With the sweat of your

therefrom, for dust you are, and to dust you will return. (Bereishit 3:19)

And in the midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 20 [here based on Soncino

translation]) it is further stated: "And

it will cause thorns and thistles to grow for you – Had you merited

it, you would have taken herbs from the Garden of Eden and tasted in them all

the delights of the world; now that you have not merited it, you shall eat the herbs of the field. [R. Yitzhak

said:] This was said with reference to the present-day generations, when a man

repeatedly plucks his field and eats it while it is still herbage. When Adam

heard this, his face broke out into a perspiration [of anguish] and he

exclaimed, 'What! shall I be tied to the feeding-trough like a beast!' [The

Holy One, blessed be] He said to him, 'Since your face has sweated, you

shall eat bread.' R. Issi said: It had been better for him to remain with

the first curse."

This midrash shows us

that man, being of greater intelligence than all the [other] creatures below,

wept tears when the blessed Lord gave him and the other animals all the herbs

of the field, for it is unbefitting that man join all other living things in

something vital to his life. But then the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him,

With the sweat of your face you shall eat bread

– with the sweat of your face – that man will have to apply his

mind to this activity and all intellectual activity involves toil and work,

because it does not occur of its own accord and requires intelligent effort. All

of this comes to distinguish man as intelligent in that he will gain his

sustenance through human activity, which is intelligent, and this befits him. The

statement, "It had been better for him to remain with the first curse"

does not mean that he would have been better off if he had the herbs of the

field [as his food], for that is certainly untrue, since the this matter

granted him his superiority as an intelligent man, and it is fitting that his

food also be such [i.e., requiring the application of intelligence]. Rather, by

saying, "It would have been better for him to remain with the first

curse" he means that if it were easy for man to acquire his sustenance he

would avoid several sins, since when someone cannot find food he robs and

steals and commits several sins. It was with reference to this that he said,

"It would have been better for him to remain with the first curse." However,

considering his superior status as an intelligent man it was befitting that his

sustenance be produced through the efforts of intelligent humans. That is why

you should not ask why the food of humans is not natural. In any event, as we

have said, the proper blessing is "Who brings forth bread from the

earth," for the blessed Lord gave it [grain] power to satisfy, but it

requires preparation through human efforts.

(MaHaRal MiPrague, Netivot HaAvodah chapter 17)

The Pure Sin of the Tree of Knowledge

Moshe Meir

And the Lord God commanded man, saying, "Of every tree

of the garden you may freely eat. But of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil you

die."…Now the

the serpent, "Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat.

But of the fruit of the tree that is

shall not touch it, lest you die.'" And the serpent said to the woman, "You will surely

not die. For God knows that

be like angels, knowing good and evil." And the woman saw that the tree was good for food

to her husband with her, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they

girdles.

As usual – and in

contradistinction from other literatures – the Torah gives us a partial

description which leaves the reader much room for interpretation. What kind of tree

was the tree of knowledge? Since the Torah does not tell us, the

darshan is free to go to work:

What was the tree where of Adam and Eve ate? R. Meir

said: It was wheat, for when a person lacks knowledge people say, "That

man has never eaten bread of wheat." R. Shmuel ben Yitzhak asked R.

Ze'ira: "Is it possible that it was wheat?" "Yes,"

replied he. "But surely tree is written?" he argued. "It

grew lofty like the cedars of the Lebanon" replied he. R. Yehudah

ben R. Ila'i said: It was grapes, for it says, Their grapes

are grapes of gall, they have clusters of bitterness (Devarim 32:32): those clusters

brought bitterness [i.e. sorrow] into the world. R. Abba of Akko said: It was

the etrog (citron), as it is written, And when the woman saw that the

tree was good for food (Bereishit 3: 6). Consider: go forth and see,

what tree is it whose wood can be eaten just like its fruit? and

you find none but the etrog. R. Yossi said: They were figs. He learns

the obscure from the explicit, and [the meaning of] a statement from its

context, thus: This may be compared to a royal prince who sinned with a slave

girl, and the king on learning of it expelled him from court. He went from door

to door of the slaves, but they would not receive him; but she who had sinned

with him opened her door and received him. So when Adam ate of that tree,

He expelled him and cast him out of the Garden of Eden; and he appealed to all

the trees but they would not receive him. What did they say to him? R.

Berekhiah said: "'Behold, a deceiver who deceived his Creator, who

deceived his Master!' as it is written, Let not the foot of presumption come

unto me (Psalms

36:12), which means, the foot that presumed against its Creator; And

let not the hand of the wicked shake me (ib.): i.e. let it not take a leaf from me. But

because he had eaten of its fruit, the fig-tree opened its doors and

received him, as it is written, and they sewed fig-leaves, etc. (Gen. 3:7)." (Bereishit Rabbah 15,

based on Soncino translation)

Each attempt at identifying the tree relies on some allusion,

be it to a popular saying or to Scripture. The last identification sees Adam

and Eve's embarrassed covering-up with fig leaves as suggesting that the sin

had also involved a fig tree.

The interesting question here is: Why did eating from the

Tree of Knowledge constitute a sin? One might say that it was a sin because God

forbade it, but the tree's connection with knowledge makes this answer

unsatisfying. Why did God consider desire for knowledge to be sinful and punish

it with expulsion from the Garden of Eden? RaMBaM expresses this question

forcefully:

It would at first sight… appear from

Scripture that man was originally intended to be perfectly equal to the rest of

the animal creation, which is not endowed with intellect, reason, or power of

distinguishing between good and evil: but that Adam's disobedience to the

command of God procured him that great perfection which is the peculiarity of

man, viz., the power of distinguishing between good and evil-the noblest of all

the faculties of our nature, the essential characteristic of the human race. It

thus appears strange that the punishment for rebelliousness should be the means

of elevating man to a pinnacle of perfection to which he had not attained

previously. (Guide for the Perplexed 1:2,

Friedländer tr)

RaMBaM explains that it was moral reason that Adam

lacked – the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. From the very

start, man possessed the kind of reason which distinguishes truth from falsity.

Were it not for the sin, that would have remained his one pure faculty of

reason. However, the plain meaning of Scripture indicates that had he not sinned,

man would lack reason altogether.

The breaking of rules and limits is essential to reason and

knowledge. Reason is the mother of critical and skeptical attitudes towards all

things – including the words of the highest authority. It is impossible to

exercise reason without sinning, breaking the rules of the game, and

questioning accepted ideas. The creation of man as a rational being implies the

creation of a being who would necessarily sin. Without sin he would fail to

realize his essence.

Adam's rationality led to his expulsion from the Garden of

Eden. A rational being cannot remain in the Eden of naiveté. By

beginning with this story the Torah tells us that God wanted to create a being

who would be distinguished from the animals in that he would question, doubt,

and rebel. Man must imitate God in this. Parents and teachers who love their

children and students will want them to develop independent thought. When their

children and students disagree with them – they will rejoice.

He gave it to them willingly – The earth

and the fullness thereof are the Lord's

In the beginning: Said Rabbi Isaac: It was not necessary to begin the Torah except from this month is to you (Shemot 12:2), which is

the first commandment that the Israelites were commanded, (for the main purpose

of the Torah is its commandments, and although several commandments are found

in Genesis, e.g., circumcision and the prohibition of eating the thigh sinew,

they could have been included together with the other commandments). Now for what

reason did He commence with In the beginning? Because of [the verse] The

the nations (Psalms

111:6). For if the nations of the world should say to Israel, “You are

robbers, for you conquered by force the lands of the seven nations [of

Canaan],” they will reply, "The entire earth belongs to the Holy One,

blessed be He; He created it (this we learn from the story of the Creation) and

gave it to whomever He deemed proper When He wished, He gave it to them, and

when He wished, He took it away from them and gave it to us.

Rashi does not offer a

philosophical answer to this question, but rather a midrashic answer. One might

say it is almost a folkloristic answer which he takes from the midrash:

parashat Bereishit was not given to us in order to teach about the world and

the fullness thereof; rather it is directed towards the historical future as a

foundation for the right of the People Israel to the Land of Israel in the face

of the counter-claim by the nations of the world that "You are robbers, for you conquered by force the lands of the

seven nations." The reply to this is: In the beginning God

created the heavens and the earth – no human group owns the earth, since

the earth and the fullness thereof are the Lord's and He disposes of it as He wishes. First he decided to give

it to the Canaanites and then he decided to take it from the Canaanites and

give it to Israel. We know that believing Jews use something like this midrash

as the basis for their positions on serious real-world problems when engaging

in arguments between Israel and the nations of the world. However, one must be

very careful of using categories drawn from the midrashic exegesis of Scripture

as the basis for positions reflecting political needs and interests. Such use

can become a double-edged sword. If we continue along the lines of ideas that

Rashi derives from midrash, we will be forced to say: Indeed, the

earth and the fullness thereof are the Lord's, and thus He took the land

from the Canaanites and gave it to Israel, and when He

wished He took it from Israel and gave it to the Romans, and when He wished He took it from the Romans and gave it

to the Arabs, and when He wished He took it from

the Arabs and gave it to the Crusaders, and when He

wished He took it from the Crusaders and gave it to the Mamelukes, and when He wished He took it from the Mamelukes and gave

it to the Turks, and when He wished He took it

from the Turks and gave it to the British – and again we appear as a party to

the dispute. The deeper meaning of the midrash is that no nation has any

right to any land, since God is the owner of all the earth.

(Y. Leibowitz: He'arot LeParashat Hashavua, pg.

12)

And the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you

beasts of the field on your belly shall you crawl and dirt

shall you eat all the days of your life."

(Bereishit 3:14)

It would appear that the phrase, on your belly

shall you crawl and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life may be

understood as a blessing. It removes the need for toil, since food is always

available – no need to search or even to raise one's head to fulfill one's

basic needs!

The problem is that when there is no need to search or to make

an effort or to even raise one's head – then you

remain close to the ground, and do not rise above it. There is in this an

abandonment of human purpose and of the searching that is necessary for any

development.

(From the thought of Menahem Mendel of Kotzk)

This is the record of Adam's descendants

Rabbi Nahmani says: How is it

known that one human is equal in value to all creation? Since it says, this

is the record of Adam's descendants [toldot], and

there it says, this is the story [toldot] of

heaven and earth when they were created (2:4).

Before there was creation and doing, here too there is creation and doing.

(Avot

De'Rabbi Natan 31:3)

And love your neighbor as yourself (Vayikra 19:18) Rabbi

Akiva says: That is the great principle of the Torah.

Ben Azzai says: This is the

likeness of God] is a greater principle.

(J Nedarim

9:4, and in the Sifra)

But Ben Azai is of the opinion

that our sentence, This is the record of

Adam's descendents (Bereishit

5:1) is a still greater, more comprehensive principle. Here a much greater,

much higher union of all men is given. This verse looks on the greatest

criminal, the greatest degeneration, the greatest bestiality, all as Adam's

descendents, as all developing out of the one Adam the one creation in the

likeness of God… So ALL men are human beings, the divine likeness is never

completely lost, that is the first Truth which stands at the head of the

history of Man.

(R. S. R. Hirsch on Bereishit 5:1, Levy translation)

Everyone is Created in God's

Image

Man is beloved, having been created in the Divine Image (Avot 3:14)… this

refers to every man, says Rabbi Akiva. This is the

proof he brought that that it speaks of the sons of Noah, and not only the

Israelites. Rabbi Akiva wanted to include all men,

including the Noahides. The RaMBaM

made a full statement about this in chapter eight (halakhot 10-11) of Hilkhot

Melakhim: "Moses our Teacher was commanded

by God to compel all human beings to accept the commandments enjoined upon the

descendents of Noah. Anyone who does not accept them is put to death. He who

accepts them is invariably called a resident alien… A gentile who accepts the

seven commandments and observes them scrupulously is a righteous gentile, and

will have a portion in the world to come."…and so, I am puzzled why this

became so distant to the commentators, who did not want to understand that

Rabbi Akiva meant to speak regarding all humanity and

who think he was referring to Israel alone. They supported their ideas with the

statement [of the Sages] of blessed memory, "you [Israel] are called adam, etc." – but this is building one derasha on top of another! Thus they forced their

interpretation of the divine image, and of the verse they had brought as a

proof text. I think that this is the broad and paved road which Rabbi Akiva wanted to smooth out for everyone in the world, as

the RaMBaM says we were commanded by Moses of blessed

memory to include everyone in the world. And if we were commanded to force them

by the sword and destruction, we are certainly required to draw their hearts to

the will of their Creator and to the desire of their Rock through words… And

they are beloved, having been created in the Divine Image, their hearts readied

for study. For this is the law of man – to follow the laws and statutes of God

in recognition of His having commanded them, as the RaMBaM

says, since they were beloved of their Creator, in His image.

(Tosafot

Yom Tov on Avot 3:14)

Readers respond

A response to Debbie

Weissman (Nitzavim-Vayelekh issue)

It was indeed an

especially difficult year for the Jewish People across the world… The list of

events appearing in the article's conclusion includes "Operation Cast Lead

and its consequences." I am surprised by this one-sided formulation

(Debbie Weisman fails to mention those members of the Jewish People in Sderot

and the area around Gaza who suffered from Kassam rockets, Grad missiles, and

mortar fire – all deliberately aimed at civilian areas – during the four years

that followed the disengagement from Gaza). Could this be forgotten so soon?

Sylvie and Gabi Weil, Kfar Maimon

Pinchas Leiser,

editor of Shabbat Shalom, comments:

Since this was not the

only response making this point, I think that it would proper for me as the

editor to respond to these comments on a fundamental level.

God forbid we should

think that Dr. Debbie Weissman – or any other of us – has forgotten, taken lightly,

or lacked empathy with the plight of those living in the south who suffered

gravely from the Kassam rockets that were aimed against the civilian

population. In light of the responses we received, I see that sometimes it is

necessary to mention the obvious; I do not think anyone could forget such

events. That being said, I do not think it absolves us from having to relate to

what happened on the other side of the border. Following the first War in

Lebanon, a governmental committee of investigation was set up to deal with the

events of Sabra and Shatilla. Would it not better if that same moral sensitivity

brought us to objectively investigate the events of the last war ourselves – not

because of international public opinion, but out of an honest concern for our

moral image of ourselves? And even if the conclusion will be that the bombing

of Gaza was the only effective response to the missiles, and even if the

conclusion will be that the IDF took maximal care and all that happened was

necessary, just, and effective – should that keep us from expressing our sorrow

over the serious harm suffered by the civilian population? Have we forgotten

the sensitivity shown by our father Jacob before encountering his brother Esau,

when he was worried he might have to kill his brother, even if it be in

self-defense? Jacob became very frightened and was

distressed, and Rashi, following the Sages, explains: Jacob became… frightened, and… distressed: He was frightened lest he be killed, and he was

distressed that he might kill others.

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