[Avodah] Adam Harishon

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 09:11:18PM -0400, Cantor Wolberg via Avodah wrote:
> In chapter 2, vs.5, Rashi says Adam harishon didn't possess the evil
> inclination until he ate of the tree. If he didn't have the yetzer hara,
> then how was it he ate of the tree? ...

The Rambam (MN 1:1-2) says that until the sin, Adam and Chavah's challenge
was to decide between truth and falsehood. And the snake provided the
falsehood that they fell for.

Potentially along the same lines, R' Dessler says that until the sin
the yeitzer hara was externalized in the form of the nachash. The sin
caused the internalization of desire.

Which also depends on someone who only wants to do Hashem's Will falling
for the arguments of the externalized yh"r.

> In Ch.2, vs.7, Rashi explains: a living soul: Cattle and beasts were also
> called living souls, but this one of man is the most alive of them all,
> because he was additionally given intelligence and speech. So the
> question is if he were given intelligence and SPEECH, that would imply
> the other creatures had no ability to speak. Then how was the nachash
> able to speak and cause them to sin?

First, I think the "ruach memalela" of Unqelus that Rashi is referring
to is not the power to speak, but having an internal monolog. The
ability to "hear" one's thoughts is a critical part of assessing what
one's thinking and a necessary element of free will.

Which would explain why Koko the gorilla's (et al) skill at learning
sign language doesn't pose a question about kinds of soul. (And
could be why they didn't *invent* language.)


Pre-fruit, this world and the olam ha'emes hadn't yet split into two. (R
Kook) So Adam could have encountered the snake in a non-physical way.
The nachash might not even be the physical snake, but the satan who was
riding him (is that the Zohar or only Ben Sira?), or the angel in charge
of snakes.

Chodesh Tov!
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Here is the test to find whether your mission
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   on Earth is finished:
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