This torah seder has 43 verses. It is titled, The Generations of the Heavens and the Earth. It provides a more detailed account of creation. Whereas the account from Seder 1 was from Heavn to earth, this one is from earth to heaven - or from the earth up.

This reading contains the first mention of God’s four letter name, represented by the English consonants YHWH (See Genesis 2:4).

We also read of the Garden of God - Eden. One of the key points in this week’s lesson is the idea of planting Heaven on earth. God is described as planting a garden (Genesis 2:8) and in the Prophet reading from Isaiah 51:6-16 we read of “planting heaven”. The concept is taught by Ross as teaching the Kingdom of Heaven and bringing about the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

We read of the creation of Adam, the tree of knowledge of Good and “bad”, the tree of life, death..

We also learn the first thing declared in Scripture as NOT Good…for man to be alone.

And finally we learn from the story of the first commandment and the subsequent violation of that command some important lessons. What was the “original” original sin? How about “Adding to the words of God”?

You will not want to miss this class.

 
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