Weekly D'Var Torah

This week’s Parasha begins with the creation of the world and select details regarding the time period that immediately followed it. One of the most universally well-known stories from the entire Bible actually takes place in Chapter 2, after Adam and Eve have entered the Garden of Eden and are instructed to “not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat of it you will die.” The Torah indicates that Adam and Eve did, in fact, eat of the Tree after a snake appeared and offered a different explanation for the prohibition; “G-d knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened. You will thus be like G-d [as] you will know good and evil.” And that is, in fact, what came to pass. The Parasha tells us that the couple ate the forbidden fruit and were granted the capacity “to know good and evil”, thereby attaining a level of insight and understanding that had previously only been held by G-d.

The 12^th Century scholar, Maimonides, raised an interesting question regarding this episode. While punishments tied to physicality were meted out to the couple and subsequent generations, Maimonides pondered, the fact remains that the couple did not immediately die (as G-d’s words could be understood) and, more importantly, they were seemingly “rewarded” after violating G-d’s unequivocal directive; namely, they retained the experiential elevation of their spiritual essence, with heightened knowledge and awareness formally held only by G-d.

To explain that seeming “reward” for disobedience, Maimonides offers the following. Prior to eating from the Tree of Knowledge of “good” and “evil”, Adam and Eve lived in a world defined only by “truth” and “falsehood”. Their values and perception of matters were strictly based on objective realisms. G-d’s admonition regarding the Tree then introduced the concepts of “good” and “evil”, presenting them as opposing entities in the same way that “truth” and “falsehood” were. What Adam and Eve did not understand was that, unlike “truth/falsehood”, “good/evil” are not passive elements that can remain aspects of the world to be known and understood, but kept separate.  The knowledge that Adam and Eve gained in an instant was that, once “evil” enters, by definition it lessens the “good” and, even worse, those terms are subjective. Maimonides’ conclusion, therefore, is that the couple’s comprehension of the world was not heightened (i.e. a reward). It was diminished, because they could no longer view matters objectively as true or false. Now, they could subjectively classify elements as “good” and “evil”; that brought less clarity to humanity, and more room for confusion and division.

Arguably, the Tree was placed in the Garden, but declared “off-limits” to humans, to serve as a visual reminder that the subjective standard underlying our understanding of “good” and “evil” must grow and be nurtured by a higher source. Coming on the heels of the High Holy Days, the story of the forbidden fruit is another reminder of how important a grounding in spirituality is to living our best lives, as well as the impact that individual actions can have on our collective future. To that end, our tradition teaches that just as Adam and Eve’s one act changed their (and our) very nature in a negative way, a single act of goodness or love on our part can lead to a powerful and lasting increase in goodness and positivity for the world.