The Theory of Everything – Breishit
בסייעתא דשמיא we are embarking on a new cycle of the חמישה חומשי תורה, starting with parshat Breishit. בעזרת ה' we should all merit a year of good health and prosperity לשמוע, ללמוד וללמד דברי תלמוד תורה באהבה. אמן כן יהי רצון.
It is difficult to choose from the myriad topics in Parshat Breishit. Today I have chosen to speak about חטא אדם הראשון.
When you read the story in the psukkim many questions pop up.
These are but a few. The episode of עץ הדעת is certainly רב הנסתר על הגלוי.
I invite you to join me on a journey as we explore this סוגיא in depth and explore a completely different and novel slant on this well-known story. The source of this shiur is from my sefer מאיר פנים, (פרק יג). In the original text, I bring many proofs and רמזים in the psukkim for the assertions made, but they are too numerous and voluminous to list here, so I will simply state them without detailing them. You are welcome to read more בעיון about this in the sefer (when it is published, ב"ה and bli neder this year).
When HKB”H opened my eyes בסייעתא דשמיא to this principle during my research into the Lechem Hapanim, the first thing that sprang to mind was Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist. Hawking was on a quest to discover the Theory of Everything, a single “equation” that would explain all the secrets of the universe. He never found it. Lehavdil, בעזר השם when I discovered this principle in my research, I considered it (and still do) to be (almost) of that magnitude. Not a single principle that explains all the secrets of the Universe, that is a little presumptuous, but a principle that explains all the secrets of my “micro-cosmos”, which is everything related to bread and Menachot.
As a preamble, I would like to quote a Gemara (Shabbat 112b) that says – “If the Rishonim were like angels, then we are like men. If the Rishonim were like men, then we are like donkeys”. We have no conception of the gedulah of Adam Harishon. The Mefarshim say that before the sin he reached (in height) from the earth to the heavens and that after the sin he was reduced to “only” 100 amot high (50m). Also, the spiritual light that shone from his heel (the least significant part of him) was bright enough to eclipse two suns (and that was after he sinned). We cannot possibly fathom the מדרגה of Adam Harishon, let alone judge him. Despite this, Chazal go into gory detail about what exactly his sin entailed, but it is not to judge the person – it is to learn a מוסר השכל from his deeds (or misdeeds).
The Gemara (Sanhedrin 38b) gives a detailed timeline of the events on the 6th day of creation, an hour by hour description –
אמר רבי יוחנן בר חנינא: שתים עשרה שעות הוי היום. שעה ראשונה הוצבר עפרו, שניה נעשה גולם, שלישית נמתחו אבריו, רביעית נזרקה בו נשמה, חמישית עמד על רגליו, ששית קרא שמות, שביעית נזדווגה לו חוה, שמינית עלו למטה שנים וירדו ארבעה, תשיעית נצטווה שלא לאכול מן האילן, עשירית סרח, אחת עשרה נידון, שתים עשרה נטרד והלך לו.
It is difficult to imagine so much taking place in such a short time and it is most likely that an “hour” back then, over 5000 years ago, was probably many years in today’s terms - כי אלף שנים בעיניך כיום אתמול כי יעבר (תהילים צ, ד).
In order to understand what happened however, we need to go back to before the day of the sin, to the 3rd day of creation. On this day HKB”H created the grasses and the trees (amongst other things). The directive to create trees was עץ פרי עשה פרי למינו (in the singular) – to create one tree such that the branches and the fruit would taste the same. This intended tree was the עץ החיים, the Torah whose fruit was the מן – that could taste like anything you wished it to taste.
However the earth did its own חשבונות and said – If the branches taste like the fruit, then people will eat the branches as well as the fruit and there will be no tree left. This was a fundamental misunderstanding of the essence of the עץ החיים, the Torah, which is like a candle. Even though you take from its light to propagate further, the original light of the candle is not diminished in any way.
As a result, the actual tree that appeared was עץ עשה פרי, a tree where the branches and the fruit tasted different. The tree disobeyed Hashem’s directive. This tree was the עץ הדעת. It was a very tall “5-grains tree” that towered up to the heavens like a Lebanon cedar. Today we know the 5-grains - wheat, barley, spelt, rye and oats as little seeds. In Gan Eden, these “grains” were large, ready-to-eat fruit that grew on a tree.
After the עץ הדעת sinned and did not manifest itself as Hashem had commanded, Hashem then had to “re-grow” the original, intended tree – the עץ החיים (also called כל in the passuk) which was “spectacular to behold and delicious to eat” (בראשית ב,ט). You now had two trees in Gan Eden, side by side – the עץ החיים and the עץ הדעת. Adam was placed in Gan Eden לעבדה ולשמרה – to “serve” and to “guard”. To serve - do avodah with the עץ החיים, the Torah, the spiritual tree - and to guard himself against the עץ הדעת, the materialistic tree. Hashem commanded Adam מכל עץ הגן אכל תאכל ... ומעץ הדעת טוב ורע לא תאכל ממנו. By process of elimination, if there were two trees - one is forbidden to eat from and you are commanded to eat from “all the trees of the Garden” - we understand that Hashem commanded Adam to “eat” from the עץ החיים. This is also inferred by the juxtaposition of the word כל.
The עץ הדעת had sinned and Hashem wanted Adam to have nothing to do with it. Adam was a totally pure spiritual being and being associated with the עץ הדעת in any way would reduce his level.
Why did Hashem not simply chop down and erase the עץ הדעת and leave the originally intended tree, the עץ החיים? Simple – Hashem does not אחפץ במות הרשע כי אם בשוב רשע מדרכו וחיה (Yechezkel 33,11). Hashem wanted the עץ הדעת to undergo a תיקון (we will soon see what that was).
The Midrash says that in Gan Eden, angels would roast meat on a spit and decanter wine for Adam and Chava. Five star hotels eat your heart out! Unfortunately we know הקנאה והתאוה והכבוד מוציאין את האדם מן העולם (Avot 4, 21). The enormous stature of Adam Harishon aroused jealousy amongst the angels, especially with the angel of the highest stature, known as the ס"מ or the שטן. The שטן is the highest ranking angel in Heaven and has more wings (6) than any of the other angels. The שטן devised a scheme to cause Adam to sin – he descended and collaborated with the נחש, a snake. Not the slithering creature we know today, but a tall animal that resembled a camel. The נחש also had קנאה, but in his case it was about Chava. The נחש wanted Chava for his mate. קנאה, envy, was the major underlying cause for the חטא.
Adam Harishon was of such an enormous מדרגה that the שטן together with the נחש should not have had any power over him. However Adam Harishon was lax in performing Hashem’s commandments.
The first commandment that Adam received in the Torah was פרו ורבו, but he did not rush to perform that mitzvah. We know this because only after they were expelled from Gan Eden does the passuk say that Adam “knew” Chava his wife (“knew” in the biblical sense). There is a machloket about this, but this is the pshat of the psukkim.
The second commandment Adam received was ורדו בדגת הים ובעוף השמים ובכל חיה הרמשת על הארץ – that he should have dominion over all the creatures on earth – including the נחש. As we know however, the נחש managed to gain control over Adam, indirectly – through Chava.
The third commandment was to refrain from eating from the עץ הדעת.
Finally the 4th commandment was מכל עץ הגן אכל תאכל, Adam was supposed to “eat” from the עץ החיים, the Torah, but he did not. We know this because after Adam and Chava were expelled from Gan Eden the angels entreated Hashem to post a guard “lest Adam ‘eat’ from the עץ החיים and live forever”, which means that until then - he did not “eat” from it as commanded.
In fact, Adam was remiss in performing ALL four of HKB”H’s commandments and it all began with פרו ורבו. This was the opening the שטן needed to get a “foot in the door” (or a tail in this case). The שטן knew he could not outwit Adam directly, so he first approached Chava (we will soon see why).
The נחש approached Chava and slowly but surely, using his wiles, roped her further and further in. The clincher was – “Adam is negligent in performing פרו ורבו. If he continues like that, you will have no offspring and the human race will die out. But you, Chava, do not need to wait for Adam. I (the נחש) will show you a way to create life all by yourself, without involving Adam. It is simple – you do it the same way the Hashem created Adam in the first place. He took dust/powder, mixed it together with water into a kind of a ‘dough’ and breathed life into it. If you take the fruits of the עץ הדעת - wheat etc., grind them up into a powder, mix it with water into a dough and leave it to rest, it will “miraculously” be injected with a breath of “life”. Thus you can create new “life” on your own, just like Hashem created Adam”. Later When Chava blamed the נחש for the fiasco, she said הנחש השיאני ואכל. אל תקרא 'השיאני' אלא 'השהני', from the root of the word meaning “delay”.
What this all means is that the sin of Chava was - taking the fruits of the עץ הדעת – wheat, barley, rye, etc. and grinding them up to make flour - from which she made a CHAMETZ BREAD!
Why did the נחש target Chava first and not Adam. We already said above that the שטן knew he could not deceive Adam directly, but it is deeper than that. There is a strong connection between women and חמץ. I bring many proofs from the psukkim in my sefer, using gematriyot and other methods that show a strong link between אשה, מחמצת and שאור. These are an “Achilles heel”, a weakness if you will, that affects the female gender davka. The שטן knew this and this is why he went for Chava.
Chava, in order to prepare this chametz bread had to thresh, winnow, sort, grind, sift, knead and bake it (Gemara, Brachot 58a). It was forbidden to alter the fruits of Gan Eden – they were meant to be eaten “as is”, as HKB”H created them, without alteration by man. Besides disobeying the prohibition to eat from the forbidden tree, the עץ הדעת that had sinned on the 3rd day of creation, Chava additionally violated a second prohibition of altering the form of the “fruit”.
Chava then ate this chametz bread and gave it to Adam, who also ate it.
As HKB”H had feared, by eating from this sinful tree, Adam’s spiritual level was lowered from a 100% purely spiritual being to one who was now aware of and governed by his physical, materialistic limitations.
Chazal say that Adam and Chava by eating from the עץ הדעת transgressed all three of the mortal sins – עבודה זרה, שפיכות דמים, גילוי עריות.
The נחש convinced Chava to eat from the עץ הדעת with the argument that this tree was there before G-d existed כביכול. When Hashem supposedly ate from the tree, He acquired wisdom and was then able to create the world. The fact that Chava believed this utter nonsense was pure עבודה זרה.
Before Adam ate from the עץ הדעת, he and Chava were immortal. However after eating from it he became a mortal being. We asked above why, after Hashem warned Adam that he would die if he ate from the עץ הדעת, did he not die? The answer is that he did die! albeit after 930 years, but he did die. If he would not have eaten from the עץ הדעת he and Chava would have lived forever. So by eating the forbidden fruit, they also committed שפיכות דמים.
Finally, Chazal ask – “While the נחש was busy duping Chava, where was Adam during this time?” The answer is that he was asleep. Some Mefarshim say that Chava gave Adam grapes to eat and that put him to sleep. During this time, the נחש managed to cause Chava to sin and in addition בא הנחש על חוה והטיל בה זוהמה, which is the third sin of גילוי עריות.
There are many other aspects to the חטא, in addition to the above, which are presented in the perushim, like not taking responsibility for their actions and “passing the buck”, but the heart of the matter was that they had created and eaten a materialistic, chametz bread.
Let’s examine the punishment each received.
Chava’s punishment was to forever after suffer during childbirth. The original plan was to have something resembling a “polaroid moment” - no nine months, no birth pains, no postpartum depression, etc. “Click” and immediately - “Mazel tov, it’s a ….”. How does this punishment fit the sin of preparing and eating a chametz bread? Chava did not know she was making a chametz bread. What she thought she was doing was creating life on her own, like Hashem did when He created Adam (or so the נחש convinced her). Chava was an accomplice in trying to eliminate the concept of שלושה שותפין הן באדם, by bypassing Adam AND bypassing HKB”H, trying to do it all on her own. “Aha!” says HKB”H, “you tried to eliminate Adam from the equation – so your punishment will be ואל אישך תשוקתך והוא ימשל בך. Not only will he be an integral partner in the process of procreation, but he will be the dominant partner”. But that’s not all. “Chava, you also tried to play G-d and eliminate Me from the equation. I originally planned the birth process to be instantaneous and painless. Now you will suffer the pains of childbirth as a constant reminder that I, HKB”H am the third partner in the process”.
Adam’s punishment was בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם, no longer will you enjoy a “free lunch”. Hashem said “Before, I gave you everything on a plate – ready to eat. No recipes, no cooking, no baking, no preservatives, no E-341 etc. Now you will have to sweat to eat!” Why is that a punishment fitting for Adam? He did not make the chametz bread, Chava did! The answer is that when Chava gave Adam the chametz bread to eat, Adam should have asked her “I have never seen this before, what bracha do I make on it?” Adam knew every inch of the Gan, every creature, every tree and every fruit. Suddenly he is confronted with a new food that he has never seen before and he doesn’t ask what it is, where it came from, who gave the hechsher on it? Adam knew this was a man-made food, not a food provided directly by Hashem and despite that he still ate it. Aside from defying the directive of not altering the fruits of the Gan, Adam, by accepting a man-made food in preference to a Divinely made food – was showing ingratitude. There is nothing that HKB”H loathes more than ingratitude. “Right! I gave you מן to eat and you prefer this man-made, chametz bread over it? No problem. From now on you do the cooking! I gave you free parnasa and you rejected it, make your own parnasa. You prefer man-made – now it will all be man-made, the food, the parnasa, the whole thing!”
Due to their reduced spiritual stature, Gan Eden could no longer tolerate Adam and Chava and they were expelled. In this lowered spiritual state, they were not deserving of the Torah, the עץ החיים. So HKB”H stationed angels to guard it.
The entire story of חטא עץ הדעת revolved around baking a chametz bread, taking 5 grains, grinding them into flour, mixing them with water into a dough and leaving it to rest.
When did this all take place? Which month of the year? There is a machloket in the Gemara (Rosh Hashana, 11a). One opinion says in Tishrei (היום הרת עולם), another says in Nisan! So Mefarshim reconcile this by saying that the “wheels were put in motion” in Tishrei but the actual physical manifestation of the world occurred in Nisan.
As stated previously, Hashem did not eliminate the עץ הדעת from Gan Eden. He put a “fence” around it and waited for its tikkun.
This tikkun began with Avot and especially the Imahot! Avraham performed brit mila and was visited by three angels. Avraham then ran around preparing calf tongues in mustard - himself, but he told Sarah לושי ועשי עוגות – “Sarah, I’ll do the meat, you do the bread!” Why, if Avraham was such an exceptional host, did he not also make the bread for his guests? The answer is – because men didn’t bake the bread – the women did! (today it has changed somewhat, but for millennia, the job of preparing bread was in the female domain). Has anyone ever thought why that is? You can say that bread baking is time consuming and the man has to go out and work, while the woman is at home (excuse the chauvinistic innuendos) and has more time to make the bread. But (buzz….) that is the wrong answer! The real answer is that the world evolved in such a way, that it was a woman’s job to make the bread – because that was the way HKB”H designed it to be and the reason for that is because the tikkun for Chava has to be by women! Chava made a chametz bread, and forever after women have to be metaken that!
That is the way it was with the Imahot, Sarah, Rivka, etc. There was a cloud of the Shechina over their tent, the candle burnt from Shabbat to Shabbat, and …. there was a bracha in the dough! The Imahot instituted Hafrashat Challah to repair the damage done by Chava. But that was not enough.
The חטא occurred in Nisan (according to R’ Yehoshua), so to fix that, in the month of Nisan it was forbidden to eat chametz bread. לושי ועשי עוגות – Sarah was making round matzot (uggot). Similarly Rivka, when she snuck Yaakov into Yitzchak to get Eisav’s blessing, she gave him (in addition to the two goats meat dishes) – matzot to give Yitzchak, because it was Nisan and that was when the time was most auspicious for blessings. Generations later, when their descendants left Egypt, during Nisan, they were forbidden to eat chametz bread, but commanded to eat matzot instead.
Chazal compare חמץ to the יצר הרע/שטן – they both work surreptitiously, behind the scenes, invisible to the naked eye, like the נחש and the שטן did in Gan Eden with Chava.
Immediately following the matzot in Egypt, Hashem gave them מן to eat – the same food originally given to Adam, to raise Am Yisrael up to the same spiritual level of Adam before the sin, which they did.
Finally Hashem was able to remove the להט החרב המתהפכת that was guarding the Torah and once again presented Am Yisrael, who had reached the מדרגה of Adam before the sin, with the Torah on Har Sinai. It was closure of circle, 2448 years after Adam and Chava sinned and a restoration of the world to the time of creation. Unfortunately the subsequent sins of the עגל and the 10 spies put a spanner in the works, and here we are 5782 years after Adam and Chava and, while we are not back to square one, we have still not yet arrived at our destination.
Probably for this reason, Chazal have directed us to continue doing Hafrashat Challah today, anywhere in the world, even though the mitzvah is only שייך מדאורייתא in Eretz Yisrael and when the majority of Am Yisrael lives in Eretz Yisrael – because the tikkun for the חטא is not yet complete (if it were the Mashiach would come). And … the preference of doing this mitzvah is given to the women. If a man wants to do Hafrashat Challah in their home, he has to ask his wife’s permission to do so, because it is the woman’s job to be metaken for the sin of Chava. The man’s job is to struggle at work and to make a living to be metaken for Adam.
The Lechem Hapanim also had an integral role to play in the tikkun of this sin, but to find out how you will have to read my sefer.
We are now after the “high” of the chagim and on the lookout for things to get involved in that will maintain the intensity of emunah and dveikut that we achieved during Elul and Tishrei. On 22-23 October, that’s in about three weeks’ time, we will all have an opportunity to join in and participate in the worldwide Shabbat Project. We have three weeks to revise and brush up on hilchot Hafrashat Challah, so that when millions of Jews from all over the world perform this important mitzvah together, as one, we can do it behidur. בזכות זה we will hopefully add yet another important building block in the mosaic of the pre-geulah reconstruction and ב"ה merit the coming of Mashiach and the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash בבי"א.
