Voices From Genesis: Guiding Us through the Stages of Life

Voices

from

Genesis

Guiding Us Through

the Stages of Life

Norman J. Cohen

Jewish Lights Publishing

Woodstock, Vermont

Voices from Genesis

Guiding Us Through the Stages of Life

Copyright © 1998 by Norman J. Cohen

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cohen, Norman J.

Voices from Genesis: guiding us through the stages of life/

by Norman J. Cohen.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-879045-75-3 (hardcover)

1. Bible. O.T. Genesis—Psychology. 2. Bible. O.T. Genesis—Biography.

3. Life cycle, Human—Religious aspects—Judaism. 4. Developmental psychology.

I. Title.

BS1235.6.P9C65 1998

222’.1106—DC21 98–35476 CIP

First Edition

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

Manufactured in the United States of America

Design template by Glenn Suokko

Typesetting by Doug Porter

Jacket designed by Drena Fagen

Cover art by Robert Dov Tennenbaum, artist.

Side view of the tabernacle (Mishkan)

inside the court enclosure.

For People of All Faiths, All Backgrounds

Published by Jewish Lights Publishing

A Division of LongHill Partners Inc.

Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237

Woodstock, Vermont 05091

Tel: (802) 457-4000 • Fax: (802) 457-4004

www.jewishlights.com

To the memory of my parents,

Molly and Irving Cohen.

They lavished me with their affection, love,

caring, and concern, as well as their

deep commitment to Judaism

and the Jewish People.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Foreword

CHAPTER ONE: ADAM AND EVE

Infancy

CHAPTER TWO: CAIN AND ABEL

Early Childhood

CHAPTER THREE: NOAH

Play Age

CHAPTER FOUR: THE PEOPLE OF SHINAR (and the Tower of Babel)

Pre-Adolescence

CHAPTER FIVE: ABRAHAM

Adolescence

CHAPTER SIX: ISAAC

The Young Adult

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE YOUNG JACOB

Maturity

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE OLDER JACOB

Old Age

POSTSCRIPT: THE LIFE OF JOSEPH

The Journey of the Jewish People

Appendix

Endnotes

Suggested Further Reading

About Jewish Lights

Copyright

Preface

This book speaks about the human journey from birth to death as reflected in the development of the characters in the Book of Genesis. As such, it challenges all conscientious readers to reflect upon their lives and the stages of growth which they have experienced. Our personal journeys, no matter how diverse, share many things in common. Our parents and siblings, for example, are the strongest factors that determine our personae and our modes of interacting with the world. Even as we develop over the years, we often continue to wrestle with what our family represents for us.

I was blessed in my life to have had two loving parents whose major goal in life was to do the best they could in every way for my brother Marvin and for me. Molly and Irving Cohen z"l, whose memory I cherish and whose presence I miss, were loving parents who were generous in the love, devotion, time, and energy they gave to each of us. They rarely thought primarily of themselves, believing that their first responsibility was to provide their children with a home and support which would enable them to grow and mature into productive and caring adults in their own right. They were concerned not only about our growth as human beings, intellectually and emotionally, but were also determined that we find meaningful Jewish paths for ourselves. Whether it was encouraging us to become involved in the Zionist movement and experiencing the miracle of the Land of Israel, or to attend Hebrew high school after becoming bar mitzvah so we would take Jewish learning seriously, they were devoted to ensuring that their sons would be knowledgeable, active, and proud Jews. And they delighted in the fact that I became a rabbi and continued studying Judaica/Hebraica seriously, and that Marvin made aliyah, served in the Israeli Air Force, and studied medicine at Ben Gurion University. It is a blessing that my father lived to see his two sons embark on their career paths and create families of their own. My mother died too young to see the full blossoming of what they had a hand in shaping.

My brother Marvin, who is now a highly successful anesthesiologist, is a powerful model for me of a passionate Jew who loves everything about Judaism. Though we are not geographically close, we have always been close spiritually. This provides me not only with a link to our past, but grounds me as we look to the future.

The journey that has culminated in the creation of Voices from Genesis was shaped in large measure by the three individuals with whom I grew up. However, several individuals associated with Jewish Lights Publishing played a major role in its seeing the light of day. I owe much to Arthur Magida, who served as the editor of the book. His insights, questioning, and strong editorial hand have made it immeasurably better. Stuart Matlins, the founder of Jewish Lights, friend, colleague, and mentor in many ways, has helped me find my own voice to express to a wide audience my passion for Torah and its meaning in my life.

In sharing this journey through Genesis with you, I offer you a prism through which to view your own life. May you see reflected in it who you are and who you hope to become. By Your light do we see light. (Psalm 36:10)

N.J.C.

Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

8 Nissan, 5758

Yahrzeit of my father, Irving Cohen z"l

Introduction

As we approach the end of the twentieth century and embark on a new millennium, we are seriously engaged in a search for meaning in our lives. This search takes cultural and religious forms and the need for it comes from our desire to make sense out of our own lives and to understand our place in the continuum of life. Art, literature, myths, religion, philosophy, and psychotherapy are all forms we use to express our questions and yearnings, and give structure to our quest for self-understanding.¹

This is especially true in the field of psychoanalysis, where many leading figures have focused their research and writing on the issues of human development. These include such well-known scholars as Jean Piaget, Robert Kegan, Robert Havighurst, and Jane Loevinger, to name a few, though Erik Erikson continues to be most closely identified with the attempt to outline the stages of human growth.²

Erikson augmented Freud’s theories by emphasizing personality development as a dynamic interaction between the individual and his environment. For Erikson, culture and society are key factors that shape personality. Personality, he wrote, is not determined solely by the parent-child relationship, but continues to develop throughout the entire life cycle. Ongoing life experiences feed into the shaping of our ego-identity. Erikson set this psycho-social understanding of human development into an eight-stage theory, with our progression through the stages dependent upon how well we have negotiated each previous stage.

The stage theory of Erikson is grounded on a principle which asserts that an organism becomes more and more differentiated over time. This is largely the result of external influences. This movement is characterized by emerging challenges at each stage. These turning points in our development are experienced as tensions between positive and negative forces, which must be resolved if we are to grow. Wholeness, therefore, does not mean total freedom from conflict. The tensions or polarities in each of us must be continually resolved, and basic virtues emerge from these resolutions. Resolution is essential to enter the next potential stage of growth, though these crises are never totally settled, and each can be relived in future stages.

It is difficult to attach specific ages to each developmental stage, since each person progresses at his or her own pace. We might advance in spurts or even regress to an earlier stage when confronting difficult circumstances, and negative feelings and patterns of behavior can reappear when we feel threatened.³

Just as psychoanalysis is a vehicle for us to grapple with our development and understand it, so, too, are stories meant to provide us with ways to organize and deal with our life experiences which, to an extent, are inchoate.⁴ Stories protect us from chaos, providing us with a foundation of memory and a potential for self-understanding. They are essential because they help us make sense of our lives.⁵

In particular, myths and sacred stories speak to the life journey that each of us makes. They embody events which take place in the psychic and spiritual life of all of us. Sacred stories also provide a sense of meaning to our own baffling dramas as they link us with past members of our community with whom we share a common destiny.⁶ Perhaps few books can do this better than the Bible. By immersing ourselves in its sacred stories, whether we see them as divinely given or the inspired creations of human beings, we can find out about our own true natures; about who we are and who we can become.

According to the rabbinic understanding of the Bible, or Torah as it is traditionally known in Judaism, all human experience and knowledge is woven into its narrative fabric. The unfolding of history is evident in its sequence of events, just as all new, contemporary interpretations of the text are part of its original intent. All this was implicitly part of what was revealed at Sinai, though revelation is ongoing and mediated by the process of interpretation, which Judaism calls midrash.⁷ Revelation is not something that occurs once—and never again. Every reader in every generation can draw new and poignant meaning from the biblical text.

The midrashic process is a dynamic interaction between the reader and the text, and the moment when the text and the reader meet is when meaning is born.⁸ The reader doesn’t merely read the biblical narrative, but rather experiences it. Its significance does not lie in the meaning sealed within the text, but rather in the fact that the text elicits what had been previously sealed within the reader.⁹ What is hidden in the text is the reader’s most essential and intimate life: his or her longings, fears, doubts, questions, and struggles.¹⁰ It is these essential parts of ourselves which are uncovered when we become one with the text.

Reading the Bible, then, is about change. And this takes effort. Reading it involves one’s entire being, and this forces involvement, response, passion, and self-reflection.¹¹ As readers open their hearts, minds, and souls to the biblical text, the text reflects back to them their own struggles and dilemmas. And the more they reveal aspects of themselves while reading and interpreting the text, the more the text will affect them. Ultimately, as we create new meanings in our engagement with the Bible, this process transforms us. The text does not merely mirror back to us who we are, but also shows us who we can become.

Since we change over time as our relationships and circumstances change, the particular meaning that we create as we engage with the biblical text at any one moment may be different than any previous meaning. As we go through a series of transformations at different times in our lives, experiencing at each stage different conflicts, challenges, and life issues, we are inevitably drawn to different aspects of the biblical narrative and to different characters. We might also be drawn to different aspects in the life of a particular biblical personality.

The Bible reflects how characters change and grow over a lifetime. This is especially true of the Book of Genesis, where characters move through different life stages. Yet, if we look closely at them, we can discern that each character’s story seems to focus upon the human struggle at one particular stage of that character’s development. Moving from the birth of Adam and Eve to the death of Jacob, we see characters essentially growing and maturing through different stages in ways that resemble our own development throughout our own lives. Seen in this manner, the Genesis narrative, if read as a whole, portrays a series of characters who represent the life journey of one human being, from birth to death.¹² The fullness that was Adam was there in potential at the moment of his conception, and was revealed over time through the lives of his descendants. Adam embodied all human experience, and the Book of Genesis facilitates its unfolding.

When we confront the characters of Genesis and their life stories, we come in touch with our own journeys since the text mirrors who we are at any given stage of our development. We can see our changing selves in the different biblical stories and in the struggles of the characters. By immersing ourselves in the life moments of each biblical personality, this ancient text can help us understand and shape our own dramas. It can also help us to move to a greater sense of wholeness.

I propose, then, that our reading of Genesis be conditioned by two very different, yet powerful, sources of knowledge. First, that we focus upon Erik Erikson’s understanding of the stages of human development and use it as a road map as we proceed through Genesis. To this end, I have divided the book into eight chapters which parallel Erikson’s eight stages of human development. At the outset of each chapter is a brief summary of the particular stage. For the reader’s further edification, I have appended a chart of Erikson’s system at the conclusion of the book, to which the reader can refer.

However, our reading of Genesis cannot be shaped solely by our life experiences and the wisdom and insights of modern psychology. To have any authenticity and enduring value, our midrash must be moored in a clear understanding of the basic meaning of the biblical text and in the interpretive traditions of the past. This will set our interpretation in the continuum that stretches back to Mount Sinai. Therefore, I cite in the sidebars on each page all the sources which I have used, including the biblical passages and the midrashic texts. This will help the reader better understand how I have shaped my own reading of the characters in Genesis.

Yet, my reading of Genesis is simply my encounter with it through the prism of my knowledge and life experiences. That process of encounter is available to every inquisitive, thoughtful reader. Whenever a passionate reader engages with these sacred stories and finds that they apply to his or her life, the Torah is renewed. Each of us can experience revelation when we hear the voices of the text filtered through our own hearts and minds. At that moment, what was given implicitly to Moses at Sinai to transmit to the Jewish People, and to all humanity, is revealed—and the reader is transformed by it.

So then, let us listen attentively to the voices of Genesis, realizing that they speak of the times and struggles of our own lives. As they resonate with us, we can come to understand that the story which begins in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and culminates with Jacob’s death in Egypt is the journey of our lives. It is a journey which moves from birth, through infancy, childhood, and adolescence, to adulthood and old age, ending with our return to the Source of all being which grants us life and sustains us.

Foreword

"Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt, so that the span of his life came to one hundred and forty-seven years. And the time approached for Jacob to die."

—GENESIS 47:28–29

I found it difficult to breathe: I could feel my lungs struggling to fill with air as I tried to focus on the task at hand. Although I could not remember the last time I had been sick, the past few weeks had been difficult. It was impossible for me to get out of bed, and every movement caused me great pain. I now realized that I might not live to see the morning light.

The tent was pitch black as I waited for them to arrive. Yet, I was able to discern, perhaps for the first time in my 147 years, how my whole life fit together. It was not just that my entire life was arrayed before my very eyes, but I had a