Bereishit – Balanced Spirituality

By Rabbi Ezra Friedman

The Vilna Gaon (Rav Eliyahu of Vilna) is famous for claiming that essential lessons from the Torah are strongest when they first appear in Chumash. We understand the importance of kindness from Avraham Avinueven though the Torah brings the Mitzvah of Chesed much later in scripture. We realize the severity of murder when reading about Kayin and Hevel, although it is brought down in later in the Ten Commandments. This perspective is important when we reading Sefer Breishit, at times it seems like a historical description of the beginning of time, however we learn tremendous lessons from every verse in Sefer Bereishit.

Much can be taught about the creation of the world, in this article we will focus on a powerful value we can learn from Adam and Chava. The evil snake had tricked  Chava  into eating from the  Etz Hada’at  (Tree of knowledge) however when we look at the verses, we can see a difference between the  Hashem ‘s commandment and the way  Chava  depicts  Hashem ‘s words ( Breishit  2:17 and 3:3):

וּמֵעֵ֗ץ הַדַּ֙עַת֙ ט֣וֹב וָרָ֔ע לֹ֥א תֹאכַ֖ל מִמֶּ֑נּוּ כִּ֗י בְּי֛וֹם אֲכָלְךָ֥ מִמֶּ֖נּוּ מ֥וֹת תָּמֽוּת׃

but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.”

וַתֹּ֥אמֶר הָֽאִשָּׁ֖ה אֶל־הַנָּחָ֑שׁ מִפְּרִ֥י עֵֽץ־הַגָּ֖ן נֹאכֵֽל וּמִפְּרִ֣י הָעֵץ֮ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּתוֹךְ־הַגָּן֒ אָמַ֣ר אֱלֹהִ֗ים לֹ֤א תֹֽאכְלוּ֙ מִמֶּ֔נּוּ וְלֹ֥א תִגְּע֖וּ בּ֑וֹ פֶּן־תְּמֻתֽוּן

The woman replied to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the other trees of the garden. It is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said: ‘You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die.

In the first verse, Hashem only prohibits eating from the  Etz Hada’at but when Chava relays the command to the snake she adds the prohibition of touching the tree. The Midrash depicts that the snake pushed Chava so she touch the tree. When she realized that nothing happened the snake was able to convince her to eat from its fruit. From this episode, we can see that the source of  Chava ‘s demise was the fact that she added on to  Hashem ‘s command. Many commentators discuss who was at fault for this additional prohibition. According to some opinions Adam wanted to be extra careful and on his own added the prohibition of touching the  Etz Hada’at, according to others Chava added the prohibition, a third opinion is that the Snake added it to trick Chava. Regardless of who was at fault, we should analyze what is wrong with going above and beyond, why is it so negative to create guards for ourselves even if Hashem didn’t command them.

The answer to this is based on teaching given over by Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz. The Talmud in  Chulin  (105A) discusses the Rabbinic prohibition of waiting between meat and milk.  Mar Ukva says that he is cheap vinegar compared to his father who is fine wine. For when his father ate meat he would not consume milk until the next day while he (Mar Ukva) waited from meal to meal. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz is perplexed, why the fact that  Mar Ukva ‘s father could wait longer to have milk is a testimony to his greatness, of course if  Mar Ukva wanted to he could wait just as long. Rav Shmuelevitz explains that adding spiritual decrees to oneself is not simple, the way we conduct ourselves is a testimony to our spiritual levels. If we abuse pious conduct and we are not on that level we are hurting our essence. When we go to an extreme in stringencies that were not taught by Rabbis for generations we risk damaging ourselves in other areas. It is very important for every Jew to be able to assess where he or she is spiritually in order for them to find the right path to improve and balance his or her’s own  Avodat Hashem  (Service of  Hashem ). We of course know ourselves and create our own boundaries for spiritual success, if there is someone we are likely to hurt we try our best to stay away from them, we stay away from places where we might come close to sin. Personal boundaries are important although they must be based on a balanced spiritual level; going above our level can be very dangerous. The additional stringency not to touch the  Etz Hada’at is a concentrated example of how we must know ourselves spiritually and if we go too far the damage is great. Even today, we can witness certain sects of our religion that go way beyond the letter of the law and they end up sinning greatly in other areas.

The Ktav Sofer based on a Gemara in Chulin writes that everything Hashem prohibited he permitted something else in exchange. Hashem prohibited certain sexual relations while permitting a man and wife to have intimacy; Hashem prohibited the consumption of blood but allowed to eat liver, which is similar. Judaism at times might seem quite difficult but when analyzed and kept in the right amount it is natural and balanced. We must always strive to enhance our spirituality but the key is to know our own spiritual level, true spiritual success stems from a balance between our ideals and our level of spirituality.