Adam and the Sin of the Forbidden Fruit

Death and evil are not natural phenomena. It was superimposed on us by Adam and Eve. Life and goodness are natural. The more good we do we separate the evil from the good and death from life.

ADAM AND THE SIN OF THE FORBIDDEN

FRUIT

The Question: How could Adam have Sinned?

In Parshas Bereishis, the Torah tells us of the story of how Adam and Eve violated the first commandment given to humankind and they partook of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

There is much discussion in various classical Biblical commentators as to how it was possible for Adam to commit such a grave sin. After all, Adam was “Yetzir kapov shel Hakadosh boruch hu-formed by G-d Himself.” (See Midrash Koheles Rabbah 3:14) This means that not only was his soul a G-dly spirit that infused his body with life. Even his body was an exclusive creation of G-d without the “traditional” partners in procreation, a father and mother.

The question would have been a good one if it were an ordinary individual. How could any person who hears G-d tell him or her directly not to eat the fruit of a certain tree violate His express command? How was it that specifically Adam, who was on such a high level, couldn’t control himself?

The question is even greater considering the fact that, unlike us, Adam had no other commandments; couldn’t he resist the temptation?

To make the question even more difficult to answer, the Rebbe in Likutei Sichos (volume 3), cites a passage in the Talmud ( ) that Adam was only prohibited from eating of the tree for three hours, until the onset of the first Shabbat following his creation on Friday. How could it be that Adam could not control his desire for just three hours?!

Answer One: Unparalleled Pressure

The Rebbe explains at length that precisely because Adam was on such a high level, and precisely because this sin was the most serious one—it affected all future generations of people that they would all die as a result of this sin—the Yetzer Hara-evil impulse was the strongest.

In all of human history, no person was pressured more into the commission of a specific act as were Adam and Eve, precisely because no other human act carried so much weight and had the potential to have such an impact.

From this story we are taught that the more we feel pressured into doing something wrong or to neglect doing something right, the greater the indication it is as to the importance of that particular act. That realization, in turn, enables us to find the inner strength to overcome the temptation.

Answer Two: It Was All Staged

According to the Midrash, Adam and Eve really had no choice. The entire episode of the sin of the forbidden fruit was “staged” by G-d in order to introduce evil into humanity. He thus subjected Adam to unparalleled pressure, virtually guaranteeing that he would succumb to the evil, and thus enable evil to become a part and parcel of the human condition.

Since the day in which Adam and Eve sinned, everything in this world, even the good, has an intermingling of evil. Conversely, most forms of evil possess some redeeming characteristics. All of our lives are geared towards the process of refinement and “separation;” to rarefy the good and separate the evil from its attachment to good.

Evil in the Books

If not for this sin, evil would have been a separate entity as it existed prior to Adam and Eve’s sin. Without the intermingling of evil, good would naturally dominate. If that were the case, we would have no real challenge to fight with evil. Evil would have been something remote; outside of our natural experience.

It would have been comparable to reading about a vice rather than seeing it with our own eyes.

Without the “orchestrated” sin of Adam and Eve, our world would have been the world that the great Chassidic Master, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev once spoke about in one of his dialogues with G-d in which he complained:

“Why did you create a world where the good of Gan Eden (Garden of Eden or Paradise) and the punishment of Gehinnom (the Jewish version of hell) is written in the holy books, whereas the temptations to sin have been placed by You in front of us? No wonder people sin.

If You, O G-d, would have created a world where Gan Eden and Gehinnom would be right before our eyes, and the physical pleasures and blandishments would all be written about in the holy tomes, we would have certainly behaved much better!”

The Death of Evil

Obviously, G-d’s desire was that we have the greater challenge of having to deal with the evil that is found in everything so that we could separate the good from the evil until the evil is banished forever in the days of Moshiach, when we will have the true and complete Redemption.

At that time, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s pleas to G-d will finally be heard, and the separation of good and evil will be complete.

Initially, though, in the Messianic Age, evil will still exist. However it will exist only as an independent force that will not affect the good within us. Our vision will not be tarnished by evil and our good actions will be pure and unadulterated. However, while good is manifested in all of its glory, evil will be in the shadows. It will still exist as a reminder of what once tormented us and will still challenge the lowest classes of humanity who have done little to refine themselves before the Messianic Age. But, evil as we know it today, even in the initial stages of the Messianic Age will never be the same.

Subsequent to the “separation” of evil from good, evil will eventually disappear. Without the parasitic attachment of evil to the forces of goodness, evil will lose its major source of vitality and will ultimately cease to exist.

In the words of the prophet: “I shall remove the spirit of impurity from the earth.” ( )

The Death of Death

We can now also explain why death and dying will also disappear in the Messianic Age, for death is tied in with the forces of evil. Although death has become part of the natural cycle of life, its purpose arose only after evil was introduced into our existence. Death is part of the “winnowing” process that separates the evil from the good. It is what purifies the body and prepares it for the time of the Resurrection of the Dead, when the dead will come back to life. Once that occurs, evil will be vanquished forever and death will also cease to exist. In the words of the prophet: “Death will be swallowed up forever.” ( )

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