The story of Adam and Eve, the incident with the snake and the forbidden fruit, had many implications. In principle, it marks the submission of woman to man. God, Rabbi Telushkin tells us in his book «Biblical Literacy», punishes Eve with the pain of childbirth and being subjected to Adam’s domination. Furthermore, since the biblical account tells us that Eve was created from Adam’s rib, this already gives her a second-class status and submission to man. Sanhedrin 39a, says that removing Adam’s rib «was beneficial to Adam, that God removed his rib and gave him a shifkha, a maid, to serve him.» A comment that the Talmud attributes to the daughter of Rabban Gamliel.

The implications that arose within Judaism from this relationship between man and woman are many. In Orthodox circles, women are definitely second-class beings: among many things, women are exempt from fulfilling time-bound mitzvoth, they are exempt from studying the Torah, men are thankful every morning that God did not make them women, and men are the only ones who can initiate divorce proceedings, which creates the problem of the agunah woman, the one whose husband does not want to give her the Get, the divorce, and therefore cannot remarry.

But the position of liberal Judaism is different. From the very explanation of the biblical story, which does not present Eve as the one responsible for this great “first sin.” The great educator Shlomo Bardin tells us: Imagine that a young woman marries a young man whose father is the president of a large company. After the marriage, the father appoints his son vice president and assigns him a huge salary, but since he has no work experience, the father does not give him any responsibility. Every week, the young man receives a fairly large check, but he has nothing to do. His wife soon realizes that she is not married to a man but to a young boy and as long as her husband continues in his father’s business, he will always be a young boy. So she forces him to quit his job, leave his safe surroundings, go to another city and start to stand on his own two feet. That is why Eve ate the fruit of the tree.”

Aaron Soloveitchick, in his book «Logic of the Heart, Logic of the Mind», tells us that it seems that woman has an advantage over man, a unique sacred spark attributable to her feminine nature. He says, “This conclusion can be deduced by just looking at Creation in Genesis. It seems that the higher was created after the lower. First light was created and with that other forms of energy. Then the inorganic world and then the organic world. And in the organic world plant life first and then animal life. And within the animal kingdom the simpler species came first and then the more complex ones. Adam, or humanity, was created after all the animals. And within the human species, the male came first and then the female. This proves that women have an innate spiritual advantage compared to men.” Eve is much more than just Adam’s “first lady.”

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Works cited.