In Genesis we read Almighty God
once planted in a garden just two trees,
one called a life provider, placed by Him in the garden’s middle,
the other, helping humans He had not created yet to solve the riddle
regarding the difference between good and evil with surprising ease,
not planted in the garden’s middle, no two peas in its pod,
the position of the problem-solving tree to all the problems it is asked remaining,
with vagueness of its arboreal position,
as vague as explanations of all the evil about which we are constantly complaining,
unable to correct it without a painfully punitive decision.
The reference to thorn and thistle
may have inspired metaphoric mimesis,
linking condemnation of the earth to one condemning
Rabbi Aqiba’s biblical exegesis.
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Gen. 2:9 states:
וַיַּצְמַ֞ח יְהֹוָ֤ה אֱלֹהִים֙ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה כׇּל־עֵ֛ץ נֶחְמָ֥ד לְמַרְאֶ֖ה וְט֣וֹב לְמַאֲכָ֑ל וְעֵ֤ץ הַֽחַיִּים֙ בְּת֣וֹךְ הַגָּ֔ן וְעֵ֕ץ הַדַּ֖עַת ט֥וֹב וָרָֽע׃
And from the ground the ETERNAL God caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and bad.
One rationale for the reference to two trees in the Garden of Eden perhaps explains the reference to thorns and thistles with which God cursed the earth when condemning Adam for having committed the primal sinn, eating fruit of the Tree of Knowledge which God had forbidden him to eat. Gen. 3:18 states that God pronounced this sentence on the earth after Adam ate fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil despite God’s prohibition:
וְק֥וֹץ וְדַרְדַּ֖ר תַּצְמִ֣יחַֽ לָ֑ךְ וְאָכַלְתָּ֖ אֶת־עֵ֥שֶׂב הַשָּׂדֶֽה׃
And thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you. But your food shall be the grasses of the field.
Some of the decorations of letters in Torah scrolls are called ק֥וֹץ, the word that describes the thorns that, after Adam has committed the primal sin, grow in the earth that Adam and his descendants must cultivate.
The polysemic quality of the word ק֥וֹץ, which means “thorn” in the narrative of the primal sin, is illustrated by the fact that the rabbis use the word to denote the decoration of certain letters in Torah scrolls. This may have influenced the legend that Moses watched Rabbi Aqiba decorate words of the Torah with decorations whose name recalls the useless, unnourishing thorns that the earth produces as a punishment for Adam’s commission of the primal sin. The legend may be an oblique criticism of Rabbi Aqiba’s exegesis of Torah, implying that it produced anomalies that are as useless as the thorns and thistles that the earth produces as a punishment for Adam’s commission of the primal sin. Supporting this suggestion is the link between the word in Gen. 3:18 that follows ק֥וֹץ , ְדַרְדַּ֖ר which might have been read as an allusion to דרש, interpret, linking both words to Rabbi Aqiba’s methodology of biblical interpretation of which Moses was allegedly unaware, according to the talmudic report.
Torah Temimah quotes the explanation in Pesahim 118a of Gen. 3:19’s statement following the reference to thorn and thistle. In this verse God tells Adam, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread.” This talmudic statement implies that these words cheered Adam after God had pronounced his sentence, cursing the earth with thorn and thistle, as it reassured Adam that he would not have to share his habitat with his ass, since his diet would be based on bread that he would cultivate in the earth, not on thorns or thistles. This explanation of the juxtaposition of Gen. 3:19 to the reference to thorns and thistles may have helped to inspire the link to Rabbi Aqiba’s exegetic methodology that I suggest is made by Gen. 3:18, linking the work of biblical interpretation to the work of cultivating the earth. (As a humorous aside, I say failure to use this methodology would identify the failing biblical scholar as an ass.)
In the WSJ print edition on 10/10/26, the date of the Shabbat on which we read the first sidra of Breishit, the caption of the “Pepper and Salt” cartoon was:
“That’s my garden of aspiration and this is my garden of reality.”
The caption was probably not intended to be read as an allusion to the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life.
Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.
