Rabbi Yaacov Haber's Torah Insights

A Thought for the Week

Bereshit 5762

I'd like to share with you what has been on my mind over the last few 
days. Lines are being blurred. When I open the radio or read the paper I 
am treated to an abundance of analysis. There is a major discussion on 
the definition of terrorism. How does terror differ from war? The 
Taliban is asking the world why the US campaign against Afghanistan is 
not terrorism? Why wasn't the bombing of Hiroshima terrorism? Why isn't 
Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people terrorism? Why isn't 
crashing commercial jets into office buildings a legitimate act of war? 
We sit blurry eyed and we listen. There are editorials that feel 
compelled to distinguish between good terrorists and bad ones.

The lines have also been blurred between religion and fanaticism. If one 
follows their Bible, the question goes, who is to say that at some point 
they should stop and why isn't that justifiable?

When this horrible crisis began, right and wrong were obvious. Truth was 
self-evident. The will of G-d was clear. There was a holy reaction 
straight from the soul. There was a strong sense of right and wrong. 

There was an outpouring of kindness and unity. But as the pain subsided 
the art of pilpul or sophistry kicked in. The Internet and media began 
overflowing with essays, discussions and editorials yearning to 
understand why terrorists do not like us; who are the real villains and 
why do Israelis kill innocent Arab babies anyway.

We ate from the Eitz HaDaas! We moved the process from our hearts to our minds. The tree from which Adam and Eve ate is correctly translated as  the 'tree of knowing good and evil.' Eating from this tree was the supreme sin of massive consequence; the original sin.

What did they do wrong? What is wrong with knowing good and evil? 
According to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, eating the forbidden fruit was a 
betrayal of self. We lost the Lev LeHavin, the understanding heart. They 
wanted to get truth from the outside instead of generating truth from 
one's soul. According to Rav Kook, from the time we ate from the Eitz 
HaDaas we lost the ability to instinctively distinguish right from wrong.

G-d endows man with the innate ability to distinguish good from evil. 
Adam and Eve in their pure state had that perfect clarity. It was the 
nachash, the snake, which seduced man to question that which should be 
self-evident. When he accepted the opinion of the snake he lost himself. 
As the juice flooded into his mouth upon the first bite, Adam tasted the 
loss of his core certainty of being. He lost focus of the simplicity of 
truth. According to the Zohar, the tree of knowledge is the tree of 
uncertainty. In effect, when man ate the fruit of the tree of good and 
evil, he brought the uncertainty of the world into his very being. (R. 
Kook, Orot hakodesh 3:140)

Personally, I am allergic to complicated reasoning. The truest things in 
history were said clearly and simply. Don't steal, don't kill, don't 
take someone else's wife. Freedom is a good thing. There is a G-d in the 
world. I strive to be a poshute yid. Like everyone else I often decide 
if I like someone by their eyes and their smile. These are two parts of 
the person that mirror their soul. If they are simple - I love them.

Over the past year, parsha by parsha, we watched the world develop. 
Today we turn back to the beginning, we unwind it all, to review the 
most basic truth, "Breishis bara Elokim..." G-d created the world. We 
must always go back to the basics. We must always go back to Gan Eden 
and try to get it right.

Rabbi Yaacov Haber

Rabbi Haber is the OU's National Director of Jewish Education and the spiritual leader of the OU's Pardes Program