Friday, August 19, 2022

Adam and Eve Ate What? An Apple Or A Mango?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           


Hari Koudabolu, Indian American stand-up comic born in New York, was sure that Adam and Eve ate a mango.  He thought the apple was a European influenced idea.  Ha ha!  Apple translates to תפוח עץ, or tapooakh Aitz in Hebrew.  

        Helen Raptis did the interview on AM Northwest

Hari was interviewed on Portland, Oregon's KATU channel 2 this morning and mentioned his mango idea, questioning the apple. His family is from southern India.   

 Mango eating can be a problem for some.   In mango, urushiol is found in high concentrations in the peel and the fruit just beneath the peel. In most people, contact with urushiol will induce an allergic skin response. With mango, the allergy may not be as common as, say, poison oak or poison ivy but, in some cases, it can be just as profound.                                            

                                                        
                

Hari, I want to tell you, you are so close to the truth!  The fruit of the tree was never named!  It could have been a mango just as easily.  As Hari mentioned, the mango is an important fruit in India.  Mango is the national fruit of India, Pakistan and the Philippines, while the mango tree is the national tree of Bangladesh.  Well, we have Johnny Appleseed  in the USA to thank for having apples to eat.  

The Bible starts off with Genesis and the story of Hashem G-d planting a garden in Eden, to the east, and placed there man and the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad. 

Garden of Eden

A river came out of Eden to water the garden, and it divided and became 4 headwaters.            

Man was placed in the garden to work it and to guard it.  G-d made man a helper, Eve.  A serpent was also in the garden, smarter than any other beast, and talked Eve into eating the fruit that was forbidden to eat, or she would die.  As he said to her, that she wouldn't die because her eyes would be opened and you would be like G-d, knowing good and bad.  You know the story, she ate it and of course talked Adam into eating some, too.  The fruit was not named. 

The question had already come up with: Was the 'forbidden fruit' in the Garden of Eden really an apple? By published 

He  performed in Portland, thus was interviewed this morning.

Kondabolu's humor often centers on social issues such as poverty, racism, and a rejection of Indian stereotypes seen in media. He has spoken about the challenges of dealing with white fragility when addressing race in his comedy. He has also addressed a variety of other social subjects, such as the LGBT community.  

Reference:

KATU AM Northwest interview 9am 8/19/22.  

Tanakh (Bible) Art Scroll Series, The Stone Edition

https://www.livescience.com/what-was-forbidden-fruit-in-eden.html 

https://katu.com/afternoon-live/lifestyle-health/comedian-hari-kondabolu-08-15-2022

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