Lilith and Chava

*In the garden of Eden, long before the eating of the apple, the Holy
One created the first human being -- a man named Adam, and a 
woman named Lilith.  Lilith said, "We are equal because we are
created from the same earth."
                                                                 -- Alphabet of Ben Sira,  2 3 a-b

Lilith, swayed by the serpent's
hiss, No man is my master as I am
as strong as he, no man will tie my
lips as I have tasted sun and fruit,

echoed above the Trees 'til God
shackled her tongue, binding her
name to the shores of the Red Sea.
But when Chava bit into the Bitter

Fruit, Lilith rushed to assist:  Sitting
within a circle of stones on a mat
of reeds, she cleaned Chava's gypsy
curls with oily wool, perfumed tawny

skin with orchid petals, and fed her
on goat milk, pomegranates and roots.
As the Garden awaited, Lilith gracefully
wrapped her Skin around Chava's,

implanting the Infinite Life into the
unborn child.  The First Cry rushed
out of her womb and with a stream
of blood became the House of Israel.

(c)Michal Mahgerefteh

from In My Bustan, 2009