An intriguing question has been posed. It appears from the text that before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit they were like the rest of the animals, lacking intellect,1 reason and the ability to distinguish between good and evil. How can it be that their transgression was rewarded by endowing them with the noblest characteristics of humankind? It would be comparable to punishing a rebellious person by transforming him into a star.2
This question is based on a false premise. Adam and Eve had a high level of intellect even before they ate the forbidden fruit. God’s very commandment forbidding them to eat the fruit is proof of their superior intellect. Commandments are not given to brute animals.3 Adam’s intellectual faculties enabled him to discern between objective truth and falsehood rather than between right and wrong, which are subjective evaluations. We cannot say that the statement that the moon is round is right and that the statement that it is flat is wrong. The correct words are emeth, true, and sheker, false. When we make a value judgment based on general acceptance, we use the words tov, good or right, and ra, evil or wrong. It is
1 If they could have conversations, they obviously possessed a high level of intelligence. But there is no indication that they were any better than dolphins or the higher primates. According to the questioner’s assumption, they did not have the intellectual faculty of abstract thinking and reasoning, nor could they make moral distinctions between good and evil. Once they ate the forbidden fruit, they could make these distinctions. Although we are not told that they would gain the faculty of abstract thinking if they ate the fruit, it is understood. The distinction between good and evil is the product of abstract thinking.
2 This is based on the ancient idea that stars are intelligent and superior to human beings. The analogy is reminiscent of the Orion myth in Greek mythology and the Gabbar Myth in Arab mythology, in which a human is transformed into a constellation of stars. The questioner apparently uses this myth to highlight the absurdity of the notion if the transformation had been a reward for misbehavior, and thereby he also scorns the biblical text.
3 Even if an animal with a certain level of intelligence can learn to respond to commands, that is only a conditioned response. The animal does not understand the concept of a commandment.
A
the function of the intellect to distinguish between emeth and sheker in all intellectual questions.
While Adam was in a state of innocence, he was guided completely by intellect and reason and made judgments on the scales of emeth and sheker. He was a creature of total intellect, and questions of tov and ra had no place in his consciousness. He could walk naked through the Garden of Eden without even considering the propriety of doing so. There was nothing in his valuations of emeth and sheker that precluded nudity.
The commandment that forbade the delicious fruits of the Tree of Knowledge was meant to protect his pure intellectual existence. As long as he remained in this state, he was not concerned with the material desires and pleasures that sprang from his imagination rather than his intellect. Although he enjoyed a pleasant and happy existence, the appetite for pleasure occupied no place in his reality, which was in the world of ideas. But when he disobeyed and gave rein to his imagination by observing that “the tree was good to eat and a delight to behold,”4 he was punished by being deprived of his exalted intellectual state.5 From this point on, he became absorbed in making judgments on the scales of tov and ra.
At that point, Adam realized the magnitude of his loss. Although in his pristine state he had understood the concept of tov and ra intellectually, it held no tangible reality for him. It did not affect his state of mind, which existed in the realm of truth. However, when his curiosity got the best of him, and he gave rein to his desires, his reality changed. He could no longer view the world in terms of truth and falsehood. He realized there was no return to his former exalted existence. He was trapped forever in his new reality. He could not have anticipated the misery of his new existence.
The Torah further tells us, “The eyes of both were opened, and they knew they were naked.”6 We are not told that they saw they were naked but
4 Genesis 3:6. It seems that his desire to eat was already disobedient.
5 The use of the term punishment may be seen as a divine retribution for his disobedience, or it may be seen as a self-inflicted punishment in that pure intellect on the highest level and the imagination cannot co-exist.
6 Genesis 3:7.
that they knew they were naked. There was no change in their vision, only in their knowledge. They now viewed the world with a different faculty. They were no longer exclusive seekers of truth. They were social creatures concerned with beauty and acceptance.