1

I heard that if Adam was left alone, without a wife, he would eventually rebel against God. Is that correct?

  • 1
    Do you remember where you heard this? – robev Jul 26 '22 at 20:11
  • No, unfortunately I do not. – Renan Suchmacher Jul 26 '22 at 20:18
  • On the contrary, his wife is what directly caused him to rebel against G-d. – N.T. Jul 27 '22 at 05:57
  • @RenanSuchmacher ( I say this in a polite and respectful tone. )The question is moot because that entire episode was supposed to play out the way it did. We might as well ask if Adam would have found a spouse from among the animals. The 'ifs' make it an endless string of 'if' questions. – Mars Sojourner Jul 27 '22 at 13:24
  • 1
    @N.T. I disagree, notice Bereshit 3:6 at the moment she wants eat from the forbidden fruits, she takes the fruit and gives it to Adam, and he also ate. Never blame something on the other for they both new it was explicitly forbidden by G-d. I even think it was Adam who told Chava about the prohibition, because she added the words (which can’t be found in Bereshit 2:17) that the tree couldn’t be touched or else they would die. So with Adam actually being the one who received the command, he should have withhold Chava from eating. I actually think he is the one to blame the most.. – Levi Aug 31 '22 at 13:29
  • .. let me add: Chava thought that one couldn’t touch the tree. Without the full knowledge of what was good and bad, but with the knowledge of what was truth and false. She might have thought from her point of reason that it was false; she saw the snake in the tree and it was as if the snake spoke to her; she figured out that if the snake didn’t die one also wouldn’t die. And that because in her sight the fruits were good these fruits weren’t harmfull. The point of the story is that they shouldn’thave listened to their own thoughts and feelings toward it, but should have followed G-ds words… – Levi Aug 31 '22 at 13:38
  • @Levi I'm not saying Adam wasn't to blame too (of course he was), just that OP's point doesn't seem right. – N.T. Aug 31 '22 at 15:45
  • 1
    @MarsSojourner Do you remember sources? I heard similar in a shiur from Rabbi Manis Friedman that Hashem wanted Adam and Eve to eat it, and they discussed it before hand and said "Hashem wants us to do this" and thats why they did it. He didn't explain how that fits with them hiding afterward, and blaming others for the decision to do it. Someone commented that it was a Gemara but then they deleted their comment. I'm also interested in understanding, if Hashem wanted them to do it,then does that now make the serpent the "good guy" for telling Eve to do it?He convinced her to do Hashem's will? – ShipBuilding Dec 29 '22 at 05:47
  • @ShipBuilding The answer to why they hid is the simple meaning, they realised they were naked (an affect of eating the tree - Rav Manis has shiurim on what da'at is, and how it relates to shame). As for blaming eachother, the simple meaning isn't necessarily in the tone of blame. – Rabbi Kaii Dec 31 '22 at 23:24
  • @MarsSojourner I don't follow your reasoning. Everthing that happens is part of a plan, but that doesn't mean counterfactuals are irrelevant. They explain how the plan was executed. The posuk says Hashem banished Adam from Gan Eden because he would have lived forever had he eaten from Tree of Life. Is that moot because it would have upset the plan? No, it's relevant precisely because of the plan. – shmosel Apr 28 '23 at 01:18

2 Answers2

1

This answer is possibly rooted in Kabbalah/Chassidus. When Hashem said "It's not good for man to be alone", what is "it"? It is the plan of creation, which is to make the world Godly and for God and His people to become one.

Man's job is to fix the world, but the goal of that is to bring God down to the world forever. However, without a woman, man would end up rebelling from his task. He will end up saying "you know, the world's fine as it is, and I can always come up with little problems to fix to satisfy my energy of fixing" and give up on the long term goal of bringing Moshiach. Women reminds him of that.

A mashal is given, where a group of scientists get together to plan a mission to go explore another star. This kind of mission will take many millenia to see through, so they have to send a whole community, a generational starship. They discuss the issues of the cleanliness, and morale. The issues of wear and tear and degredation. Then one scientist brings up a really big problem. He says "what about the great great grandchildren of the original crew, when they wake up one day and say 'who said we are heading for a star? Has anyone actually seen earth?'. The control room they are not allowed to go into, because only the high priest is allowed to go there, they say 'enough of this, anyone can go in'.... The scientists hit the nail on the head about this same issue we are discussing. How are we supposed to guarantee they won't just say "forget the process, things are fine the way they are, let's make the best of it...".

Women were made to help man with this, i.e. not forget his task. Not only would she not fall for the above logic and therefore never let man give up on the task, but her very being, which is one of completed Godliness, acts as a reminder to man of what the goal is and a template for when the goal has been achieved or not.

I wrote more about this in this answer, which quotes the shiur I based it on although the general sources for this are over many lectures from various contemporary Rabbonim, quoted there.

Rabbi Kaii
  • 9,499
  • 3
  • 10
  • 50
0

R' A Miller points out that by Hashem creating a World, Adam was going to get kicked out of Gan Eden with or without this Chet.

J L
  • 31
  • 1