Sefer Bereishit
Bereishit 1:1-6:8
Majesty and Loneliness in Religious Life: Our Models from the Creation Stories
Michael Rosenberg, 5764
It is often noted that there seem to be two stories about the creation of human beings in Parashat Bereishit-the story found in chapter one, and another seemingly contradictory story in chapters two and three. Many scholars have pointed to these passages as a classic example of different sources coming together in the Bible in a somewhat confusing way. Regardless of what we may think about this sort of approach to the Bible, however, simply cataloguing the existence of two sources does not address the question of why we have what at the very least appears to be two distinct stories here.
Rav Joseph Soloveitchik, in what has been for me the most meaningful work about religious life, derives from these passages a powerful perspective of what it means to be human. In The Lonely Man of Faith, he argues for the existence of two types of human experience. The first is based on the story of human creation that we find in chapter one. Here, Adam is created dual-"זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָם" (1:27): God created male and female together. What does this mean for the human's experience? Well, it means that the human being never experiences loneliness. Adam-male and female-is never alone.
This Adam, who never experiences loneliness, is also told to be fruitful and multiply, to fill up the earth and subdue it ("פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת הָאָרֶץ וְכִבְשֻׁהָ"-1:28). Adam is a creative being who exerts agency over the world around him. This, for Rav Soloveitchik, is the type of "majestic" human experience. Human beings are created in the image of God and as such, we are empowered to create, just as God creates, and to experience our own power.
On the other hand, the experience of Adam as created in chapter two of Genesis is very different. Here, we are told that Adam is created from the dust of the earth: "וַיִּיצֶר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהִים אֶת הָאָדָם עָפָר מִן הָאֲדָמָה" (2:7). This is not an empowering image, but rather, one that focuses on our lowliness. God places the human in the Garden of Eden: the human being is passive, as God decides its role. Furthermore, the human being is placed in Gan Eden to "serve it and guard it" ("לְעָבְדָהּ וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ"-2:15), a very different imperative from conquering or subduing, which was the human's charge in chapter one.
Most significant in this version for Rav Soloveitchik, however, is the statement of God in 2:18: "לֹא טוֹב הֱיוֹת הָאָדָם לְבַדּוֹ אֶעֱשֶׂה לּוֹ עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ-It is not good for the human to be alone; I will make him a help against him." The last three words of my translation are difficult to understand because the Hebrew is difficult. In any case, what is most striking about the statement for our purposes is the idea that Adam is alone.
Rav Soloveitchik asserts that this is not simply the state of being alone, i.e., without other human beings, but rather, the state of loneliness, the feeling you have when you think that there is nobody out there who shares your ideas, beliefs, or commitments. In a certain sense, the religious person is fundamentally lonely because she realizes that we are separated from one another by language: how do I know that what I mean by "pain," or "love", or "happiness" is what you mean by the same word? And if I can't know that we are talking about the same thing, how can I ever communicate with you? Rav Soloveitchik, understanding this loneliness as a fundamental aspect of human life, says that this loneliness in some sense serves as the basis of religious life. Only by accepting a common sense of purpose can I speak to another human being; for him, that common purpose is service to God. Religion, he argues, is the answer to loneliness. When you and I are both engaged in trying to live a life that makes this world into the world that God desires, we can understand each other because of our common purpose.
This second model of what it means to be human-of a human being who recognizes his own humble roots and is acutely aware of the gap that separates each of us from other human beings-is every bit as much a part of the human psyche as the first, "majestic" conception of human life. What is so powerful about Rav Soloveitchik's interpretation of the creation of human beings is that it honors two seemingly contradictory expectations. God expects us to be majestic, to create, to be powerful, to be the Adam of chapter one. But we must also, if we want to be religious people, recognize our lowliness and our loneliness. As Psalm 130 says, we call to God out of our depths ("מִמַּעֲמַקִּים קְרָאתִיךָ יְהֹוָה"), and thus, if we live a life that is wholly majestic, we cannot be in a place to call out to God.