The Torah tells us, "The Lord God said: Behold, the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil, and now, he might extend his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" (Genesis 3:22). But what was the tone? What were the implications?
The rabbis of old grappled with this very question, and their interpretations are fascinating. to one particularly rich passage from Bereshit Rabbah 21, a midrashic collection that expands on the Book of Genesis.
The midrash begins by drawing a connection between this verse and a passage in the Book of Daniel (8:13), where Daniel hears a "holy one" speaking. The midrash interprets "I heard a holy one speaking, and the holy one said to Palmoni who was speaking..." (Daniel 8:13) as a veiled reference to God and an angel. "I heard [a holy] one" – this, the midrash suggests, is the Holy One, blessed be He! We know this, the text implies, because we declare "holy" before Him always, as it says: "Hear, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4).
But who is this Palmoni? The text calls him "so-and-so," a placeholder for an anonymous person. Intriguingly, Akila, a proselyte to Judaism known for his meticulous translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, translates Palmoni as "the innermost one" – penimi. The midrash then identifies this "innermost one" as none other than Adam, the first man. His station, it says, was "more internal" – closer to God – than even the ministering angels. Wow.
So, what was this conversation about? According to the midrash, Palmoni – Adam – is essentially asking: "Was the edict that was decreed upon Adam the first man to be eternal?" In other words, is this punishment – the toil, the pain, the mortality – going to last forever? "Will his transgression render him [permanently] desolate in the grave?" Will he and his descendants be forever subject to the angel of death? Pretty heavy questions.
The response, according to Rabbi Azaria and Rabbi Yonatan in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak, is tied to the concept of "evening-morning" – a phrase found in Daniel (8:14). This phrase seems paradoxical. Whenever it is evening, it is not morning, and vice versa. But the rabbis interpret this as a prophetic vision of the Messianic future. When the "morning of the idolaters" – their present good fortune – "becomes evening," and the "evening of Israel" – their present gloomy state – "becomes morning," then "the holy one will be vindicated." At that moment, God will absolve mankind from that original edict, from the curses stemming from Adam's sin.
And here's where it all comes full circle. The midrash concludes by returning to our original verse: "The Lord God said: Behold, the man has become as one of us." This isn't just a statement of present fact, the midrash argues. It's a prophecy! He is destined in the future to become as one of us.
So, what are we left with? A complex, multi-layered interpretation of a pivotal moment in the Torah. It's a reminder that even in the face of seemingly permanent consequences, there's always the hope of redemption, a vision of a future where humanity can rise to a state of grace, almost like the Divine. It also leaves you wondering: what does it truly mean to be "as one of us," and what role do we play in bringing that future to fruition?