GEN402 Despite its bookish content, Torah is more a dynamic than a literature.  It is the understanding that the Jewish people has chosen to carry forward in its ongoing covenant relationship with God. Newly 2,000 years ago Ben Azzai so described Torah’s continued vibrancy: “Torah is not even as old as a decree issued two or three days ago, but is as a decree issued this very day…” Pesikta de Rabbi Kahana 12. New challenges make a new Torah. For example, early in the 20th century anesthesia became generally available to lessen women’s pain during childbirth. Pious women wondered whether they could conscientiously use it, for did not God say to Eve, and thus to every female thereafter: “I will intensify your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bear children” [this verse]?  It did not take long for rabbinic authorities to permit its use, since they knew that the severe pain that women experience at this time could endanger their lives. Today a host of such bioethical issues has introduced a vast literature on Jewish medical ethics. And this is only one field in which contemporary grappling with various interpretations of Torah continues. Major differences between Orthodox and various non-Orthodox groups center around just how this Torah process should most authentically proceed. Yet for all that diversity divides us, it validates Torah, agreeing with the ancient words: “The words of Torah are life to the one who finds them” Proverbs 4:22.  BOROJMV 253-4

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GEN403 This teaches us that woman “solicits” in her heart, and a man, verbally.  And this is a commendable trait in a woman. Eruvin 100b  TEMIMAH-GEN 24

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GEN404 The punishment for all those involved in the affair is listed in chapter 3 of Genesis. In the case of the woman, in addition to pain from childbearing, a new twist is added to this history of men and woman as she is punished with the words: [this verse]. The Hebrew word: teshuqa (desire) is associated with an over-powering human desire or appetite, as can be seen from its use in Genesis Chapter 4:6-7. Concerning Cain’s anger and depression following his brother’s successful offering, God states: “Why are you angry and why has your face fallen? If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; its teshuqa (desire) is for you, but you shall rule over it.” The Hebrew word teshuqa does have some sexual overtones, as can be seen from its use in the biblical work, Song of Songs 7.10, but in Genesis it apparently means only “strong desire/passion creek”. FREUND

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GEN406 Within, or even outside of, a marital relationship, it could certainly be contended that the cornerstone of Jewish sexual ethics is the high value placed on consensual pleasure. As such, it should perhaps first be noted that, since the time of the Torah, Judaism has considered consent to be a necessary and immutable precondition of sexual relations. Deuteronomy 22:25-27, Eruvin 100b, Ketubot 51b. … Onah literally translates as “time period,” referring to the duration of time between sexual encounters, and is understood to refer to conjugal rights as a whole. … Onah, this notion that a couple should come together as often as is possible – and that, verily, the husband is the one who owes the wife a regular degree of sexual service -- is often cited as proof that Judaism has a fairly “sex-positive” take of relationships. Feminist theologian Judith Plaskow, for example, writes that “the laws of onah represent a remarkable concern with and accommodation to female sexuality as well as appreciation of sexuality generally.” Judith Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1990), p. 180. … Rachel Biale…understands onah as less of a challenge to the principle of consent than as a concession to the curse of Eve [this verse]. Biale writes that, according to the Rabbis’ understanding, “the woman’s punishment is that she is unable to fulfill her desire; she does not have the boldness to initiate sex or ask for it.” Rachel Biale, Women and Jewish Law: The Essential Texts, Their History, and Their Relevance for Today (New York: Schocken, 1995) p 122. She argues that the Rabbis believed that women were by nature simultaneously full of sexual passion and deeply inhibited. As such, she suggests, the concept of onah was created to enable functional marital sexual relationships. (By Barry J. Leff, "Jewish Business Ethics") OXFORD 386-7

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GEN405 This teaches us that a woman has a desire for her husband when he is about to set out on a journey. This is the basis for the Rabbis’ ruling: “One must ‘remember’ his wife before he sets out on a journey” Yevamot 62 TEMIMAH-GEN 24

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GEN408 Sweet is the sleep of the laboring man. Ecclesiastes 5:11 Retirees, the unemployed, and incapacitated individuals must sooner or later cope with the problem of idleness. Prior to the enactment of modern social legislation, the primary concern of people out of work was one of economics. Social security and pensions have removed the specter of starvation from homes where the head of the family is no longer in a position to earn a livelihood. The partial solution of the economic problems has accentuated the social problem of boredom, which is bred by idleness. Young children, idle all day, while away their time while playing or by acting out their fantasies in a world of make-believe. Even then, they frequently react to boredom by plaguing their mothers with the plaintive question: “What should I do now?” Idle adults ponder over the same question with greater frequency, and unfortunately, the outlets afforded in childhood disappear in later life.  The effects of boredom on adults could be very devastating. Psychologist have discovered that retired people, with no interest or diversions to occupy their minds, have a shorter life-span then what their physical condition has led them to expect. Young people, bored by idleness, not infrequently drift into antisocial and criminal adventures. The problem of idleness received little attention in the Scriptures. This omission is not due to a lack of interest in the problem. It rather reflects the fact that there was little idleness in the primitive agrarian society of the biblical era. The divine rebuke of Adam, ”Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shall thou eat of it, all the days of thy life” [this verse] was an accurate prognostication of the hard life of a farmer. The lot of ancient women was not much easier. The farmer’s workday extended from sunrise to sunset, with nighttime sleep providing the only break. The Psalmist meditated on the long and wearying hours of hard-working people and warned them that even their sleep is filled with anxiety, except for those who put their trust in God. “It is vain for you that you rise early and sit up late, you that you eat the bread of toil; so he [God] gives [rest] to his beloved in sleep.” Psalm 127:2. The institution of the Sabbath, a day of abstention from work, did not create a problem of boredom. The primary purpose of the Sabbath was to allow man and beast some needed physical rest.  A period of rest between stints of labor was never considered a waste of time. It is as essential to the regeneration of energy as the respite of refreshing sleep in the hours of the night. A tired person, relaxing after hard labor, is never troubled by the restlessness which results from idleness. It is possible that the psychological needs of man do not normally require a full day of rest. The rabbis therefore urge that part of the Sabbath day, after one has rested, be set aside for study and intellectual stimulation. Gittin 58b BLOCH 175-6

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GEN407 See [[GEN27]] Genesis 1:12 good  ROSNER 60-1

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GEN409 There are four types of listening: Listening and losing, listening and gaining, not listening and losing, and not listening and gaining. Listening and losing – as in the case of Adam, about whom it is written [the verse].  And what did he lose? “Because you are dust and to dust you will return Genesis 3:19.  TZADIK 255

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GEN410 God reduced [man], with respect to his food and most of his circumstances, to the level of the beast.  EWM 132-3

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GEN411 [W]hen man changed the direction toward which he tended and took as his objective the very thing a previous commandment had bidden him not to aim at, he was driven out of the Garden of Eden.  This was the punishment corresponding to his disobedience; it was measure for measure.  He had been given license to eat good things and to take pleasure in ease and tranquility.  When, however, he became greedy, followed his pleasures and his imaginings, and ate what he had been forbidden to eat, he was deprived of everything and had to eat the meanest kinds of food, which he had not used as aliment before – and this only after toil and labor. EWM 132

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