Thread by @RabbiHarvey

Happy Friday and Happy #thread Day!
You wanted to know about the meaning(s) behind Genesis 1? Well here it is! But buckle up because it's not what you think!
#ThreadsOfLight #threadstory #threads #THREADOFTHREADS

The very first question we should be asking ourselves about Genesis 1 is not "is this true?" That's a Sunday School question, and we're at the adults table. The question is, "Who wrote it?" Genesis 1 is what scholars denote as a "P" Source, meaning the author(s).../1

...were or considered themselves, descendants of Aaron or representing the priestly descendants’ interest. They were most likely from the kingdom of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, and were very familiar with priestly practices and had access to these documents.../2

...most likely "proto-Leviticus" a priestly manual that eventually was merged with wilderness narratives to become the canonized Book of Leviticus we know today. These authors ived after the fall of Israel but were still Pre-Exilic (sometime within 722 BCE - 587 BCE).../3

and most importantly, these authors knew the J&E (the Yahweh - J Source, and Elohim - E Source) texts in the combined form, meaning they lived after the two names of God had been reconciled from a literary point of view. /4

Now, as much as knowing the P source can tell us about the meaning of Genesis 1, reading Genesis 1 can also tell us all we need to know about the P Source. When reading Genesis 1, we should pay special attention to the BINARY aspects of the Priestly writing.../5

If we start with Genesis 1 we read (and I've highlighted what to pay attention to): /6

We continue.../7

So what did we notice? A world of Binaries:
• Heaven & Earth
• Evening & Morning
• Day & Night
• Sun & Moon
• Sky & Sea
• Birds & Beasts
• Male and Female
This shows us not only the purpose of Genesis 1 but the mind of the Priestly authors. To expand on this.../8

...we move to other Priestly sources to compare (the entirety of Leviticus and most of Numbers are products of the P Source: (and we will return to these as we delve into the meaning) /9

Rabbi Dr. I. Epstein, in his work "Notes on the Talmud" stated: One Common Aim...Holiness. While the positive precepts have been ordained for the cultivation of virtue, and for the promotion of those finer qualities which distinguish the truly religious and ethical being.../10

...the negative precepts are defined to combat vice and suppress other evil tendencies and instincts which stand athwart man’s striving towards holiness[...]Foremost among these is the prohibition of eating the flesh of certain animals classed as ‘unclean’. .../11

The law has nothing totemic about it. It is expressly associated in Scripture with the ideal of holiness."

Mary Douglas adds: It is clear that the positive and negative precepts are held to be efficacious and not merely expressive: observing them draws down prosperity.../12

..., infringing them bring danger.

The root of “holy” in Hebrew means “separateness” - Keeping separate creates completeness: /13

For the Priestly author, holiness was created by binaries, by separating one thing from another. This was how God created the universe, and thus the Priests believed this was how to maintain order in the universe. The Priests feared the danger of letting order.../14

...of any kind be disturbed, the binary categories. In other words they feared that any binary category in life, any gray area, any muddying of the waters, meant that the universe itself would collapse. Holiness, to the priests, always has, and still does to Jews.../15

..., meant “separate”; keeping things separate makes them holy, keeping them in order makes God’s vision of the world, through the eyes of those living in antiquity. To the Priests, “Margins are dangerous. If they are pulled this way or that the shape of fundamental.../16

...experience is altered. Any structure of ideas is vulnerable at its margins."
So, if you've read my thread on LGBTQIA, you'll know the the Priests wrote the prohibition against men laying with men, for the same reason they wrote that one shouldn't wear two different.../17

...fabrics! This had nothing to do with morality or homophobia, but their view of order in the universe of keeping things separate. This works the reverse, in how the Priests built the Genesis 1 story (not to convince someone literally that this was how the world.../18

...was created), but rather to maintain their view of the world, their power and authority over separateness.
Now, your next question will be, "Why 7 days?" What is the significance of the number 7 in the Torah, specifically the Priestly writings? /19

A short reading of the P Source and you will see that the Priestly authors were obsessed with the number seven, which originated in their thinking, not in the Genesis narrative. Anyone who believes the Seven days of Creation are to be taken literally is still in Sunday.../20

...School, and must slide over to the adults table. The Priests knew things blend, and so they saw ritual as being that activity which reestablished the categories.
In order to maintain holiness, Seven radically separates the holy from the mundane. (see texts above) /21

The way that God creates the universe in Genesis is also significant to the Priestly writer, in that it denotes the power of speech. God created the world by speech (something different from Genesis 2/3 and earlier creation myths). The Performative View of Language!
/22

The wor
ld is created through speech: “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” The Priests believed that language was the key. God used language to literally shape matter into distinct categories.
The primary anxiety of the priests is that God.../23

through language, could pull those distinctions:
• Between water and earth (flooding)
• Balance of rain and clear skies (drought)
The Priest’s job was to keep the margins in place, mirror God’s creation, and keep order. /24

Imagine the world of the Priests. You believe that it is your duty to maintain order in this world, that if you do not, God will remove the margins and bring chaos, thus it is your job to remove chaos of all kinds and enforce binary connections! /25

Outside of the margins were chaos, the leviathan, incriminate weather. Through the gap between God and Humans, the priests, through ritual and binaries, maintained that margin. The number seven was a tool to keep order as well! /26

So, in conclusion, the Priestly writers wanted to put in writing a "creation" story that mirrored their own view of the world, one that enforced their duties and authority. It is possible they knew of the Genesis 2/3 narrative and wanted to create their own to replace it.../27

...but never would have thought that the two stories would have sat next to each other in canon! The Genesis 1 story is not about a literal idea of creation, but rather a blueprint for how the priests wanted people to see the world, through their eyes. /END
ENJOY!

Thankfully, we no longer live in that binary world, which means we can understand our world differently, with science and understanding, thus erasing any homophobia, transphobia, etc!
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