Musar sobre Gênesis 3:20

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."

The deeper meaning, סוד, of the relationship between צלם and דמות, image and form, is the relationship between soul and body. The attachment of the Essence of G–d, the אין סוף, -to אצילות, the emanation closest to the אין סוף, -is similar to the attachment of our soul to our body. This is a comparison of a general nature, something we described as דרך כלל. The more detailed explanation of this, which I have given in my treatise תולדות אדם, describes the soul נשמה, as something Divine, originating in the upper regions of the Heavens. I have discussed also the sources of our other spiritual forces such as נפש and רוח in that treatise. Generally, we find those three spiritual forces as being mentioned in the Bible, though on rare occasions the Bible also uses two more names for our spiritual forces, חיה and יחידה. In my treatise תולדות אדם I have also discussed the meaning of such verses as ויהי האדם לנפש חיה, "Man became a living creature" (Genesis 2,7), as well as the verse היא היתה לאם כל חי, "She has become the mother of all living human beings" (Genesis 3,20), and הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו, "Here man has become like one of Us" (Genesis 3,22). The last verse alludes to the deeper meaning of the spiritual force called יחידה. In that connection we have also discussed the significance of דמות, the body. We have explained there that G–d created man with seven facets, the head to correspond to the upper three of the emanations כתר, חכמה, בינה, the two arms corresponding to the emanations, חסד, גבורה. The torso corresponds to the emanation תפארת, the "covenant" with the sexual organ draws the torso towards the emanation יסוד, whereas the two thighs corresponds to the emanations נצח, הוד. Man cleaves to his wife (Genesis 2,24) by means of the "covenant" with his sexual organ. The latter function of the body corresponds to the emanation מלכות. In the treatise בית ישראל, which follows the treatise תולדות אדם, I have dealt with the mystique contained in the various names for other parts of the body.