Berashit Answers

Beraishit 5728.

Alef.

As long as Adam had not done anything wrong, he did not have a guilty conscience and was unconcerned that he would be called to accounts for his actions. Consequently, whenever God Wished to Converse with Adam, Adam could stand up to such a confrontation fearlessly. But once he clearly sinned by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he knew that he would be challenged regarding what he had done. For this reason, he “hid” from God, in effect attempting to avoid being accused and punished due to his indiscretion.

Beit.

1.  “Mithalech” implies the movement of a tangible entity.

      “Kol HaShem Elokim” is associated with an abstract concept that is not associated with movement.

2.  a) Movement: RaShI, RaMBaM, RaDaK

     b) Removing Oneself: Beraishit Rabba

c) Revelation: RaMBaN

3.  RaMBaN and R. Aba bar Kahana (in Beraishit Rabba) appear to be polar opposites. Whereas RaMBaN interprets “Mithalech” as God Revealing Himself, in effect Making Himself closer to man, R. Aba bar Kahana understands the word as reflecting God increasingly Removing Himself from man’s domain.

4.  R. Chalfon adds the example of fire because he wishes to present an example of another essentially abstract entity which is described by the verb “Mithalech”.

Gimel.

Question 1: Why did Adam have to have an outside source inform him of the fact that he had no clothes? A person can see for himself whether or not he has clothes on.

RaShI posits that since until this point, Adam had been naked and had not been perturbed, this is due to no one having informed him of the inappropriateness of such a state of affairs.

Question2:  In verse 10, “And he said: 'I heard Thy Voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.' “, the emotion of fear is associated with being naked. Why should Adam have been fearful of this state of affairs?

RaShI states that since not having clothes is associated with the emotion of embarrassment of which Adam had been informed, this is the reason why he was afraid and chose to hide.

Daled.

1.  Instead of assuming personal responsibility for his actions, Adam is quick to attribute blame to his mate, Chava.

2.  RaShI: Instead of appreciating HaShem for having Given him Chava in order to dispel his  loneliness, Adam uses Chava to deflect personal responsibility for sinning.

      RaMBaN: Since HaShem Gave Chava to him, Adam thought that anything that Chava would suggest would have the Divine Imprimateur and would be appropriate. He didn’t realize that Chava had her own modicum of Free Choice, and therefore the capacity to sin.

3. It would appear that RaMBaN’s explanation would account for the double usage of “Gave”, i.e., since You Gave her to me, when she gave me to eat, I thought it was as if You were Ordering me to do so.

Heh.

“HaMaisi”:

a) II Melachim 18:29 Thus saith the king: Let not Hezekiah beguile you; for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand;

b) Yirmiyahu 4:10 Then said I: 'Ah, Lord GOD! surely Thou hast greatly Deceived this people and Jerusalem, Saying: Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.'

c) Ibid. 29:8 For thus Saith the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your prophets that are in the midst of you, and your diviners, beguile you, neither hearken ye to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.

d)  Ibid. 37:9 Thus Saith the LORD: Deceive not yourselves, saying: The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us; for they shall not depart.

“HaMaisit”:

e) Devarim 13:7 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, that is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying: 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

f)  I Shmuel 26:19 Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it be the LORD that hath Stirred thee up against me, let Him Accept an offering; but if it be the children of men, cursed be they before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day that I should not cleave unto the inheritance of the LORD, saying: Go, serve other gods.

g)  Hoshea 15:18 And it came to pass, when she came unto him, that she persuaded him to ask of her father a field; and she alighted from off her ass; and Caleb said unto her: 'What wouldest thou?'

h)  Iyov 2:3 And the LORD said unto Satan: 'Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a whole-hearted and an upright man, one that feareth God, and shunneth evil? and he still holdeth fast his integrity, although thou didst move Me against him, to Destroy him without cause.'

From the translations of these verses, it would appear that the “Meisi” is engaged in deception, getting someone to do something that he might not understand to be wrong.

The “Meisit” is convincing the person to do something to the point where the person believes that it is the right thing to do.

Vav.

1. Based upon the explanation offered for ShaDaL above in Heh, one could say that the difference between “Hasa’ah” and “Hasatah” is where as the first involves being deceived by someone else where you fail to understand the implications of what you are doing, the second describes a situation where someone else has convinced you that a certain course of action is correct.

2.  If Adam allowed himself to be deceived by Chava, it would not constitute a proper excuse. He is responsible to do the right thing and not be deceived by someone else. However, if as a result of Chava’s imploring him to join her in eating from the Eitz HaDa’at Tov VeRah he became convinced that this was the right thing to do, in accordance with RaMBaN’s explanation above in Daled, then at least there was something of a defense and justification.