In the story of Adam Harishon and the Etz Hada'at, the snake approaches Chava and challenges her. Chava tells the snake that she is not allowed to eat from the tree or to touch it, and that if she does she will die. The snake pushes her into touching the tree and shows her that touching it would not have any effect on her, so therefore eating from it must also not be so bad. In fact, says the snake, if you eat from it, you will start knowing good from bad. Chava saw the snake's "proof" and ate from the tree, giving Adam to eat from it as well.

The story of creation appears twice in the Torah. The first time begins with the words "Breishis Bara Elokim…" The second time begins with the words "Eleh Toldot Hashamayim VeHa'aretz Behibar'am…" immediately after Vayechulu. This is the beginning of the story which then describes the sin of Adam Harishon.

This raises two questions. First, why does the Torah need to go through the opening sequence of our existence twice? Second, and more detailed, the Torah contradicts itself in the pasuk (2:3), by first saying Shamayim Va'aretz, and then reversing the order.

The Torah continues the story in the second version, by describing the sin of Adam Harishon. The Rambam asks in Moreh Nevuchim, that apparently, it seems that the sinner is rewarded in this story. After all, Hashem's lone commandment to Adam was not to eat from the Etz Hada'at, because on the day he would eat from it, he would surely die. Yet the Torah relates that when Adam Harishon ate from the Etz Hada'at, "his eyes were opened", exactly as the snake said.

Hashem's reaction after Adam ate from the tree was to banish him from Gan Eden, "lest he eat from the Etz Hachaim as well and become like us, living forever." It appears that, chas veshalom, Hashem was "afraid" of what Adam may do, and therefore kicked him out of Gan Eden. Could this be?

The Rambam answers that there are two levels of "knowledge". The first is knowledge of truth and falsehood, while the second, lower level of knowledge, is the knowledge of good and bad. In the first level, our vision is so clear and lucid that the truth is clear to the viewer, and the opposite is clearly falsehood. Under these conditions, the entire will of man would be to do truth and to follow the truth.

On the second level, our vision is much more clouded. Truth is not clear. From an objective state of truth and falsehood, man moves to the subjective reality of good and bad. A certain person considers one thing good, while another person considers it bad.

Before eating from the tree, Adam Harishon was on the first level. He viewed the world as one of truth and falsehood - objective reality. While there was an opening for him to sin, it was an external option that was not a part of his nature.

But after he sinned, after he ate from the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad", he fell very far and reached the second level, where he could only distinguish between good and bad on a subjective level. As such, we find that as a sinner, he was not rewarded at all.

Rav Chaim of Volozhin explains in "Nefesh HaChaim", that for this reason, Hashem prevented Adam from eating from the Etz HaChaim. If he were to eat from it now, after falling to such a level, he would remain at this level forever, and would not have any hope of correction. The only way for man to correct his sin was through death - the separation of body from soul. The body would find correction in the grave, while the soul would find it in the chambers of Heaven. Prior to the sin, it was never stated that Adam was prohibited from eating from the Etz Hachaim. On the contrary - if he hadn't sinned, the fruit of the Etz Hachaim was what he would have eaten for the Shabbat meal in just a short while. Yet he did commit the sin, and Hashem was therefore forced to remove him from Gan Eden prior to Shabbat.

It seems from this that we are living in a world of "BeDiAvad". Had Adam Harishon not sinned, everything would have been on a higher level. Things are hard to understand because our entire reality is one of BeDiAvad. We find this throughout our history:

• Moshe received the Luchot, which could have put the world back into a Lechatchila stage, but then the Bnei Yisrael committed the sin of the Egel, and the luchot were broken. Only after Teshuva and Tefilla and the advent of Yom Kippur were we left with only the second luchot - BediAvad.


• The Kingdom of David Hamelech was also founded on sin (Batsheva) and teshuva (David Hamelech and Shlomo Hamelech). The entire Davidic dynasty was also one of BeDiAvad.

The Netziv explains that this is not the case. Hashem's honor and kingship need to be revealed from within the materialistic world - hence the phrase "Asher Bara Elokim La'asot". Therefore, He needs mankind with feet on the ground of the materialistic world. On the other hand, Mankind needs to be capable of reaching the heavens as well.

Prior to the sin, Adam Harishon was disconnected from the present world. He belonged more to the world of spirituality - to Gan Eden. That is why Hashem put him there in the first place - it is where he belonged. Had he not sinned, Hashem would have needed to create another man that was more connected with the physical world in order for the Glory of Heaven to be revealed in this world. By Adam Harishon committing the sin, he lowered himself to the level of the physical world and created an opening in this world for the Glory of Hashem to be revealed through the material world. And once he had lowered himself, he no longer belonged in Gan Eden, and Hashem banished him to this world.

That is what the second beginning pasuk means - Eleh Toldot Hashamayim VeHa'aretz Behibar'am. This is the completion of the creation of the heavens and the earth, Beyom Asot Hashem Elokim Eretz Veshamayim, with davka the Eretz coming first, since the Eretz - the physical world - influenced the Shamayim - the spiritual world, by Adam being more "of this world", making the revelation of Hashem's Glory in this world possible.

This pasuk is the opening of the story of the sin for this reason - to teach us that this sin did not create a world of "BeDiAvad", but that this was the plan from the outset.

This is all represented in Chazal's statement that Tshuva preceded the world, meaning that it existed even before there was someone to sin. This was in order to show us that this was the plan all along - falling in order to climb, so that the Glory of Hashem would be revealed from the lower places in the world.

*** Another drasha can be derived from this lesson, relating to Kashrut. The idea of Kashrut is that what we eat affects our neshama. If we eat from animals that are deceitful and aggressive, then we will adopt their nature. Thus we are prohibited from eating from such animals.

Adam's sin proves this idea. Before he ate from the Etz Hada'at, he was on a much higher spiritual level and belonged more on the higher spiritual plane of Gan Eden. But after he ate from it, what he ate changed him spiritually, and caused him to fall to a lower level, making it necessary to banish him from Gan Eden.