Bereishit 4:1-2: "Now the man had known (YaDa') his wife Chava (Eve) and she conceived and bore Cain, saying 'I have acquired a man with HaShem.' And additionally she bore his brother Abel." Cain and Abel come into being through 'knowing'. To know is to create, or rather to conduct HaShem's creation.
Bereishit 4:17: "And Cain knew his wife..." Cain, in knowing his wife, [trans]forms this woman into his wife. She has not previously appeared, she is created in the text in Cain's knowing. Her being as his wife, in this action of knowledge, is created. Knowledge here is linked not only to the generation of progeny but also to the maturation and fulfillment of Cain; untruncated, the verse reads "And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch; he [Cain] became a city-builder, and he named the city after his son Enoch."
Bereishit 4:25: "Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth..." Through knowing, again, there is creation. Seth's very name emphasizes the connection between knowing and pro-creation; Bereishit 4:25 in full reads "Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth because 'God has provided me with another child in place of Abel for Cain had killed him.'"
This section of Bereishit (chapter 4) repeatedly connects 'knowing' with child-bearing. This emphasis sets up a disconnection between knowing and physical progen[er]ation. Bereishit 5:6-32: "Seth lived one hundred and five years and begot Enosh. And Seth lived eight hundred and seven years after begetting Enosh, and he begot sons and daughters. All the days of Seth's life were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died. Enosh lived ninety years and begot Kenan. And Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years after begetting Kenan, and he begot sons and daughters. All the days of Enosh's life were nine hundred and five years; and he died. Kenan lived seventy years and begot Mahalalel. And Kenan lived eight hundred and forty years after begetting Mahalalel, and he begot sons and daughters. All the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died. ..." For ten generations -- and 26 verses! -- this genealogy continues in steady cycling. ... And for all the procreation, there's no knowledge! This is the descent of these generations.
From the absence of knowledge in this generating, we learn that these generations have each other only in the superficial erotic and do not become to eachother in the true erotic. Plato, in "Symposium", helps to clarify the relationship between knowledge, birth, and love (Gk, "eros", as in "erotic"): Pausanias concludes, "Love is, like everything else, complex [of multiple parts]: it is the common, vulgar lover, who loves the body rather than the soul..." (183D); Eryximachus remarks, "... [love] is not simply the attraction we feel toward human beauty: it is a significantly broader phenomenon" (186A); in an especially clever piece of dialogue, Diotima, Socrates' teacher, asks, "What is the real purpose of love? Can you say?", and Socrates responds to her, "If I could I wouldn't be your student, filled with admiration for your wisdom, and trying to learn these very things" (206B). So Plato establishes that real love is not mere bodily love, real love cleaves to wisdom. The philosopher continues, explaining what is really giving birth, in Diotima's speech: "... the lover is turned to the great sea of beauty, and gazing upon this, he gives birth to many gloriously beautiful ideas and theories, in unstinting love of wisdom (Gk, "philosophia")" (210D). (All quotes come from Nehamas' and Woodruff's 1989 translation.) At best, these generations, who gave birth with-out knowledge, confused mere physical intimacy for total intimacy of being. Sex is a powerful representation, it is a signifier written into our flesh; but like any ritual it may be emptied of kavvanah (intention). At worst, the generations, lonely and craving contact with other human, violated and stole their sex.
This is the perfection of our empty penetration, this is the essence of rape: the generations perpetrate the sign of deepest intimacy without knowing the Other's soul. Our offerings hollowed-out raise up terrible voids into the heavens; false korbanot do not draw near, instead we tear open abyss between Creator and beloved. Oh God -- in false acting, a rift manufactures -- forgive us please. ... And in a ritual of such tremendous potential -- how great -- how horrifying -- the wound of flesh in the betrayal of the very gift of intimacy, Your most intimate sign.
Bereishit 6:5: "HaShem saw the wickedness of [hu?]man was great upon the earth, and that every product of the thoughts (machshavoth) of his heart was but evil always." This is the only time in Sefer Bereishit (Genesis), that the word "machshavah" is written. This word occurs only four other times in the whole Chumash (all in Sefer Shemoth (Exodus) in connection with building the Mishkan). The word "machshavoth" stands forth from the text in uniqueness and asserts his importance. "Thoughts" come here in place of knowledge. Knowledge -- drawing near The Source by being filled with the flow of creativity -- is displaced by filling the heart with conspiracy against The Sovereign and The Dominion. What is this dwelling within Her earth disconnected, unloving, hateful against Her? - The human who acts hatefully against HaShem, even takes into heart hateful thoughts against The Creator, is a child attempting rape against his mother. To live in the world without knowing love of Av ha-Rachamim is to perpetuate the corruption of the ten generations descending from Adam. In Bereishit, the corruption does not completely consume the world; She catches the fierce tiny arms rising up against Her in an embrace, and in order to renew Her beloved creation washes the angry confusion from those hands in a flood. Noach, how is the terror of the cleansing against the terror of your generation? How merciful the flood, how merciful to cool the child before it would spawn immortal wickedness...
On this Shabbat-this Shabbat after Sukkoth in which we renew our wonder before the earth-from our awe of the world, may true love for The Source fill our hearts and pour forth from our hands. Shabbat Shalom!