Judaism DIR
Last week the BIU archeology department held a convention on textiles through history. I'm sorry to say that much of it was pretty boring, but there were a few interesting points that I took away from the day. One of them was made by a researcher of prehistoric cultures who gave a speech on the development of clothing in prehistory. Her bottom-line conclusion was that particularly in the Land of Israel, prehistoric peoples continued wearing animal skin clothing (as opposed to textiles) for a very, very long time (if I understood correctly, well into the 6th millennium BCE at least). I thought that was a fantastic conclusion because of:
a. P'shat Torah:
b. This midrash clarifying what these skins were:
c. This gemara about the possible location of Gan Eden:
Last week the BIU archeology department held a convention on textiles through history. I'm sorry to say that much of it was pretty boring, but there were a few interesting points that I took away from the day. One of them was made by a researcher of prehistoric cultures who gave a speech on the development of clothing in prehistory. Her bottom-line conclusion was that particularly in the Land of Israel, prehistoric peoples continued wearing animal skin clothing (as opposed to textiles) for a very, very long time (if I understood correctly, well into the 6th millennium BCE at least). I thought that was a fantastic conclusion because of:
a. P'shat Torah:
"And the LORD God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them." (Beresheet 3:21)
b. This midrash clarifying what these skins were:
"And the LORD God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. In the Torah of Rabbi Meir it was found to be written "garments of light" ("Or" with an Ayin means skin and with an Aleph means light), these are the clothes of Adam that are similar to a rue [plant], wide on the bottom and narrow on the top. Rabbi Yitzchak Ravya said: They were smooth like a fingernail and beautiful like pearls. Said Rabbi Yitzchak: They were like thin flax garments that come from Beit She'an. "Garments of skins", that were stuck to the skin. Rabbi Elazar said "Igaea" (goatskins); Rabbi Aivo said "Agnea" (sheepskin); Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said "Lagai" (hareskin); Rabbi Yosei bar Chanina said "Sisarton" (skin with the wool still attached); Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said "Galei Kasinon" (skin with the hair still attached, perhaps of a kind of ferret or ferret-like creature), and the firstborn would use them; Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman said "They were [made from] camel wool and hare wool". "Garments of skins", garments that come from skin..." (Beresheet Rabbah 20:12)
c. This gemara about the possible location of Gan Eden:
"Having discussed the entrances to Gehenna, the Gemara also mentions the entrance to the Garden of Eden. Reish Lakish said: If it is in Eretz Yisrael, its entrance is Beit She’an, and if it is in Arabia, its entrance is Beit Garem, and if it is between the rivers of Babylonia, its entrance is Dumsekanin..." (Eruvin 19a)
An interesting thing that I also noticed now while collecting the sources is that Beit She'an was connected to Gan Eden both by Reish Lakish in Eruvin and by Rabbi Yitzchak in Beresheet Rabbah.