Member-only story
Between Bites: Torn Devotion
Did Adam have to choose?
There was a moment — a brief, tense moment — when half of creation was eternal, the other, hopelessly corporeal. Adam had to make a choice.
God, Hashem, had contingency plans; He was God. Once He made the human beings, in the event of separation, they would need to live and continue apart from Him. He planted the Tree of All Knowledge — Good and Bad — near the Tree of Life. He desperately hoped they would not eat of it, but it had to be there, just in case.
In a perfect garden, His creation would live in harmony, and would not need to endure heartache, disappointment, fear, death. The fruit from the Tree of Life would preserve their bodies; and Hashem would sustain the breath within them.
They had the Tree of Knowledge, just in case.
As it happened, the deceitful serpent did indeed deceive; Eve, his first victim.
She felt as a murderer in hiding the moment she bit into the fig, before even chewing. Her heart was pounding. She froze, eyes wide open, suddenly filled with a vast knowledge of many things. Her eyes darted left and right, and everything they landed…
