At the dawn of history, Adam in Paradise
is unable to resist one restriction – the Tree of Knowledge. His reaction, on
being confronted by G-d is intriguing, “And he said: “I heard Thy voice in the
garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself”.
Adam was not the last to attempt to hide
his shame before G-d. Following his aborted mission to Nineveh, Jonah fled to
Tarshish. What is the difference between hiding and running away?
Yonatan ben Uziel comments that Adam
hid, not because of his nakedness, but from fear and shame of his sin. Whereas
Jonah indulged in escapism, Adam had the courage to stay put and admit his
guilt. He never fled from the Garden, but he had to be thrown out.
A generation later, the picture changes.
Parents who compromise the word of G-d, and think that they can live in Paradise
on their own terms, stand aghast as they see their family torn apart, with
brother killing brother.
This time, no one hides. Adam, who
confronted with shame and fear, overhears his son Cain’s arrogant rebuttal: “Am
I my brother’s keeper?”
How quickly things change! How speedy is
the generational transition! Paradise has turned sour, and a family world has
been shattered.
A father faces the shame of lesser
guilt, but a son denies even the most heinous of crimes.
Paradise lost, however, can be Paradise
regained. The Almighty, in expelling Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden,
placed angels called cherubim at the gates, with fiery swords to guard the way.
Rabbi Samson Hirsch notes that the only
other reference to cherubim in the Torah is that of the childlike figurines
placed on the Ark in the Holy of Holies of the sanctuary.
How strange that the symbols of
destruction should be placed on the very symbol of our faith!
The angels at the gates of Paradise,
however, were placed there not to keep man out, but to guide his return. Man’s
quest to find Paradise on earth is fulfilled as he finds the cherubim of G-d.
Placed on the Ark, they plot a new path
to the Paradise that our forefather Adam once forfeited.
