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Orchard of Delights
the Garden of Eden.” The notion of a “paradise lost” and the quest
to return humanity to its former exalted station is fundamentally
connected to the role the Shemittah year plays in trying to rectify
the consequences of humankind’s first sin.
When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge they thought
they would become, as the snake promised, “like God to know good
and evil” (Genesis 3:4). What they did not realize was that their
action would effect the very nature of human development. While
Adam and Eve did attain one type of knowledge, they sacrificed
another one: a pure unconscious intuition that resulted from their
being in harmony with God and nature. As a result of their eating
from the Tree of knowledge, no longer would the lofty spiritual plane
they took for granted in the Garden of Eden be a given, now human
beings would have to struggle long and hard to attain it. From a
Kabbalistic perspective, this was not simply a punishment, but a
natural consequence of their actions, and, in a sense, a fortuitous one
at that. Just as a parent must allow a young child the opportunity to
learn to walk, even though it means a few nasty spills, likewise, God
had to send Adam and Eve out of the Garden in order to allow them
to fulfill their destiny of being created “in the image of God” through
their own hard work.
Humanity’s exile from the Garden of Eden set the pattern for all
future individual and national exiles. Furthermore, Adam’s curse
affected all his descendants: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in
sorrow you shall eat of it all the days of your life … by the sweat
of your brow you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground: for
dust you are and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:17-18). Instead
of living in harmony with nature Adam now found that he would
have to work hard to make his living, constantly combating nature
to coerce the “accursed” earth to produce for him.
The episode of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden represents
humanity’s archetypal predicament. The passions, emotions, and
intentions of each of the protagonists, as well as the forces of cause
and effect portrayed in the story, serve as a paradigm that repeats
itself in all our lives, especially in the deeper messages conveyed by
the Sabbatical year. Indeed, the Sabbatical year is meant to heal both
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Achrei Mot
In this vein, the Ba’al Shem Tov also taught that uttering empty
words does not make the body heavier because there is no life force in
empty words. However, speaking words of Torah causes the body to
become heavier because the words spoken are full of content and life.
He compares this to the body gaining weight after a satisfying meal.
Words of Torah provide sustenance for not only the soul and mind
but the body as well. However, we should note that the Ba’al Shem
Tov’s use of this analogy may stem from the fact that the Hebrew
root word for both “heavy” and “honor” is identical (similarly, the
phrase “weighty matters” in English does not refer to how much
the matters physically weigh, but to their importance). Thus the
Ba’al Shem Tov’s words can be understood figuratively to refer to a
qualitative sense of weight.
The teaching that the more Torah people learn the “heavier” their
bodies become has an amazing parallel in the physical world. Modern
physics has revealed that the faster mass accelerates the heavier it
becomes or the greater its mass. This process continues until the
body in motion approaches the speed of light when it becomes so
heavy that it can accelerate no further. From this scientists deduce
that physical matter cannot travel faster than the speed of light.
Within the Jewish tradition, Torah is often compared to light:
thus, in Proverbs (20:7): “The candle is a mitzvah and the Torah
is light.” Figuratively speaking, learning Torah is like mentally
streaking through space approaching the speed of light. The more
Torah we learn though the “heavier” we become. Just as physical
matter cannot exceed the speed of light, so too no matter how much
Torah we learn we can never completely grasp its infinite wisdom.
However, just as we can approach the speed of light, the more Torah
we learn the closer we can come to the infinite light and life force of
God enclothed within its teachings.
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