Rosh Hashanah – Adam 1, Adam 2, and COVID-19

There was once a pious old Jewish man checking into his flight at the airport, when the airport security noticed something potentially suspicious in his bag. They unzipped his suitcase to find no less than seven pairs of dentures. How could someone possibly require seven pairs of dentures, they wondered? So, they asked him. Ah, you see, he explained, as he took 3 of the pairs aside: as a religious Jew, I can’t eat milk and meat together. I’m stringent so as not to even use the same pair of dentures for milk and meat. And so, this pair is for milk, this one is for meat, and this one if for pareve, which means neither meat or dairy. Then he took another 3 pairs of dentures aside, and explained: and you see, Passover is coming up. On Passover, we can’t eat leaven, and so I require a whole different set of teeth: this one for milk, this one for meat, and this one for pareve. That makes sense, they said, but wait a minute: there’s 7 pairs of dentures here, there’s one you haven’t accounted for yet; what’s that one for? Nu, he replied, mitamol a bissel tarfus – every now and then, a little non-kosher!

We Jews are legalistically precise that way, in the way that we categorize things. Milk, meat, pareve, pesach, treif. That’s a result of all of our commandments. Sometimes these mitzvot seem contradictory, and so you have to consult to Talmud to see how to classify and categorize them all, and how they interact with each other. This sort of dialectical tension is already present in the very first commandments that God gave to the first human beings, Adam and Eve, whose creation we are celebrating on Rosh Hashana. Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik in his seminal essay “Lonely Man of Faith” explores the apparent contradictions in Genesis Chapter 1 vs. 2. Genesis 1 refers to God as Elohim, God, whereas Genesis 2 refers to Him as Hashem Elokim, the Lord God. The creation of the universe appears to be described in each chapter in a different order, and with different details.

The very purpose of mankind is described in starkly different terms. In Genesis 1:27-28 we read:

And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the sky and over all the beasts that tread upon the earth. “

To be fruitful and multiply doesn’t just mean to reproduce: it implies being prolific and achieving greatness. The human being rules the earth, and in so doing, we demonstrate our unique human dignity. To paraphrase how Rav Soloveitchik puts it, this is the man who cures diseases, invents new technologies, creates beautiful art, etc. When a man is able to get on a plane in Boston and be strolling on the streets of London, across the ocean, just a few hours later, something wondrous that we take for granted, he’s fulfilling the majestic greatness inherent in these verses.

But in Genesis 2, we see a far more humble description of what Man is meant to be:

7And the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living soul. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden from the east, and He placed there the man whom He had formed…

15 Now the Lord God took the man, and He placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to guard it.

In Genesis 1, Man is told to be prolific, to conquer the whole world and subdue it; to rule it all. In Genesis 2 he’s placed in one little corner of the world, Eden – which means tranquility, quietude; sort of the opposite of being prolific. His only duty is to tend to that small garden, and to cultivate it.  Rabbi Soloveitchik (known at my alma mater, YU, as simply The Rav) describes these seemingly 2 different men, in a metaphorical sense, as Adam 1 and Adam 2. Adam 1 whose role is to conquer the world speaks to the collective role of mankind; Adam 2 is speaking to the individual. That’s how to resolve the contradiction.

We are living through a time in which the great Adam 1 has been humbled and brought low. You can still board a plane in Boston and fly to London, perhaps (I think? The rules seem to change every day), like if you’re wearing a mask the whole time. Maybe they block out all the middle seats. Or you can take up Quantas airlines on their latest offer: a 7-hour sightseeing flight to nowhere. A lot of people miss the experience of flying right now, but they don’t find it safe to travel overseas. If you live in Australia, Quantas airlines is offering for you to buy a ticket to get on their plane, and fly around in the sky for 7 hours, and then land back at the airport you came from. I guess this helps some people sustain a sense of normalcy, and it helps the airline maintain some profit; but frankly I find it surreal and depressing, much like so much else of life right now.

So perhaps Adam 1 hasn’t been completely wrecked; but he’s certainly been brought low and humbled. The greatness and the grandeur of Man; this year we’ve been reminded how precarious that is. I would suggest that this is the perfect opportunity to recommit to our responsibilities as “Adam 2”. The individual man and woman apart from the great world at large. This is a role we’ve all been forced into confronting in an enhanced manner these past few months; why don’t we embrace it. The man who is placed in his own small corner of tranquility, and quietude. And what are his responsibilities there again? Do you remember the verse we quoted? Just two words are pertinent here: “L’Ovda U’L’Shomra”: to work it and to guard it.

The sages of the Midrash expounded that “to work it” speaks to Man’s positive duty to do good; and to safeguard refers to Man’s negative obligations, to do no harm. That’s it. That’s the totality of the duty of Adam 2, the individual human being. To tend to your small corner of existence and try to do good, and do no harm. This is harder to do than it might sound. I was locked down with my wife and kids for weeks, when shul and everything was still fully shut down. Do you know how hard it is to simply be a good patient father and husband? Nobody warned me how hard that would be. Perhaps it’s because marriage and parenthood are still relatively new to me, I’m in a constant state of wonder about just how hard, and concurrently, how rewarding it is.

I’m reminded of the marriage advice from the Lubavitcher Rebbe to a man in Brooklyn, according to his video testimony that I saw online. He was waiting hours on line to see the Rebbe, in advance of his wedding the next day. He finally got in to see the Rebbe, and asked his advice for a good marriage. The Rebbe responded: you should merit to raise children, together with your wife, and in a good mood…That’s it? The Rebbe smiled. That’s it. It was only years later when he did have young children that he realized how profound was the Rebbe’s advice in its simplicity. As do I myself. This advice of the Rebbe has given me strength and comfort more than any other piece of advice I received about marriage and family. I sometimes repeat it like a mantra: you should raise your children together, with your wife, and in a good mood.

When the Rebbe said “together”, I don’t think he just meant in the sense of not divorced, God forbid. It implies: on the same page. I repeat this first part to myself when Becca and I disagree about something related to the kids: I always want to dress Ari in the morning. Becca wants him to be independent and work on dressing himself. She thinks I’m babying him; I think I’m being affectionate to him. And so, I repeat to myself: you should raise your children together with your wife. Be on the same page.

The next part of the mantra: in a good mood. My God, do you know how hard that is? When you’re exhausted from the baby crying all night, and then in the morning you have to get your older one ready for school, and you disagree about how best to go about it. It’s so easy to get angry, to be frustrated. And so, I repeat: together, in a good mood. Be together and in a good mood. That’s everything. Simple. But not easy. Those are two different things.

You may not have a spouse, or children, or have children at home. What can be your mantra this year, similar to the beautiful simplicity of the advice of the Rebbe, in this time in which life has become so “simple” (not easy) yet so incredibly difficult? I’d encourage you to come up with your own, tailor made to you, similar to the pithy simplicity of the Rebbe: May you get through this pandemic with strong relationships intact, and content. May you do your job with integrity, and purpose, and joy. However, you choose to paraphrase your humble Adam 2 obligations, this is the year to do so, to keep it simple. I spoke yesterday about how to emerge from this pandemic B’Shalom, in peace; I believe this is how to do so.  By keeping it simple. If Teshuva means to return, then let’s choose this year to return to First Principles, ones which are so simple that we may have previously forgotten or neglected them, in pursuit of some higher goals. In this year of most humbling circumstances, let’s return to focus on the humblest of goals: we can retake our lost sense of control over the world if we simply embrace the reality that our world is now much smaller than we’d become accustomed to it being ;because, the truth is, it really always has been.

Tend to your own small garden, your tranquil corner of the world, and try to cultivate good (L’Ovda) and do no harm (“L’Shomara”). To tend to your garden means to safeguard your relationships; with your family, with your God, and with yourself. That’s enough for this year. To simply be a functional and mentally stable adult in the midst of all of this; that’s enough. That’s the lesson of Adam 2.

Adam 1 has been hit to the mat; but we know he’ll be back. A vaccine will come soon enough and life will return to normal. Quantas won’t always be flying to nowhere; we’ll get back to flying to real destinations soon enough. And when Adam 1 does return to his full strength, and the collective majesty and grandeur of humankind is restored, let us appreciate anew the verses in Tehillim 8:5-6:

You have made them (mankind) a step lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet.

May that day come again soon. Shana Tova