A Latch and Clasp Connecting Deuteronomy 33:27-29 with Genesis 3:22-24: A Proposed Interpretation

The three verses almost at the end of Deuteronomy (33:27-29) with which Moses ends his blessing of the tribes, and the three verses at the very beginning of Genesis (3:22-24) with which the Bible marks the expulsion from Eden, seemingly have nothing in common thematically. Yet they share seven striking linguistic parallels, that are here transliterated in brackets: The ancient [kedem] God is a refuge,

A support are the arms everlasting.

He drove out [va-y’garesh] the enemy before you.

By His command [va-yomer]: ‘Destroy!’

Thus Israel dwells [va-yishkon] in safety,

Untroubled is Jacob’s abode,

In a land of grain and wine,

Under heavens dripping dew.

O happy Israel! Who is like you,

A people delivered by the Lord,

Your protecting Shield [Magen], your Sword [Herev] trium-

phant!

Your enemies shall come cringing before you,

And you shall tread [tidrokh] on their backs (Deut. 33:27-29).

And the Lord God said [vayomer], ’Now that the man has

become like one of us, knowing good and bad, what if he

should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!’. So the Lord God banished him from

the garden [mi-gan] of Eden, to till the soil from which he was taken. He drove the man out [va-y’garesh], and stationed [va-

yishkon] east

A LATCH AND A CLASP

[mi- kedem] of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the fiery

ever-turning sword [herev], to guard the way [derekh] to the

tree of life (Gen. 3:22-24).

The large number of linguistic parallels, and in particular their perfect number, seven, indicates that these linguistic parallels are not a chance matter. Rather, these words form a latch and clasp, connecting together the verses from the end of the Torah with their counterparts at its beginning. Thus, these parallels indicate to us that there is a strong connection between the entry into the Land of Israel and the expulsion from Eden. Our challenge is to identify the nature of this connection. In this context I propose the following considerations.

The expulsion from Eden is accompanied by God’s edict on the state of mankind following the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge (henceforth: the edict of Eden):

Cursed be the ground because of you;

By toil shall you eat of it

All the days of your life;

Thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you.

But your food shall be the grasses of the field;

By the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat (Gen. 3:17- 19).

But the Land of Israel, is repeatedly described as A land flowing with milk and honey (Ex. 3:8,17; 13:5; 33:3; Lev. 20:24; Num. 16:14; Deut. 6:3; 11:9; 26:9,15; 27:3). A land flowing with milk and honey is the antithesis of thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. This contrast of the Land of Israel to the post-Edenic state of mankind is presented even more strongly in the paean of praise to the Land of Israel that we find in Deuteronomy: For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land, a land

with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and

from hill; a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey; a land where you

may eat food without stint, where you will lack nothing. (Deut. 8:7-9).

This is nothing less than an annulment of the edict of Eden!

Furthermore, with regard to eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, we are told: ‘. . . but as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die’ (Gen. 2:16-17). While in describing the Land of Israel and its obligations, we are repeatedly told:

If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving the Lord your God and serving Him with all your heart and soul, . . . . to the end that you and your children may endure, in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them, as long as there is a heaven over the earth (Deut. 11:13, 21).

Here, too , . . . that you and our children may endure . . . , as long as there is a heaven over the earth shows the readiness of God to rescind for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.

On this basis, I propose that the entry into the Land of Israel represents nothing less than a second chance for mankind. With the entry into the Land of Israel, the Eternal is ready to cancel the edict of Eden, and offer a new beginning for Israel and all mankind.

This view of the entry into the Land of Israel as a rescinding and annulment of the edict that followed the eating from the Tree of Knowledge may also underlie the otherwise puzzling emphasis throughout the books of the Bible on the material fruitfulness of the land as the major blessing for keeping God’s commands:

If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving the Lord your God and serving Him with all your heart and soul, I will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late. Your shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil – I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle – and thus shall you eat your fill (Deut. 11:13-15).

Are rain and a good harvest, mundane things of this world, the fitting reward for loving the Lord your God and serving Him with all your heart and with all your soul?

Again, in Psalm 67:5-8, in the midst of a glorious song of praise to God, we find:

Let the peoples give thanks unto Thee, O God;

Let the peoples give thanks unto Thee, all of them.

A LATCH AND A CLASP

The earth hath yielded her increase;

May God, our own God bless us.

May God bless us;

And let all the ends of the earth fear Him.

And yet again in Psalm 85:11-14:

Mercy and truth are met together;

Righteousnes and peace have kissed each other.

Truth springeth out of the earth;

And righteousness hath looked down from heaven.

Yea, the Lord will give that which is good;

And our land shall yield her produce.

Righteousness shall go before Him

And shall make His footsteps a way.

It has been asked “How could the poet descend so abruptly from the heights of world-ideas to cornfields and vineyards?“1 But on the view presented here, earth giving its fruits in abundance is more than a reward for keeping the commandments. It is a visible sign to us that the edict of Eden remains annulled and rescinded. No longer thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, but a land flowing with milk and honey. No longer for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die, but . . . that you and your children may endure . . . as long as there is a heaven over the earth. Indeed, at the end of days we are promised a virtual coalescence of the Land of Israel with Eden itself: And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall like down with the kid; . . . and the lion shall eat straw like the ox . . . they shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain (Isa. 11:6-9).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I thank Prof. Jacob Milgrom for useful comments. Dedicated to our beloved grandson Yehuda Yudkowsky (July 11, 1985 – November 1, 2004), may his memory be blessed.

NOTES

1. M. Lazarus, in The Ethics of Judaism, cited in the Soncino Psalms commentary on Psalm 67:7.