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Picking out Nike golf clubs has to be a lot easier than writing a 47-lesson Torah cycle curriculum for my bar and bat mitzvah kids, and yet that is exactly the task I’ve taken on for the coming year. It will be quite a challenge. Not only must I study up on my Torah well enough to teach it, but I must study up on connections to the Brit haDasha as well as the writings of the Jewish sages, gathering the good from each source and discarding the not-so-good.

So far, I’m producing these lessons quite close to deadline. Uncomfortably close. I’m hoping to find a creative burst that will launch me 2-3 lessons ahead of deadline so I have more time to look at, pray over and consider the writing I am doing before having to finalize it.

Already, the rush has produced a possible oversight on my part. In my enthusiasm over the first two chapters of Genesis, I may have misinterpreted the order of events. My traditional understanding of Genesis is that on the sixth day of creation, Adonai’s work was devoted exclusively to the creation of humankind.

However, it appears the L-rd also created some other mammel life on the sixth day as well, a fact I didn’t catch until the lessons were already printed up. I was disappointed in myself, not because I expect to always be right, so much as I expect better results of myself than that.

Sure, I suppose the point might be open to some debate; but I think a clear reading of the text points out that it was simply an oversight on my part. Fortuantely, it’s a small one, easily corrected. If that’s the worst error I make over the next 46 lessons I must write, I’ll be doing well, I think.

One nice thing Adam had going for him with Eve was that there were no comparisons for either of them to make. For much of the early part of their marriage, there was no couple down the street with a nicer house, no wife with a more expensive haircut or fashion jewelry, no husband with firmer abs and a sleeker sports car.

Can anyone imagine how much more we might appreciate our partners if we could have the same lack of comparisons to live by as Adam and Eve enjoyed? I suspect we’d love deeper, appreciate each other more and be kinder and more generous in our forgiveness of one another.

Of course, that’s Eden-style thinking. Then again, Eden didn’t last long, did it?

Golf apparel ladies will love is not exactly a main topic in the Torah, but did you know that the opening chapters of Genesis reveals, among many other things, the origins of the entire fashion industry?

You see, prior to the fall of humanity, Adam and Eve wore no clothing. They had no concept of sin, and therefore were able to live without clothes but also without shame. So was this a prehistoric nudist colony haShem was running? Hardly. It simply means that nudity and clothing and the difference between those states of being had not yet been defined.

Of course, that didn’t last long. After eating from the fruit of the tree at the center of Eden, the tree of the knowledge between good and evil, both Adam and Even became self-aware of their lack of clothing and decided that to be covered was better than to be bare. For themselves.

You see, the serpent’s lie was not far from the truth, which is why it provided such a powerful temptation and deception. In a twisted way, we did become, “like G-d, knowing good from evil.” But that ability was hardly a blessing and put us nowhere near Adonai’s level of creative power.

And thank Adonai for that!

The lie was in the details. Yes, Adonai knows the difference between good and evil, and tells us what is good. When we take over the power to discern good from evil, we often contradict G-d’s definition, replacing it with our own. Therefore, as a result of the fall, we created sin.

Not exactly something Adonai was likely to call, “Good” the way he declared his own handiwork during creation week. Not even close.