Last Thursday, Netflix released their adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, one of my favorite pieces of literature, and, in my opinion, the quintessential American novel.
The timing was fitting, considering the novel is an adaptation of the stories of Adam and Ḥava, Kayin and Hevel, in Parshat B’reishit, which we began reading on Simḥat Torah and will complete this Shabbat.
The central theme that Steinbeck’s novel explores is the ultimate question, that of free will.
East of Eden frames this discussion through HaShem’s revelation to Kayin immediately before the fateful encounter in which he murders his brother.
The Chinese-American scholar-turned-cook Lee and his Irish immigrant friend Samuel Huntington discuss the inadequate translation of the King James edition: “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well , sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him,” rejecting the American Standard edition as well, in favor of the far more revolutionary original Hebrew meaning of the word timshel, “thou mayest rule over him,” you have the potential, the free will, to overcome your inclination to harm your brother.
The Netflix adaptation takes this concept even further than the original novel, grounding the fairly one-dimensional character of Cathy with a more flushed out backstory and inner monologue that present her decline into wickedness as the result of her repeatedly choosing to lean into brutality and vice rather than making the difficult decision to rise above her harsh circumstances and choose good.
Their dive into Cathy’s psychology may have been inspired in part by the Mumford and Sons song “Timshel,” inspired by the novel, which includes the lines:
”And you are the mother/The mother of your baby child/The one to whom you gave life
And you have your choices/And these are what make man great/His ladder to the stars
But you are not alone in this/And you are not alone in this/As brothers, we will stand and we’ll hold your hand/Hold your hand.”
The series powerfully portrays the idea that community and family are the forces that give us strength to exercise our free will, to choose good, to act morally, even when we have all the reasons in the world to be cruel or vengeful. And most notably, it breaks with Christian theology’s insistence on their false man-god being the only path to salvation and grace, instead favoring the deeply Jewish concepts of b’khira (free will) and t’shuva (return).
This embrace of moral agency is precisely what Steinbeck saw as the foundational promise of the United States: a nation rooted in the Hebrew biblical mandate that we may choose our path. He believed that American society could confront the darker chapters of its past if it was confident enough in the righteousness of its path, and ultimately rise above the darkness and continue marching forward.
Today’s dominant political currents, however, have actively abandoned this ethos. While the left continues to insist on a post-biblical morality, grounded in human intellect alone, the right is increasingly leaning into Christian nationalism, centering biblical morality as a guiding principle for policy. But rather than moving American society towards the ideal depicted by Steinbeck, this trend has plunged the US deeper into the spiritual poison of Christianity’s twisted appropriation of Hebrew prophecy.
Theological concepts like original sin, salvation, and the duality of heaven and earth (God and Caesar) reduce the burden of individual responsibility and accountability for one’s choices, undermining the primary Divine directive for humanity: timshel, you may choose between good and evil. And theologically motivated mistranslations and censorship make it even more difficult for honest moral Christians to find the truth themselves.
But just as Lee in East of Eden escapes this trap, first through his own deep curiosity and commitment to intellectual honesty, and ultimately through the rabbi in San Francisco, whom he consults to understand the true meaning of the Divine encouragement that Kayin receives, America, and the rest of the world, can truly live by the biblical ideals that they hold so dear by building a truth-seeking relationship with the people of Israel and pursuing the Noaḥide path.
But Israel’s political leadership continues to blur the differences between our civilizations, advancing a false conception of “Judeo-Christian” values this week by simultaneously hosting Mike Evans’s Global Prayer Event and participating in Yoram Hazony’s National Conservatism.
After emerging from the ḥaggim of Tishrei, Israel’s season of t’shuva, we must commit ourselves to choosing the right path, to making strides towards holiness on a national level, rather than remaining tied down by the limitations of fate and circumstance.
In order for Israel to do this correctly, and to serve as a shining example to all the world’s truth-seekers, we must reject any attempt to muddy the waters and allow the mandate for defining biblical morality to fall back into the hands of the church.
