I thought this was a joke or an Onion article at first. It's word salad with a clickbait title, but they really outdid themselves with this headline. $20 if you can guess how many parentheses are needed for the author
Were Adam and Eve Black transgender refugees?
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/were-adam...efugees-2/
...
Thus, Adam and Eve are not only the first human beings, but also the archetypal configurations for ALL of humanity; the social consciousness lessons that emerge from the brief time we come to know these two figures in the Bible is staggering. Indeed, as it can be seen from our contemporary perspective, all descendants came from Adam and Eve, thus also all descendants were contained within them. The rabbis taught that the first person had both male and female sexual organs (Bereshit Rabbah 8:1). The diversity of humanity teaches us how complexly rounded Adam and Eve were when they were united as one being. The first human being was black and white, gay and straight, male and female, a citizen of the Garden of Eden and a stateless refugee from the garden, made from heaven and from earth. Each of us, in our own uniqueness, can find ourselves within the first person and thus within the Divine purpose of the creation of humanity.
The rabbis taught that God had a miraculous capacity for creating all humans as descendants from one and yet, concurrently, providing a holy uniqueness within each:
When a human being strikes many coins from one mold, they all resemble one another, but the supreme Sovereign of sovereigns, the Holy One, blessed be God, fashioned every person in the stamp of the first human, and yet not one of them resembles another. For this reason, every human being is obligated to say, “For my sake, the world was created,” (Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 4:22).
This is not a trivial point. Shimon Ben Azzai, a second century Jewish explicator, taught that “‘This is the genealogy of Adam’ is the great principle of the Torah” (Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim 9:41). Understanding that a singular set of beings contained within them all the genetic complexity and spiritual DNA that would later emerge in various manifestations of humanity displays to us that the human dignity found within the first people is innate and infinite in every subsequent person, regardless of their composition or persuasion.
How all this biblical material relates to contemporary events is of the utmost importance. I fear that today, with the lingering effects of racism, xenophobia, and the stigmatization of gay and trans people, humanity is still needlessly looking for reasons to divide itself. While I may not understand or approve the underlying reasons why each person chooses their particular lifestyle, as a Modern Orthodox pluralistic rabbi guided by the Torah, I feel it is my obligation to seek out those who are most vulnerable and advocate on their behalf. It is not enough to tolerate differences, but to cherish and nurture individuals so that they have the fortitude to go out into the world to live an actualized life. The raison d’être of the Torah is to enhance human dignity and freedom and never, God forbid, to diminish it.
![[Image: Shmuly-Yanklowitz350PIXELS-medium.jpg]](https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/terms-images/writers/Shmuly-Yanklowitz350PIXELS-medium.jpg)
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the President & Dean of the Valley Beit Midrash, the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Founder and CEO of The Shamayim V’Aretz Institute and the author of nine books on Jewish ethics. Newsweek named Rav Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America & The Forward named him one of “The Most Inspiring Rabbis in America.”
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This is the crux of the Progressive Jewish dogma that Adam & Eve are exactly the same as black transgender refugees to them. Christians, Muslims, Atheists, black, brown, yellow, white, homos, pedos, everyone is completely the same, just throw em all in a bowl and mix em up! Since it's only for each individual's sake that the world was created, then anything goes, except Anti-semitism. This is really what the believe....
Were Adam and Eve Black transgender refugees?
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/were-adam...efugees-2/
...
Thus, Adam and Eve are not only the first human beings, but also the archetypal configurations for ALL of humanity; the social consciousness lessons that emerge from the brief time we come to know these two figures in the Bible is staggering. Indeed, as it can be seen from our contemporary perspective, all descendants came from Adam and Eve, thus also all descendants were contained within them. The rabbis taught that the first person had both male and female sexual organs (Bereshit Rabbah 8:1). The diversity of humanity teaches us how complexly rounded Adam and Eve were when they were united as one being. The first human being was black and white, gay and straight, male and female, a citizen of the Garden of Eden and a stateless refugee from the garden, made from heaven and from earth. Each of us, in our own uniqueness, can find ourselves within the first person and thus within the Divine purpose of the creation of humanity.
The rabbis taught that God had a miraculous capacity for creating all humans as descendants from one and yet, concurrently, providing a holy uniqueness within each:
When a human being strikes many coins from one mold, they all resemble one another, but the supreme Sovereign of sovereigns, the Holy One, blessed be God, fashioned every person in the stamp of the first human, and yet not one of them resembles another. For this reason, every human being is obligated to say, “For my sake, the world was created,” (Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 4:22).
This is not a trivial point. Shimon Ben Azzai, a second century Jewish explicator, taught that “‘This is the genealogy of Adam’ is the great principle of the Torah” (Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim 9:41). Understanding that a singular set of beings contained within them all the genetic complexity and spiritual DNA that would later emerge in various manifestations of humanity displays to us that the human dignity found within the first people is innate and infinite in every subsequent person, regardless of their composition or persuasion.
How all this biblical material relates to contemporary events is of the utmost importance. I fear that today, with the lingering effects of racism, xenophobia, and the stigmatization of gay and trans people, humanity is still needlessly looking for reasons to divide itself. While I may not understand or approve the underlying reasons why each person chooses their particular lifestyle, as a Modern Orthodox pluralistic rabbi guided by the Torah, I feel it is my obligation to seek out those who are most vulnerable and advocate on their behalf. It is not enough to tolerate differences, but to cherish and nurture individuals so that they have the fortitude to go out into the world to live an actualized life. The raison d’être of the Torah is to enhance human dignity and freedom and never, God forbid, to diminish it.
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the President & Dean of the Valley Beit Midrash, the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Founder and CEO of The Shamayim V’Aretz Institute and the author of nine books on Jewish ethics. Newsweek named Rav Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America & The Forward named him one of “The Most Inspiring Rabbis in America.”
-----------------------------------------------
This is the crux of the Progressive Jewish dogma that Adam & Eve are exactly the same as black transgender refugees to them. Christians, Muslims, Atheists, black, brown, yellow, white, homos, pedos, everyone is completely the same, just throw em all in a bowl and mix em up! Since it's only for each individual's sake that the world was created, then anything goes, except Anti-semitism. This is really what the believe....