창세기 3:6의 Musar

We have a rule that in case a fire breaks out on the Sabbath, that whenever it is permitted to save the book, i.e. Torah scroll, it is also permitted to save the protective cover that such a Torah scroll is wrapped in together with the scroll (Shabbat 116). The relative importance of the body compared to the soul is similar to the importance in halachah of the ark of the Torah scroll to the Torah scroll itself. This is why in the future when the world will be full of knowledge of the Lord-a spiritual achievement-also physical matter such as the body will benefit through resurrection. It too will be able to absorb such knowledge. This is one of the important aspects in which the present sin-polluted world differs from an ideal world. The inferior status of matter in our world had its origin in Genesis 6,6, where the Torah says: ויתעצב אל לבו, He (G–d) was saddened concerning his (man's) heart. G–d saw that man no longer was using his body correctly, that the only area of spirituality left was man's heart. If man had "seen" with his heart instead of merely with his "eyes," [part of physical matter. Ed.] man's fall could have been avoided. We know from Samuel I 16,7: "for man 'sees' with the eyes whereas G–d 'sees' with the heart." Only G–d sees with His "heart." Man's decline began when the tree of knowledge appealed to Eve's eyes (Genesis 3,6). The purpose of man's creation had been to have the body as perfect as the soul, the body to be the היכל, "Sanctuary," whereas the soul would be the קדשי קדשים, "the inner Sanctuary." Both body and soul would have enjoyed a life of intelligence.

We find that Adam essentially violated three categories of sin: idol worship, sexual licentiousness, and bloodshed. He was also guilty of violating property rights, i.e. financial misdemeanors. Our sages describe Adam as a heretic in Sanhedrin 38. They describe him as "pulling his foreskin," (ibid. i.e. to make himself appear as if he had not been circumcised) He also cohabited with his wife who had previously been slept with by the serpent. As a result Adam's son Cain was infected with the pollutant of the serpent, the reason why he could become a murderer. [I recommend to the reader the commentary on this by Rabbeinu Chananel, who sees these accusations as being mouthed by the Gentiles, and who feels that the Talmud quotes them only in order to teach us how to respond to Biblical quotations taken out of context and used against us by our enemies. Ed.] As to Adam having sinned in property matters, this must be explained, seeing that the whole world belonged to him and he could not therefore become guilty of stealing, embezzling, etc. Rashi comments on Leviticus 1,2 that the reason why the Torah uses the word אדם as an example for someone who offers a sacrifice is, that just as Adam could not have brought a sacrifice from money which was not his, so anyone who offers a sacrifice is warned not to use stolen money for its purchase. Adam's sin consisted of his attitude to material things, described by the Torah as פורה ראש ולענה, "sprouting poison weed and wormwood" (Deut. 29,17). Adam displayed greed by eating from the tree of knowledge, which is described by the Torah as "inspiring desire in the eyes" (Genesis 3,6). He was a victim of the trait which our sages described when they said: "man does not leave this world without leaving behind half his desires unfulfilled, that having amassed his first million, a man already aims at the second million" (Kohelet Rabbah 1,34). Adam himself is alluded to in these three portions. Prior to his sin, Adam can be viewed as having been ראש המטות, "the (spiritual) head of all human tribes." Our sages describe the ministering angels surrounding Adam as paying homage to him, eager to hear his words of wisdom (Bereshit Rabbah 8,9). When the Torah says of the progress of the Jewish people in the desert in Numbers 33,2: "These are the departures of the Jewish people according to their journeys," this is a veiled reference to Adam who had been expelled from Paradise and forced to reside in various parts of the earth, a constant traveler. At the end of the same verse, the Torah reverses the description of these journeys by describing them as "their journeys according to the points of their departures."

For that which inclines one's nature towards these pleasures to the extent that one needs such great strength and so many strategies to separate from them is the enticement of the eyes which tend to be seduced by the superficial appearance of things which appear good and pleasing. This seduction is what brought about the first sin as scripture testifies: "The woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and that it was desirous to the eyes... and she took of its fruit, and ate" (Bereishis 3:6).

Purity is the rectification of the heart and the thoughts. We find this term used by king David who said: "Create in me a pure heart, O G-d" (Tehilim 51:12).

Pinchas saw the letters of the word מת in his mind's eye, and this inspired him to be a barrier to "death." How did he do so? When commenting on the lance, רמח which Pinchas used to slay Zimri, the Zohar describes Pinchas as "garbing" himself with this lance in order to mete out justice here on earth so that mercy could be invoked in the parallel regions of Heaven. He saw his own name (numerical value 208) rise heavenwards, realising that his name had the same numerical value as that of "יצחק" the patriarch who personified the attribute of Justice on earth. He also saw the letter מ fly in the air. This letter is an allusion to death, מות. This allusion has already been commented on in Genesis 3,6: ותרא האשה כי טוב וגו' … ותקח מפריו ותאכל ותתן. "The woman saw that it was good,…she took from its fruit, ate, and gave" (to her husband). We find here four words commencing with the letter ות, and in the middle of these words a word commencing with the letter מ. When you join this letter מ to the four words which commence with the letters ות, you obtain the word מות, "death" each time. In other words "death" is present in all four compass directions. This is what the sages had in mind when they referred to Pinchas' mind's eye as seeing the letter מ "flying" in the air.

Eve was now ready to accept the serpent's statement that the only reason G–d had prohibited eating from the tree was that He did not want them to know good and evil just as He Himself did (Genesis 3,5). Reflecting on this, Eve saw that the tree was good as food, etc. (3,6).

Adam enjoyed the fruit of this world without pronouncing a benediction prior to tasting it, i.e. without thanking the Lord for what he was about to partake of. The letter ב, in the word בראשית, symbolises that G–d created the universe with a blessing, ברכה, as we know from Bereshit Rabbah 1,10. When Adam ate from the tree of knowledge without a prior benediction he removed himself from the region of blessing by listening to the curse of the serpent, and he gratified himself from the allure of the tree which appeared good to eat (Genesis 3,6). The Talmud Berachot 35, says that anyone who indulges himself in this world without benediction, i.e. without acknowledging it as a gift from G–d, steals both from G–d and from the Jewish people, since we read in Proverbs 28,24, "whoever robs his father and mother and says that this is not sinful is a companion of the destroyer."

While I am on this subject I shall also deal with the unusual fact that in 24,50, Laban pre-empts his father by speaking up before his father. Rashi comments that it was because of Laban's wickedness that he tried to forestall his father Bethuel. Assuming that Rashi is correct, what advantage did the clever Laban hope to gain by answering first? I have already written that the patriarchs and matriarchs represented the whole of mankind, and that they repaired the spiritual and physical damage inflicted on the universe by Adam (Adam and Eve combined). G–d's whole purpose in the creation of the universe had of course been none other than Adam. We have learned in Avot 4:28 that "jealousy, greed and thirst for honor drive man out of this world," i.e. cause his death. Adam's sin involved elements of all these three negative traits. The serpent was jealous of Adam as Eve's husband and wanted to "marry" Eve himself; hence he tried to seduce Adam. It had thought that Adam would be the first to eat, Eve offering him the first bite, and that thus Adam would become the victim of G–d's warning not to eat from the tree on penalty of death. The serpent would then have been free to mate with Eve. The reward that the serpent held out to Eve (Genesis 3,5-6) was gratification of her greed, "the tree was lovely to look at and good as food." The promise of becoming G–d-like was the additional honour that would result from eating of that tree. Regarding the lives of Abraham and Sarah we find that they practised the very opposite traits. It is natural for a woman to be jealous of another woman's ability to have children when she herself is unable to do so, but Sarah offered Hagar to her husband in order that Abraham should be able to have a child with her instead (Genesis 16,2); she was free of that kind of jealousy. Abraham, who was offered material wealth by the King of Sodom, exclaimed that he would not even accept a shoelace from the booty he himself had captured when he defeated Kedor-Leomer and freed Lot (14,23). Not only did Abraham not display traits of greed, his entire life was filled with acts of generosity towards others. He practiבed humility to the point where he – who had been the recipient of several revelations by G–d – even described himself as being merely "dust and ashes " (18,27).

We have learned in Avot 4,21, that "jealousy, lust, greed, and ego (i.e. the desire for public recognition) drive man from this world." These very negative virtues had driven Adam from the world. There was the jealousy of the serpent of Adam possessing Eve, its pursuit to gratify its lust, and the pursuit of ego, i.e. Adam and Eve wanted to usurp the unique place of G–d in the universe, since they responded to the lure והייתם כאלוקים, "you will be like G–d." Eve had squeezed out a cluster of grapes, ate it, found that they were unripe. This suggests that in this material world one must not pursue honor. Honor will be inherited by the scholars in the world to come. At that time what is written in Isaiah 24,23: "G–d's Presence will be revealed to His elders," will be fulfilled. This is what is meant when the sages describe יין המשומר, "well aged wine," as being part of the reward in store for the righteous in the future. Concerning what happens to the wicked at that time, it is written in Malachi 3,19: "For lo! that day is at hand, burning like a furnace.. All the arrogant and doers of evil shall be straw, etc." It also says in Samuel II 22,9: "smoke rose from His nostrils," i.e. when G–d was angry, and burned those whom He was angry at." Since we have shown that what happens on earth has its counterpart in the heavens, the Torah reports that the season the spies were dispatched was when the grape harvest commences on earth, i.e. a hint that many grapes are not ripe yet. The spies ignored the items mentioned in Avot as destructive. They ate unripe grapes, i.e they were greedy, they were concerned with their own honor and glory, hence they had to suffer what is described in Proverbs 10,26.

I have explained at length that "evil" is distilled from "good,” that it has only been created, נברא, for the sake of the good, i.e. הטוב. Without רע, "evil," there could not have been such a concept as טוב, "good." G–d arranged that people should fear him; this is why the advantage of light is something that is due to the potential power of darkness. This is the deeper meaning of the Torah saying that both luminaries were created equal in size even though the word מארת is spelled defective, without the letter ו indicating the plural. The idea is to tell us that the luminary later described as המאור הקטן, the smaller luminary, is really part of the overall expression "luminaries." The טוב must be understood as the "great luminary," whereas the "small luminary" refers to darkness, חשך. When you look closely at the letters in the word מאורות (when spelled plene), you will find the words for "light" and "death," i.e. אור and מות. The word מות is separated by the letters spelling אור, light. This is a hint that light (the light of Torah) separates or neutralises the power of מות, death. The same does not apply to the Gentiles or to the wicked. They walk in [unbroken] darkness, not in light, and in the language of our sages are referred to as "dead" even while their bodies are "alive" (Berachot 18). For them death is an ongoing experience, not broken or interrupted by light. Of the righteous the Psalmist says (Psalms 116,15): יקר בעיני ה' המותר לחסידיו, "The death of His pious ones is a precious event in the eyes of G—d." Elsewhere I explained the meaning and nature of death at length. The letter מ is an allusion to the angel of death. It is the very letter from the word מפריו from Genesis 3,6 :"ותרא האשה…ותקח מפריו ותאכל ותתן". We have the letter ו and ת four times in that verse plus the letter מ. This is an allusion to Eve having surrounded herself with the angel of death from all four sides. I have written more about this in my treatise תולדות האדם. Anyone who wants a deeper understanding of this must take the trouble to read the entire introduction even though it is lengthy.

The tenth commandment, that of not coveting what is not yours, is none other than the one and only commandment G–d gave to Adam and Eve in גן עדן. The tree of knowledge was described in Genesis 3,6 as נחמד להשכיל, "desirable as a source of wisdom," i.e. she coveted it. Eve separated its fruit from the tree, i.e. she tore apart the fruit which represents the emanation מלכות from the trunk which represents the emanation דעת. We have observed that violating any one of these five commandments involves separating things which ought to remain joined together.

We should remember that Aaron represented the mystical dimension of Adam. If this was so it is reasonable to regard his wife Elisheva as equivalent to the mystical dimension of Adam's wife Eve. Eve sinned primarily by allowing her eyes to seduce her. The Torah emphasises that "she saw that the tree was good as food, pleasant to behold, etc." This is simply a description of the urge to become honoured. This urge brings about the קליפה that women behave arrogantly. In explaining the verse in Psalms 75,5, the Midrash describes Elisheva's joys as the root of her experiencing some haughtiness. When the Midrash emphasises "Elisheva saw her husband elevated, etc.," it wishes to draw our attention to the fact that in contrast to his wife, Aaron did not "see," did not become haughty on account of the honours and joys he experienced on that day. Aaron acted as if he had not seen these honours which could have caused him to become haughty. When Nadav and Avihu died Elisheva suffered a similar disappointment to the one Eve experienced when death was decreed on mankind, i.e. on her sons and descendants. The Midrash begins with the word תדע, "Know!" meaning that if you want to understand the whole occurrence you would do well to study the chapter of Eve's seduction in גן עדן.