In Parshas Bereishis, Hashem created Adam, the first human being. Hashem then created Chavah to be Adam’s wife and partner. Hashem placed them in Gan Eden – the Garden of Eden. They were allowed to eat from all the different fruits in Gan Eden, besides one, the Etz Hadaas – the tree of knowledge. There are different opinions which fruit it was. Grape, fig, apple, wheat, esrog.
We cannot grasp the fruits that were in Gan Eden. The Torah tells us what the fruit of Eretz Yisrael looked like when the Meraglim – the spies went to check out Eretz Yisrael. One person held a fig, one held a pomegranate and eight men held a cluster of grapes. Rashi in Parshas Shelach discusses the weight of these huge fruit.
Can we then imagine the size and taste of the fruits in Gan Eden itself? Adam and Chava could eat every single fruit that existed at any time. They were forbidden to eat only one fruit! Were they lacking anything?
On the same day they were created, comes along the snake, which could talk and managed to convince Chava that this one fruit will open her eyes, she will become a lot wiser, she will understand new concepts. Chava is enticed and tastes the fruit. She then gives some to Adam. And the rest we all know. Adam and Chava are exiled from Gan Eden and cursed with difficult parnassa and all our troubles that we are suffering until this day.
But if we look carefully at the Passuk, the story is slightly different and needs an explanation. How was Chava enticed? The Passuk says ‘and that the woman saw that the fruit was good to eat, and it was desirable to the eyes, and it was pleasant to become wise, and she took from the fruit and she ate.’ The snake spoke about becoming wise and intelligent. It spoke about the ability to understand between good and bad. However, the Passuk mentions that reason last! Why?
The following story will help us understand the answer.
Story from Prewar Europe
In prewar Europe, the Haskala – enlightenment movement swept across Europe pulling with it thousands of Jewish souls that fell prey to this terrible concept. Sadly many Jews became spiritually lost forever.
The movement even managed to break into the Yeshivos and the boys who weren’t strong enough or who were curious to read about it, all fell prey. One day the Rosh Yeshiva was walking down the street and coming towards him was a former student who had left Yeshiva and completely changed his life style.
The student couldn’t avoid the Rosh Yeshiva. He stopped and greeted the Rosh Yeshiva. The Rosh Yeshiva looked at the boy with pity and said, “what happened to you? Where did you disappear to? How low have you fallen?”
The student came up with a brilliant idea. “Rebbi, I never fell. I had questions and doubts in my Emuna, so I decided to leave the Yeshiva. On the contrary, if the Rosh Yeshiva is willing to listen to my questions and answer them I will gladly return to Yeshiva!”
The Rosh Yeshiva smiled and replied, “listen carefully, if you really had questions, then trust me I have for you the answers and you didn’t need to wait until we accidently met on the street. You could have asked me all your questions when you were still in Yeshiva.”
“The problem is that it went differently. You were carried away by the outside environment and you wanted to leave the Yeshiva. Then you had a question, how can I leave, I am a religious Yeshiva boy? Then you found all of these questions as an answer to your guilty conscience. Questions have answers, answers don’t have answers!”
This is what the Torah is telling us. Firstly Chava saw the fruit and had a desire to eat it. But she had a problem that it was forbidden until the snake came and answered her problem by the theory of enlightenment and intelligence.
This is an important message to all of us. Many times we are challenged with questions in Emuna and other Mitzvos. We must remember that our great Rabbis throughout all the generations who were way smarter than us had answers to all these questions. If not they would have given up long before us.
Moshe Rabbeinu, David Hamelech, Shlomo Hamelech, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the Rambam, Rabbi Yosef Caro, the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh, the Vilna Gaon, the Baal Shem Tov, the Chafetz Chaim. Did they not wonder about these questions? And what happened? They must have had some good answers.
So why do we have a weak point? We have to be honest with ourselves and understand the true answer. We all have challenges in our lives. Sometimes these are smiling and inviting us to do things we know are wrong. So we have a question, how can I do this if I know it’s wrong? Then we find questions to satisfy our guilty conscience and allow us to follow our desires.
