Scriptural Sources of the World to Come (5)

The Tree Of Life

The Hebrew verb for living, "chai," actually refers to the continuation of life rather than to the state of being alive. This is the source for the evolution of the verb to mean recovery from illness, etc.  The fate of this verb was similar to the fate of many Hebrew words, which we have difficulty understanding accurately since we have become accustomed to European verb forms, which are much more static than Hebrew verbs.  A good example is the verb "haya" [to be].  In Hebrew this verb means "to become" or "to evolve" rather than "to exist."  We find the use of the verb "chai" in the sense of continuing to exist in Samuel Book 2,12: "may God grant me my desire and the child shall live," as well as in Exodus: "for no man shall see Me and live" [33:20]. This is the case in other places as well [Bamidbar 21:8,9, Deuteronomy 4:42, 21, 19:4,5, Jeremiah 21:9,  38:2, and many others). This meaning of the verb also takes the form of a commandment: "and your brother shall live [chai] with you" (Leviticus 25:36).  Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden lest they eat from the Tree of Life "and live [chai] forever" (Genesis 3:22).  The Tree of Life was inside the Garden, and it had the power to grant immortality.  When Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge, they were banished from the Garden of Eden, thus ensuring that they will not begin or continue to eat from the Tree of Life and live forever.

     Now that the entry to the Garden is barred, is there any way to achieve eternal life?  The Scriptures teach us that there is.  The phrase "eternal life" appears a number of times in the Scriptures. It appears in its most marked form in Daniel's prophecy regarding the resurrection of the dead: "and many of the sleepers in the earth of dust will awaken, some to eternal life and some to shame and degradation" [Daniel 12:2]. However, in quite a number of places this phrase refers to the Torah and its wisdom.  According to King Solomon, wisdom is the way of life and the source of life [Proverbs 2:19, 6:13, 13:14].  Does the word life here refer to eternal life?

     It is certain that at some point this interpretation was accepted, for it is found in the Apocrypha and in the writings of the Sages.  Do the Scriptures themselves imply this connotation?  It seems so, and at least one verse from the Psalms proves it: [Psalms 133:3] "for there God commanded the blessing of eternal life."  The psalm looks for the meaning of the blessing of life in the Torah, and finds  it in the promise of eternal life.  This type of explanation permits a different understanding of many verses.  The wisdom of the Torah is "a tree of life for those who cling to it" [Proverbs 3:18].  The Torah has become a way of life, and it is the lost Tree of Life.  Perhaps this is the meaning of other phrases in the Scriptures, such as "the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life" [Proverbs 11:30].  The phrase "way of life" (Orach Chayim) also appears once in an unequivocal reference to eternal life [Psalms 16:9-11]:

"Therefore my heart shall rejoice and my honor be glad

my flesh will also dwell in safety...

for You will not forsake my soul to She'ol

You will not permit your disciple to see destruction

You will teach me the way of life...

pleasantness is forever at Your right [side]."

Similarly in Proverbs, [15:24]: "[adopt] a way of life above to avoid She'ol below."  And more explicitly: "through the way of charity is life and a charted path [leads to] immortality"  [ibid., 12:28].

     These explanations shed light on the final verses of the Torah.  The Torah ends with almost the same words as found in the beginning:  "see I have placed before you life and goodness and death and evil" [Deuteronomy 30:16].  The two trees appear before us once again.  The preceding verses seem to refer to a search for the elixir of life: "it is not in the heavens...nor is it across the sea" [ibid. 12,13].  Particularly interesting is the phrase "it is not in the heavens."  The Torah did actually come down from the heavens, from the mountain of God, which Moses ascended, and that Torah holds within it the key to immortality.

     In the Garden of Eden there was no choice between good and evil.  Evil was originally unknown to man.  This is the obvious meaning of Adam and Eve's partaking of the Tree of Knowledge and its aftermath.  After eating from the tree Man became aware of evil.  Thus arose a problem which had never before existed, the need to choose between good and evil.  As one of the great leaders of the Mussar movement, the "Saba" of Novardok, said, one might say that in the Garden of Eden man was faced with the choice of having a choice.  With the banishment from the Garden of Eden, good and evil became intertwined; it was as though the fruit of the tree suddenly  mixed together, and Man must now choose his fruit with care.  Indeed,   the fruit of the Tree of Life became intermixed as well. From now on there is no more Tree of Life; there is a tree of Life and Death together: "if [one] merits, it becomes his potion of life, and if [one] does not merit, it becomes his potion of death" [Tractate Megilla 18, Shabbat 88 and elsewhere]. The Torah teaches Man the commandments, the way of life, the way of the Tree of Life.  The Torah is actually the Tree of Life itself, and the symbol of the covenant is the Tablets which are guarded by the Cherubim, who likewise guarded the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.  In the Temple we construct a halakhic Garden of Eden.  The commandments, which are connected to holiness, ritual purity and impurity, transform the Temple into the symbol of the Garden of Eden, and thus into the place where the Divine Presence dwells among the Jewish people.  The Temple is the place of life and of holiness, within which there can be no death.

Translated by Gila Weinberg