Bereishis 2024: Before Bestiality Became Repugnant
by devadmin | October 23, 2024 12:43 am
Raboyseyee and Ladies,
Before Bestiality Became Repugnant:
In 2019, Lamar Odom revealed that he had slept with over 2,000 women; mamish a behyamo (an animal). On day six of creation -or somewhere around that time period, Odom (Adam), according to the heylige Gemora, the first human on this earth, may have had sex with many animals -domesticated and wild- before settling down with his wife Chava (Eve). How’s that for a headline? OMG and welcome to a new cycle! More on that below.
Shoin, it’s Monday morning and the heylige Ois has just returned from a bris where a new baby -born to Jennifer and Chanina Wolf (children of Esty and Avi Goldstein, friends of over thirty years) was named and welcomed into the fold. Welcome to the world and may you bring much and only joy to your parents, grandparents, great- grandparents and to your entire extended family. The entire naming ceremony got me thinking about some naming which takes place in this week’s parsha of Bereishis but let us begin here first.
The Mets lost and au revoir until next year. The Giants and Jets are both depressing to watch -mamish not good for one’s health- and shoin, come this shabbis following two more days of Yom Tov and just like that we’re back to where we started one year ago and every year this time. It’s Parshas Bereishis which covers creation of the word, the animal kingdom, and humankind along with his many foibles -mamish from day one- and so much more.
So happens that during the Sunday games, the heylige Ois was the recipient of emails and WhatsApp’s asking if he’s going to put out a Parshas Bereishis shtikel. Asked one reader azoy: “Doesn’t the Ruv know that Yom Tov this year runs right into the heylige shabbis and that we, his forever loyal chasiddim, need shabbis tish material?” Avada the Ruv is humbled that his loyal readers are mamish thirsty for more and here then is Bereishis 2024 for your reading pleasure.
Avada you all know that on the first shabbis following Simchas Toirah, the day we celebrate the completion of yet another cycle of Toirah reading by making kiddush often and by dancing and holding the sweaty hands of other grown men in Shul we barely say hello to during the year, we begin all over again. Well, that’s only partially true because the emes is that we try our best to not end up holding hands with people we can’t stand. There are many to pick from and every shul has them.
Welcome to Parshas Bereishis, and this Shabbis we’ll read how the RBSO created di gantze velt (the entire world) in six days and rested on the seventh. And just like that, the heylige Shabbis was born. Ever since, thousands of pages have been, and continue to be written about its observance. When did the Yiddin actually begin observing shabbis? Did the collective of Yiddin ever observe more than one consecutive shabbis? According to those who believe the Moshiach will reveal himself only when all the Yiddin observe two consecutive shabbosim, the answer is a resounding no, at least for now. The better question might be is all the Yiddin worldwide ever kept one shabbis. Nu, let’s not spend time on this subject, it’s never-ending.
Efsher you’re wondering….why is it taka that we read the same Toirah all over again, each and every year? Do we read books more than once? Even the best one’s? We do not? That being said, kulo almi loi piligi (no one would argue) that of course we do watch certain TV shows and movies whenever they come on, even for a tenth time, or whenever we’re flipping the channels and happen to land on them. The Fugitive and The Shawshank Redemption come to mind, along with Friends, Seinfeld, ober books? Why taka do we read the heylige Toirah all over again beginning this shabbis? What’s pshat? Has something changed in the thousands of years since it was revealed? Did Kayin not kill Hevel in this year’s reading? Did the snake not seduce Chava in the 2024 version? Did the three main propagandists not partake of the forbidden fruit? The bottom line is this: After several iterations of when to read the heylige Toirah and on what days, in more recent centuries, our rabbis chimed in and confirmed that we must avada read the entire Toirah from beginning to end each and every year. And here we are. We have previously written on this topic and if you want more history, check out the archives at Oisvorfer.com and type Ezra in the search bar.
What does Bereishis offer? It recounts the history of creation, and features the first coming together of man and woman. It’s perhaps more famous for the first ever sins in history which included murder, and what the goyim rafter to as the “original sin,” the partaking of the forbidden fruit.
It appears that all was going well with the RBSO’s creation plan until day six when He decided to create man. Shortly thereafter, though exactly how much time had elapsed we don’t know with certainty, the RBSO decided that Man needed some companionship, and someone to blame for his misdeeds; mamish ingenious! Shoin, He also created Woman. He gave the woman to the man and shoin. The world has never been the same.
Odom (Man) and Chava (Eve) became one, had children, and we get to meet their two sons, Kayin and Hevel (Cain and Abel). As is the case with many siblings, the boys didn’t get along. As a result, our parsha features the first murder. Two brothers, lots of everything to share and enjoy, ober, seemingly it wasn’t meant to be. Blood brothers they turned out to be. Exactly why this capital murder case isn’t known as the first or original sin, ver veyst? Isn’t murder, especially premeditated -in cold blood mamish- a terrible sin? Doesn’t the eating of an apple or whatever fruit it was, pale by comparison?
And since it’s the beginning all over again, avada it’s good to lay the foundation for the entire book of Genesis. When did this entire meyseh (incident) take place? Says the heylige medrish: Chava was created and gave birth on the very same day and that her children were born as adults. Of course it was a miracle, what else?! Ober, as a result of Chava’s transgression and efsher illicit relationship with the snake, pregnancy -as we know it today- was extended to forty weeks. Children are born as babies, and avada require much self-sacrifice to raise. Odom didn’t get away scot-free either: The RBSO decreed that man will earn his living with difficulty. And says the medrish: Jewish women were given and are entrusted with three special mitzvis to atone for Chava’s sin: lighting Shabbis candles, separating the Challah (symbolic of the kashrus of the home), and Taharas Hamishpocha (family purity). Can you imagine that all this took place on Friday, the sixth day? Is it a wonder that the RBSO rested on day seven?
Ober this year, as the title teased, let’s focus in on Odom, Chava’s bashert and husband. Let us recall that the RBSO Himself made this first ever shidduch. Says the Radak: Odom named his wife “Chava” immediately after they committed the sin of partaking of the forbidden fruit. Says the Radak that Odom experienced sexual desire for the first time after partaking of the fruit, and it was thus at this point when he understood that he would cohabit with Chava and beget children with her. He therefore named her “Chava,” which alludes to her being eim kol chai, the “mother of all living beings.”
Ober (however), says the Ibn Ezra and others that Odom and Chava had sexual relations and reproduced even while living in Gan Eden (Paradise). Rashi, in his commentary (4:1), follows this approach and writes that although the births of Kayin and Hevel (Odom and Chava’s two eldest sons) are recorded only after the narrative of the sin, they were in fact born earlier, in Gan Eden. And says Rashi, quoting the Medrish (3:20): the snake saw Odom and Chava engaging in marital relations and desired Chava, prompting it to devise its scheme to have Odom killed. The bottom line: see something, want something!
What’s the big to do if they did or didn’t have sexual relations or bear children before or after the snake incident? Nu, avada there is a machloikes (disagreement,) and we find different views as to which of Odom’s and Chava’s children were conceived and born in Gan Eden, and which were conceived only later, after the sin of the forbidden fruit.
Says the heylige Gemora (Sanhedrin 38b), that already on the day when Odom and Chava were created, they engaged in marital relations “and four [people] got down [from the bed].” The difficult process of gestation and labor was decreed only later, as punishment for the sin of the forbidden fruit, and thus Odom and Chava’s offspring emerged from the womb immediately after conception. Let’s get that back please. Ober, which four people got down from the bed? It is unclear. Two of them, of course, were Odom and Chava, but who were the two children? Rav Eliyahu Mizrachi (4:2) explains the Gemora as referring to Kayin and Hevel, and thus in his opinion, Kayin and Hevel were twins. Toisfes, by contrast, holds that the heylige Gemora here refers to the famous midrashic tradition of twin sisters born together with Kayin and Hevel. Thus, the two children born in Gan Eden were Kayin and his twin sister. Hevel and his twin sister (or sisters; there are different views as to how many girls were born with Hevel) were born later, after the expulsion from the garden. Another medrish tells us that from Odom and Chava either four or seven people – meaning, two or five children – emerged from their encounter in Gan Eden. According to one view, Chava delivered quintuplets, the first ever: Kayin, Hevel, and three sisters. This is the view taken in the medrish Bereishis Rabba (22:2). The other view, which claimed that only two children emerged, likely held that only Kayin and his twin sister were born in Gan Eden, while Hevel was conceived and born after the expulsion. Got all that? Not? Let’s review:
1) The Radak and Ibn Ezra both suggest that Odom and Chava did not cohabit until after the sin of the forbidden fruit.
2) Toisfes understands the Gemora’s comment in Sanhedrin azoy: Kayin and his twin sister were born in Gan Eden, while Hevel and his twin sister (or twin sisters) were born after the expulsion.
3) Ober says the medrish (Bereishis Rabba) that Chava delivered five children in Gan Eden: Kayin, Hevel, and three girls.
Says the heylige Toirah (Bereishis 3,21): “Hashem made for Odom and for his wife garments of skin”. Asks and answers the Yalkut, azoy: From where was the skin? From the skin of the serpent whose skin was stripped off. Seemingly the snake stripped down more than once, if you chap. And as expected, many commentaries were not happy to read this pshat. In order to clothe Odom the skin was stripped off the serpent? Surely this is unjust and makes little sense. Not to worry because the Yalkut Reuveni quotes another medrish which tells us that the garments were made from the skin of the Liviyoson fish (Leviathan), whose skin was removed when it was preserved for the future. Gishmak and go prove otherwise.
What really happened on that fateful sixth day, ver veyst? Sefer Bereishis is extremely riveting, informative and can be studied for days, weeks and months before one can begin to really chap it. Efsher because there are so many midroshim on what might have taken place up in Gan Eden on that very day and because each word of the heylige Toirah can be discussed, analyzed, and elucidated in so many ways – some say as many as 600,000- we need to learn and re-learn the heylige Toirah yearly. With each chazorah (review), we chap a bit more. Maybe not as much as Chava may have on that day, ober, still a gishmake amount. Veyter and let’s get back to Odom and the animals. To do so, let’s chazir (review) a few critical pisukim (verses). Says the heylige Toirah (Bereishis 2:20-23) azoy:
| 20. And man named all the cattle and the fowl of the heavens and all the beasts of the field, but for man, he did not find a helpmate opposite him. | כוַיִּקְרָ֨א הָֽאָדָ֜ם שֵׁמ֗וֹת לְכָל־הַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּלְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וּלְכֹ֖ל חַיַּ֣ת הַשָּׂדֶ֑ה וּלְאָדָ֕ם לֹֽא־מָצָ֥א עֵ֖זֶר כְּנֶגְדּֽוֹ: | |
| 21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and he slept, and He took one of his sides, and He closed the flesh in its place. | כאוַיַּפֵּל֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֧ים | תַּרְדֵּמָ֛ה עַל־הָֽאָדָ֖ם וַיִּישָׁ֑ן וַיִּקַּ֗ח אַחַת֙ מִצַּלְעֹתָ֔יו וַיִּסְגֹּ֥ר בָּשָׂ֖ר תַּחְתֶּֽנָּה: | |
| 22. And the Lord God built the side that He had taken from man into a woman, and He brought her to man. | כבוַיִּ֩בֶן֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֧ים | אֶת־הַצֵּלָ֛ע אֲשֶׁר־לָקַ֥ח מִן־הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְאִשָּׁ֑ה וַיְבִאֶ֖הָ אֶל־הָֽאָדָֽם: | |
| 23. And man said, “This time, it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called ishah (woman) because this one was taken from ish (man).” | כגוַיֹּ֘אמֶר֘ הָֽאָדָם֒ זֹ֣את הַפַּ֗עַם עֶ֚צֶם מֵֽעֲצָמַ֔י וּבָשָׂ֖ר מִבְּשָׂרִ֑י לְזֹאת֙ יִקָּרֵ֣א אִשָּׁ֔ה כִּ֥י מֵאִ֖ישׁ לֻֽקֳחָה־זֹּֽאת: |
Let’s focus on bolded posik 23 which seems pretty straightforward and innocuous. Odom, upon being presented with his new playmate correctly stated “This time, it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” He was of course referring to Chava. It’s innocuous until we read the corresponding Rashi that will mamish blow your mind. Let’s check it out: Says Rashi, quoting the heylige Gemora (Yevomis 63a), azoy: “these words teach us that man (Odom being the only man alive at this time) tried to find a mate among all the animals and beasts, but found no satisfaction with them.” Odom did what? He wanted satisfaction?! Was he a Rolling Stone?
Odom tried mating with what and with whom? You read that correctly. Odom, mistama lonely, seemingly had relations (sexual) with every animal and beast. Mamish? So says Rashi; who are we to argue? Moreover, he was not quite satisfied. Mistama you’re thinking that the heylige Ois had too much kiddish over the first days of Yom Tov, ober the quote is emes, check it out below. Moreover, all know that the Ois has many faults, drinking is not one of them! Did Odom mamish have sex with animals? Did he even attempt to? Says the medrish (Gur Aryeh) that of course Odom did not have literal sex; what he had was figurative sex with all the animals and beasts. How does one have figurative sex, ver veyst? Isn’t that what most married men- those married longer than a few years- have regularly? Did he? Ver veyst? One thing is quite zicher: Bestiality may first have been tried by Odom or not, but it was zicher experimented with by many in the generations to come and leading up to the mabul (great flood during Noiach’s time.) In fact, Rashi and others will mention bestiality more than once as being a driving force of the eventual mabul (flood) we will be reading all about next week.
And for you Doubting Thomas’s let’s now read the direct quote from the heylige Gemora (Yevomis 63a) where we read this:
א”ר אלעזר מאי דכתיב (בראשית ב, כג) זאת הפעם עצם מעצמי ובשר מבשרי מלמד שבא אדם על כל בהמה וחיה ולא נתקררה דעתו עד שבא על חוה
And Rabbi Elazar said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Bereishis 2:23)? This teaches that Adam had intercourse with each animal and beast in his search for his mate, and his mind was not at ease, in accordance with the verse: “And for Adam, there was not found a helpmate for him” (Bereishis2:20), until he had intercourse with Eve.
Well, blow me down with a feather but who are we, when Rashi quoting the Gemora tells us that it’s so? Now, it’s taka emes that once the heylige Toirah was gifted to the Yiddin in the year 2448, that bestiality become verboten, ober was it verboten earlier? Let’s imagine for a moment that Odom did in fact do the nasty with various behyamis and other wild beasts, ober, wasn’t he within the base pads so to speak? It was legal. Abominable but legal. Dirty but not verboten. Before such dastardly acts went out of style or were forbidden, it seems that Odom would not have felt ashamed to have sex with animals. That it became sinful later is irrelevant to his actions. Did he or didn’t he, ver veyst? Shoin, as mentioned above, there is disagreement about this among the commentators. Let’s check in with Rabbi Art Scroll who says this (Rashi Chumash Bereishis 2:23 footnote 4): Divrei Dovid…says that this prohibition [to have relations with animals] did not come into effect until after the creation of Eve. The bottom line: if he did, no big deal!
On the other hand, the Gur Aryeh, the Maharsho, and others who couldn’t fathom that thousands of years later, we might be reading of such behavior, would hear nothing of this pshat and strongly reject even the possibility. What the posik was referring was figurative only. And here’s a good lawyers twist: Says the Akeidas Yitzchok (Bereishis, Sha’ar 8) azoy: Certainly, the intent is not that he engaged in intercourse with the animals, but rather that he mentally probed them and evaluated them -as potential mates- and found them all lacking. He psychoanalyzed the animals; they all failed to satisfy his head. Was it a personality clash?
וזו היא כוונתם ז”ל באמרם שבא אדם על כל בהמה חיה ועוף ולא נתקררה דעתו בהם (יבמות ס”ג א).
ירצה שבא בדעתו וטוב התבוננותו עליהם ועל טבעם ולא נתקררה דעתו שיהיה זווג
Similarly, Reb Yitzchok Karo (Toldos Yitzchok al HaTorah) writes in very strong language azoy: In English:חס ושלום שבא בפועל
In English: Heaven fore-fend that he literally engaged in intercourse. And that being said, what about the Gemora? Are we to ignore the heylige Gemora? Moreover, another medrish we covered in the past tells us that during the more than 100 years that Odom and Chava were separated, that Chava seemingly had some -other- entanglements -of a sexual nature- with some form of demon and or demi angel and they too fall into the classification of ‘animals’ (חיות).
The bottom lines raboyseyee are these, and let’s get this out in the open as we begin another cycle of mind boggling medroshim. The vast majority of classical Jewish sources, including all the Geonim, and most Rishoinim (early sages), state that midroshim (exegetical rabbinic literature) reflect the views of individual rabbis; not the unanimous consensus of Judaism as a whole. Accordingly, one is free to independently evaluate them. We don’t necessarily need to buy in to all that is written!
Said Reb Hai Gaon azoy:
הגדה ומדרש אף על פי שכתובין בתלמוד אם לא יכוונו ואם ישתבשו אין לסמוך עליהם, כי כללינו הוא אין סומכין על ההגדה
In English: Haggada and medrish; even if they are written in the heylige Gemora, if they do not make sense, disregard them, for we have a principle that we do not rely on the aggadot.
The final bottom line: What Odom did or didn’t do back then, was between him and the myriad animals, there were no human eye witnesses. The rest is mere speculation by different individuals. On the other hand, what Lamar did was quite amazing.
Ah gitten Yom Tov and Shabbis ahead!
The Heylige Oisvorfer Ruv
Yitz Grossman
Source URL: https://oisvorfer.com/bereishis-2024-before-bestiality-became-repugnant/