avatarAllison van Tilborgh

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Painting of Eve, the first Biblical woman. Courtesy of Fine Art America.

How Eve Has Been Manipulated Through Texts and Time

The Symbolic Role of Eve for Jewish Women

There are few Biblical characters as controversial as Eve. In the Torah, Eve was the first woman created by God, created alongside Adam, the first man. She was tasked with providing companionship and facilitating the multiplication of the human race (Genesis 1:28).

While she acts as an archetype for women in general, her story has often been used as a framework for dos and don’ts for women (Bronner 22). She possessed a dangerous, creative energy that, to many, is interpreted as spelling out the destruction of humanity altogether.

In the written Torah, two creation stories are given for Eve. In the first, she is created alongside Adam at the same time.

“So God created Mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:27, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation

In the second, she is pulled from Adam’s side when he is in a deep sleep.

“So the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man; and, while he slept, He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in that spot. And the Lord God fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman; and He brought her to the man.” Genesis 2:21–22, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation

The difference is significant. If one is to believe that Eve was created alongside Adam, as in the first creation myth, then it would be reasonable to assume them to be equal. But if one is to believe that she was taken from his rib, then a particular flavor of subservience is salient, as is ascertained later in the creation narrative (Genesis 3:16).

This seeming contradiction between the accounts gave rabbis much to consider, which resulted in several creative theological solutions. In one Rabbinic explanation, the Hebrew word ‘rib’ is instead translated as ‘side’ (Bronner 28). In this version, Adam was not created as a male but a hermaphrodite containing male and female qualities (Bronner 27).

Since the Hebrew word ‘adam’ translates to ‘human’ in English, many theologians have gravitated to this version of the narrative, including modern feminists. From the androgynous Adam came two ‘sides’, which became man and woman. To suggest that God made man and woman at the same time, as in the first version of creation, would also suggest that the male sex was created at the point of separation, not as a precursor.

Given the problem of Eve’s existence being a sexual one in nature, many of the rabbinic narratives surrounding the fall of man are sexual. To paraphrase the text: Adam and Eve are instructed to eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden aside from one, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. A serpent deceives Eve, convincing her to eat from the forbidden fruit and then handing it to Adam, who eats as well. At this moment, they realize they are naked and try to hide from God, who is stomping through the Garden looking for them. He eventually finds them and expels them from the Garden after providing ‘punishments’ to both Adam and Eve:

“And to the woman He said, “I will make most severe your pangs in childbearing; In pain shall you bear children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you did as your wife said and ate of the tree which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed be the ground because of you; by toil you eat of it all the days of your life: thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you. But your food shall be the grasses of the field; by the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground — for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:16–19, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation

It is first important to recognize the ambiguity surrounding the sin’s nature (Bronner 24). Ancient sources grapple with this. Some rabbinical sources consider Eve’s decision to eat from the fruit to be entirely driven by lust, thereby bringing lust and death to creation (Bronner 26). In a more aggadic version, Satan (attributed to the serpent) found himself lusting after Eve, had sex with her (“injecting lust into her”), which thereby causes all the events of the Fall of Man to ensure (Bronner 26).

While this may be seen as a redemption of Eve to some extent, her presence is considered enough to entice Satan, thereby still deserving the blame onto her. This story is transformed into a construction of modesty, whereby Eve is prescribed rules to prevent men’s enticement, like Satan, including covering her hair and keeping out of the way of men (Bronner 32).

One midrash states, “in the same way Eve disgraced herself and caused her daughters to cover their heads” (Bronner 32). The female body is associated with death, destruction, and danger — something that must be covered and hidden. Modesty becomes the primary occupation of many rabbinic midrashim (Bronner 31). To many, this is the true essence of women — their prototype, and therefore the archetype for all women.

Before continuing, it is worth arguing that modesty within the rabbinic tradition is not consistent throughout the Hebrew Bible examinations. Rabbinic interpretation is often a product of one’s time, needs, and crises. In a world of utter disorder, it would make sense that rabbis would want to add more rigidity to men and women’s roles.

But one must look no further than the Song of Songs, to encounter an unapologetically sexual woman within the Jewish canon and plenty of rabbinic support behind it. Rabbi Akiva famously defended the canonization of this sexually loaded scroll saying,

“For all of eternity in its entirety is not as worthy as the day on which Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, but Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.”

Back within the creation narrative, the Medieval midrash of Lilith complicates the story of Eve. In medieval Kabbalist sources, some rabbis engineered a new aggadic figure — the true first woman, Lilith.

Lilith was the original wife of Adam, created from the dust of the earth (Bronner 33). She was brash, insistent on equality, and argumentative. In one particular argument about who should have the ‘active’ sexual position, she becomes so frustrated that she flies away and leaves Adam (Bronner 34). She is the embodiment of the rabbinic tradition’s fears, deviant women becoming an archetype of female rebellion. Unsurprisingly, in the 20th century, Lilith’s meaning transforms again and becomes seen as a positive rebellious role model for women trying to correct the injustices of modern patriarchy — modern nation-saving.

Against the backdrop of Lilith, Eve is seen as marginally better. There is some degree to which her actions appear inevitable, attributed to her female nature. One rabbinic interpretation of God’s ‘punishments’ to Adam and Eve redefines them as prophecy rather than rejection. In this version, God merely describes how the relationship between man, woman, and the earth will evolve (Bronner 24). ‘He shall rule over you’ not because God ordains it to be so, but because that is simply how things will unfold. In His anger, God tells the couple the hard truth, regardless of whether or not He sees it as just.

Contemporary feminists take this interpretation a step further, arguing that God was detailing the injustices men would commit against women, rejecting the idea that this is the way things must be but merely the broken way things are at the moment.

To many contemporary women, then, Eve is a symbol of where all women start: constrained, surveilled, made to imagine their bodies as some evil vessel. Eve is curious, hungry for knowledge of right and wrong. What she discovers is horrifying. In the face of crisis, men will blame and subjugate women to stay in power and have their own needs met. Eve becomes the original victim of men, the woman contemporary feminists are working break free. These Jewish feminists ask, “Can the same fruit that banished us from the garden, bring us back?”

References

Antler, Joyce. Jewish Radical Feminism: Voices from the Women’s Liberation Movement. New York University Press, 2020.

Bronner, Leila Leah. From Eve to Esther: Rabbinic Reconstructions of Biblical Women. Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994.

Kashani-Sabet, Firoozeh, and Beth S. Wenger. Gender in Judaism and Islam: Common Lives, Uncommon Heritage. New York Univ. Press, 2015.

Plaskow, Judith. Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective. HarperSanFrancisco, 1994.

Plaskow, Judith. “‘The Coming of Lilith’ by Judith Plaskow.” Jewish Women’s Archive, jwa.org/media/coming-of-lilith-by-judith-plaskow.

The Jewish Study Bible. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2015.

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