Genesis as the Story of Every Human Life

A Six-Part Reflection Series
By Ezra Nadav

What if Genesis isn’t just the beginning of the world… but the shape of every human life?

This series reimagines the Book of Genesis not as ancient history, but as a deeply personal metaphor, one that speaks to the stages we all live through: innocence, loss, struggle, purpose, legacy, and the ongoing work of becoming.

Across six meditative essays, Genesis as the Story of Every Human Life explores the inner journey reflected in the Torah’s earliest stories. Each part follows one movement of the Genesis narrative, paired with its human counterpart, from the garden to exile, from wrestling with identity to releasing control, and finally, to beginning again with renewed vision.

This is not a commentary.
It’s a conversation between text and soul.

The Series at a Glance

Part 1: Conception and Innocence

We begin in the Garden, unknowing, unashamed, cared for without question. This is the innocence of origin, the gift of being called good before we do anything to earn it.

Part 2: Knowledge and Estrangement – The Loss of Innocence

With awakening comes complexity. Adam and Eve leave Eden, and we too must reckon with shame, choice, and moral agency, the cost of knowing and the beginning of becoming.

Part 3: Covenant and Identity – Becoming a Self

We wrestle with purpose, as Jacob wrestles with the divine. Identity is not static. It is formed in tension, through questions, contradictions, and commitment.

Part 4: Dreams and Detours — The Price of Maturity

Joseph’s story teaches us that the journey is rarely direct. Delays, betrayals, and detours shape us, sometimes more than the dream itself.

Part 5: Blessing and Legacy — Reckoning with the End

Near the end, the work is no longer to build, but to bless. To let go. To offer our story forward in truth and trust, even if we never see the outcome.

Part 6: Living the Story — A Life Repeated and Renewed

Genesis ends, but the rhythm continues. Each phase returns, in new seasons, new contexts, deeper ways. This is the shape of a life. This is how we live the story.

Read the Series

Begin with Part 1: Conception and Innocence if you’d like to experience the series as a journey from beginning to end, or choose your own adventure and begin wherever your life resonates most.

💬 About the Series

Genesis as the Story of Every Human Life is part of the On Second Thought project — essays that explore ancient texts, modern life, and the sacred tensions in between. Written with care for seekers, doubters, readers, and wanderers.

If this series resonates, feel free to share or reflect back. Your questions shape the next questions.

Shalom Aleichem

No part of this series may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means — including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods — without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations used for the purposes of review, commentary, or scholarly citation with proper attribution.