Bereishit 5779: The Garden of Eden

What /where is the Garden of Eden? Is it a real place? Is it paradise? Heaven?

Talmud Nedarim 39b

Seven things were created before the world was created, and they are: Torah, and repentance, the Garden of Eden, and Gehenna, the Throne of Glory, and the Temple, and the name of the Messiah...The Garden of Eden was created before the world was created, as it is written: “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden eastward [mikedem]” (Genesis 2:8). “Eastward [mikedem]” is interpreted in the sense of before [mikodem], i.e., before the world was created.

Midrash Tanchuma, Va-yera 22-23

Rabbi Eliezer said: The ram [that Abraham slaughtered instead of Isaac] came from the mountains, where he had been grazing. Rabbi Joshua differed: An angel brought him from the Garden of Eden, where he had been grazing beneath the tree of life and drinking out of the waters that passed under it, and the fragrance of the ram went forth throughout the world. When was the ram placed in the Garden? During twilight at the end of the six days of creation.

Genesis Rabbah 33:6

“And lo, in her mouth an olive leaf freshly plucked.” From where did the dove bring it? Rabbi Bebai said: The gates of Eden were open for her, and she brought it from there.

What does it mean that the Garden of Eden was created before the world? How does this notion of a primordial garden change our perception of the Garden of Eden? Does it contradict or collaborate with the Biblical account? What can we learn from the connection of the Garden to Abraham and Noah?

Talmud Taanit 10a

The Sages taught in a baraita: The area of the land of Egypt is four hundred parasangs [parsa] by four hundred parasangs. And this is one sixtieth the size of Cush, and Cush itself is one sixtieth the size of the rest of the world. And the world is one sixtieth of the Garden of Eden, and the Garden of Eden is one sixtieth of Eden itself, and Eden is one sixtieth of Gehenna. You find that the entire world is like a pot cover for Gehenna, as Eden, which is far larger than the rest of the world, is only one sixtieth the size of Gehenna. And some say: Gehenna has no measure. And some say that Eden has no measure.

Talmud Berakhot 28b

A similar story is told about Rabbi Eliezer’s mentor, Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai: When Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Zakkai fell ill his students entered to visit him. When he saw them, he began to cry. His students said to him: Lamp of Israel, the right pillar, the mighty hammer, the man whose life’s work is the foundation of the future of the Jewish people, for what reason are you crying?

...I have two paths before me, one of the Garden of Eden and one of Gehenna, and I do not know on which they are leading me; and will I not cry?

How do we understand the distinction between Eden and the Garden of Eden? What does it mean that that Eden is larger than the rest of the world? How does that compare to the opinion that Eden has “no measure”? What is Rabbi Yohannan’s understanding of the Garden of Eden and Gehenna?

Pirkei de-Rabbi Eli’ezer 36,

“He [Abraham] ran to fetch a calf”. But the calf fled from before him, and went into the Cave of Machpelah, and he went in there after it, and he found Adam and his help-meet lying there upon their beds, and they slept, and lights were kindled above them, and a sweet scent was upon them like a sweet savour, therefore he desired to have the Cave of Machpelah as a burial possession

Zohar 1:127b

Rabbi Yehudah said, “Abraham recognized a sign in that cave [Machpelah], and there his heart’s desire focused for previously he had entered and seen Adam and Eve buried there. How did he know it was them? Because he gazed upon his image [the image of Adam], an opening to the Garden of Eden appeared, and that same image was standing nearby.

What can be learned from this connection of the Cave of Machpelah to the Garden of Eden? How do we understand the Garden of Eden appearing there?

Zohar 2:150a

The Garden of Eden is the dwelling place of holy souls, both those who have already descended to this world and those who will descend in the future.

Zohar 3:182b

Observe, further, that the virtuous who are thought worthy to be “bound up in the bundle of the living” are privileged to see the glory of the supernal Holy King, and their abode is higher than that of all the holy angels, while those who have not merited to ascend so high are assigned a lower place according to their deserts. They are stationed in the lower Eden, which is called “lower Wisdom”, and between which and the higher Eden there is a difference as between darkness and light.

How does the Zohar understand the Garden of Eden? What is lower and upper Eden?

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Igrot, Vol I, Letter 184

The welfare of the people and the splendor of its might, its rescue from destruction and raising of its dignity — this is the Eden [“the delight”] and the Garden, whose trees and branches are an incomparable feast for the eyes.

Does Rav Kook’s understanding of the Garden of Eden contradict previous sources? What is at the heart of his notion of Eden?

Elie Wiesel, Messengers of God

Adam’s fall, just or not, constitutes the most dramatic chapter of his long life. Outside paradise, he became real. Rejected by God, he drew closer to Eve. Never were they two so united. Suddenly they discovered a purpose to their existence: to perfect the world which until then had been no more than created. To use the experience that had been theirs. To transmit. To communicate by deed and word. To safeguard. To tell the tale, omitting nothing, forgetting nothing. To keep alive the memory of his past, Adam had taken four plants from paradise as proof that his tales, his obsessions were more than dreams. True, he suffered whenever he looked at them; true, the old grief was now deeper and all-pervasive, but never mind, the challenge lay if defeating oblivion, no pain. He could have thrown away the plants, instead he guarded them jealousy. To forget would have solved nothing.

How does Adam become “real” outside of Eden? Where is your Eden? What did or should you take to remember it?