Parashat Bereshit: Ruler or Leader

With excitement and anticipation, we begin once again from Bereshit. One of the Torah’s foundational stories is Eve and Adam’s rebellious eating from the Tree of Knowledge. German-American Jewish psychoanalyst, social psychologist, and humanistic philosopher Erich Fromm (1900–1980) believed this should not be viewed as a terrible original sin, but as the Torah’s deliberate way of founding humanity on an act of freedom rather than obedience. The human being is a free creature.

It is surprising to discover that Rabbi Meir Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk (1843–1926), author of the commentary Meshech Chochmah, also held that God hoped Eve and Adam would violate His explicit command and eat from the tree.

The hidden divine will

When the serpent tells Eve, “You shall not surely die, for God knows that on the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5), he is neither scheming nor lying. According to Meshech Chochmah, the serpent is simply articulating God’s true will – that humans eat from the tree and thereby draw near to the Divine, overcoming evil and attaining wisdom.

If this is God’s true intention, why does God command, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for on the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17)?

Meir Simcha HaKohen answers that God wanted them to gain the capacity to know good and evil through an act that demanded courage and self-sacrifice. God desired this act not out of hunger or convenience, but out of a fierce love of knowledge and an immense desire to draw close to the Divine. In essence, God was testing them: will they risk death to know good and evil? This is “a transgression for the sake of Heaven” (aveirah lishmah) – an act that appears forbidden yet is in truth God’s will.

A transgression for the sake of heaven

A transgression for the sake of Heaven is an unusual concept appearing only sparingly in rabbinic literature. The Talmud distinguishes between “a mitzvah that comes through a transgression,” which is invalid, and a transgression for the sake of Heaven. In the former, one commits a transgression to fulfill a commandment – stealing matzah to eat on Passover. In the latter, the transgression itself is for the sake of Heaven. Such was Yael’s killing of Sisera. Meshech Chochmah argues that eating from the Tree of Knowledge was a transgression for the sake of Heaven – a desired transgression.

As the Babylonian rabbi Nachman bar Yitzchak (about 280-356) declared in the Talmud: “Greater is a transgression committed for its own sake, i.e., for the sake of Heaven, than a mitzvah performed not for its own sake.” (Nazir 23b)

The complexity of good and evil

According to Meir Simcha HaKohen’s interpretation, eating from the Tree of Knowledge grounds humanity upon the existential foundation of good transgressions. The Podolian Jewish writer, journalist and scholar Micha Josef Berdyczewski (1865–1921) believed it is a great sin to believe in absolute evil – evil that is evil at its root and always evil. Even terrible evil like bloodshed can at times be necessary and become a positive act. Everything has two sides: what becomes an elixir of life for the worthy becomes deadly poison for those unworthy.

Throughout creation in our parashah, the word “good” recurs repeatedly, but “evil” appears only as part of a complex whole: “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Humanity begins with the ability to discern in every moment what is true transgression and what is transgression for the sake of Heaven. If we succeed, it becomes an elixir of life. If we fail, it becomes a deadly poison.

Lior Tal Sadeh is an educator, writer, and author of “What Is Above, What Is Below” (Carmel, 2022). He hosts the daily “Source of Inspiration” podcast, produced by Beit Avi Chai.

For more insights into Parashat Bereshit, listen to “Source of Inspiration” (in Hebrew).

Translation of most Hebrew texts sourced from Sefaria.org
Main Photo: Man Made in the Image of God, as in Genesis \ Wikipedia