[Avodah] The Difference Between Man and Animal

[Professor L. Levine via Avodah]

The following is from RSRH's commentary on Bereishis 3.1


Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field that God had made, and it
said to the woman: Even if God has said so, are you [really] not to eat from all the trees of the garden?


The difference between man and animal is the touchstone of human
morality. The logic of an animal persuaded the first man to deviate

from the path of duty; today this same animal logic still serves as midwife
to all human sin. The story of the first sin is the story of all
subsequent sins.
The animals are truly k'elokim yodiai tov v'ra. They are endowed with
instinct, and this instinct is the voice of God, the Will of God as it
applies to them. Whatever animals do is in accordance with their instinct;
they can act only in accordance with their instinct. For animals,
this instinct is Divine guidance operating within them. What animals
do in accordance with their instinct is good, and any act from which
their instinct restrains them is bad. Animals cannot err; they have only
their one nature, whose call they must heed.

Not so in the case of man. He is to opt for the good and shun evil
out of his own free will and sense of duty. Even when he gives his
physical nature its due, he must do so not because of the allure of his
senses, but out of a sense of duty. Even when he takes physical pleasure,
he must act in moral freedom. Man must never be an animal. Therefore,
he has within him Divine forces besides physical drives. His physical
nature must of necessity be opposed to the good and attracted to evil;
only thus will he choose the good and shun evil - not because of the
urging of his senses, but in spite of it. Through the freedom of his
Divine nature, he is to fulfill his lofty Divine calling. For this reason,
the voice of God does not speak from within him, but to him, telling
him what is good and what is evil. God's voice meets resistance from
man's physical nature, as long as this nature remains independent and
without guidance. God's voice that whispers within man - the innate
conscience, whose messenger is the sense of shame - serves only to
warn man, in general terms, to do good and shun evil. Precisely which
acts are good and which evil - this he can learn only from the mouth
of God speaking to him from outside himself.
The animal merely develops its physical nature, to which its intelligence
is completely subservient. Man, however, was not placed in Par

subservient. Man, however, was not placed in Paradise to satisfy

his physical nature with the delights offered there. He
was placed in Paradise l'avdah u'lismarah , to serve God there and to build
His world. This service is man's task, and only for its sake was he permitted
to partake of the fruits of Paradise.

The individual nature of the animal is the basis on which it assesses
everything, because the animal was created only for itself. Man, however,
was created to glorify God and to build His world. He must gladly
sacrifice his individual nature to this higher calling. He must learn what
is good and what is evil, not in accordance with his individual nature,
but in accordance with his lofty calling. For this reason, the tree was
appealing to his senses, and its fruit was enticing to him. Everything in
his individual nature told him: "This is good." But God's Word to him
forbade him to eat of the fruit of this tree and told him that to do so
would be evil. This was the rule by which man was to differentiate between
good and evil; this was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Our
Sages, too, see in God's Word to man the revelation of all of man's
duties (see above, 2:16).

At this point, man encountered animal logic in the form of its cleverest
representative: the serpent. Even the cleverest of animals is incapable
of understanding how man could possibly forgo a pleasure that
becomes available to him.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20161030/32cea36f/attachment-0007.html>