Pushed by the Serpent
What rationale did Eve use to justify her partaking of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge?
After hearing from G-d that eating from the Tree of Knowledge would lead to death, how could Eve have succumbed to the enticement of the serpent?
The Talmud (cited by Rashi) anticipated this question and explains that Eve’s downfall was caused by her own doing. While G-d commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from that tree, Eve told the serpent that G-d commanded them not to even touch the Tree. The serpent seized on her addition and pushed her against the tree. When nothing happened, the serpent argued that just as nothing negative resulted from her touching the tree, so too nothing bad would happen if she ate of the tree.
The problem with this explanation is that Eve knew that G-d commanded her not to eat of this tree; G-d never mentioned touching it. That was her own invention, perhaps as a safeguard to not be tempted by its fruit. How could she have concluded that, just as not touching was harmless so too eating would be harmless?
Pre-Tree of Knowledge Nature
The work Toldos Yitzchak provides an intriguing explanation based on a teaching from the Chassidic Master, Rabbi Uri of Strelisk on the verse in Psalms (30:4):
“[There is] no peace in my bones because of my sin.”
Rabbi Uri of Strelisk explains that in the ideal world the division between our bodily organs is not absolute. While the eyes are designed to see and the ears to hear, in a perfect world, the ears can also see and the eyes can also hear.
One who has refined his or her body can enjoy the mutual relationship between his or her bodily organs. In that spiritually perfected state it would be natural to be able to taste through the sense of touch.
Perhaps the rationale for this is that when our body is in total alignment with our G-dly soul, it reflects the soul’s Divine interconnectedness. Each part of the soul, which is a part of the Divine, incorporates all the other parts. Perhaps a vestige of this unity can be found biologically in stem cells before they are differentiated. They have the potential to develop into every part of the body.
We can now understand why Eve added touching to the prohibition against eating from the forbidden Tree. In their pre-sin, pristine state, each of Adam and Eve’s organs incorporated the functions of all the other organs. Thus, by merely touching the Tree, Eve would also be able to experience its taste. In her way of understanding G-d’s command she felt that any contact with the tree would be tantamount to eating from it.
Therefore, when the serpent pushed Eve against the tree and she presumably savored its taste without mishap, she concluded that G-d’s threat was empty and no more than a means to deter them from partaking of this Tree.
Eyes that Hear and Ears that See
Following this novel explanation, we may be able to decipher the meaning of an enigmatic teaching of Rabbi Akiva who stated that when G-d gave us the Torah at Mount Sinai the people were able to see the thunder and hear the lightening!
There is an accepted principle by Torah commentators and philosophers that G-d does not perform needless miracles. G-d cherishes His handiwork and is loath to alter it unless there is a dire need for a miracle. Why then would He perform this extraordinary miracle of having the eyes hear and the ears see?
According to the foregoing teaching of Rabbi Uri of Strelisk, we may suggest that it was not a miracle at all. It was a return to the state of the world prior to the eating of the Tree of Knowledge. As mentioned, at that time Adam and Eve were so refined so that their bodily organs were able to perform diverse functions interchangeably. That was their natural state until they partook of the forbidden fruit at which time their bodies underwent a precipitous spiritual decline.
Sinai: A Return to the Past
When the Jewish people appeared at Mount Sinai and cleansed themselves before the revelation of G-d, they reached the zenith of spiritual purity. They restored their spiritual state to that of Adam and Eve before the downfall. In that rarified state of being they had the capacity to see sounds and hear sights. This was not an unnecessary miracle; indeed, it was not a supernatural occurrence at all. Rather it was humanity’s return to its original natural state.
This return to the past, we may suggest, was related to another phenomenon. Our Sages teach that when the Jewish people encamped at Mount Sinai, they experienced an unprecedented and unparalleled unity. Their ability to unify, despite their disparate and often discordant personalities, was a reflection of, and paralleled, the inner unity of their souls and bodies. When we are at peace with ourselves, we can find ways of relating to others as well.
Conversely, when we cultivate good relationships with others who may represent conflicting ideas and ideals, it helps us to discover inner unity and harmony. The greatest expression of the reciprocal unity we experienced at Mount Sinai will be fully manifested in the Messianic Age.
Havdalah: Unification of All of Our Five Senses
The discussion above may shed some light on the dynamics of the Havdalah service at the end of Shabbos.
It has been pointed out that the Havdalah service involves all of our five senses.
We hear the recitation of the Havdalah blessing, smell the spices, look at our fingernails at the light of the Havdalah candle, drink the wine and dip our fingers in the leftover wine.
Adam and Eve, we are told, sinned on Friday before the onset of the Shabbos. After that Shabbos darkness engulfed the world and frightened them. Adam used his ingenuity to strike two stones together to produce light.
The underlying significance of this is that the decline of humanity and the world as a result of the Sin was not felt until after Shabbos. During the first Shabbos, we are told by our Sages, Adam still benefitted from the primordial light created on the First Day. So, the first occasion for him to experience the darkness of night was at the end of the Shabbos.
We acknowledge the drastic change that took place then by incorporating all of the five senses in one ritual. By doing so, we suggest that the change involved these senses. Prior to the commission of their sin, Adam and Eve’s senses worked in total unity. Now, they have become separate functions, albeit unified in one ceremony.
This conveys the message that what we have lost is our inner unity. We must strive for that unity by finding ways to incorporate all of our senses and faculties and direct them to one cause and one goal.
The unity that characterized the pre-Tree of Knowledge sin and then again at the Sinai experience will once more become the natural state of the world. We prepare for this time by instilling inner unity and cultivating more external unity with each other.