What
does Adam represent for us, today? True, his destiny is unique, but that is
true for every one of us. Every man must believe that his every deed involves
all other men. Whoever kills, kills Adam. Whoever kills, kills Adam’s vision,
kills in Adam’s name. Every man should be
Adam to all others. That is the lesson learned — or to be learned — from his
adventure.
Nor
is it the only one. Expelled from paradise, Adam and Eve did not give in to
resignation. In the face of death they decided to fight by giving life, by
conferring a meaning on life. After the fall they began to work, to strive for a
future marked by man. Their children would die — never mind! One moment of life
contains eternity, one moment of life is worth eternity.
Here
again Adam differs from most other mythological figures. Though defeated by
God, he did not wallow in self-denial. He had the courage to get up and begin
anew. He understood that though man is doomed from the start, he can and must
act freely when planning his future. Such is the essence of Jewish tradition.
Despite his fall, Adam died undaunted. As long as he lived, even far from paradise,
even far from God, victory belonged not to death but to him.
According
to Jewish tradition, creation did not end with man, it began with him. When He
created man, God gave him a secret — and that secret was not how to begin but
how to begin again.
In
other words, it is not given to man to begin; that privilege is God’s alone.
But it is given to man to begin again — and he does so every time he chooses to
defy death and side with the living. Thus he justifies the ancient plan of the
most ancient of men, Adam, to whom we are bound both by the anguish that
oppressed him and the defiance that elevated him above the paradise we shall never
enter.
Source:
Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and
Legends by Elie Wiesel © 1976 by Elirion Associates, Inc.; Summit Books, New
York, NY; pp. 31-32.
