Bereishit: Perhaps The Forbidden Fruit Was Sexual Pleasure

I have been thinking that the Forbidden Fruit in Gan Eden may have been sexual pleasure, and that this is what mankind was supposed to not have engaged in on the sixth day of creation. There is an idea, I believe brought down by the Sfas Emes that mankind was going to get to partake of the forbidden fruit, after the first shabbat, that they would then be ready for sexual pleasure, and also be ready for immortality. But mankind partook to early, entering a state in which the drive for physical pleasure (the yetser hara) is very hard to overcome, and so we are not ready for immortality, which is why we were removed from Gan Eden so as not to be able to eat from the Tree of [Eternal] Life. We do have the Torah though, that is also called a "Tree of Life."

     The idea of the forbidden fruit coming from the Tree of Knowing Good and Bad (Yodea Tov Vera) is that before this first act of disobedience, we were in a state of innocence, not even being aware of a desire in opposition to the desire of following Hashem, the Yetser Tov. In other words, this act of disobedience awakened the latent potential of the Yetser Hara, the desire to follow our bodily desires instead of following Hashem, that desire being the Yetser Tov. Before this conflict of desires, there could be no moral decisions, just as an infant is incapable of making a moral decision. Moral choice was created by this act of disobedience. This choice was eventually going to be given to us, because it is only through choosing good that we can attain kedusha and true pleasure, but we lost our innocence too early, before undergoing the first shabbat.

Gilad Schalit, Baruch Haba

Gilad Schalit, Baruch Haba

A Good Day For Us, Happy Holiday In the Sukkah There is Family To the Sukkah is Invited an Honored Guest Gilad Schalit, Blessed is Your Coming	יוֹם טוֹב לָנוּ, חַג שָׂמֵחַ בַּסּוּכָּה יֵשׁ מִשְׁפָּחָה, לַסּוּכָּה מוּזְמָן אוֹרֵחַ, גִּלְעַד שָׁלִיט בָּרוּךְ הַבָּא
A Good Day For Us, Happy Holiday Children Are Rejoicing Now To Our Sukkah Comes an Honored Guest Gilad Schalit, Blessed is Your Coming	יוֹם טוֹב לָנוּ, חַג שָׂמֵחַ יְלָדִים נָגִילָה נָא לַסּוּכָּתֵנוּ בָּא אוֹרֵחַ, גִּלְעַד שָׁלִיט בָּרוּךְ הַבָּא

   These words, this song is not original, it is a popular Sukkot song!

Yom Kippur: A Day To Make Amends, A Day To Move Forward, How To Obtain An Apology, How Yom Kippur Became Yom Kippur

How To Obtain An Apology:

    If you feel the need to seek an apology from someone in order to move forward in your relationship with them, I suggest you approach them and tell them from the outset that you will forgive them, and not bring the matter up again, but you feel and would appreciate a heartfelt apology.

 

How Yom Kippur Became Yom Kippur:

     Yom Kippur became the day of atonement/forgiveness for all time, when Moshe came down from Mount Sinai with the second set of tablets bearing the Ten Principles of Behavior Towards G-d and One's Fellow Creations aka "The Ten Commandments." That day was the 10th day of the seventh month which would become Yom Kippur. The existence of these second set of tablets was a sign that the Jewish people had been forgiven for the adulterous sin of the Golden Calf.   Moreover, the plans for the Mishkan=Tabernacle were back on the table. The Mishkan would enable G-d's Shechinah to reside in the midst of the Jewish people, analagous to a husband residing with his wife. This is the relationship, as proclaimed by the prophet Hosea, that G-d desires to have with each and every person on earth, not a master-servant relationship, but rather a teacher-partner relationship. 

     May we all become partners with G-d in our own and one another's conquering/sublimation of our base desires in the pursuit of higher, holier, selfless pursuits.

G-d Bless and Gemar Chatima Tovah,

Rabbi Mordechai Martin Goodman