Bereishis – Tying the End of the Torah to the beginning.

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  • October 19, 2022 12:21 pm at 12:21 pm #2131048
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    Tying the end of the Torah to the beginning, first of all, it finishes with a lamed and starts with a beis to indicate the importance of lev, the heart רחמנא לבא בעי we should use our heart when doing mitzvos. The Torah finishes with the words in front of the eyes of the Jews and starts with the creation as Rashi comments that Moshe Rabbenu broke the luchas in front of the Jews’ eyes. The world was created for our benefit to gain olam haboh, the next world which is only meaningful when we have a tendency to sin, not like angels, and we have the ability to fight this urge which Adam Harishon could not.
    The sefer Peninim Yekorim brings in the name of the sefer Kosnos Or that based on a Magen Avraham 610 that makes a difference between chametz and Yom Kippur, chametz we are not allowed to touch on Pesach because everything else is permitted whereas Yom Kippur where all food is forbidden we can touch it. Therefore, the Etz Hadaas, the forbidden fruit we cannot touch because all other trees were allowed to eat.
    Now as the Sifsei Chachomim points out that Chava could not have added the prohibition on touch because she would have known it and not be fooled by the snake tricking her through pushing her at the tree. He says Adam Harishan added the prohibition but I think that he should have been clear that it is his addition and not forbidden by Hashem, as the Rambam says that the Chachomim cannot say that fowl meat is forbidden with milk biblically because of bal tosif.
    The Heavens tell the greatness of Hashem which the astronauts have experienced, so the creation is in front of our eyes.

    October 20, 2022 8:14 am at 8:14 am #2131260
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    Being today 25 Tishri, 183 Yahr Zeit of the Chasam Sofer, I will quote an explanation where Adam Harishon excused himself that the wife given to him was at fault for eating the forbidden fruit which looks like the denying of the good. The Midrash says that he drank grape juice from a grapevine. The question is if something emanates from the strength of something else is it like the thing itself? Chavah was never commanded on the Eitz Hadaas. So mema nafshech, in either case Adam Harishan believed that he can eat from it. If the juice is not like the fruit then he had the juice and if it is, then Chavah was also like him, so why did she not die? He did not realize that the day of a Hashem is a thousand years until one can still die. Some say שלוחו של אדם כמותו, the banishing him and Chavah from the Gan Eden was like dying.

    October 20, 2022 9:44 am at 9:44 am #2131291
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    The Chasam Sofer says that if Adam Harishon would have waited until shabbos, he could have eaten from the eitz hadaas as the kedusha of shabbos would have kept him in line. He might have eaten a chatzi shiur, small amount as the midrash said אכלתי ואוכל, I ate and will eat. He ate erev shabbos just before the arrival of shabbos. He said that I can eat more on shabbos, so it will not accumulate and therefore I am not responsible for what I am eating now. The Mayanai Shel Torah explains the above midrash that he wanted to indicate, he is eating letaovan, of desire and not lehachis, to anger on purpose by violating the commandment.

    October 20, 2022 1:31 pm at 1:31 pm #2131294
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    Repeating from an other topic:

    It says ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון, so the Midrash says ראשון לחשבון עוונות, the Chasan Sofer explains that it provides forgiveness for the first sin.
    Adam Harishon thought that only the tree is forbidden as the tastes of it and the fruit differ. He wanted to see if the fruits of other trees taste like the tree. As the earth sinned by changing the taste of the tree and fruit, he found that they tasted different. Therefore, he thought that the eitz hadaas will be the same but it was an esrug where the fruit and the tree did taste the same. So we take an esrug which providing forgiveness for the earth where it did not sin and Adam Harishon. He would have never sinned if the earth would not have sinned as he would have realized that they taste different.

    October 21, 2022 12:02 am at 12:02 am #2131420
    Always_Ask_Questions
    Participant

    RebE, thanks for all these explanations. The message seems to be that we can come up with a lot of terutzim for disobeying direct ratzon Hashem, but He is not accepting them.

    October 21, 2022 12:02 am at 12:02 am #2131421
    Always_Ask_Questions
    Participant

    So, before learning halochos on how to do something You want without offending Hashem too much, better think what He wants and see how your behaviors fits into that.

    October 21, 2022 9:27 am at 9:27 am #2131467
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    The gemora in Meseches Chulin (139,2) says that Haman’s punishment is evident as Adam Harishon’s by the Eitz Hadaas.

    The Chasam Sofer explains that by Haman’s seuda they could have filled themselves up ahead of time. The seuda would have been an achila gasa, overeating shlo kaderech achiloson, not the normal way of consumption, where accumulation does not apply as when we are eating again is in an allowed way. Since they did not do that, they were responsible. However, the Chasam Sofer explains that this seuda was made by Achashverus as a celebration for not building the Beis hamikdash, so attending was a admission of a’z where even a tiny amount was also forbidden. Therefore, according the Meharshal in Makus 24, shlo kaderech was also forbidden which makes Haman responsible for forcing them as the above advice was not possible. Similarly, by Adam Harishon, eating from the eitz hadaas was a question of emunah bordering on a’z, so a small amount, as described above, was also forbidden and therefore he got punished.

    October 23, 2022 12:01 am at 12:01 am #2131678
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    BTW, I just noticed a Targum Yonasan arguing with the Targum Onkelos what the meaning of ערומים is. The Targum Yonasan translates Adam and Chava being חכימים, wise rather than unclothed. Maybe we find that both are true. In Samuel (19,24) we see that when Shaul got mixed up with the neviim and started to prophesize, he shed his clothes. The Redak explains that the clothing is a hinderance for the use of the spiritual mind. So for Adam and Chava because of their high intellect of wisdom, the clothing was a hinderance and unnecessary until after the eating of eitz hadaas where there spiritual mind got damaged.

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