Musar sur La Genèse 2:16

Another lesson we have to learn from this portion is to be careful not to use our power of speech to speak slanderously as the serpent had done, seeing that for every other sin there is some way to atone through some punishment, but the only sin that could not be atoned for was the slanderous use the serpent made of its tongue. Its punishment was not designed to elevate and rehabilitate. Of course, we also learn to be careful with what we eat, seeing that Eve sinned by eating forbidden food. Seeing that the Torah permits the cutting down of a tree only "if you know that this tree is not a fruit bearing tree" (Deut. 20,20), we learn that food is to be treated as something sacred and must not be wasted. We have a tradition that the prophet Ezekiel did not eat any meat if there was a question of the animal having been healthy etc., i.e. if a halachic ruling was deemed necessary concerning its fitness to be eaten. Just as consumption of food of a forbidden kind caused death, so fulfillment of the command to eat in sanctity which is hinted at in the words מכל עץ הגן אכל תאכל, "From all the trees of the garden you shall surely eat" (Genesis 2,16), is a commandment which promises life. The expression אם כל חי, which contains all the letters of the word for food, i.e. מאכל alludes to this. I have discussed this at length in my treatise dealing with the letters of the Aleph Bet when discussing the letter ק, at which point I have also explained the rabbinic statement that the word בראשית tells us that the world was created for the sake of the חלה תרומה and בכורים Jews separate from their dough or harvest respectively and dedicate to G–d. So much for the lessons of סור מרע, "desist from doing evil."

While Aaron and his sons were thus sanctified, the people were sanctified by restrictions in their diet as outlined in Leviticus chapter 11. This was parallel to G–d telling Adam in גן עדן that Man was allowed to eat from all the trees in that garden except from the tree of knowledge. Concepts such as פיגול, נותר, and טמא, [various types of disqualifications of sacrificial matter] all derive from the tree of knowledge from which Adam ate. Just as the priests were separate in sanctity, their clothing was separate and their food and drink were separate. In order to enable them to eat and drink some of the things that had been sanctified and offered on the altar, the place where such service was performed also had to be separate and sanctified so as to lend an additional level of sanctity to the service they performed. This element of sanctity of the site applied both to the general area of the Tabernacle, i.e. the courtyard surrounding it, the Sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, as well as to different levels of sanctity of the different types of sacrifices. Sacrifices offered on the "outer" copper altar possessed a different degree of holiness from the incense which was offered on the golden altar within the Sanctuary. The latter was the offering dearest to G–d and drew G–d's goodwill down to His creatures on earth. The Aramaic word for קשר, connection, is the same as the Hebrew word for קטר, smoke, incense. The smoke created the connection. Since the essence of the incense offering consisted of the fragrance it exuded, something that is closest to רוח, spirit, i.e. a spiritual concept, it was especially close to G–d Who is pure spirit. It can be appreciated only by the soul, not by the body. It was therefore uniquely designed to establish close communion with the שכינה. This is why it was offered inside the Sanctuary. Most animal offerings could not be offered inside the Sanctuary; even incense could only be offered inside the Sanctuary when it was the incense of the public. Private incense offerings were not offered there. It was considered קטורת זרה, incense of an alien nature. Even Aaron only had the right to enter the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, once a year, as stated by the Torah: ואל יבא בכל עת אל הקודש, "He must not enter at will into the Shrine behind the curtain, in front of the cover which is upon the Ark, lest he die" (Leviticus 16,2). Our sages comment on this that it was only Aaron who was not allowed into the Holy of Holies whenever he wanted; Moses, however, was allowed to enter at will (Sifra on Leviticus 16,2). We must understand that Moses was not a זר, stranger, alien, because the raw-material he was made of had been so refined that it was itself pure and holy, similar to being garbed in garments of light. This is why according to Sotah 12, at his birth, the house of his parents was filled with light. The material Aaron's body was made of did contain some parts tainted by the residue of the pollutant of the original serpent; it was incumbent upon him to rid himself of that element, something that he was able to do only with the help of the holy oil of anointing. Even with the help of that holy oil he did not attain the level of Moses [and required the advent of the Day of Atonement so that he might be free, at least temporarily, of foreign elements. Ed].

In principle, this is what the legislation of בכורים, מעשר and מעשר שני is all about. We are to bring physical food to a holy place and consume it under conditions of holiness having declared that we have met all the necessary requirements to qualify for doing so. The Torah reports that even Adam was told that he could eat from every tree in the garden i.e. אכול תאכל, (eating of a dual nature); this was a hint that such eating was to be spiritually uplifting.

The mystical dimension of "eating" which G–d commanded Adam to do in גן עדן when He said to him מכל עץ הגן אכול תאכל, "You shall surely eat from all the trees of the garden" (Genesis 2,16), is tied up with the concept of קרבן and was entirely a sacred activity. Man's "table" is in the nature of an altar for sacrifice.

It is important to appreciate that the מצות are so interwoven with one another, that each מצוה contains a part of all the spiritual aspects of every other מצוה. The מצות are bound up with the emanations, which are also interwoven with one another as will be explained on another occasion. This means that there is a general as well as a specific significance or purpose of each מצוה. As soon as man was created, G–d gave him a מצוה. We read in Genesis 2,16: "G–d commanded man saying, etc." The Talmud Sanhedrin 56 understands that verse to mean that the seven Noachide laws were commanded to Adam at that time. The Talmud dissects the verse to show how different ones of the seven commandments are alluded to in the various words. At any rate, these seven commandments conceal within them all the 613 commandments. The elite of mankind, men such as Chanoch, Methuselah, Noach, Sem, Ever, the patriarchs and their respective sons, all observed seven Noachide commandments until G–d decided to reveal the 613 commandments. Since attaining one's perfection is impossible unless one observes them, they had to do so even though each commandment contains spiritual elements of all other commandments also. Nonetheless, unless one translates the potential of the מצוה into an "actual" through its specific performance, one has not done what our sages call הוציא את הכח לפועל.

The third approach to this meal is based on the mystical dimension behind the "delicacies," מטעמים, that Isaac wanted to taste before blessing Esau in Genesis 27,4. Our sages state that this was symbolic of the meal G–d will prepare for the righteous in the World to Come. The time frame for that event: After the world will have rejuvenated itself and has reached the spiritual level it should have maintained since the time Adam was created, and would have maintained if only Adam had not sinned. At such a time matter will have been so refined that men will need to wear only the כתנות אור, the garments woven of "light," as Adam had done before G–d had to provide him with leather aprons, i.e. כתנות עור. Then indeed G–d's blessing /command in Genesis 2,16 that man could eat from every tree in the garden will be fulfilled. Abraham alluded to this condition when he said to the angels "rest under the tree." He referred to it as representing the tree of life, seeing that at that time in the future death would be banished from the earth.

Jacob and family experienced exile in all its forms and became so refined that a whole nation of 600,000 pure souls emerged. We have stated several times that these 600,000 souls correspond to the letters in the Torah, that Torah essentially represents Israel and that the Torah comprises the 70 "faces" in the Celestial Regions. Since Israel is called אדם, it was created in order to service and preserve the terrestrial part of the universe, to observe the Torah (Targum Yonathan on Genesis 2,16). Israel unfortunately aborted its mission by sinning during the episode of the golden calf. This is reflected in Psalms 82,7: אכן כאדם תמותון, alas, you shall die as man; (instead of living indefinitely just like the angels). David began to repair the damage caused by that aberration, but did not complete the repair. Only when the Messiah comes will the remainder of that damage be repaired.

After conclusion of the paragraph dealing with the death of the sons of Aaron and the precautions priests must take not to run the risk of displeasing G–d to the point where they would become guilty of death, the Torah continues with a list of what we may or may not eat. The chapter dealing with these forbidden foods parallels the prohibition not to eat from the tree of knowledge in גן עדן. The origin of theses forbidden foods is in the סיטרא אחרא, the side of the emanations in which negative influences originate. The Zohar explains this at length.