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43-573: And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . Etz Hayim , also transliterated as Eitz Chaim ( עץ חיים ‘Ēṣ Ḥayyīm , meaning " Tree of Life "), is a common term used in Judaism . The expression can be found in Genesis 2:9 , referring to

86-485: A euphemism for lechery. On lust , Shalom Shabazi (1619 – c.  1720 ) calls it "a phenomenon of the soul," and lays out ways in which a person tempted by lust can overcome the urge, without being swept into its clutches. In rabbinic literature, the yetzer hara is seen as a fundamental force driving humans toward sin, particularly idolatry . This inclination is viewed as an inherent aspect of human nature, leading people away from divine worship and towards

129-405: A form of service to God, if one's intention is to thereby strengthen the body in order to better serve God. The yetzer hara is also seen positively in that its existence allows for free will, which in turn allows for reward for those who choose good deeds. Although certain ancient groups of Jews appear to have believed in the existence of supernatural evil, in particular fallen angels (as in

172-589: A good and an evil inclination. Possessing an evil inclination is considered neither bad nor abnormal. The problem, however, arises when one makes a willful choice to "cross over the line," and seeks to gratify their evil inclination, based on the prototypical models of right and wrong in the Hebrew Bible. This notion is succinctly worded in the Babylonian Talmud : "Everything is determined by heaven, except one's fear of heaven," meaning, everything in

215-479: A matter involving transgression. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto wrote in Derech Hashem that "Man is the creature created for the purpose of being drawn close to God. He is placed between perfection and deficiency, with the power to earn perfection. Man must earn this perfection, however, through his own free will... Man's inclinations are therefore balanced between good (Yetzer HaTov) and evil (Yetzer HaRa), and he

258-404: A person's life is predetermined by God—except that person's choice to be either righteous or wicked, which is left to their free will . The Bible states that every person on some occasion succumbs to their evil inclination: "For there is not a righteous man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." The Talmud speaks of the difficulty in overcoming the evil inclination: "To what is it like,

301-433: A real city and a figure of Heavenly Jerusalem . Augustine underlined that the fruits of that tree were not evil by themselves, because everything that God created "was good" ( Genesis 1:12 ). It was disobedience of Adam and Eve , who had been told by God not to eat off the tree ( Genesis 2:17 ), that caused disorder in the creation, thus humanity inherited sin and guilt from Adam and Eve's sin. In Western Christian art,

344-523: A woman, with no reason to connect the scene with the Book of Genesis. Yetzer hara In Judaism , yetzer hara ( Hebrew : יֵצֶר הַרַע ‎ , romanized :  yēṣer haraʿ ‍ ) is a term for humankind's congenital inclination to do evil . The term is drawn from the phrase "the inclination of the heart of man is evil" ( Biblical Hebrew : יֵצֶר לֵב הָאָדָם רַע , romanized:  yetzer lev-ha-adam ra ), which occurs twice at

387-651: Is original or ancestral sin , whereas the yetzer hara is a natural aspect of God's creation. According to the Talmudic tractate Avot de-Rabbi Natan , a boy's evil inclination is greater than his good inclination until he turns 13 ( bar mitzvah ), at which point the good inclination is "born" and able to control his behavior. Moreover, the rabbis have stated: "The greater the man, the greater his [evil] inclination." The underlying principle in Jewish thought states that each person—Jew and gentile alike—is born with both

430-452: Is because sin crouches at the entrance [of your heart], and to you shall be its longing, although you have the ability to subdue it." Medieval commentator Rashi explains: "and to you shall be its longing," meaning, the longing of sin—i.e., the evil inclination—which constantly longs and lusts to cause one to stumble, "although you have the ability to subdue it," meaning, if a person wishes, they will overpower it. The implication

473-429: Is normally employed to mean "everything". However, if "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" is to be understood to mean a tree whose fruit imparts knowledge of everything, this phrase does not necessarily denote a moral concept. This view is held by several scholars. Given the context of disobedience to God, other interpretations of the implications of this phrase also demand consideration. Robert Alter emphasizes

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516-487: Is not compelled toward either of them. He has the power of choice and is able to choose either side knowingly and willingly". While God has created mankind with both good and evil inclinations, the two powers or tendencies that pull one in opposite directions, God commands each person to choose the good and right path over the evil. In the narrative of Cain and Abel , God tells Cain: "Isn't it true that if you do good, you shall be forgiven? However, if you will not do good, it

559-421: Is said to atone for most sins, while the preponderance of good works keeps one within the general class of good people. Maimonides gave instructions for how to view the evil inclination and ensuing hardships on that account: ...Therefore, let a man prepare his own mind and request from God that anything that should ever happen to him in this world, whether of the things that are by God's providence good, or of

602-520: Is similar to the Christian notion of "fallenness" or a corrupted human nature, known in the Augustinian tradition as concupiscence , humanity's alienation from God and the image of God in oneself and others, resulting in spiritual ignorance and rebellion, the progressive loss of divine likeness, and a tendency to entertain evil thoughts and commit evil acts. However, the genesis of concupiscence

645-456: Is that each person is capable of overcoming sin if they really wish to do so. This may or may not be difficult, and may require some reconditioning, but it is still possible. Although there are many vices, the Sages of Israel have said that most people are drawn to "stealing" what does not belong to them ( גזל ), while fewer people are inclined to "uncover the nakedness" of others ( גלוי עריות ),

688-416: The yetzer hara (when properly channeled) as necessary for the continuation of society, as sexual lust motivates the formation of families, and greed motivates work: Rabbi Nahman bar Samuel bar Nachman said in the name of Rabbi Samuel bar Nachman :   [...] "And behold it was very good" ( Genesis 1:31 )—this refers to the yetzer hara . But is the yetzer hara indeed very good?!—Were it not for

731-494: The yetzer hara , a man would not build a home, or marry a woman, or have children, or engage in business. The Mishnah interprets the Biblical command to love God "with all your heart" to mean "with your two inclinations—good inclination and evil inclination". The latter half of this interpretation has been interpreted in various ways. According to some, it indicates that physical pleasures such as eating and drinking can be

774-542: The Dead Sea scrolls ), the yetzer hara in non-apocryphal sources is presented as a personification of evil distinct from the supernatural Devil of traditional Christianity and Islam. This tendency to demythologize Satan is found in the Babylonian Talmud and other rabbinical works, e.g.: "Resh Laqish said: Satan, the evil inclination, and the Angel of Death are all one." Notably, however, this and other passages of

817-671: The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden . It is also found in the Book of Proverbs , where it is figuratively applied to "the Torah " Proverbs 3:18 , "the fruit of a righteous man" Proverbs 11:30 , "a desire fulfilled" Proverbs 13:12 , and "healing tongue" Proverbs 15:4 . My son, forget not My instruction, and may your heart keep My commandments; [...] It is a tree of life for those who grasp it, and those who draw near it are fortunate. Tree of

860-619: The Divine life-force, on whose "leftovers" it then feeds and derives existence. Once evil is separated from holiness through beirurim , its source of life is cut off, causing the evil to disappear. This is accomplished through observance of the 613 commandments in the Torah, which deal primarily with physical objects wherein good and evil are mixed together. The sin of the Tree caused God's presence ( Shechinah ) to depart from earth; in kabbalah,

903-532: The Garden for their covering. The Quran mentions the sin as being a 'slip'. Consequently, they repented to God and asked for his forgiveness, and were forgiven. In Islamic tradition, the forbidden fruit is considered wheat or barley, not an apple as within Western Christian tradition. In Quran Al-A'raf 27, God states: [O] Children of Adam! Let not Satan tempt you as he brought your parents out of

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946-629: The Garden, stripping them of their garments to show them their shameful parts. Surely he [Satan] sees you, he and his tribe, from where you see them not. We have made the Satans the friends of those who do not believe. A cylinder seal , known as the Adam and Eve cylinder seal , from post- Akkadian periods in Mesopotamia ( c.  23rd – 22nd century BCE) has been linked to the Adam and Eve story. Assyriologist George Smith (1840–1876) described

989-562: The Talmud do not deny the external existence of Satan, but create a synthesis between external and internal forces of evil. Similar tendencies can also be found in some Enlightenment Christian writers, such as in the religious writings of Isaac Newton . Many of the enactments made by the rabbis throughout the centuries are actual "safeguards" to distance a person from their natural inclination and make it harder for them to sin. David's prohibition against yichud (the decree which forbids

1032-459: The animals, leading to their mortality as well. In the Kabbalah , the sin of the Tree of Knowledge (called Cheit Eitz HaDa'at ) brought about the great task of beirurim , sifting through the mixture of good and evil in the world to extract and liberate the sparks of holiness trapped therein. Since evil no longer had independent existence, it henceforth depended on holiness to draw down

1075-520: The beginning of the Torah ( Genesis 6 :5 and Genesis 8:21). The Hebrew word yetzer having appeared twice in Genesis occurs again at the end of the Torah: "I knew their devisings that they do". Thus from beginning to end the heart's yetzer (plan) is continually bent on evil. However, the Torah which began with blessing anticipates future blessing which will come as a result of God circumcising

1118-460: The divine command: "Neither shall you touch it." By saying this, Eve added to YHWH's command, and thereby came to detract from it, as it is written: "Do not add to His Words" ( Proverbs 30:6 ). However, In Legends of the Jews , it was Adam who had devoutly forbidden Eve to touch the tree even though God had only mentioned the eating of the fruit. According to one source, Eve also fed the fruit to

1161-502: The evil inclination for idolatry. However, the aftermath of this act showed the complexity of their decision; the absence of the yetzer hara also diminished the human drive for other essential aspects of life, such as procreation (see below). How exactly this reality shift played out and continues to be manifest, has been discussed by many scholars including such thinkers as Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook , Rabbi Zadok HaKohen of Lublin , and others. Rabbinic sources also describe

1204-421: The evil inclination in man? It is like a father who takes his small son, bathes him, douses him with perfume, combs his hair, dresses him up in his finest accoutrements, feeds him, gives him drink, places a bag of money around his neck, and then goes off and puts his son at the front door of a brothel. What can the boy do that he not sin?" In recognition of this difficulty, repentance (and in some cases, affliction)

1247-509: The fruit of the tree is commonly depicted as the apple , which originated in central Asia . This depiction may have originated as a Latin pun: by eating the mālum (apple), Eve contracted malum (evil). According to the Bible, there is nothing to show the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was necessarily an apple. Uniquely, the Gnostic religion held that

1290-514: The garden . The phrase in Hebrew, טוֹב וָרָע ( tov wa-raʿ ) literally translates as "good and evil". This may be an example of the type of figure of speech known as merism , a literary device that pairs opposite terms together in order to create a general meaning, so that the phrase "good and evil" would simply imply "everything". This is seen in the Egyptian expression "evil-good", which

1333-404: The heart in the latter days. In traditional Judaism, yetzer hara is not a demonic force; despite this, Samael is considered the source of the yetzer hara , through man's misuse of things the physical body needs to survive. Thus, the need for food becomes gluttony due to the yetzer hara . The need for procreation becomes promiscuity, and so on. The Jewish concept of the yetzer hara

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1376-406: The knowledge of good and evil Genesis 2 narrates that God places the man, Adam , in a garden with trees whose fruits he may eat, but forbids him to eat from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil". God forms a woman, Eve , after this command is given. In Genesis 3, a serpent persuades Eve to eat from its forbidden fruit and she also lets Adam taste it. Consequently, God expels them from

1419-633: The narrative can be found within the Gnostic manuscripts On the Origin of the World and the Secret Book of John . Manichaeism , which has been considered a Gnostic sect, echoes these notions as well, presenting the primordial aspect of Jesus as the instructor. The Quran never refers to the tree as the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" but rather typically refers to it as "the tree" or (in

1462-590: The point that when God forbids the man to eat from that particular tree, he says that if he does so, he is "doomed to die." The Hebrew behind this is in a form regularly used in the Hebrew Bible for issuing death sentences. However, there are myriad modern scholarly interpretations regarding the term הדעת טוב ורע ( Hada'at tov wa-ra "the knowledge of good and evil") in Genesis 2–3, such as wisdom, omniscience, sexual knowledge, moral discrimination, maturity, and other qualities. According to scholar Nathan French,

1505-401: The seal as having two facing figures (male and female) seated on each side of a tree, holding out their hands to the fruit, while between their backs is a serpent, giving evidence that the fall of man account was known in early times of Babylonia . The British Museum disputes this interpretation, and holds that it is a common image from the period depicting a male deity being worshipped by

1548-473: The task of beirurim rectifies the sin of the Tree and causes the Shechinah to return. In Christian tradition, consuming the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the original sin committed by Adam and Eve that led to the fall of man in Genesis 3. Augustine of Hippo taught that the "tree" should be understood both symbolically and as a real tree – similarly to Jerusalem being both

1591-459: The term likely means "the knowledge for administering reward and punishment," suggesting that the knowledge forbidden by Yahweh and yet acquired by the humans in Genesis 2–3 is the wisdom for wielding ultimate power. Jewish sources suggest different possible identities for the tree: a fig tree (as fig leaves were used to clothe Adam and Eve after the sin), a grape vine (as "nothing brings wailing to

1634-641: The things that are by Him evil, that the reason [for their occurrence] is so that he might attain true happiness. Now this was stated with regard to the Good Inclination [in man] and with regard to [his] Evil Inclination, that is to say, that he might lay to his heart the love of God and his [continued] faith in Him, even at an hour of rebellion or of wrath or of displeasure, seeing that all of this revolves around [man's] evil inclination, just as they have said: 'In all your ways acknowledge Him', [meaning], even in

1677-470: The tree was entirely positive or even sacred. Per this saga, it was the archons who told Adam and Eve not to eat from its fruit, before lying to them by claiming they would die after tasting it. Later in the story, an instructor is sent from the Pleroma by the aeons to save humanity and reveal gnosis . This savior does so by telling Adam and Eve that eating the fruit is the way into salvation. Examples of

1720-441: The two were separate, and evil had only a nebulous existence in potential. While free choice did exist before eating the fruit, evil existed as an entity separate from the human psyche, and it was not in human nature to desire it. Eating and internalizing the forbidden fruit changed this, and thus was born the yetzer hara , the evil inclination. According to Rashi , the sin came about because Eve added an additional clause to

1763-529: The veneration of false gods. According to a well-known legend from the Talmud , the rabbis at the beginning of the Second Temple period recognized the destructive power of the yetzer hara for idolatry and decided to eliminate it. They engaged in intense prayer and fasting, asking God to remove this inclination from the world. In response, God granted their request, and the rabbis were able to capture

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1806-440: The words of Iblis ) as the "tree of immortality." Muslims believe that when God created Adam and Eve, he told them that they could enjoy everything in the Garden except this tree and so Satan appeared to them, telling them the only reason God forbade them to eat from the tree was that they would become angels or immortal. When they ate from this tree, their nakedness appeared to them, and they began to sew together leaves from

1849-445: The world like wine"), a stalk of wheat (as "a child does not know how to say Father and Mother until he tastes grain"), an etrog (as the description in Genesis 3:6 matches the etrog fruit's beautiful appearance, or else the etrog tree's allegedly tasty bark ), or a nut tree. In Jewish tradition, the Tree of Knowledge and the eating of its fruit represents the beginning of the mixture of good and evil together. Before that time,

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