WERE ADAM AND EVE REALLY NAKED?

Subject: WERE ADAM AND EVE REALLY NAKED? Thu Oct 15, 2015 9:35 pm

WERE ADAM AND EVE REALLY NAKED?

This midrash has been on my mind, I would like to share it with you all. Since we are starting over again with our Torah studies, the first Parasha was" B'Reisheet" and of course, it has the story of Adam and Eve, and their fall, which kinda threw the monkey wrench into G-d's perfect machinery.

We see their creation, and in Genesis 2:25 it reads " and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed" but then, in Gen 3:7 "Then their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked"

Well, the question might be put, didn't they realize before that they were naked? that they didn't have a stitch of clothing on? I mean, YHVH didn't created them with Levis, they came straight from the earth, and from the rib. So, how do we deal with this question,

There is a saying, "If a tree fell in the forest 6000 years ago, did it make a noise?" We would answer, "Yes" but then, the other person would say; "how do you know that? you weren't there to hear or see it" Then you would say "Well, when a tree today falls in the forest, it makes a noise, so it must have made a noise 6000 years ago" We are relying on other evidence to assume something we did not actually see or hear. This is what we must do with the "nakedness of Adam and Eve" for this, we must go forward in time a few thousand years, to where Moses was on Sinai, this is when he received the second set of tablets with the commandments, he had been on Mt. Sinai 40 days and nights, alone in the presence of YHVH, and when he came down.....

... Moses did not know that the skin on his face SHONE while he talked with Him (G-d)   Exodus 34:30

Imagine that, Moses was "glowing" with the "shekinah of YHVH" because of being in HIS presence for 40 days, and this is Moses, who was born a sinner, just like all of us, yet he GLOWED with the glory of YHVH,

Now, could it be that, just perhaps, before the sin of Adam and Eve, when they were still perfect and sinless, the "glory / Shekinah " of YHVH covered them BOTH? being, sort of saying, their "clothing/covering" over their skin? In the Hebrew, the words "light" and "skin" are pronounced the same; "or" only difference is that the word "light" is spelled with an "Alef" and "skin" with an "ayin"
the word "Naked" is "arom" in Hebrew, the first letter is also an "ayin" the letter "ayin" in Hebrew is the symbol for "eye" something to see with! and if we were to look at the word "arom" using the ancient Hebrew letter-symbols, we would tend to get the message "seeing man, who used to be supreme, is connected to chaos" so "nakedness" symbolized "sin and chaos"

When Adam and Eve, "were naked and not ashamed" could this mean that they did not have any "material" clothing on, like tunics, nor sandals, nor animal skins, yet they were "covered" still by the Shekinah light of YHVH? if Moses "glowed" just by being in the presence of YHVH for 40 days, imagine Adam and Eve who were "perfect and sinless" and in constant fellowship with their creator? how much more they had to glow, radiate with the light and glory of God, that was their "covering" once they sinned, we can imagine that the "covering of light" diminished and finally disappeared, leaving them THEN "Naked" that is when they discovered their "nakedness" since they had no more covering of light, we can connect this with YHVH's question to them

"Who told you that you were naked? did you eat of the tree of knowledge of Good and evil?" YHVH is giving them a chance to confess, they could relate their now "nakedness" with their "sin" and loss of the "covering of Shekinah"

For this reason, a clean animal (or animals) were sacrificed  , and the skins of the animals made into coverings for Adam and Eve, so that their "sins were covered" in the sight of G-d. How much fortunate we are today, for our sins are "forgiven" and "erased" completely through the "blood of Yeshua" and even though we might not have an external glowing light, we have the ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) living inside of us, who is in a way, "Ha Or Shekinah" (The shekinah glory) and gives testimony to our "Yeshuah" (Salvation)

rabbi Ben Avraham