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The first Pasuk of the Torah:

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים עט הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם ועט הָאָֽרֶץ׃

In the beginning God created the pen of the heaven and the pen of the earth.

However, when talking of the guard of the Torah, Bereishit 3:24 states:

ואת להט החרב המתהפכת לשמר את דרך עץ החיים

And the flaming, overturning sword, to guard the path of the tree of life (ie. the Torah).

Now, as we know, the pen is mightier than the sword. So shouldn't Adam have taken the pen of earth and used it to defeat the sword, thus gaining access to the Tree of Life?

This question is Purim Torah and is not intended to be taken completely seriously. See the Purim Torah policy.

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The text tells us that God created the pen of the heaven and the pen of the earth; it doesn't say he made them available to Adam. Consider: the torah tells us that on the second day God created the heavenly canopy, and on the fourth the sun, moon, and stars, and it would be more than 5700 years before Adam's great-great-great-ok-maybe-pretty-good-ok-average grandchildren would be able to reach any of those! Adam didn't have 5700 years; he was being kicked out of the garden on his first day on earth. God kept his special pens with him, safe from Adam's clutches, until Adam had been evicted from the garden.

Whether God placed the pens in a divine pocket protector is a makhlokhet, but we know that after the events of this chapter God cast the pens into the waters, for it says in B'reishit 7: "on the same day were all the fountain-pens of the great deep broken up". This ensures that Adam's descendants can never return to the garden by way of the guarded path.

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  • Besides, the maps are hidden.
    – sabbahillel
    Mar 17, 2016 at 3:33
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Everyone knows that the Torah was originally given in American style Ashkesfard, so Alephs are interchangeable with Ayins, as are Tets with Tavs. Thus the correct translation of the verse you cited is

And the pen of the flaming, turning sword

God did not place any old sword, nor even any old flaming sword, to guard the path to the Tree of Life. He placed the sword that is bivchinas "pen" i.e. the pure, distilled pen aspect of the sword so that in a very deep way, the sword was really a pen and therefore invincible.

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  • Was it the black fire pen that Hashem used to write the Torah?
    – user9907
    Mar 17, 2016 at 22:16
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G-d regretted creating the pen shortly after it came into existence, and returned it to from whence it came, as the verse in Mishlei (24:18) says quite clearly:

פֶּן-יִרְאֶה יְהוָה, וְרַע בְּעֵינָיו; וְהֵשִׁיב מֵעָלָיו

Hashem saw the pen, and it was bad in His eyes. And He removed it from Him.

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The pen is mightier then the sword as it is an extension of our thoughts and tongues. After seeing the destruction caused by the Loshon Harah of the Nachas H'Kadmony Adam swore off from Loshon Harah and all it's utensils.

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