Air Time
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking about in the garden . . . Genesis 3:8a Robert Alter
Walking – Sometimes our English translations cripple Hebrew intention. Verses become pedestrian instead of surprising. We read them as if they had nothing more to say than our simple-minded interpretation. We reduce the biblical chess board to a game of tik-tac-toe. It’s time to complicate things.
We’ve looked at the underlying Hebrew density in this verse before (HERE and HERE), but we haven’t plumbed the depths yet. Let’s add another layer.
“The ideal of halakhic man is that the Divine Presence should rest here in this world. . . [Exodus 25:22] This verse represents the ultimate telos of the Halakhah. ‘R. Aba bar Kahana said: It is not written in the text, “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking [mehalekh: pi’el form] in the garden” but “And they heard the voice of the Lord God skipping [mithalekh: hitpa’el form] in the garden” (Gen. 3:8). This [use of the reflexive] implies that He sprang ever upward [i.e., they heard God departing from the garden]. The principle abode of the Divine Presence was in the lower realms.’”[1]
Some clarification, perhaps? First, something about the verbal form, hitpa’el. Then a comment about reflexive action:
Generally speaking, the Hithpael stem expresses the reflexive voice of the meaning of a verb in the Piel stem. However, the Hithpael stem is quite flexible in its use and can express other kinds of verbal action, depending on the context and the specific verb.
Reflexive voice means that the subject of the verb is both performing and receiving the verbal action. In English, reflexive voice is expressed using a reflexive pronoun as the object of the verb, “I tell myself”.[2]
Kushner informs us that the voice was moving back and forth in all directions. Rabbi Kahana informs us that the voice was habituated to this world. We conclude: God is everywhere customarily here. Put aside the “God on the white throne in heaven” imagery. Shelve it. The place where God wants to be is here, with us, in His creation, part of the process. The Bible is just about as opposite of the dualism of Plato as it could possibly be, and as a result, any theology that fixes its perspective on a transcendent God is, as Soloveitchik might say, close to heresy. Heaven can wait. In fact, it shouldn’t even be part of the equation. What matters is what happens here, and here is the real place of the divine-human habitation. God skips around all over the earth, enjoying what we’re doing with Him.
Topical Index: mithalekh, walking, skipping, Avivah Kushner, Rabbi Kahana, Genesis 3:8
[1] Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man (JPS, 1983), pp. 53-54.
My first thought would be why wouldn’t God have feet, just as we assume Adam did. Just like we do. We were made in the likeness and image of God Genesis 1:27. We look at ourselves physically and because we were made in God‘s likeness and image, God would look like us physically? I had never really thought about it before so it is really thought provoking. Currently God walks with us and talks with us. We don’t see him, although somehow declared that they have, right now he is a voice to us. My sheep know my voice. It will be interesting when we see him what he looks like…
The other point is understanding God as a voice that comes to us in every direction. A voice that knows us completely. Jesus left and returned to the Father but he left us the Holy Spirit. Which is a Voice. Mind boggling when you open yourself up to think about it.
When you talk about The Voice knowing us it reminds me of Psalm 139 where it talks about if I go to the ends of the earth, you are there. He is everywhere. I cannot get away from him, even if I wanted to.
Does it make a difference what form God comes in as long as I can know him. It’s like knowing another person, after a while in so many ways we don’t really see them, we see their essence or who they are because we know their voice???