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Here’s my commentary for this year on the parashah known as B’resheet. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is B’resheet, which means “in the beginning,” and covers Genesis chapter 1 through chapter 6, verse 8, and what I’d like to focus on today is the episode related in this Torah portion commonly referred to as “The Fall of Man.” Now you’re probably wondering, what is there that could possibly be found in the fall of man that’s new and interesting, right? I mean, after all, it’s one of the most told and re-told tales in all of Genesis. And the basics of the story are actually pretty simple and almost universally accepted.

As commonly told, the story goes like this: after God created Adam, he realized it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone, so he made Eve from Adam’s rib and, some time after that, the serpent tricked Eve into eating the forbidden Honeycrisp apple, bringing sin into the world, and then Adam appears, sees what Eve has done and, in an act of selfless love for his wife, decided to eat it right along with her so they could be together. Then they all blame each other and God casts them out of the garden. That about the size of it?

Well, let me just say right now, there are a lot of misconceptions out there about this story of life in paradise, and I threw a few of the most common errors into that little summary. Now, let’s back up and see what B’resheet really teaches us about the fall of man, shall we?

One of the most important elements of the story of the fall happens before Eve is even in the Garden. We read this in:

Genesis 2:16-17
And the L-RD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

In another translation, that last phrase is rendered, “it will become certain that you will die.” I think that will be a helpful translation as we continue our study, so keep that in mind. Now, in the very next verse, we begin the account of how the L-RD formed Eve from one of Adam’s ribs; so let’s remember that this command about not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil came before Eve was even formed. Sure, Adam and Eve were of one flesh and were together in the Garden with the L-RD for an unspecified period of time prior to the fall; but for now let’s just keep in mind that she wasn’t created yet when the original command was given.

So now, let’s take a closer look at the temptation and fall.

Genesis 3:1-3
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the L-RD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

Now, most people pay a lot of attention to the serpent’s question, trying to paint the ways in which he manipulated Eve. But that’s not what I want to focus on today. I want to focus on Eve’s response.

It’s a little different from the command the L-RD just gave, isn’t it? Remember, the L-RD said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” But here, Eve states it slightly differently, doesn’t she? She says, “‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” Now, there are two major differences here, at the minimum. First, we get some new information; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is located in the middle of the garden. But the L-RD’s original command was simply not to eat of the fruit of that tree. Yet when Eve recites the command back to the serpent, what happens? She adds something. “You must not eat of it, or touch it.” Hold on! Where did the “You must not touch it” come from?

To be completely honest, no one is sure. It’s not written about in the Torah. There is no indication in the Word of the L-RD. All we do know for certain is that when Eve recites the command of the L-RD to the serpent, it comes out differently than the way the L-RD actually said it.

Well, who can blame her, right? I mean, Eve wasn’t even there when the L-RD spoke the original command. Of course, Adam and she are echad once she is created as his wife, and they did have that time in the Garden with the L-RD before the fall. So what could have happened that the command of the L-RD became twisted and inaccurate? How could this extra phrase, “you must not touch it,” come into the picture? Well, there is a theory. Granted, a theory is not as reliable as Scripture by any means, but this one may be useful to us. We read this tradition in:

Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, vol. 1, p. 72
[Eve] spoke thus, because in [Adam’s] zeal to guard her against the transgressing of the Divine command, Adam had forbidden Eve to touch the tree, though God had mentioned only the eating the fruit.

So, according to this tradition, Adam had passed on the command of the L-RD to his wife himself; it did not get transmitted to Eve directly from the L-RD. And Adam chose not to trust his wife with the command exactly as it was given to him; instead, he did what? He added to the words the L-RD Himself had spoken.

Now, any parent will understand Adam’s motivation here. He was being protective. We do it to our own children all the time. We have a pot boiling on an open flame on the stove. We don’t want the child to burn their hand on the open flame, so we tell them, “Don’t touch the flame or you’ll burn your hand.” But then we think, wow, even letting them near the stove is dangerous. So them we tell them, “Don’t touch the stove.” But hey, we know how curious little kids are, so even letting them in the kitchen at all is risky. So we say, “Don’t come into the kitchen while I’m cooking.” Before you know it, we have grounded the child to his or her room because we’ve built so many protective fences around the actual threat. The worst part is, they don’t even know why they’re grounded to their room anymore.

But, Eve wasn’t a child, was she? She was supposed to be a suitable helpmate to Adam, and therefore he should have given her the command exactly as the L-RD had given it to him. But hey, Adam’s intentions were good, right? Well, let’s see if it worked! Let’s see if adding to the actual command of God produced a good result. We read this in:

Genesis 3:6
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Now, there’s a lot to deal with here. Let’s start with why Eve ate the fruit. The same tradition I read earlier from Ginzburg suggests that while he was beguiling her, the serpent pushed Eve into the tree and, when she didn’t die, the seed of doubt began to grow in her. I also think there’s a hint in the text of the Torah here that Eve touched the fruit before eating it, because how else could she “see that it was good.” Either way, once she touches the tree and does not die, doubt springs to life and she then has cause to doubt the rest of the L-RD’s command. After all, she had been taught that she could not even touch it and live, right? So when she does touch the fruit and there’s no lightning bolt from above… well, the door to deception is wide open, isn’t it?

But that’s not what God said. If you remember what I said was a preferred translation, the L-RD said that if they eat of it, it would… what? It would become certain that they would die. That doesn’t sound like immediate judgment, instant keeling over or the cliché lightning bolt from above. That’s not in God’s nature! He’s patient with us, wanting all of us to come to repentance.

One more point on the fall. Most people, when asked about the fall of man, will say, “Oh yeah, Eve really messed us up.” But is that what’s really going on here? Not at all. Remember how it was worded in the last part of verse eight. It reads, “She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” See that? “Who was with her.” Adam didn’t show up after the fact. He was there the whole time. And they are echad. So they fell together, but that’s not how it’s remembered. People remember that Eve bit first and create this whole scenario about Adam showing up after the fact – but it’s not there in Scripture; just the opposite is written.

And Adam’s responsibility is, in some ways, even greater. He has the burden of headship in the marriage and it was his place to speak up in the middle of the serpent’s efforts to deceive, and put a stop to it. He didn’t do that. Adam could have stepped in and pointed out that touching the fruit was not part of the L-RD’s original command; for whatever reason, he also did not do that. And so we know how the story goes from there.

So let’s consider this idea of adding to the words of the L-RD. Does this remind you of anything else? Does it sound familiar at all? It should. For one thing, it should remind you of rabbinics. That is exactly what rabbinics is, what it does. This is testified to directly in the:

Babylonian Talmud, Avoth 1
Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the men of the great synagogue. The latter used to say three things: be patient in [the administration of] justice, rear many disciples and make a fence round the Torah.

Now, we’ve all heard Stan use this quote and teach on it as the origin of the Oral Torah. If anyone has any doubt that how we interpret this passage is correct, one need look no further than a footnote in the Soncino Edition of the Babylonian Talmud regarding this very passage. It reads this way:

Babylonian Talmud, Avoth 1, footnote
The Torah is conceived as a garden and its precepts as precious plants. Such a garden is fenced round for the purpose of obviating wilful or even unintended damage. Likewise, the precepts of the Torah were to be ‘fenced’ round with additional inhibitions that should have the effect of preserving the original commandments from trespass.

You see, in their tradition about Adam adding to the words of the L-RD, the rabbis attempt to make Adam a hero of rabbinics. Even he, according to their teachings, saw the value in adding additional commands to the L-RD’s, to prevent violation of the actual command. But they overlook Adam’s results; the fall of man, the necessity of shedding blood for the remission of sins, the necessity of a Messiah to mend things between God and man. Why on earth would one want to continue doing something that didn’t work?

Yeshua Himself points this out, calling the Oral Torah a burden no one can bear, and saying that His burden, by comparison, is light. And what is Yeshua’s lighter burden? It is pure and simple obedience to the written Torah of God – the Word of God alone, and nothing more. Which is exactly what the Father had in mind from the beginning.

Shabbat Shalom.