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“Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die” (Genesis 2:17). Human survival depends on what is absorbed – ideas as well as food. God commanded man to eat and enjoy all the trees in the Garden of Eden. Because Adam was able to “digest” the fruits, he could discern what was good and reject what was bad, without being drawn to it. However, God warned Adam not to eat from the tree of knowledge, because its fruits contained an intense mixture of positive and negative dimensions too powerful for him to distinguish. Eating those fruits would allow the evil elements they contained to pierce his body and soul, causing his death. As an aside, this is the concept underlying a positive type of conservatism, which is cautious of being led astray by potentially dangerous revolutionary ideas; even if such ideas have positive aspects, their negative ones might destroy all that is good.
Unfortunately, Adam sinned and ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He was punished with expulsion from the Garden of Eden into the land cursed due to his sin. His survival depended on harsh physical labor which continued until his death. Only then would his body return to the earth from which it came. Generation after generation, his descendants would eat by the sweat of their brow (ibid. 2:17-19) and undergo a grueling journey rife with crises until they could achieve progress. The goal of this punishment is for humanity to fulfill its original mission which was intended to be easy, pleasant, and self-taught. Instead, it is a lengthy process filled with trials and tribulations, whereby humanity learns how to progress.
Eventually, once perfection is attained and evil is transformed into good, humanity will reach a level even loftier than that of Adam in the garden. The status of penitents – who can change from evil to good, – is greater than that of the righteous, who have never been exposed to temptation and have been good all their lives.
