Timeless Torah

The approaching High Holidays bring to mind such phrases as, “Day of Judgment, Life and Death, Good and Evil.” These concepts actually come into play on the very first Rosh Hashana, when Adam and Eve stood before the Tree of Knowledge and unsuspectingly opened Pandora’s Box.
We could of course blame the serpent, “The most sly of all the creatures” who with guile and trickery cajoled the innocent. But after eating of the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened. So where before they might have claimed innocence, they now realized they were naked in more ways than one.
Even innocent actions engender reactions, and so generations later a woman by the name of Rivkah conceives and has a pregnancy so difficult that she cries out to G-d. This scream is obviously the responding echo to, “In pain shall you bring forth children.”
Is there something of Eve in the person of Rivkah? Read further: who are Rivkah’s children? The twins - Eisav and Yaacov - the prototypes of good and evil. Is it not more than coincidence that both women release an admixture of good and evil, the first upon the world, the second upon Israel? And what about Adam? Does his trust or naiveté also extend across history?
While the twins may be luminous opposites, their saintly father was blind to the difference. The knowledge of good and evil which Rivkah, the so-called spiritual reincarnation of Eve, now plainly sees, is however still hidden from Isaac. Like Adam before the sin, Isaac is an innocent. It is as if his experience at Mount Moriah and the Akeidah (binding) has transformed him into an otherworldly creature who transcends the mundane and the earthly. In fact the Midrash (Yalkut Reuveni) commenting upon Isaac’s whereabouts after the close call episode tell us that the Patriarch did indeed go back to a more pristine existence; he went back to the life that was, he went back into the Garden of Eden.
But innocence can have catastrophic consequences in a world where cunning has become an art. For if Isaac persists in his blindness and Eisav receives the blessings intended for Jacob, it can completely thwart the destiny of the Jewish people.
Here we have the inverse situation of Eden. There the innocents have to be protected from good and evil lest death be brought to the world. Here, the sincere, trusting one must learn good and evil lest death be brought to Israel.
Interestingly enough, the replay of Biblical events is not limited to the characters alone. Even the methods by which evil is countenanced are learned and borrowed from the master of evil, the serpent himself. Thus the instruments of sin; trickery, falsehood and concealment are now utilized for the purpose of salvation and correction.
The full tapestry now begins to emerge. The guile of the serpent which deceived Eve by masquerading as righteousness is now turned back against itself. Now Yaacov the pure, dresses up like the snake his brother Eisav is, poses as him, and redeems the blessings that could have been Adam and Eve’s.
This then is the story of Judaism today. At the earliest point of time, on the first Day of Judgment, man could have enjoyed paradise if he had only acted in a straightforward manner. But now, that opportunity is lost. Instead, we have to resort to the tactics of deception. We must till the land, “by the sweat of our brow,” (another thing we can blame on Eden) and be a farmer. But should not our occupation have been one of Torah immersion? Was simply working to survive a role that we were originally meant to play? Was that the purpose of creation? Obviously not.
But now the game plan is different. Our task is to be involved in the physical and extract from the land not only its produce, but also its opportunities for mitzvohs. As the Bible says in this week’s Torah reading, “Blessed are you in the fields,” if you fulfill the commandments connected to agriculture, such as leaving the forgotten sheaves for the poor, etc.
Similarly our move from the Garden of Eden to the metropolis is so that we can be, “Blessed...in the cities.” This is a reference to those holy actions we can only do when we have homes and buildings, like putting up a parapet on our roofs, etc.
In other words, Jewish life is not simple, as if you didn’t know it already. So this Rosh Hashana we won’t promise G-d exclusivity: “We’ll give up our jobs, learn Torah a whole day...” Instead, we will assure Him that we won’t ever get so confused to think that the charade we find ourselves in is the goal. It is only the means to bring down the curtain on the stage of Golus (exile).