The Eitz HaDaat (Tree of Knowledge) It is now time to contemplate the story of Adam HaRishon, First Man, in the Garden of Eden, told in Parshat Bereshit. A basic question is the following: On Simchat Torah, we recite a piyut, a religious poem, about Moshe our Teacher in Heaven on a mission to receive the Torah. The Midrash speaks of Moshe in conflict with the angels over the possession of the Torah. The angels claim that man, made of clay, is not entitled to the Torah. But Moshe argues persuasively that the angels have no need for the Torah, for they have no Yetzer Hara, no Evil Inclination. They have no tendency to commit sin, and therefore do not require the admonitions of the Torah: Thou shalt not Murder, Thou shalt not Commit Adultery, Thou shalt not Be Jealous, etc. It may be that a similar argument could be made regarding Adam HaRishon before his "Sin;" namely, that he was expected to be essentially perfect. He was given only one command, namely, not to eat of the "Eitz HaDaat," the "Tree of Knowledge." But if so, Moshe's argument could have been applied, "Why does a creature without an Evil Inclination need the Torah?" This essay consists of two parts: the first contending that Adam HaRishon was, in fact, essentially "perfect;" but in his perfection, disqualified himself from being a role model for the Jewish People. The second presents an idea as to how First Man "achieved" his current status, as a creature who must struggle constantly with his Evil Inclination. I We know that in our world, perfection is not an option. "There is no one so righteous in the world that he does only good and does not sin" (Kohelet: 7,20) This is why Adam was able to refrain from sin for only a matter of hours. This is why he and Chava were barred from Gan Eden, the place of perfection, by flaming swords. And that is why Hashem created Teshuvah. G-d's world is an infinitely magnificent, but unfinished, "product," a world "asher bara Elokim La'asot," "which G-d created in which to do." Man's task is to strive to finish, to improve, both his world and himself. Gan Eden was a world in which there was nothing to strive for; Original Man had everything at his fingertips. Adam HaRishon, First Man, is not a role model for us. Our role models are individuals who had to battle with their Yetzer Hara, their Evil Inclination, to achieve greatness. Yoseph HaTzaddik, Joseph, called the "Righteous," because of his successful struggle with his Yetzer Hara when the wife of Potiphar tried to seduce him, is a role model. Moshe Rabbeinu, who at first rejected the mission of G-d to save His People, but rose to become the greatest human being who ever lived, who is called a "faithful servant" by G-d, but whose greatness the RAMBAM says is within the reach of every Jew, is another. And Rabbi Akiva, a descendant of converts, who initially hated the Rabbis and the whole world of Torah, but who rose, under the influence of his wife, to become a great Teacher in Israel, and who could laugh when others cried, when viewing the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, and while being put to death in a horrible manner by the Romans, because he could see the glorious future of Israel in their martyred past, is yet another. But, if Adam and Chava are not models, why is it that during the "Shivat Yemei Hamishte," the "Seven Days of Celebration" for bride and groom, we bless them by comparing them to the First Couple, "May You grant to these loving friends as You did for Your Creations in the Garden of Eden of old?" The answer, I believe, is that we are not wishing them a trouble-free existence. Rather, we wish them to experience seven days of only "up's," hoping that the experience and memory of that time, when they were "King and Queen for a Week," will remain with them throughout their married life. So that when they experience the inevitable "down's," they will bounce back to the level of their First Seven Days and, as their relationship deepens, even higher. II As human beings, we know that we are fully capable of committing many sins, as specified only a short while ago in the "Viduy," the "Confession before G-d" which we recited numerous times on Yom Kippur. How did we transition from Original Man, who had to deal with just one, or perhaps two, prohibitions, if one includes the prohibition to eat of the "Eitz HaChayim," "The Tree of Life," along with the prohibition to eat from the "Eitz HaDaat," the "Tree of Knowledge," although they were essentially similar. A possible clue to this mystery is provided by the sequence of verses in Bereshit 2;16 - 18, where we find the following: v16: "And the L-rd G-d commanded Man, saying 'You may eat from all the trees of the Garden;' " v17: " 'But of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil you may not eat, for on the day that you eat from it, you will surely die;' " v18: "And the L-rd G-d said, 'It is not good that Man should be alone; I will make for him a helper to match him;' " We will see that "trouble" began for Man only after his "helper" was provided to him. Lest the previous sentence be misunderstood, let us immediately examine its meaning. Somehow, according to the Midrash, Man had been created in a bisexual form. His Evil Inclination, though present, was virtually powerless. The only "Torah" he needed then was the double prohibition against eating from the "Trees" at the center of the Garden. All the rest of the Torah was implicit and undifferentiated within these commands. Once Original Man became Adam and Chava, Man and Woman, the situation was radically altered. The "Evil Inclination" was ready to assume a powerful position within the psyche of the human being. The Torah was ready to be differentiated into the 613 command of the Torah, and to be further defined and refined by the Oral Torah. The catalyst for this further development was none other than the villain/hero(?) of the story, the "Nachash," the "Serpent." A hint of this is provided by the Biblical account which first describes Adam and Chava as being "arumim," "naked," "v'lo yitboshashu," "and they were not ashamed," (Ch. 2,25) and immediately follows this with "And the Serpent was more "arum" (usually translated as "subtle" or "crafty," but perhaps better translated as "naked in imagination") than all the beasts of the field that the L-rd G-d had created." The Serpent proceeds to seduce/persuade Chava to eat from the Eitz HaDaat, she immediately shares the "forbidden fruit" with Adam, and the stage is nearly set for human history as we know it to begin. A full-blown Evil Inclination is in place, Adam and Chava may no longer live in the Garden of Eden, from which they are driven out, and the entrance of which is barred by flaming heavenly swords. The only prescription for the "sin" of Adam and Chava is the "Torah," which is built, in miniature, into human nature as our conscience, enabling us to have awareness of the Seven Laws of Noach. It will reach fuller development in the time of the Avot, and reach maximum potential at the once-in-history Revelation by G-d at Mt. Sinai, when Moshe received the Written and Oral Torah from G-d, and as the latter is developed throughout the ages by the Sages of Israel. What was the "atomic" power of this "fission" of Man into male and female? It seems that sexuality lies at the root of all human creativity, for good or for evil. The Torah commands "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife, and they shall become one flesh." Just as "L'havdil," "by crude analogy," the atomic trigger of "fission," of splitting the atom, is required to release the vastly more powerful force of thermonuclear "fusion," when atomic nuclei merge with the release of tremendous energy, it was necessary to split Original Man into male and female, so that they could merge. And just as fusion must be carefully controlled, so that the energy is not released for destructive purposes, so must the merging of man and woman be carefully controlled lest destructive forces be released. As the Talmud says based on the spelling of the Hebrew words for "man," namely "ish" and for "woman," namely "ishah," - "man and woman - if they have merit, the Divine Presence is between them; if they lack merit, a fire will consume them." Similarly, the "Yetzer HaRa" tries to split the human being apart and to drive a wedge between him or her and their Creator. But the "Yetzer HaTov," the "Inclination for Good," which, according to the Midrash, is 500 times stronger, acts to fuse the human being into an integrated whole, and to achieve union with his/her Maker. So it is also that we see the Song of Songs being called "Holy of Holies" by Rabbi Akiva, for its description of the relationship between Israel and G-d by the "nimshal," the "metaphor," of a man and a woman. When the RAMBAM expresses the degree of love which should exist between Man and G-d, he uses the metaphor of "the love he has for a woman." And that is why when prophets and poets have attempted to describe the joy taken by the Ribbono shel Olam in the People of Israel, they have chosen the metaphor, "as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride." Rabbi Pinchas Frankel Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU |
