Man's mission of rectification

Adam forever altered mankind's makeup. Being alive in a fallen world, however, comes with responsibilities --- and no room for excuses

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Had Adam not sinned, his life would have been an upward spiral of spiritual elevation. But he did. By doing so he caused a basic change in his make-up, and therefore, in his mission.

Up to then evil had been an outside temptation, a clear-cut falsehood with no claim on the credence of man; by eating the fruit that held the knowledge of combined good and evil, Adam took evil into himself. It became part of his nature and from then on, his evil inclination became "I want, I desire, I need ..."

The perfection of newly fallen man required a new, laborious, seemingly endless process. It would require millennia and the combined efforts of countless millions of human beings down the generations. We cannot understand why this particular course was necessary, but so the Divine wisdom decreed.

Man's emergence from evil to good became infinitely more difficult because his perception of good and evil became clouded. Lust and temptation became part of him and he no longer regarded evil as we would regard a machine-gun pointed at us by a murderous enemy.

Instead, he regarded evil like a recovering alcoholic being offered a glass of rare whiskey. It is unhealthy, unpleasant, "not nice" — but so enticing.

Since that day, man's history has been an unending effort to raise himself out of that morass and to return to that original realization when good and evil were distinct and clear cut. In his present form, man cannot return to his original state. Only through death and resuscitation could he be born once again as man before the sin.

For this reason, the sin brought death upon the human race. It was not a vindictive punishment; had that been the case, succeeding generations would not have fallen victim to the decree. Death became the only road to renewed perfection; by means of it, man left the life and earth that had become imperfect and, when the proper moment in G od's design arrived, his soul would return to a new life in a world of renewed perfection.

During this interval and again in its new life, the soul would reap the reward it had earned by its degree of success in the struggle to wrest good from its concealment on earth (Derech Hashem). The state of creation following the sin was confusion. From the state of clear-cut division between good and evil, there emerged desire for evil and revulsion for good, impaired recognition of which was which, and a blurring of values.

Man's mission on earth became separation. He had to find the good both within himself and in the world around him, and he had to identify the evil masquerading as good. The most dangerous result of his sin was the confusion.

In a sense, earth returned to its primeval state when light and darkness reigned in an ill defined mixture until G od separated them. Now man had created a new mixture within himself and it became his mission to define the ingredients once again (Sfas Emes).

With that task accomplished, man can once again see creation as it truly is. The Sages say: "On that day G od will be one" (Zechariah 14:9). Isn't He one now as well?

Rabbi Acha bar Chanina said, The World to Come is not like this world. In this world, for good news one says, "Blessed is the Good One Who does good." For bad news one says "Blessed is the Judge of truth." In the World to Come, for everything one will bless "the Good One Who does good" (Talmud, Pesachim 50a).

No matter how high man rises in this world, he is still limited by his material nature and by the evil that is internalized within him. At his best, he recognizes G od as the true Judge, but he is inadequate to recognize the ultimate goodness in apparent tragedy. That will have to wait.

The purpose of creation is man. It was made to test him, elevate him, and to be the vehicle for bringing G od's mercy upon him. And only he could fulfill it.

For that reason, the Bible does not say that G od saw it was good, after the creations of the Second Day, even though the angels were created on that Day. The creation of the angels, holy though they were, was not designated with a Divine seal of approval because they are not essential to the fulfillment of G od's purpose as is man (Rabbeinu Bachya). And of man, it does not say, "it was good", because man is never complete. After more than fifty-seven centuries, his task still goes on (Sefer Halkkarim).

"The heavens are the heavens of G od, but He has given the earth to the children of man" (Psalms 115:16). Chidushei HaRim (d. 1866) gives us a truly dazzling insight into this familiar verse. G od needs no assistance from man to make the heavens "Heavenly." They are holy by virtue of His Presence and the host that serve and glorify His Name. But the earth — to make the earth Heavenly He gave it to man so that he, by the performance of good and the avoidance of evil, can transform the cloak concealing His holiness and even His very existence into a slice of heaven.

The earth is man's to perfect and he must learn from it. Its phenomena were set in place to challenge him or to teach him. So strange an occurrence as a sin of the dead, silent earth is incomprehensible without this perception. Yet, at the beginning of creation the earth itself did not carry out G od's will: "G od said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation: herbage yielding seed, fruit trees yielding fruit each after its kind' " (Genesis 1:11). The Divine commanded the earth to produce trees whose bark would taste the same as their fruit. The earth did not comply. Therefore, when Adam was cursed for his sin, the earth, too, was cursed (Rashi, see comm. 1:11).

How did the earth have the temerity to disobey? The earth, through its controlling angel, knew that G od would store away the brilliant primeval light because the wicked people of the future were unworthy of it (Midrash).

To make the earth Heavenly He gave it to man so that he, by the performance of good and the avoidance of evil, can transform the cloak concealing His holiness and even His very existence into a slice of heaven.

It reasoned that if the original plan of creation was altered to prevent the wicked from enjoying a spiritual light that they did not deserve, then the richness of the earth's produce, too, was more than the wicked should be given.

Therefore, the earth diminished the pleasures available to them and defied G od's order that it produce trees that would be edible and tasty throughout. This failure of the earth contributed to Adam's later sin, because the serpent strengthened the argument by pointing to the earth that had ignored G od's command with impunity. For contributing to man's downfall, the earth was cursed along with him (Shelah HaKadosh).

But the earth's intention was honorable, its logic faultless. It intended only to follow the example of G od Himself — why was it punished?

Its behavior and future punishment were meant to be lessons to man. Otherwise earth would not have been given the power to sin and the Torah would not have found it necessary to record the sin for eternity.

The earth had been given a command yet it was presumptuous enough to arrogate to itself the authority to overrule the word of G od. Its reason? — logical. Its precedent? — G od Himself. Where had it erred? A very great man in the future — a man who was deemed worthy of becoming the Messiah — also took it upon himself to contravene a commandment.

King Chizkiyah was shown that wicked people would descend from him, so he decided not to beget children. It would be better to have no children than to have idolatrous children, he reasoned. But the prophet Isaiah came to him and proclaimed angrily: Ö° " Why do you meddle in G od's mysteries? You must do what you are commanded to do, and the Holy One, blessed is He, will do what pleases Him (Talmud, Berachos 10a).

The earth presumed to meddle in G od's mysteries. It is forbidden to do so and it was punished for having dared. This, too, is Torah and we must learn from it. No lesson of Torah should ever be lost upon us. Its every commandment, every incident, every conversation was included to educate and elevate man.

To ignore or forget is to lose a portion of life. The Sages teach that when Israel accepted the Ten Commandments, it approached the exaltation of Adam before the sin. Had the Golden Calf not been built, they would have entered the Holy Land, built an eternal Temple, and the entire world would have received all the prophetic blessings of the World to Come.

Like Adam, they sinned (see Overview, ArtScroll edition of Ruth) and fell from their greatness. They received the Ten Commandments anew and the second tablets, but it was not the same. Had they retained the first tablets they would have learned and never forgotten; with the second ones, we learn and do forget (Midrash).

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Adam sinned and became subject to forgetfulness. When a man studies and learns, he makes Torah a part of himself. When he forgets his learning, a part of himself has left him — he has suffered a degree of death (Rabbi Gedaliah Schorr [ d. 1979]).

Adam sinned and humanity changed forever. But the antidote to the serpent's poison is forever available, even though forgetfulness is our lot. We can succeed in isolating light from darkness, and holiness from profanity, even though confusion is the legacy of that tempting but lethal fruit. We can control the levers of creation by our study of Torah and performance of its precepts, even though a montage of men and machines blocks our view of the power of our deeds.

"With eternal love, You have loved the House of Israel, Your people; Torah and commandments, statutes and ordinances You have taught us .... for they are our life and the length of our days and upon them we will meditate day and night." (Maariv prayer)

G od made the universe and presented us with its blueprint.

Rabbi Nosson Scherman is, among many other life achievements, the general editor of ArtScroll, the world's most successful and influential publisher of Judaic titles.

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