ב"ה
Article Summaries of Editors' Picks
Intermediate
The Zohar
If a person didn't have an urge to sin, there wouldn't be sinful acts committed that require rectification through repentance and corrective action. However, G-d created the good and bad inclinations in a person so as to provide him with free choice and thereby with the ability to receive reward and punishment.
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Mystical Classics
G-d named both the man and the woman jointly, ADAM, a name of great distinction. After Adam's wife had been seduced by the serpent and had suffered a spiritual decline, she no longer qualified for this name. Therefore, Adam now gave his wife a new name, Chavah, which reflected her function in life, namely that she became the "mother" of all human beings.
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Chasidic Masters
Before their sin, Adam and Eve did not know evil at all. After partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve knew good and evil. But unlike G-d and the angels, the human internalizes knowledge and good and evil become a part of him. The same blending of good and evil also occured throughout all of Creation.
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Beginner
Contemporary Kabbalists
In contrast to the rest of Creation, which was created with G‑d's speech, man's soul was given to him through G‑d's breath. Tanya teaches that when blowing, the breath comes from deeper in the lungs than it does with breathing or talking.
The idiom of G-d "breathing" man's soul into him indicates that man's soul originates from deeper "within" G-d than the rest of Creation. Thus, man's divine soul is a spark - a part - of G-d; it can never lose its intrinsic connection with Him. |
Beginner
Ascent Lights
Although the primary purpose of the Torah is to teach the Jewish people about the commandments, we see that Bereishit opens with the story of Creation and not with a mitzvah. This is a lesson to us.
Everything you do should be for the sake of heaven. To serve G-d when we are involved with a specific commandment is nice, but what G-d really expects from us is that ”everything” should be part of our service to G-d. |
Beginner
Mystical Stories
A chasidic rebbe was arrested for treason and the deputy minister of police consulted him about Adam and the Tree.
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