There have been many attempts by those in the secular and
non-Jewish religious world to figure out the EXACT LOCATION of Gan Eden. Certainly, there is discussion even within
our tradition about the question of whether Gan Eden is or was ever a physical
place. People of all faiths have tried
throughout history to find it.
What’s interesting, though, is that NO ONE in Tanach is trying to
get back to Gan Eden. Avraham, Moshe,
David, nobody tries to get there.
Everyone is trying to get to Eretz Yisrael.
But if Gan Eden was such a special place, why doesn’t anyone try to
get back there?
And I’ll ask one more question:
We read every Shabbos, even more often, whenever we place the Torah back
in the Aron we conclude with the phrase:
Hashiveinu Hashem Elecha V’Nashuva Chadesh Yameinu K’KEDEM. Return us to the “Days of Old”.
And where does this come from?
It’s one of the final psukim in Eicha.
The simple pshat is we are asking Hashem to bring us back to the Good
Old Days.
But the Medrash in Eicha Raba says something very interesting:
חדש ימינו כקדם, כאדם הראשון כמד”א (בראשית ג’) ויגרש את האדם
וישכן מקדם לגן עדן,
Renew our days like KEDEM.
What is Kedem? Like Adam
HaRishon.
At first that seems reasonable:
We are asking Hashem to bring us back to the days of Adam &
Chava. The idyllic existence of the Gan
Eden.
But there’s a problem: The
pasuk that the medrash quotes is talking NOT about when Adam & Chava were
living in Gan Eden. Rather, it says just
like the pasuk teaches: And Hashem
Kicked Adam and Chava OUT, and placed MIKEDEM, to the EAST of EDEN.
The simple explanation is that this is referring to when Hashem
placed ANGELS as guards MIKEDEM, at the entrance to Gan Eden, but that doesn’t
seem to be how the medrash reads the pasuk.
Rather, it refers to when Hashem kicked out Adam & Chava and placed
THEM MIKEDEM, to the east of Gan Eden.
If that’s true, though, WHY WOULD WE ASK HASHEM “CHADESH YAMEINU
K’KEDEM!? Return us to the time and
place AFTER WE WERE KICKED OUT OF GAN EDEN?!
I heard a beautiful pshat attributed to a number of sources: I
heard it most recently from my good friend Rabbi Phillip Moskowitz:
EVERY story in Breishis, is NOT a narrative of beginnings. They are
narratives of NEW Beginnings.
–
After
the world is destroyed, Noach plants a vineyard
–
Avraham
& Sarah overcome the hardships in their
family, struggles to start their own family, move to Eretz Canaan to begin
anew.
–
Yitzchak needs to re-emerge from the Akeida, struggle to start his own
famile, and raise his children.
–
Yaakov’s whole life about challenge, running from his brother, challenges
with his children. Each time trying to
start again after tragedy.
–
Yosef: Rebuild his life in Mitzrayim.
And that brings us, of course, to Adam & Chava: Two people born into this unique, utopia, and
within the first few HOURS – at least according to the gemara – THEY MESS IT UP
and THEY ARE THROWN OUT.
And what is the FIRST THING THEY DO AFTER THAT SIN?
–
V’HaAdam
Yada es Chava Ishto, they begin to build a family.
–
They
overcome the adversity THEY CAUSED, their own mistakes, and they BEGIN AGAIN.
Chadesh Yameinu K’Kedem is NOT a request to go back to EDEN because
Hashem doesn’t expect perfection. He
doesn’t expect us to get it right every time.
Rather, our job is to learn that even after failure, even as we
experience adversity, we have the ability to begin again. It’s the resilience, the grit to begin anew
that defines us as human beings.
As Elie Wiesel writes: “God gave Adam a secret – and that
secret was NOT how to begin, but how to begin AGAIN.”
So, our goal ISN’T to try to get back to EDEN. We’re not searching for perfection, for
utopia. We DO try, though, to get back
to KEDEM, to be ready to BEGIN AGAIN.
I’ve seen a few times, driving on the highway, billboards of an
orthopedics group that deals with sports injuries, and their slogan is “BE WHO
YOU WERE!”
And while I understand the messaging their trying to give over to
their potential patients, I think that phrase is not a Jewish message, and
probably not really a healthy message for most of us.
Life is NEVER about going back to the Good Old Days. We can never go back to any time that once
was. And if we’re honest with ourselves,
we don’t really want to go back to once was either. That’s not life.
Life is about taking each experience, using it to grow, and
preparing to be CHADESH YAMEINU K’KEDEM, to be people who are not going back to
the beginning, but rather people who are ready to BEGIN ANEW.
We all went back to “regular life” this week. Hopefully we were able to implement some of our
new ideas for the new year. And, at the
same time, inevitably, we’ll mess up.
We’ll make mistakes. Because
that’s what the human being was hard-wired to do.
But, in those moments, let’s not waste our time worrying about how
we can get back to Eden, how it would be great if everything was nice and easy
and utopian. Let’s spend more time
thinking about how we can be Chadesh Yameinu K’Kedem. How we can worry less about the past and
prepare ourselves for a future where we are always ready to begin again.