The search for timshel by Roberta

The search for timshel by Roberta - May 2017 Scholarship Essay

It has been decades since I last read Steinbeck’s East of Eden and, to be honest, most of the novel has evaporated into a wispy cloud of vague plot outlines and elusive characters. There is one passage, however, that is as clear to me as when I first read it. The character Lee speaks of his attempts to discover the most faithful interpretation of the word “timshel” from Genesis. He recruits rabbinic scholars on his quest and they eventually conclude that timshel is best interpreted as “thou mayest”. This bolsters the book’s recurring theme of fate and freewill, but that is not what impressed on me the most. Lee speaks of how the slight difference in translation of timshel as “do thou” and “thou shalt” has influenced the formation of various sects of Christianity.

The idea that a single word or a single interpretation or misinterpretation of a word could have such a profound effect on its readers was revolutionary to my twelve-year-old mind. It was at that moment that I began to pay particular attention to expressing myself as clearly and as faithfully as I could manage. This caution is especially pertinent to this digital age where words often don’t have the benefit of physical interpretation. I am now extremely careful when writing anything, whether it is an academic paper or simply menial correspondence. Because of this, I can truthfully say that East of Eden continues to influence my life on a daily basis.