06 Oct BERESHIT: HASHEM KNOWS BETTER

What was Adam
thinking?
Of course, eating the
fruit from the forbidden
tree was wrong, and he –
along with all humankind – was punished as
a result. But we would certainly expect that
he had some rationale, some thought process
that justified this action in his mind. What
might have led him to eat fruit which G-d had
explicitly commanded him not to eat?
The Arizal explains the spiritual effects of
Adam’s sin, how it fundamentally transformed
the human being. Before his sin, the Yeser
Ha’ra was external to the person, not part
and parcel of his being. Adam was pure and
pristine, with a natural inclination to act the
right way and do the right thing. Although
temptation existed, it could be avoided. A
person could keep a distance from sources of
temptation, and serve G-d easily, without any
inner resistance or inner struggle.After the sin,
however, everything became a struggle. As
we all know, virtually every good deed we do
requires some degree of effort, a “tug-of-war”
between our desire to do the right thing and
the desire to do the wrong thing. This ongoing
struggle was introduced once Adam and
Havah partook of the forbidden fruit.
This explains Adam’s rationale when he

decided to eat the fruit that Havah brought
him.
Imagine a baseball team that shows up
ready to play a game, but after the pregame
workouts and batting practice, just before the
first pitch, the other team decides to forfeit the
game. The first team will of course be happy
to be credited with a win, but it won’t feel
very proud of this victory. But if the game is
played, and it goes into extra innings, with
both teams playing hard, and the game is won
in dramatic fashion in the 14th inning – the
team will go home feeling very gratified over
its hard-fought win.
Adam reasoned that he could draw closer
to G-d by inviting the Yeser Ha’ra into his
being, by accepting the challenge of perpetual
spiritual struggle. Serving G-d without this
inner conflict would be like winning via a
forfeit, without a fight, whereas serving G-d
by constantly resisting lures and temptations
would be a hard-fought triumph each and every
day of his life. This is what Adam wanted. He
strove for greatness, and he understood that
greatness is achieved only through hard work
and struggle. He thus decided to subject
himself to the difficult challenges of the Yeser
Ha’ra so he would have to wage a lifelong
battle against them.
Nevertheless, Adam was wrong. This decision

was sinful – so sinful, in fact, that it brought
to the world numerous curses, including death
itself.
The reason why Adam was wrong is very
simple – because Hashem told him not to
eat the fruit. No human being can ever try to
“outsmart” G-d or think that he has a better
idea than G-d had. And no human being can
ever think that he can draw close to G-d by
disobeying G-d’s command. No matter how
certain a person is that a certain action will
propel him to great spiritual heights and
enhance his relationship with Hashem – he
must not commit that act if Hashem Himself
proscribed it. It is impossible to serve G-d by
disobeying G-d.
The Gemara teaches that the “Zuhama”
(“filth”) of Adam’s sin remained until the time
of Matan Torah, when Beneh Yisrael stood
at Har Sinai and accepted the Torah. They
proclaimed, “Na’aseh Ve’nishma” (“We
will do and we will hear” – Shemot 24:7),
committing themselves unconditionally to
G-d’s will. They declared their unbridled
obedience, that they would observe every
command without any hesitation and without
rationalization. This corrected the ill that
plagued mankind since the time of Adam’s
sin, the tendency to arrogantly subject G-d’s
commands to human logic and reasoning.

Tragically, however, Beneh Yisrael fell
once again just 40 days later, when they
worshipped the golden calf. The Ramban
and others explain that Beneh Yisrael did
not worship they golden calf as a deity. They
made a graven image not to replace the
Almighty, but rather to replace Moshe, their
leader and prophet through whom they served
G-d – and whom they had assumed was never
returning. Their intentions may have been
noble – but they erred by directly disobeying
the explicit command not to build an idol for
religious worship.
Religious observance cannot be diluted
or altered to suit our own ideas, our own
preferences, or our own perceptions of
right and wrong. No matter how convinced
we might be that a certain course action is
“spiritual” or religiously beneficial, and serves
to advance our relationship with G-d, it must
not be followed if it violates Hashem’s word,
if it transgresses the Torah that He gave us.
Adam’s mistake reminds us that even the
noblest intentions cannot justify disobedience.
Real Abodat Hashem (service of Gd) begins
when we humbly trust His wisdom more than
our own.