Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
the tree of knowledge which definitely
has had an effect on all of us. You
know,
we live in a world, how you like that
for a truism,
and there are a lot of ways in which our
thinking, unfortunately, has been
affected by outside influences. And more
pointedly, what I mean is there are a
lot of Jewish concepts that are
originally Jewish concepts. In fact,
they still are Jewish concepts, but
because of the way that society at large
or western civilization represents these
ideas,
um I think that a lot of times Jews
operate under some of these influences
and unfortunately we have uh unknowingly
incorporated some christoologgical ideas
into our understanding of these stories.
[snorts]
So for instance this tree of knowledge
you know the original sin type of thing
which is a very basic christoologgical
idea. I want you to try to like banish
that thought and and I would like to try
to explain what it really is from you
know this this is a Jewish text and uh
in spite of how others may have come and
interpreted it later on I'll I'll tell
you how we understand this tree of
knowledge is just that it's a tree of
knowledge
knowledge of what when you eat from it
you become like
you and edit all the Wikipedia articles
because now you know a lot or you can
win at Trivial Pursuit. What does that
mean? It's a tree of knowledge. What
kind of knowledge do you get? Well, it's
apparent from the context that what
happened right after they ate from the
tree of knowledge. What was the first
symptom that they had eaten from the
tree of knowledge? How did God know? I
mean, God knew because God's omnisient,
but uh how did God prove to them that it
was indisputable that they'd eaten?
clothing.
>> They needed clothing, right? Whereas
previously they were comfortable with
their nakedness, now they were
self-conscious. So what kind of
knowledge are we talking about?
Self-nowledge. But I don't mean like
insight. I mean more like crippling
self-consciousness.
[gasps and sighs]
Yeah. So you know what the curse of
eating from the tree of crippling
self-consciousness is?
Now you have crippling
self-consciousness. That's that's
[laughter] the that's the curse.
Okay.
>> Origin origin of anxiety.
>> Mhm.
>> Origin of anxiety.
>> The origin of anxiety. Well, by the way,
remember that 3-week course we had on
anxiety. So, part two when we spoke
about the spiritual canaries.
Uh, I didn't say it then, but I'll say
it now. Those are the people who took an
extra helping from the tree of
knowledge. Because remember we're
talking about that paradigm of people
uncomfortable in their own skin, the
existential angst and all that like
uncomfortable just being. That's what
the tree of knowledge does. It makes you
aware of your own existence.
Um which is
not fun. But on the other hand, um to
make a positive, uh argument
uh and and this was the way that the
coalists explain Eve's thinking was that
it also allows you to take an active
role in your own life. And and she
thought that the way they were serving
God was sort of automatic. It was on
autopilot. and if she would have
self-nowledge that would enhance her
free choice and she'd be able to
appreciate and enjoy serving God and and
she was right about that. She just
didn't think about all the terrible side
effects that it brings with it. Uh and
also the fact God told her don't do it
which was [snorts] yeah that was
it was a it was a prohibition at any
rate but she did it. Okay. There was
another tree.
What's the other tree? life.
>> Tree of life. Very good. And they were
real quick. They were barred from eating
that tree.
In fact, when they were kicked out, it
says that there was like a whole defense
system set up. They shouldn't be able to
get back in and eat from the tree of
life. What was the deal with the tree of
life?
The tree of life makes you live forever.
Well, here's the thing.
They were originally created to live
forever because they were told if you
eat from the tree of knowledge on that
day you will surely die. Not mean
doesn't mean you'll drop dead. It means
on that day as a result you will become
mortal. Whereas
until that point they were immortal. So
now what's the problem with becoming
immortal again? It's just resetting the
factory settings.
The problem is
that after they had eaten from the tree
of knowledge,
that potential for otherness, the
potential for setting oneself apart from
God
became embedded into the human
condition.
Wasn't just like uh
something that you you take and you say,
"Well, how long is this going to last
for? or how long will this when does it
take for me to sober up from this? No,
it permanently changes your wiring. It
never goes away. In fact, you bequeath
it to your children for all generations.
Humanity permanently became changed at
that moment where that sense of self or
ego or sometimes around here we say ego
is ego edging God out. So that sense of
otherness from God became embedded into
the human condition
and from there becomes the potential for
rebellion
and sin.
And
therefore
at that point God told him don't eat
from the tree of life. You know why?
Because now that this darkness became
part of you, if you live forever, then
it's going to live forever. And I don't
want the darkness to live forever. I
want the darkness to come to an end.
It's going to take some time. We're
going to have to work out through a
process
of uh refining the world and refining
ourselves. But eventually Messiah will
come. The world will be perfected and
the the evil will be gone. So we don't
want to make the evil immortal. So
that's why they were not allowed to eat
from the tree of life. And that's why we
die.
We die so that the evil can die with us.
When we die, we return to the dust. That
nullifies us. And then when we get back
up from the dust, when Messiah comes and
there's the resurrection, which is one
of the 13 principles of faith according
to my manities, we'll get up fresh and
ready to live in a pure world where
there is no evil. We left the evil to
disintegrate. We get up clean like the
driven snow.
