Earth => Human Earthling: From Everyday Knowledge to Eternal Wisdom

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Copyright (c) 2025 by Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Dear Companions in the struggle for Love and Justice,

The second story of Creation, told around the flickering campfires by Farmer, told the Creation of Humanity this way:
“YHWH / God formed the Human (adam) from the dust of the soil (adamah). He blew into his nostrils the Breath of life and the Human (adam) became a living being.”

Now blink from the crucial and eternal story of Creation and think of yourself as a skilled medical technician attending the birth of a human baby from an everyday mother in the ancient tribe of Yisra-el, the Godwrestlers. Until the baby entirely leaves the mother’s body, he is part of the mother. She/He/They is part of the mother’s breathing and all the rest of the mother’s biological system. Then the umbilical cord is cut, and baby is on their own. Then someone taps the baby on their tush or perhaps puffs some air into its mouth, and the baby comes to life.

The biblical story of the birth of the whole human species takes this everyday medical event as a model for the Creation of Humanity. Adamah is Mother Earth. YHWH – pause to pronounce the name; almost everyone pronounces it as a single out-breath or Yahhhh – breathes into baby, and the baby comes alive,

There are several implications of this story. The first is “Mother Earth”: that human beings have a special relationship with Earth, need to love her and care for her. Not to lord it over her. Every act toward her must be felt as a caress, not exploitation or subjugation.

The second is that YHWH is the intimate Name of God. It does not mean “Lord.” Perhaps the Rabbis’ biggest mistake was insisting on using “Adonai,” or “Lord” to translate it. Far more accurate is translating it as “Breath of life.”

Since a Name of God is not just a label like “Freddy” but a way of understanding and explaining the universe, it is important whether we think of “YHWH” as unpronounceable, or untranslatable, or as “Lord,” or “Adonai,” or “Breath.”

There is a third implication of the story, told this way. The baby does not become a wholly independent human being until the Breath of life has been breathed into her/him/them. This means that the mother has a higher stake in living than the unborn child, and distinguishes “abortion” in Jewish practice and theology from much of Christian practice.

For me, I think ecology is more truthful and more Torah-true than hierarchy as a way of thinking about the world. I mean this to apply not only to Earth but also Human Earthlings. Love is the language of ecology. Domination is the language of hierarchy.

With blessings of shalom,

Arthur

P.S. – I’d be glad to have your comments, critiques, etc. You can send them to me at awaskow@theshalomcenter.org.