Here's What Nobody Told You About Adam And Eve

the torah or what is called the bible is a divine work written by god dictated by god and therefore it has multiple levels multiple layers of meaning and we can go on forever finding deeper and richer insights and meaning into the familiar stories and teachings and commandments of the torah a really good example is a story of adam and eve [Music] everybody knows the story [Music] but here's the rest of the story [Music] the way it's read in its simple literal meaning god created adam and eve he put them in the garden of eden he

said to them actually he said to adam of all the trees you may eat the fruits but the tree of knowledge of good and evil you may not eat from it for the day you eat from it you will die according to the historians this was nine hours after they were created in the garden of eden nine hours after they were created they were told not to eat from the tree of knowledge well an hour later the tenth hour they ate from the tree of knowledge now god comes to adam and says you ate from

the tree i told you not to eat from adam says she gave it to me and i ate it like it's her fault god says to eve to hava what did you do she says the snake the snake made me do it convinced me tricked me so god says okay because you did this by the sweat of your brow will you make bread and you will give birth to children in pain the snake will be your enemy he will bite you and you will beat him anyway okay that's the story it has many moral lessons

but the facts of the story don't really come together very well just quickly a list of questions number one god spoke to adam and said don't eat from that tree an hour later he ate from the tree is there something wrong with god is it what he's not not impressive not convincing you can dismiss him an hour later [Music] it's not like it's not like adam wasn't sure that god meant him you imagine adam saying are you talking to me yeah i'm talking to you there's nobody else around so god speaks to adam up close

and personal and says don't do this and an hour later he can do it god is not very effective something's wrong when god spoke to the jewish people at mount sinai everybody fainted adam just dismisses it and then question number two what's wrong with adam [Music] he was created by god [Music] he had no birth traumas his mother didn't traumatize him in in in the toilet training he didn't have bad friends he didn't grow up in a bad neighborhood and he didn't have an evil inclination that tempts you to sin he didn't have that what's

wrong with him then you find out that the tree was actually a fig tree come on how tempting is that [Music] irresistible next question god says to adam the day you eat from that tree you will die was death a threat did it mean anything to adam at all he was nine hours old okay he had the maturity of a 20 year old but he was nine hours into life did he already have a survival instinct did he even know what death nothing ever died that's strange next question what kind of a mixed message is

it to say don't eat from the tree for the day you eat from it you'll die there's a day when i will eat from it see it doesn't say if you eat from it it says the day you eat from it you'll die confusing next question god asks him you ate from the tree i told you not to eat from he blames her this is too much corruption too quickly he was already so corrupt that he can't even be honest that that doesn't say much for the human race and then she blames a snake this

is weird then god says because you did this here are the consequences pain in childbirth by the sweat of your brow whoa whoa that was not the deal the deal was the day you eat from it you'll die now god is saying oh no no no not just die first you'll suffer then you'll die like that bumper sticker life stinks then you die that was not the deal and you can't it's not right to add more punishment after the fact the ultimate question is this it's a discouraging story it's a depressing story why would the

torah begin i mean okay it happened doesn't mean you have to tell me the story right at the beginning of the torah because if a person who had no traumas no bad friends no bad influences no evil inclination is given one commandment that he doesn't last an hour what chance do we have it's not a good story to start the torah with so that's on one level let's try another level back up a little bit where did adam and eve come from they were created by god god fashioned their body out of earth and then

breathed a soul into them where was that soul [Music] so the story begins there were two souls in heaven a male and a female and god said to them i'm going to send you down to the lowest of all possible worlds invest you into a physical body made out of earth and you're going to elevate that world the lowest of all worlds and make it holier and more godly than heaven yes they accepted the mission now they open their eyes they're in the garden of eden god says to adam of all the trees you may

eat but not this one now just picture them sitting there puzzled [Music] we're supposed to fix this world elevate it [Music] all the trees are kosher they don't need elevating there's one tree that is not so kosher something's wrong with it it needs fixing but we're not allowed to eat it so what are we doing here what happened to our mission where's our job they were puzzled and then adam said you know it's quite confusing did god god said not to eat it or did he say someday you will eat it because he said the

day you eat from it you'll die eve said it's not a mixed message and it's not confusing god is asking us to choose make a choice don't eat from it and live or eat from it and die it's your choice so adam said well that's a pretty simple choice to make let's not eat from it and live eve said god wants us to eat from it he's hoping we eat from it and adam said how do you know that she said because our job is in the lowest world and this is not the lowest world

there's a world in which people die a world of mortality that's the lowest world and that's where our job is he wants us to eat from the tree and go into the world of mortality adam said you know god put us here can't be a mistake so if he puts us here he must want us here and eve said no that's not the way it works god takes you to where your job is but you have to volunteer to cross that border god will take you to the threshold but whether you enter that door or

not is up to you he wants us to volunteer adam said you know makes a lot of sense and they ate from the tree now god comes to adam and says you ate from the tree i told you not to eat from naturally we assume that god is shouting he's angry and he's about to smite somebody that may be one interpretation but not necessarily god is not angry god is marveling how did you know i told you not to eat from it but you understood that i was hoping you would how did you know that

being a new fresh pure innocent soul adam said i didn't know she knew so god says to eve how did you know she said you know what the snake told me sounded like that's where our job would be the snake said when you eat from that tree you will be like god you will know good and evil well good and evil that needs fixing so god said that's great that's exactly what i meant by it's not good for man to be alone because adam would not have eaten from the tree so then god says let

me tell you more about this world that you're going down to it's a mortal world it also has pain struggle disappointment it's an uphill battle it's the lowest world are you sure you want to try to fix it they said yes if that's what you need done that's what we will do that's the story of adam and eve quite different from the conventional understanding god was not angry they were not punished because they never committed a sin now we refer to that as the sin of the tree of knowledge but the word that we use

in hebrew is not really translated as sin there are other words for sin the word which is how we describe the action in in the garden of eden the word doesn't mean sin the word hat means a step down demoted they took a giant step down but there was no violation there was no sin there was nothing malicious there was nothing lustful it was innocent and it was correct but it was a step down in fact when god said don't eat from that tree the day you eat from it you'll die he wanted them to

eat from the tree then why did he say don't but to give them a choice but god can't say a falsehood when god said don't eat from the tree it meant i don't want you to eat from the tree but he didn't want them to eat from the tree here's what you really really need to know god said don't eat from the tree cause you're gonna die your children are going to be imperfect they won't know me i don't want this to happen but i'm hoping you do it because otherwise the vast eternal plan will

never be fulfilled so god was saying i don't want you to do this but i need you to do this like a king sending his army off to war if he's a good king he doesn't want to he hates it but has to happen [Music] so when god said don't eat from the tree he meant i really don't want this to happen but i hope you eat from the tree because it has to happen what does this tell us about god he's not sitting up there in heaven unaffected invulnerable untouched by anything that happens to

us and he just watches us to see when he should smite us that's not that's not god god made an investment in creation like a man getting married he has to make some sacrifices he has to give up a lot of stuff but how else is he going to have a soul mate [Music] so god sacrifices does things against his own will goes out of his comfort zone in order to have this creation which is a relationship and that's why everything we do is so important to him so it touches him it affects him gives

him pleasure gives him pain and say how can god have pleasure how can god have pain yeah not the way we do our pleasure is feeble and our pain is pathetic his pain is infinite and his pleasure is eternal of course he's more than us not less but it's worth it if we do this it will be worth it and that was eve's wisdom she understood this she heard god adam was so impressed with god that he didn't hear he didn't hear it how was it that she understood that they were not in the lowest

world and they had to volunteer and he missed it he missed it because he was so overwhelmed by god's greatness that he didn't hear god's vulnerability she heard it and thanks to her we are busy all these years elevating the world fixing the world fighting the injustices setting things right to the best of our ability and she was confident that her children will be able to do this it's a huge compliment so you see how a story can be viewed on a simple level on a deeper level on a profound level every story in the

torah is that way if a story sounds too conventional too too plain too ordinary banal you're not understanding it we don't need god to come down to mount sinai to teach us things that even dr phil could tell us it's got to be more to a story in the torah than conventional wisdom so dig deep you'll find magnificence how are you you know i do a lot of talking a lot of zooming many classes many subjects but that's all formal stuff hopefully good stuff but formal we also have a wednesday night meeting that's more informal

and kind of um hamish if you want to join us for that kind of an event um interactive time for questions and so on if you want to join us for this side of conversation click on the link below and join us every wednesday night at nine o'clock well maybe not every wednesday night but we try to make it every wednesday night at nine o'clock a more informal chat which um can be more enjoyable at times than the formal stuff so check it out click on the link and join us try it you'll like it

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