Eternal Story: Torah as Hero’s Journey
Eternal Story: Torah as Hero’s Journey
Torah is Eternal Story
Commentator Rashi asks why does the Torah start from the story of creation rather than from the first commandment (mitzvah) given to the children of Israel. Another commentator Ramban disagrees with the question. Ramban sees the book of Genesis as fundamental and rephrases the question. He asks, why is there so much detail in the book of Genesis. In the Ramban’s detailed answer he teaches that the Torah is an eternal story. In every generation, we relive the journey of our forefathers. The details of the eternal story will change, but the outline of our eternal story is determined. Modern mythological scholar Joseph John Campbell (JJC) has studied the Hebrew Bible as a story. JJC isolates traits of the story that make the stories of the Hebrew Bible the epitome of the human condition — which in his view makes it eternal story.
One of my teachers, Rabbi Ya’akov Meidan teaches to learn from the questions asked by secular scholars, and to provide answers based on the teachings of our Sages. The Ramban views the Torah as a privileged text that has a special role in the relationship between God and the Jewish people. JJC is a cross-cultural expert on storytelling, particularly with a focus on stories of collective importance which are referred to as Myth. A myth according to JJC is an eternal story.
So, why does God interrupt the instruction of the Mitzvot with narrative stories? Why not begin with Exodus 12 where the people of the children of Israel start to receive our distinctive calendar. To understand the importance of the narrative stories, let’s explore the purpose of the Torah.
The first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis cover the stories of origin. Scholars conveniently categorize them as universal mythological stories of origin and many claim that such stories of creation and the flood were common to many cultures in the near east at that time. However, the careful reader will notice that the Torah conveys its message by shaping the telling of these universal myths.
The eternal story of creation as told in the Torah is by a single Deity, Elohim. Elohim (translated as ‘God’) creates something from nothing. Elohim creates the waters above and below. Elohim creates the Sun and the Moon. Elohim creates man and woman. When Elohim completes everything that he did, Elohim rests.
The story of creation continues with a more personal manifestation of the same Deity, Adonai Elohim. Adonai Elohim (translated as ‘LORD God’) creates humanity and gives humanity a commandment, a mitzvah, something to do and something not to do. Woman and Man are given free will about one decision, to eat of the tree of Life or the tree of carnal knowledge of good and evil.
Humanity exercises free will. This is the eternal story. What was the nature of that decision? One opinion is that they chose death and renewal of life over eternal personal life. Another opinion is that they chose free will over obedience. The Ramban teaches that they chose to disobey God’s commandment and are punished.
The story of the murder of Abel by Cain teaches us the connection between murder, the land, and divine exile. Adonai (translated as The LORD) is a more personal manifestation of the single Diety that communicates with a person, accepts or refuses offerings, and imposes exile: ‘Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the land; and from Thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.’ Murder followed by exile is an eternal story.
Eternal Story: Powerful Men Take Married Women “as Wives”
The Talmud teaches in the name of Rabbi Judah HaNasi, “Anyone who says David ‘sinned,’ is simply mistaken.” That is what powerful men whether generals or kings do. That is their weakness. It is a classic theme throughout history that powerful men have sex with married women. Examples from the Jewish Bible include: Abimelech king of Gerar, King David, and the generation of the flood. The role of crime and punishment is a message of collective importance. The Torah views adultery very severely, for example in the case of Abimelech, ‘Behold, thou shalt die, because of the woman whom thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.’
The primordial story of the flood is told as punishment for sons of God seeing the daughters of men and taking wives from whomever they chose. Rabbi Joel Ben Nun teaches “whomever they choose” comes to include the women who were already married.
Thus the Ramban teaches that we learn the pattern of obligations of humanity, their violation, and then exile from the land as punishment by God. This is the way (literally ‘law’) of God from eternity. This is the fundamental of fundamentals. There is a great need to start from the beginning of Genesis, the eternal story.
Eternal Story: Joseph Campbell on Hebrew Bible as Embodying Universal Mythical Language
Joseph Campbell, the mythologist, identifies what to him makes the Hebrew Bible so compelling as an eternal story. The Bible squarely addresses very human concerns including infertility, continuity, wealth, morality, and spirituality. These stories embody what Campbell identifies as The Hero’s Journey. The mission. The promise. The obstacle. Challenge. Not happening as expected. Trials. Overcoming obstacles and/or trials. Fulfilling the promise earned.
There symbolic worth to these stories especially from Joseph Campbell’s mythological perspective because it tells the universal myth of the human condition.
Eternal Story: Foreshadowing Patterns of History for the Jewish People
The Ramban teaches that the actions of our forefathers are patterns of history that will repeat for their descendants. This interpretation takes the concept of teachings of collective importance to a deeper level.
Our forefathers are progenitors who are obligated to teach their descendants God’s way of righteousness and justice.
Promise to Abraham that ‘Unto thy seed will I give this land.’ Yet, famine drives him to seek food in Egypt. Pharoah takes the female alive. ‘LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues.’ The males survive and go out with great wealth. This is an eternal story that replays in the book of Exodus.
Another interpretation. Abraham is promised the land, ‘for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.’ Abraham conquers the land. Abraham relinquishes control over what he conquered. He doubts God’s initial promise of conquering the land, as it has already been fulfilled. God makes a covenant. Abraham makes a treaty splitting the land. God makes a stronger covenant.
So, Rabbi Yoel Ben Nun teaches in the memory of Nachshon Waxman (an Israeli soldier kidnapped and murdered by Hamas in Gaza), that we are divinely promised the entire land. We conquer it. We don’t feel worthy. We relinquish our conquests. We sign treaties. We doubt. God makes a stronger covenant: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my nativity, and who spoke unto me, and who swore unto me, saying: Unto thy seed will I give this land.” The LORD swore to Abraham at the binding of Isaac that Isaac’s seed will inherit the land.