It occurs to me that later on in the Torah, we do see a lot of Things Not To Do With Rocks, and people breaking those prohibitions. But those are mostly about not worshipping other gods. #ParshaChat

That makes a lot of sense to me! And maybe also that creativity can be part of science as well? #ParshaChat

Sparkly rocks!!! 💖🗿🛘 #ParshaChat

And yes, absolutely feeling that WRT diagnosis. And how there's a way that a diagnosis gives a name to something and a way in which it doesn't. #ParshaChat

Do they? Which languages? #ParshaChat

A3: It also reminds me of how people usually name pets and working animals that they partner with, and how people usually do *not* give food animals individual names. #ParshaChat

A3: It reminds me some of taxonomy, and how naming types of plants and animals is an important part of scientific understanding. #ParshaChat

I’m also thinking of the ways in which a diagnosis can both relieve and initiate harm and healing. And how indigenous languages lack a word for disability. #ParshaChat

Agricultural society?

#ParshaChat

People want reassurance; they want to be told what they believe to be true is OK. They hate being told things don't have a simple, easy solution, and they absolutely don't want to be told their position is factually or morally wrong. (Must be tough to be a rabbi in times like these!) #ParshaChat

One thing I'm wondering here is: Why a *tree*, and why a *fruit*? Would the story be different if, instead of eating a forbidden fruit, it was about not picking up a forbidden sparkly rock? Or not building with forbidden wood? Or not drinking milk from a forbidden animal? #ParshaChat

I’m remembering the first time I heard the word bigender, and the shock of finally having a word for my identity. Now I can refine that, but I needed a bedrock to build on, which the binary dichotomy did not provide. #ParshaChat

Our modern society values logic, but creativity is mostly about 'loose connections'. Rather than ABC or 123, it's cat-banana-drive-eyelash... until something pops out.

So yes, courage. Creativity usually fails and that's just part of the process.

#ParshaChat

It is extremely difficult to effectively communicate that something is dangerous in a way that people will take seriously. #ParshaChat

Yes. It does. Courage, imagination, a strong sense of truth. I’m thinking of the phenomenal artists who’ve been emerging in recent years who have developmental disabilities alongside exquisitely strong creativity. Watching them make, they know exactly what they’re trying to do. #ParshaChat

Right?! Like, what other outcome could there be, really. #ParshaChat

Q3: What's going on here? Why does Adam give animals their names? Does that remind you of anything in history, literature, or our contemporary world? #ParshaChat

I remember R. Arthur Waskow a"h writing that his son David (hearing the story for the first time as a child) thought God must be teasing the humans into eating from th tree. In a way that contradicts the text and in other, makes perfect sense of it. #ParshaChat

I agree. Decades ago I dreamed that Adam and Eve had a purpose to fulfill, and could not do so without the Knowledge of Good and Evil. #ParshaChat

I see realism here. When God creates these things, they are good. But as times passes, changes can occur. So, plants can become poisonous. And humans can forget about ethics and lie, or steal, or even murder. Everything starts out good, but what will it become? What will we become? #ParshaChat