The Angels Were Baffled

G-d was not threatening Adam with death; He was telling him that a human being has essentially two options: “You can exercise your G-d given ability to transcend your own nature, but to maintain that level of transcendence you must keep your mind attuned to the Torah. Because it is the Torah mentality that transcends nature and temporality. However if you lose that ability because you allowed yourself the license to distance yourself from Torah study and dabble in foreign pastures then you must descend to the second alternative: to realizing your own mortality and that therefore physical and material pleasures are merely transitory.

A Puzzling Midrash

Exactly two weeks before the Exodus G-d introduces the first Mitzvah to Moses and Aaron, “This month shall be for you the head of the months. It shall be the first of the months of the year for you.”

There is a puzzling Midrash on this verse:

When G-d said “This month shall be for you” the ministering angels said to G-d, “Why did you tell Adam ‘On the day you shall eat from it you shall surely die?’”

G-d answered, “In the future the son of Yishai [King David] will emerge who will say, ‘Tremble and sin not; reflect in your hearts on your beds, and be utterly silent forever.’”

This Midrash is culled from a body of Midrashic selections that were designed as riddles so that we should search to discover their meaning. Presumably it was not just to sharpen our minds but, rather, to uncover a layer of meaning that can be shown to relate to our own lives.

We Control Time!

Let us try to decipher this Midrash:

The Midrash quotes the opening words of the commandment to establish a system of determining the months, “G-d said, ‘This month shall be for you’” What does this verse say and what does it imply?

The simple meaning of this phrase is that on the first day of the month of Nissan, two weeks before the Exodus, G-d informed Moses and Aaron that when they see the new moon it would represent the beginning of the month, the first month of the year.

However, the Talmud uncovers a deeper meaning, one that has had far-reaching legal and even physical ramifications:

The Talmud focuses on the words “for you,” and states that the decision and the ability to declare the new month resides with you, Moses and Aaron, or with your duly selected successors, the members of the Sanhedrin, whose function it would be to determine each month on the basis of the sighting of the moon. It is you who are empowered to declare when the new month will commence.

Furthermore, the Talmud teaches us, even if the courts were in error about the day they declared to be the first of the month, and even if it was deliberate on their part to delay the onset of the new month, it is still sanctified. The courts were given the power to change the timing of the new month. And, on that basis, the Holidays will follow suit. Passover, for example, which is on the fifteenth of the month of Nissan, will be on the fifteenth of the month, counting from the day the courts declared it to be Rosh Chodesh, even though in truth it should have been the day before.

Changing Biology

According to the Jerusalem Talmud, this declaration which advances or delays the onset of the new month (and the same is true about the declaration of an extra leapmonth to bring parity to the lunar and solar years) - can actually alter the biological changes within nature that hinge on time because the Torah has endowed us with even the power to control nature!

This was a revolutionary concept, revolutionary even with regard to the celestial forces. As the Midrash states that G-d and his entourage of angels in the “heavenly court” will “descend” here to consult with the human courts as to when the new month will be declared.

This indeed is the power entrusted to the Jewish people that they are not subservient to nature; on the contrary, nature can be subservient to them.

Why the Need for Self-Control?

When the angels realized this revolutionary power that was given to humans, they realized that those human beings do not essentially need external support for them to toe a straight line. If the human being, they argued, has the capacity to control the external nature of the world, how much more so that he has the power to control his or her own inner nature.

Why then, the angels asked, did G-d tell Adam that on the day he eats from this specific tree he shall surely die? The meaning of this threat was to discourage him from succumbing to his base instincts and animal nature. But why did Adam need to be threatened with death in order urge him to comply? Shouldn’t it have sufficed for Adam to know that even if his nature tells him to eat of the forbidden fruit his mind should and would exercise control over his desires?

Adding to their confusion was the fact that the day that Adam was commanded not to eat the forbidden fruit, he nonetheless sinned, and was then punished was (according to the Talmudic sage Rabbi Yehoshua) on the very first day of Nissan, the same day that G-d told Moses that he did indeed have control over nature! But if this day did indeed give us the dynamic power to dominate nature, then why then did Adam have the need of the threat of death on that very day?

Human Complexity and Vulnerability

The angels were baffled. They could not comprehend the complexity of the human condition. Yes, there are certain people and certain times when the mere suggestion by a Higher authority that one should suppress one’s own nature because it is the proper thing to do is sufficient. But, yes, there are also certain individuals and certain times when mortals are more vulnerable and must be reminded of their mortality. This the mono-dimensional angels could not comprehend.

Forgot Torah Knowledge

There is a story in the Talmud about one of the greatest Sages, Rabbi Elazar ben Arach, who moved away from his colleagues and the center of Torah at Yavneh to a certain place which was known for its choice wine and other worldly delights.

As a result of his “attraction” to these delights he forgot his Torah knowledge and even mispronounced the verse cited above. Instead of reading the Hebrew “hachodesh hazeh lachem - This month shall be for you” he read: “hacheresh haya libam - Was their heart silent.” In Hebrew spelling the two phrases are almost identical. Indeed, the Talmud relates that the exiling of the Ten Tribes was a consequence of their close proximity to that place known for its sybaritic nature.

From this we derive that while a human being is endowed with the capacity to control nature, we also have the ability to travel to places, or to put ourselves in situations, where we are tempted or where we become desensitized, and where our minds no longer wield the same influence over our desensitized hearts. In these situations we must temporarily rely on the more morbid consideration of our mortality in order to win the battle with our evil impulse.

Disarming

G-d’s response to the angels thus was to quote the son of Yishai, who alludes to the approach outlined in the Talmud: When one is plagued by the evil impulse he should ideally study Torah or read the Shema - which proclaims G-d’s unity - in order to disarm this evil impulse.

And if neither of these tactics work, then, the Talmud tells us, remember the day of one’s death.

When we lose control—or never had it in the first place— we should have a fallback position which keeps us going on the true Torah path. Thus G-d subtly suggests to Adam, “You may not have the ability to control nature all the time, but nevertheless you can overcome your temptations by realizing that you are mortal.

G-d was not threatening Adam with death; He was telling him that a human being has essentially two options: “You can exercise your G-d given ability to transcend your own nature, but to maintain that level of transcendence you must keep your mind attuned to the Torah. Because it is the Torah mentality that transcends nature and temporality. And to the extent that your mind is saturated with Torah knowledge it is to that degree to which you will always be in control.

However if you lose that ability because you allowed yourself the license to distance yourself from Torah study and dabble in foreign pastures, as did Rabbi Elazar ben Arach, then you must descend to the second alternative: to realizing your own mortality and that therefore physical and material pleasures are merely transitory.”

Gematria of Moshiach ben Dovid

Commentators point out that the gematria (numerical value) of the words “This month shall be for you” is the same as that of Moshiach the son of David. This suggests that the power to control nature which is implicit in this verse will become obvious and the exclusive influence in the Messianic Age.

Moshiach will usher in a new consciousness wherein we will always be masters of nature. The world will follow the dictates of the Torah, and we will no longer need to invoke our own mortality. Thus life will return to the way it had been before Adam sinned—eternal life. There will be no need for mortality to keep us straight.

As long as we are in exile we must utilize the two-pronged approach in dealing with our challenges. But as we prepare for the imminent Redemption, the angels’ objections to the need to remind man of his mortality will be sustained. By saturating our minds with Torah, specifically the parts of Torah that deal with Redemption, we gradually wean ourselves from the need to be reminded of our mortality and, instead, we prepare ourselves for the eternal life which will follow the coming of Moshiach and the complete Redemption.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Bo by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.