in the case of the story of
creation, with certain aspects of Jewish life. Thus the legitimate
authority for which we claim implicit obedience from the child can
and should be made the Torah, and particular emphasis should in this
connection be laid on the dietary laws because of their analogy to
the divine commandment in the lesson, "of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it." In this way the moral of the lesson
is, so to speak, dramatized in the daily life of the child and is
made to increase his loyalty to Judaism as a whole.
=Suggestions to the teacher.= After what has been said with regard
to the aim of this chapter, little remains to be noted by way of
suggestions regarding method, as the story in its Biblical form
is already admirably adapted to satisfy the child's love of a
good story. The moral, as we have suggested it, while it should
receive due emphasis at the end of the story particularly when it
is being repeated by the children and so has become the subject
of class discussion, should not be made too obtrusive in telling
the story itself. The words of the serpent in tempting Eve and
the conversation in which God rebukes Adam, Eve and the serpent
should be quoted as nearly as possible in the Biblical language.
In pointing out the connection between the story and its moral as
given above, do so by questioning the child rather than by simply
stating it yourself. Questions that may be suggestive are the
following:
When God gave Adam and Eve so many trees to eat from and everything
else that they needed, was it right that they should eat the fruit
of the one tree that God had told them not to eat of, just because
they wanted to know how it tasted?
If your parents, who give you so many things, your food and your
clothes and your toys, sometimes tell you to do this or that which
at the time you don't feel like doing, how ought you to act?
Do you know of any things that we Jews don't eat because God, who
has made everything we eat, told us not to eat them?