10 Oct PARASHAT BERESHIT: THE GIFT – AND DANGER – OF IMAGINATION

We read in Parashat
Bereshit the famous story
of Adam and Havah’s sin
in Gan Eden. Hashem had
commanded Adam and
Havah not to eat the fruit
of a particular tree, but the snake managed
to convince Havah to taste some fruit. She
did, and she then shared it with Adam. All
three – Adam, Havah and the snake – were
punished because of this sin.
The Gemara makes a fascinating comment
about the snake. Before this sin, the Gemara
tells, the snake was the human being’s
greatest and most loyal servant. The snake
was at Adam’s service, ready to do anything
he wanted. It would even go across the
world to bring Adam precious jewels. Once
the world was cursed because of the sin, the
snake no longer served man.
What does this mean? In what way was the
snake the human being’s greatest “servant”?
Let us take a step back and consider what
exactly happened when the snake convinced
Havah to eat the forbidden fruit.
We have all probably wondered, how

could Havah have been tempted by this one
tree? She was allowed to eat all the other
fruit in the garden. How could she have
been so foolish, desiring specifically the
fruit of the one tree that Hashem had
declared forbidden?
The answer is that the snake manipulated
Havah’s imagination. The snake had her
imagine that eating the forbidden fruit
would bring her unparalleled joy and
satisfaction. The snake sent her mind
spinning, and she was tantalized by the bliss
she imagined she would experience.
The imagination is such a precious and
vital asset for all of us. It is only because of
our imagination that we are able to aspire, to
have ambitions that we work hard to
realize. Imagination is what allowed for the
great inventions that human beings have
come up with. And it is through our
imagination that we work hard to build for
ourselves the kind of lives we dream about.
This is what the Gemara means when it
says that the snake would go across the
world and bring Adam precious
jewels. Imagination allows us to pursue
“jewels,” great achievements. It shows us

valuable things “across the world,” that our
eyes currently do not see, motivating us to
work towards getting them.
But our imagination can also destroy us, as
it destroyed Adam and Havah.
We might say that the snake was the first
advertiser, or salesman, in human
history. What do advertisers do? They
manipulate our imagination. They put into
our minds images of bliss that we will
experience if we purchase what they are
trying to sell. They have us imagine
unbridled bliss on a luxury vacation, or
riding a luxury car, or looking perfect
wearing a certain article of clothing. This is
when the imagination becomes our worst
enemy, causing us to recklessly spend
money on something we don’t need and
which won’t make us happy.
Imagination also makes us anxious and
self-conscious. When we are not invited to
an event we expected to be invited to, our
imagination gets to work, coming up with
all kinds of reasons why we weren’t
invited. We feel hurt and insulted, and then
angry, because we imagine that the person
intentionally scorned us. When we notice a

stain on our clothing, or that we accidentally
put on the wrong jacket that doesn’t match,
we imagine everyone staring at us and
secretly laughing at us.
And, of course, it is imagination that leads
us to sin. Like Havah, we imagine that
doing the forbidden act will bring us joy and
bliss, when in truth it will leave us feeling
ashamed and upset at ourselves.
The story of the snake in Gan Eden teaches
us how careful we have to be with our
imagination. We should use it to dream, to
aspire to greatness, to motivate us to build
and accomplish. But we need to be careful
not to allow it to destroy us, to cause us
unnecessary anger, anxiety and fear, and not
to lead us to do things which we will regret.