Understanding Humanity: Conversations on Creation and Responsibility

11213 Words23 Pages

Table of Contents 1. Introduction pg 1 2. Opening Conversation pg 4 3. About Creation pg 8 4. About Time pg 9 5. About Asking Questions and Expecting Answers pg 10 6. About Humanity pg 12 7. The Human Story: First Account Conversation #1 pg 13 8. About Ruling and Subduing pg 15 9. The Human Story: Second Account pg 17 10. Educating Adam: The Meaning of Work, Prayer and Guardianship pg 20 Conversation #2 pg 21 11. Integration, Perfection, and Names pg 25 12. The Missing Link pg 28 Conversation #3 pg 29 13. About Aloneness, Loneliness, and Kindness pg 31 14. About Choseness pg 36 15. About Being Responsible pg 38 16. About Human Equality pg 40 17. The Emergence of Eve Conversation …show more content…

Kindness between non-equals often creates a dynamic where the greater of the two, the giver, is perceived to be superior and more self-sufficient. This in turn makes the lesser of the two, the taker, feel inferior and less adequate. If the unequal relationship continues, the giver could become resentful of the taker’s dependency, while the taker becomes resentful of his reliance on the giver’s generosity. What had once been an act of kindness received with appreciation is now an exchange of antipathy and reluctance. Rather than creating an atmosphere of mutual benefits, an atmosphere of aversion prevails. When G-d separated Eve from Adam, He created two equals. As equals, Adam and Eve recognized their individual strengths and limitations. Moreover, they had to accept that their individual and mutual goals could only be accomplished if they would give to each other and take from each other. That interdependency, without which neither could be complete, is the exchange of kindnesses that should be the basis for all healthy family and social dynamics. However, G-d first created Adam singular and alone to show, by contrast, that doing kindness demands the presence of

More about Understanding Humanity: Conversations on Creation and Responsibility

Open Document