B'reshit -- How do we begin again?

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

B'reshit: how do we begin again?
In this week's parasha, there is a whole learning to be gotten from Chava's name change: Before they eat from the Tree, what impresses the two humans most is how much ALIKE they are: "bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh," Ish and Isha -- whereas after they eat, their names diverge and they become embarrassed at how different their bodies are from each other. They need to wear clothing so as to obscure these differences.
What has changed? Eating from the tree of "knowing differences" (Buber shows that "tov vara" is often used as a summary of all the this-that, yes-no, etc dualisms in Tanakh) makes differences and distinctions far more apparent.
The ability to do this is part of growing up -- eating was not a "sin," it was the necessary result of growing up, disobeying Momma, making your own decisions, not being a baby any more -- for growing up means distinguishing between me and you, good and evil, woman and man, adam and adamah (i.e. human and the humus from which human sprang).
God set up this result by defining the first kashrut -- distinguishing between this food you can eat and this food you cannot eat -- and the "children" responded -- as God wanted -- by distinguishing their own identities from God's -- disobeying -- and thus beginning to grow up.
Are we stuck there? No. We need to grow up SOME MORE. The Kabbalists said that there was only one Tree in the center of the garden (read the text carefully) and the Tree of Life IS the Tree of knowing good & Evil. We just need to have the expanded consciousness in which distinctions and flow are not opposites but intertwined. Then comes Mashiach.
How? Look at ecology, the Messianic science. Why? Because it understands BOTH THE FLOW AND THE NICHES. Without the niches, the distinctions between this species and that, there would be no web of life, no flow, no I-Thou'ing between this species and that.
From the standpoint of ecology, the Tree of Life & the Tree of Knowing Good & Evil ARE THE SAME.
Can we learn this, and bring Mashiach?
By realizing that what went wrong in the distinction-making was that the distinctions became warfare: the earth will feed you only thorns and thistles, you will sweat to eat (notice that "eating" is what connects humans to the humus, adam to adamah), it will be hard work to give birth, women will face male domination.
Our goal is to affirm AND CELEBRATE distinctions. GOOD that women and men are so alike and yet different; that Jews and Palestinians are so alike, and yet different; that human and humus are intertwined, yet distinct.
For the Song of Songs is Eden for grown-ups. No Papa-Momma giving orders; God is not named in the Song because the WHOLE SONG IS God's Name. In the Song of Songs, God is everywhere: in the unashamed sexuality of the man and woman, in the playful relationship between human and humus.
Time for the human race to grow up: learn that we can understand distinctions while loving both poles of every dichotomy.
Time to learn an ecologic ethic from the Song of Songs, a sexual ethic from the Song of Songs, a theology from the Song of Songs.

by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Director, The Shalom Center