Dear Friends,
The
Hebrew
term for
the
Garden
of Eden
is
Gan Eden.
After
the
human
being
was
created
on Mount
Moriah,
the site
of the
future
Temple,
the
Creator
brought
the
human
being to
Gan
Eden,
as it is
written:
“And
Hashem
God took
the
human
being
and
placed
him in
Gan
Eden
to serve
it and
to guard
it”
(Genesis
2:15).
Where
was
Gan Eden
located?
The
ancient
midrashic
work,
Pirkei
D’Rabbi
Eliezer,
states:
“The
Gate of
Gan
Eden
is near
Mount
Moriah”
(chapter
20).
Various
locations
for
Gan Eden
are
suggested
by Resh
Lakish,
a sage
of the
Talmud,
and he
states,
“If it
is in
the Land
of
Israel,
its
entrance
is at
Beth
She’an”
(Tractate
Eruvin
19a).
Rashi
explains
that he
suggested
Beth
She’an
because
its
fruits
are the
sweetest
of all
the
fruits
in the
Land of
Israel.
The Beth
She’an
valley
is in a
region
of
Northern
Israel
south of
Lake
Kinneret.
Regarding the original Gan Eden, which is now hidden from us, Maimonides writes:
“Gan
Eden
is a
fertile
and rich
place,
the
finest
part of
the
earth.
It has
many
rivers
and
fruit
trees.
Hashem
will
reveal
it to
humankind
in the
future
and also
show
them the
way to
reach
it, so
they
will
enjoy
it. It
is
possible
that
marvelous
plants
of great
benefit,
pleasant
and very
sweet,
grow
there,
other
than
those
plants
that we
know.”
(Introduction
to Perek
Chelek,
Tractate
Sanhedrin)
Our
return
to the
holistic
path of
the
Torah
leads to
our
complete
return
to the
Land of
Zion,
and our
fulfillment
of the
Torah in
the Land
of Zion
leads to
our
return
to the
ideal
state of
Gan
Eden.
According
to the
above
teaching
cited by
Maimonides,
we will
also
return
to the
original
Gan
Eden.
We
therefore
have
many
blessings
to look
forward
to when
we begin
the
process
of
renewing
our
commitment
to the
path of
the
Torah.
Step-by-step,
mitzvah-by-mitzvah,
we can
reach
the goal
of our
journey.
Have a
Good and
Comforting
Shabbos,
Yosef
Ben
Shlomo
Hakohen
(See below)
(See below)
Related
Insights
and
Comments:
1. As
the
Prophets
of
Israel
remind
us, we
need to
renew
our
relationship
with
Hashem,
the
Compassionate
and
Life-Giving
One, in
order to
be able
to
return
to the
ideal
state of
Gan
Eden.
The
parsha
– Torah
portion
– of
this
Shabbos
has the
following
three
mitzvos
which
guide us
in our
relationship
with
Hashem:
A. “I am Hashem, your God, Who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.” (Deuteronomy 5:6 – This verse first appears in Exodus 20:2.)
This
is to
teach us
that the
Creating
One is
the
Redeeming
One!
According
to Rabbi
Isaac of
Corbeil,
a
leading
13th
century
sage,
this
verse
calls
upon us
to not
only
believe
that
Hashem
redeemed
us in
the
past,
but to
also
believe
that
Hashem
will
redeem
us in
the
future.
In his
classical
work on
the
mitzvos,
known as
“Sefer
Mitzvos
Katan,”
he
states
that the
obligation
to
believe
in the
coming
of the
Messiah
is
rooted
in the
words,
“I am
Hashem,
your
God, Who
has
taken
you out
of the
land of
Egypt” –
for the
Exodus
from
Egypt is
a
testimony
to the
ongoing
Divine
providence
in
history
that is
leading
us to
the
ultimate
redemption
of the
messianic
age.
In the
messianic
age, we
begin to
return
to the
ideal
state of
the
Garden.
The
teaching
of Rabbi
Isaac of
Corbeil
therefore
leads to
the
following
insight:
Our
journey
back to
the
“Garden”
begins
with the
awareness
that
Hashem
is
leading
us
there.
B. “You shall not have other gods before Me” (Deuteronomy 5:7 – This verse first appears in Exodus 20:3.)
This is
a
prohibition
against
all
forms of
idolatry.
As the
classical
commentator,
Ramban,
explains
in his
commentary
on
Exodus
20:3,
the
worship
of human
beings
is also
a form
of
idolatry.
It is
therefore
forbidden
to make
any
human
being –
including
one’s
self –
into a
god.
C. “Hear O Israel, Hashem is our God, Hashem is One! (Deuteronomy 6:1)
Maimonides
writes
in his
“Book of
Mitzvos”
that the
above
words
contain
the
mitzvah
“to
believe
in the
Unity of
Hashem;
that is
to say,
to
believe
that the
Creator
of all
things
in
existence
and
their
First
Cause is
One”
(Mitzvah
2).
The
awareness
that the
Creator
of all
things
in
existence
and
their
First
Cause is
One can
lead us
to the
awareness
that all
creation
is one.
The
non-Jews
on our
mailing
list who
correspond
with me
have
indicated
that
they
have
adopted
Jewish
beliefs
regarding
Hashem;
thus,
they are
striving
to
fulfill
the
above
three
mitzvos.
2. On Shabbos, the chanting of the parsha is followed by the chanting of the haftorah – a portion from the Prophets. Each of the haftorahs which we chant on the seven Shabboses after Tisha B’Av conveys a message of comfort. This Shabbos is known as Shabbos Nachamu – the Sabbath of Comfort, as the haftorah of this Shabbos opens with the following words:
“Comfort,
comfort
My
people –
says
your
God.”
(Isaiah
40:1)
This
haftorah
also has
the
following
verse
which
refers
to the
future
spiritual
enlightenment
of all
humankind:
“The
Glory of
Hashem
will be
revealed,
and all
flesh
together
will see
that the
mouth of
Hashem
has
spoken.”
(50:5)
* Editor's notes:
The original letter can be found at http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/publicat/hazon/tzedaka/renewal3.htm
The original letter can be found at http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/publicat/hazon/tzedaka/renewal3.htm
