Contemporary Cavemen

Recently, I've had the privilege to join an online group that examines the Wonders of the Holy Tongue.

There readers and contributors to this group have varying viewpoints on lots of things, and that’s something that makes the group so wonderful. There’s also a wide (or perhaps not-so-wide) difference of opinion on how human language came to be, whether it developed slowly over the course of millennia (by prehistoric cavemen who were gradually learning how to use their highly-evolved vocal chords) or whether it originated instantaneously on a fateful Friday afternoon, 1^st of Tishrei, Year 2 from Creation, at 1pm solar time, and brilliantly programmed into the newly-formed mind of a single individual, a young, ambitious twenty-something multi-ethnic vegan naked androgynous hermaphrodite named Adam (אדם) who had an affinity for fruits, and figs in particular. (No, it was NOT apples!)

Not that it really matters, but I’d like to share my truth (arrived upon well before age 14, so I don’t even qualify as a “truth-seeker” according to Mark Twain!). Not trying to be offensive or defensive, or score any touchdowns, but simply to state my opinion for whomever might be interested:

I am not entirely convinced that the world is millions, thousands, or any number of years old, for that matter. As of this writing, I am reasonably sure that the world is at least about 43 years old, but can’t even say that with absolute certainty.

In my view, the notion that human language developed “on its own” from single-celled amoebas or fetuses is almost as fantastic a leap of faith as to believe that it was created out of thin air in one single moment. So I posit that everyone believes in a Divine Creator, whether consciously aware of it or not. In fact, some of the biggest believers I have ever known self-identify as agnostics, or even atheists. Nevertheless, their underlying belief is profoundly deep and inherent, and it’s what inspires some of their most wondrously awesome and magnanimous of good deeds (which are ultimately the only things that matter in this world)

Evolution merely gives us a few more years to play with, but out of an eternity of timelessness, forty-thousand years is but a fleeting moment. To each his own. The most important thing we can all agree upon is that presently, we are all humans endowed with the wondrous gift of speech. Exactly how long it took for us to transition from non-existence to single-celled organism to conversant Homo-sapiens is all speculative, and largely irrelevant.

However, I am fascinated by the evidence of cavemen and their alleged inscriptions/illustrations on cave walls. To me, this indicates that primitive wordless humans did in fact exist during post-Adamic antediluvian times.

If correct, this provides a most startling revelation about humanity:

Shockingly, primitive hunter gatherers can exist contemporaneously alongside evolved and civilized humans, but in parallel universes! While the former are still grunting in caves and scribbling on walls, the latter are tilling the soil, writing in cuneiform, and building cities replete with roofed huts, gardens, walls and ziggurats, oblivious to their caveman cousins. Likewise, the cave-dwellers were presumably unaware of advanced human life and their powerful tool of communication called language.[1]

Upon further reflection, this phenomenon of extreme concurrent disparity sadly exists today in our present times! That’s right. As of this writing, in 2017 CE, cavemen still exist!

I am referring to modern-day individuals or societies who still harbor savage and primitive attitudes towards fellow humans (whether man, woman, child, or all three, of any skin-color, gender, creed, etc), often displaying barbaric caveman-like behaviors without any sense of shame or compunction. Sometimes this primitive behavior is camouflaged in a faulty, man-made belief system (i.e. religion, philosophy, political idea, etc), or sometimes it’s just the same paleo-barbaric behavior that has existed since time-immemorial, i.e. abusing or preying on weaker humans, as predators treat their prey in the animal kingdom.

Fortunately, I believe that a grisly caveman can be instantaneously transformed into a post-Adamic mentsh in one day! Forty-thousand years are NOT required. Caveat: he must transform himself. But you can help!

I humbly submit that instead of arguing about whether the miracle of human communication appeared in a single split moment (my opinion), or whether it evolved organically (and no less miraculously) over the period of several thousand or several dozens of thousands of years, our energies would be much better spent if we’d all attempt to share our highly-evolved post-Adamic communication skills (like using our kind and productive words to communicate and not our hands/swords/arrows/vindictive or polarizing words, having empathy, imaginative and out-of-the-box thinking (דמה), objective sense of morality (אדמה לעליון), knowing when silence (and listening!) is a virtue (דום), shared responsibility to protect weaker and vulnerable members of our species whose blood (דם) is equally red, etc) with the many millions of contemporary Homo-sapiens who still have some cavemen-like tendencies, many of whom might live right in our own neighborhoods and perhaps in our own families!

Language is so important in the Torah. We choose every time a word leaves our lips: will it be "evolved," i.e. a meaningful, productive, kind and just word? Or will it be primitive, i.e. abusive, self-serving, idle, ad hominem or malicious? Will it build and cultivate? Or will it tear down and uproot? Such is the power of language. Use it wisely!

Let's use our gift of language to heal and enlighten this fractured world and propel it to a new era of Redemption.

Wishing everyone שלום, relaxation, wholeness and peace! 😊

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[1] This phenomenon of contemporaneous polarity resonated throughout history in a certain way. While European civilization languished in the “dark” Middle Ages, Arabic civilization sparkled in its golden heyday. Similar polarity existed in times of Roman civilization and nomadic Germanic tribes, Han Empire and the Mongols, and countless more examples. Sadly, the same is still happening today. Much of the world is still experiencing a "Dark Ages" of sorts, and most people in the "enlightened" Western World are totally oblivious to it. It is for this painful reason that the UN continues to lambaste Israel while ignoring much more egregious abuses of human rights in many countries throughout the world, or that a women's rights activist in the West can hypocritically advocate for rogue entities in the East, regimes and ideologies that systematically suppress women and countless others, completely ignoring the sorry state of women's rights of those living under those oppressive entities.