The Fig Leaf

The power to fight evil is contained within the evil itself.

Tree of Knowledge

Contrary to the popular myth, the Tree of Knowledge was not an apple tree (see preceding essay), which raises the question, what kind of a tree was it?

The Talmud and Midrash register four opinions concerning the identity of this mysterious tree. The fact that the Talmud finds this matter important enough to discuss suggests that there is—and we must find—a moral in the identity of the tree. And there are four different lessons we can derive from this tree that correspond with the four opinions as to its precise identification.

The Fig

In this essay we will explore one of the four opinions, the one that says it was the fig tree.

Evidence of this interpretation is adduced from the passage in the Torah that follows Adam and Eve’s indiscretion. The Torah relates that they used the fig leaf to cover their nakedness. The Midrash observes that when Adam and Eve realized that they were naked and tried to use the leaves of other trees to cover themselves, the leaves “refused” to be used by them. Only the fig tree did not resist. This, the Midrash argues is an indication that the fig tree was an accomplice in the crime. It could therefore not turn down Adam and Eve’s efforts to use its leaves as did the other trees.

Why the Mystery?

Before we discuss the moral lesson that we can learn from the opinion that says the forbidden fruit was a fig, there is a preliminary question that we must deal with:

Rashi asks, if the fruit was a fig, why doesn’t the Torah say that at the outset? Why does it wait for us to use our detective skills to deduce that it was a fig?

Rashi answers that the Torah did not want to malign the fig, lest people would think of it as an evil fruit and reject it.

However, this answer just begs another question. If the Torah did not want to identify the fruit, why does the Talmud go through this exercise in trying to prove that it was a fig? Is the Talmud not causing us to disparage the poor fig?

The answer to this question lies in the way the identification is made by the Torah. If we were to discover from the very outset that the forbidden fruit that led to the downfall of man was a fig, we would identify the fig as a source of evil, which is not true. The fig was not evil; Adam and Eve’s partaking of it was.

But now that the identification of the tree as a fig tree is made in the part of the narrative that shows how the fig tree actually helped Adam and Eve recover and begin the process of rehabilitation from their sin, we will no longer think of it as evil. Indeed, the fig tree was the first being to assist man.

In the English language the term fig-leaf acquired a rather negative connotation, as a form of cover-up intended to hide one’s true negative character. In the words of the dictionary: “something intended to conceal what may be considered indecorous or indecent: to approach the facts of life with the fig leaves of roundabout expressions.”

The Good Fig Leaf

There is, however, a positive lesson to be derived from the use of the fig-leaf. If the fig tree was the culprit then it follows that the means for correcting what they had done wrong also had to be a fig-leaf. And, indeed, it served as the first thing that they did to deal with the consequences of their transgression.

From this we can see that the fig tree was not evil. It was actually was, in the annals of history, the very first instrument to bring about correction.

It is not surprising to find that the fig is one of the seven fruits for which the Land of Israel is praised. On the New Year for Trees, many have a custom to eat figs among other fruits. Nowhere in Jewish tradition is this fruit maligned.

“From the bitter comes the sweet.”

There is also another deeper and more powerful lesson inherent in the narrative of the fig leaf and the identification of the fig as the forbidden fruit. The seeds of reconstruction are found in the process and instruments of destruction. “From the bitter comes the sweet.”

This concept is an integral part of the Hebrew language. By simply rearranging the letters of certain Hebrew words that have negative connotations the word will acquire a positive meaning; indeed, the very opposite of the negative word.

For example: The word nega, (perhaps even the origin of the word “negative”) which means plague (and, according to Sefer Yetizrah there is nothing lower then nega), when rearranged, forms the word oneg that means delight (and according to Sefer Yetizrah, there is nothing higher than oneg).

Another example: The word falsehood is sheker in Hebrew. All one has to do is rearrange the letters and it becomes kesher, that means a permanent bond, the very opposite of falsehood which is understood as something that cannot endure.

In practical terms this suggests that when a person does something wrong, there is no reason to despair. One can always correct their mistakes, and that the means to correcting it is close at hand; in fact, all one has to do is look more deeply into the dynamics of the evil act, make a few adjustments, and one will be on the way to one’s rehabilitation.

More specifically this lesson can be applied as follows: When we sin, we must realize that we can learn the lessons how to change from the way we strayed. If we sin as a result of temptation and burning desire for something forbidden, the way to correct that its to use the passion and energy for something positive.

If we acted rebelliously, we should use our feisty nature to defy the conventions of society that want everyone to conform.

The same can be applied to virtually every vice. The cure lies in the illness.

Golah and Geulah

What has been said in relation to good and evil, that one could find the way out of evil into the realm of goodness from looking deeper into the dynamics of evil is also true about the relationship between exile-Golah and the future Redemption-Geulah.

Conventional wisdom has us believe that exile is all negative and the Redemption entails the complete severance of our ties with exile. To be liberated from slavery is to repudiate it.

In truth, in Kabbalah we are told that exile is not all evil. In fact, embedded within the framework of exile are powerful spiritual energies. But these energies are thoroughly concealed. Redemption means that we will be able to access these energies, because their cover will be removed.

This, the Alter Rebbe (R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of the Chabad Chassidic movement and author of the classic work Tanya) explains why the two words in Hebrew for exile and Redemption are virtually identical. Golah and Geulah, exile and Redemption respectively, share the same letters, with but one slight addition in the word Geulah, which also has the letter aleph.

The key to Redemption is to unlock the mystery of exile. In the Messianic Age we will be able to look back and see the dynamic energy that exists presently in exile. Once we recognize that dynamic we can benefit from it.

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