We learn all this from Talmudic literature. Adam’s life is presented there as a tragedy in three acts, with the entire universe as stage and setting. As if to underline the allegorical dimension of the main character, the Midrash inserts him into the condensed time associated with classical theater. Born at the age of forty, his tragedy lasts only one day.

Listen to the Midrash: It was in the first hour of the sixth day that God conceived the project of creating man. In the second hour He consulted the angels—who opposed the project—and the Torah—which approved. In the third hour God selected the clay for Adam’s body. In the fourth hour He gave it shape. In the fifth hour He covered it with skin. In the sixth hour He completed the body and made it stand up. In the seventh hour He breathed a soul into it. In the eighth hour Adam was ushered into paradise. In the ninth hour he heard the divine commandment forbidding him to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. In the tenth hour he transgressed. In the eleventh hour he was judged by a seventy-one-member Sanhedrin. And in the twelfth hour of the sixth day he was found guilty and expelled from paradise.

Thus ends Adam’s story, and thus begins the story of mankind. Born to affirm God’s glory, Adam became the incarnation of His first defeat.

No wonder God had His doubts about the project. He was not convinced that it was a good idea to place man at the center of His universe. He looked into the future and saw that there were among Adam’s descendants innumerable sinners thirsting for crime and blood. Yet He also foresaw that side by side with them, there would be saints and Just Men. So, for the joy of blessing the chosen, God consented to let Himself be afflicted with the wicked.

One Midrash tells us that when He made His decision, God disregarded the advice of two of His angels whose common sense led them to urge prudence. Said the Angel of Truth: What good is it to create man? Surely he will be a liar. And the Angel of Peace added: In what way does he deserve to be given life? Surely he will provoke endless wars. Yet the Angels of Justice and Mercy pronounced themselves favorably: Let man be born and he will be just and merciful. God—we are told—did away with the rebellious angels, destroying them by fire. Another, less radical, version recounts that while the angels were quarreling among themselves, God took advantage of their inattention and hastily created man.

And He created him in His image . . .

So much so that, according to Rabbi Shmuel Bar-Nah-man, centuries later while Moses was transcribing the Torah, he stopped at this passage and questioned God: Master of the Universe, aren’t You concerned that with these words You may give comfort to the miscreants and mislead the innocent and the naïve? If it is true that God created man in His image, will it not be said then that God has an image? And that therefore God is not one, but many? God reassured His servant: You, Moses, son of Amram, write—that is your task and your role. As for those who will refuse to understand or who will deliberately misinterpret My thoughts and yours, well, let that be their problem.