Comments (0)Spiritual Dignity
Parshat Bereshit
October 16, 2009Rabbi Hillel Baron
Special to the Jewish Times
Among the first things made, shortly after the world was created, was clothing, first by man and then by G-d. Perhaps that explains the heavy involvement by Jewish people in the “shmatte trade.”
It is one of the first things discussed in the Torah portion of Bereshit after the world was created.
So how did it all happen?
The Torah tells us how. It was not the result of climate change that others would like us to believe. After Adam and Eve were created, we are told the story of how the snake tempted them to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge that G-d had commanded them specifically not to eat.
Adam and Eve eat from the fruit, and then they are suddenly overcome with shame at their nakedness. At that point, they make their own clothing out of leaves. Following that, after being confronted by G-d, they admit their wrongdoing. Then, the Torah says that G-d “fashioned them skin-like clothing and clothed them.”
The question that begs to be answered is, how did eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge suddenly bring this shame of being naked? There was no one around that did wear clothing, so why were they ashamed of not wearing any clothing?
The answer lies in understanding the spiritual transformation that took place in Adam and Eve as a result of transgressing G-d’s commandment and fulfilling their own desires by eating the forbidden fruit:
When they were originally created, they were created in two parts, first a physical body and then a spiritual part, a Soul. To begin with, the body served the soul exclusively, functioning as a “garment” to the Soul to reveal and express man’s spiritual goal of serving G-d.
Selfish or evil desires were entirely foreign to Adam and Eve and were on the “outside,” taking the form of the serpent and the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
The serpent was said to be the most cunning creature of all G-d’s creations. The same Hebrew wording for most cunning can also be translated as the most naked of all G-d’s creations.
This was because what the snake and his arguments represented was that creatures should pursue only their physical desires and indulge exclusively in self-gratification. Hence, his physical body was not a garment to a spiritual side but rather his very essence.
So what clothing did the snake have? None. That is why it was precisely the snake that introduced Adam and Eve to the knowledge of self-gratification and evil by eating the forbidden fruit.
At that point, Adam and Eve became like the snake. They had internalized and had a taste of bodily gratification. Their bodies ceased to serve as a garment for the soul and subsequently they felt “naked.” Their shame came from a body that was no longer in tune with their spiritual essence, a body that had a “mind of its own.”
It was only after they fashioned crude garments from leaves and shamefully admitted their wrongdoing that G-d made them skin-like or “fitted” clothing. This was G-d’s way of saying to them that despite their wrongdoing, they could always be rehabilitated.
With human effort and self-refinement, their physical bodies could once again have spiritual dignity.
So next time you go shopping for clothing, think about its meaning and choose accordingly.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Hillel Baron serves the Lubavitch Center of Howard County.