Oh, good grief, you answered my post in three separate parts and still didn't get an answer to my actual questions. Sigh.
This is part of the oral tradition that runs alongside the written Bible. Groups like the Hasidic preserve this very carefully.
I'm not interested.
When you study Hebrew, this is one of the first structural things you learn: the language itself marks the moment when “humanity” becomes “the individual Adam.”
I haven't and have no interest or intent to study Hebrew. I have no use for it. I have no desire to read Hebrew literature or travel where it is spoken.
That shift isn’t a cartoon version of the story. It’s the real interpretive framework that has been handed down for centuries. I’m bringing this up because it directly answers what you asked. The written text gives the narrative, but the oral tradition explains how the narrative works, how the categories shift, and why the story moves from the collective to the person.
I haven't been asking about narratives or interpretive frameworks. I didn't come into this section of CF to discuss narratives or literature or feelings or traditions.
Please do not attack Judah.
I didn't. The Babylonians did that 2600 years ago and kingdom of Judah was no more. (I lack the army or time machine to do so.)
Every Holocaust survivor I’ve ever listened to warned against using language or attitudes that disrespect the people of Judah. That history is too serious to play with. I’m asking for basic respect, nothing more.
What??!?!??
The text you responded to was: "Since I don't read Hebrew, or remember what this reference to (Genesis) 2:7 might be, none of this has any meaning to me."
Let me recap the elements of my text that you replied to and why your reaction is nuts:
1. I don't actually read Hebrew. Not reading Hebrew is not disrespecting "Judah". I don't read Hebrew because I am not a Jew, nor have any of my ancestors been one, nor do I have much knowledge of language. I can read English and Fortran, none else.
2. I don't have any biblical texts committed to memory. I do know that the second chapter of Genesis is the second version of the creation story, but the specific verse number does not trigger any specific memory of which part of that story it is. I could look it up, but since it wouldn't answer my actual questions, I'm not going to bother. Not knowing part of their scripture in detail is not "disrespecting Judah".
3. No religious text holds any meaning to me. Not the Torah, not the Gospels, not the Bagdavita (sp), not any of it. Not being interested in it is not "disrespecting Judah". Sure, I don't care about their scripture, but I don't care about anyone else's scripture either. (Nor the philosophers, either, since you keep mentioning Plato.)
Finally there is the whole holocaust jab that was completely uncalled for. Knock it off.