Breishit & Free Will

Vateireh ha’isha ki tov ha’eitz l’ma’achal v’chi ta’ava hu la’einai’yim v’nechmad ha’eitz l’hashkil vatikach mipriyo vatochal vatitein gam l’ishah imah vayochal. (3:6)

And the woman saw the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree was pleasing to make one wise, and she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her man with her, and he ate.

There is a halakhic principle that we must never make a ruling that people will not be able to follow. An impossible law is not only unfair, it is wrong. For this reason this piece of Torah has always troubled me. God tells Adam and Hava that they may eat from any tree in the garden, except one. This tree is made beautiful, and placed in the center of the garden. It is pleasing to the eye, and obviously food. It’s like placing a cookie jar with freshly baked cookies, still warm, their scent wafting through the house in the center of the kitchen, and leaving it unguarded. It seems an unreasonable restriction.

So unreasonable does this seem that commentary throughout Jewish tradition commentaries have challenged this idea and debated the nature of the punishment. Many separate the punishment of Adam and Hava from their expulsion from the garden. This is played out in the text between the third and fourth aliyot. Some say that God knew us. God knew that humans are both innately curious and somewhat rebellious. Bachya (11^th century Spain) teaches that the sections of Torah with which we are most familiar are usually the most difficult. There is always something below the surface that we may not see. Simon Apisdorf (modern Jewish writer) sees Adam as mistakenly believing that human destiny was to be fulfilled by not listening to God. For both scholars, the command and subsequent punishment are not so simply understood.

In all cases, the issue at hand becomes human free will. Temptation surrounds us. Choices are placed before us. Sometimes the choices are easy, but all too often choices, good and bad, come gift wrapped, pleasing to eye. It is up to us to look into the meanings, and do our best to follow the right path.

As an aside, I had always wondered why Adam took the fruit from Hava and ate. Perhaps Adam saw that Hava had not died, and the fruit seemed good. But perhaps the answer lies in an interpretation by Rabbi Edward Feinstein. Rabbi Feinstein taught that Adam understood what it was like to be alone. He did not wish to return to that state. If Hava was to eventually die, then he too would die. Breishit becomes the ultimate love story of two individuals whose destinies were one. Even Shakespeare couldn’t have written it better.