From Metaphysics to Midrash: Myth, History, and the Interpretation of Scripture in Lurianic Kabbala

1. Genesis “And Adam’s Sin Was (Very) Great”: Original Sin in Lurianic Exegesis

Original Sin, Christianity/Judaism, and Kabbala In the history of Jewish interpretation of Scripture, the utility of the book of Genesis is an ongoing question. The telos of Genesis is arguably the covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12:2–3), descent of the tribe of Jacob into Egypt (Gen. 42, 43) culminating in the birth of Moses and the Israelite people in the opening chapters of Exodus. Genesis describes life before Sinai and Torah. The canonical exegete Isaac of Troyes (Rashi) begins his commentary to Genesis by questioning the book’s utility, implying that perhaps it does not serve a primary function in the formation of Jud d daism.1 While Genesis teaches very few commandments it nonetheless has deep universal value. Genesis 1–11 is an extended meditation on the 1 Genesis “And Adam’s Sin Was (Very) Great”: Original Sin in Lurianic Exegesis The longing for Paradise is man’s longing not to be man —Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being For all die in Adam, and so will be made alive in Christ. —1 Corinthians 15:22 Adam’s sin, the fruits of which we are still consuming in this world . . . will not be fixed until the coming of the messiah. . . . —Hayyim Vital, Sefer ha-Gilgulim Genesis 35 nature of being human (beginning in Gen. 2–3) and the construction of human community (particularly Gen. 6–11). This chapter explores the infatuation with Genesis of an insular Jewi d ish mystical fraternity, particularly Genesis 3. It is curious that a fraternity whose interests seem so parochial and Judeocentric should base its entire metaphysical worldview (and subsequent reading of the Bible) on these early universal chapters of Genesis. By examining Luria’s understanding of Adam’s sin and his use of Genesis as a metaphysical template, I argue that the apparent mystical insularity of the Lurianic fraternity veils a much more complex project of traversing borders, erasing difference and perhaps even undoing opaque boundaries that separate the self (Israel) from the other (the gentile). I submit that Luria’s interest, even infatuat d tion, with Adam’s sin may point to the pressing social issues of his day— the question of conversion and the converso. How can one be born a Christian (with a Jewish past) and return to one’s ancestral tradition? Does the blemish of being born “outside” forever distinguish one from those born “inside”? Or are all humans blemished such that one’s particu d ular station in life (born a Christian, born a Jew) does not determine one’s ultimate fate? Is there an antidote for Adam’s sin or are all human beings, as mirrors of creation, corrupt from their inception? My contention is that Genesis 3 is crucial for Luria and his disciples because their interests are precisely about the contours of being human, its limitations and possibilities, and not simply about the history of Israel in the conventional sense. Israel is, of course, central in Lurianic teachi d ing (Adam is clearly the Jew and not the gentile) and he generally adopts a negative view of the gentile from earlier kabbalistic traditions.2 Howe d ever, his focus on Genesis, even as Adam is construed as Israel, is a notew d worthy shift in Lurianic teaching worth exploring. I suggest this is at least partially due to this fraternity living at a time when communal borders were being redrawn and many identities were in flux. The locale of Erez Israel and the not-too-distant expulsion from Spain and Portugal added a strong messianic dimension to this teaching. The repopulation of Erez Israel and the return of many conversos to the Jewish fold may have cont d tributed to the Lurianic exploration of the elasticity of boundaries, maki d ing an analysis of the human a desideratum. Adam’s sin functions in this kabbalistic tradition simultaneously as the template of cosmogony and the unalterable nature of humanity. Christianity, beginning with Paul, is similarly invested in the story of the sin, not simply in a reading of Genesis 3 but as a foundation for its religious worldview (Rom. 7–8). Jewish exegesis is not as focused on Adam’s sin as is Christian exegesis. Its prototype of sin is the episode of the golden calf (Exod. 32). The curious return to Genesis 3 in Lurianic 36 From Metaphysics to Midrash Kabbala (preceded in part by the Zohar) will serve as...