[Avodah] eitz hachaim

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Oct 15, 2017 at 05:41:04PM -0400, hankman via Avodah wrote:
: What exactly was the eitz hachaim all about. The simple pshat doesn't
: make any sense. ...                            Kodem hacheit he was not
: a bar misah so he had no need of it, after the cheit he was prevented
: from accessing it! So when would it ever be useful to Adam?

On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 10:51:28AM +0300, Lisa Liel via Avodah wrote:
: I don't understand the question.  He was prevented from accessing it
: *because* of the cheit.  Had he not sinned, you say he would have had
: no need for it, but who is to say that its only function was to make
: him live forever.....

Note how the Torah is also called "eitz chaim (hi lamachaziqim bahh)."

So I think Lisa's notion that the eitz chaim likely had another function
is quite probable. Likely its primary function was to provide the da'as
that would lead to arichas yamim. Like the Torah does -- even if its
arichas yamim appears not to be in olam hazeh.

There is also the idea that there was only one tree in the iddle of the
garden, an eitz hachaim upon which grew a branch bearing the peri eitz
hada'as tov vara. Or maybe that the eitz vhaim was the rooots from which
the eitz hadaas grew. I don't know -- I only heard about it second-hand
(multiple times) by people quoting "sifrei qabbalah" (as though that
counts as a citation).

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             If you won't be better tomorrow
micha at aishdas.org        than you were today,
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Fax: (270) 514-1507              - Rebbe Nachman of Breslov