Rabbi Mordechai Kraft - Follow the Mind Not the Heart

Okay, I'd like to welcome everybody back to our lunch and learn and I hope everyone had good Yom Tov and Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and and Sukkot and the last day of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. And now Baruch Hashem we're back to the beginning of the Torah and opportunity to really explore together a fascinating cycle of the episodes and the stories and and the wisdom contained in in the book of Breishit which many of the stories we're familiar with and and therefore I think it should be very exciting because we maybe know the the basic outline and the structure and we can fill in some of the wisdom and depth and details and I I think we'll uh it'll be something which will be a wonderful journey to to share together. So I hope everybody is uh can utilize this opportunity this time on Tuesdays at 12:00 in New York time and uh and just join join us. Dial into the Zoom conference call and uh participate in the discussion and or and um and really achieve help us achieve more than we can achieve by ourselves. You know when there's a dynamic interaction it's uh it's a wonderful way to to to learn and of course we all grow much more from it. If you if you're not able to dial in you're also welcome to to email me [email protected] or or you know or just send a or send a a text over and uh I'll be happy to include your questions in the discussion. So what I'd like to talk about today is is a topic that interests me very much and this has to do with the first test of Adam and Eve in the garden. And the first test which they're given obviously must symbolize to some extent the test that humanity will face throughout our course of history. And what was that first test? Just looking at the the verses a little bit. It says "Vayikach Hashem Elokim es Adam." And verse chapter 2 verse 14 verse 15 "And Hashem Elokim took Adam vayanicheihu began Eden." And he placed him in a place with Gan Eden, the garden of Eden the garden of pleasure "la'avdah uleshamrah" to work in the garden. "Vayetza Hashem Elokim el ha'adam lemor" And Hashem commanded Adam saying "Mikol eitz hagan achol tochel." From every tree in the garden "achol tochel" eat you shall eat. "Ume'eitz hada'as tov vara lo tochel mimenu" But from the eitz hada'as, from the tree of the mixture of good and evil don't eat from it "ki beyom achalcha mimenu mos tamus." Cuz the day that you eat from it "mos tamus" die you shall surely die. Let's just analyze this just verse for a moment and then just and just explore some concepts just right here. First of all, we see that the first commandment given to Adam, this is pre the creation of Eve in the garden of Eden is the commandment to "mikol eitz hagan achol tochel." You know, something that I like to ask this question when when I'm teaching and I ask the question to many of my students and I say, "What was the first commandment that God gave?" And everybody seems to jump and say, "Don't eat from the tree." However, when we read the verse it doesn't say that. The first commandment in the pasuk is "achol tochel mikol eitz hagan." Achol means eat. Tochel means you shall eat. The doubling of the verb makes it it a command. The first command in the garden of Eden was akel tokel was to eat to do, to enjoy the pleasures of this garden. Which I think is extraordinarily important the way Hashem wants us to approach this world. This world is a place that that Hashem gives us with such pleasure and such opportunity for hana'a as we say in Hebrew, enjoyment. And that's the first commandment. Whatever is available in this garden I want you to experience it and to enjoy it. Of course we understand that that pleasure is only meaningful when one guides it and sometimes limits it and controls it. But Hashem's intention is that we should have the greatest pleasure in this world. That's commandment number one. Commandment number two is me'etz hada'at tov ura lo tochelu mimenu. From one tree the tree of the etz hada'at tov ura a tree which is the knowledge of tov, of good and the knowledge of evil, don't eat from it. Now interesting. How could there be a tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What does that mean? First of all, it's a very interesting concept that one thing God can't create is evil. God can only create tov. God can only create good. The word ra in Hebrew, in order to understand what it means, we translate it loosely as evil. But in its essence, the word ra means what? I'll give us a word that we might be familiar with. You know, when we blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah so we know we blow different sounds. We have the tekiah, which is that long sound. We have the shevarim, which is a And then we have a sound called the teruah. Which is teruah. Do we hear the word in there? It's not the sound of evil. True ah, rah in Hebrew, the resh ayin root means disconnected. Those notes are all disconnected one from the other. And that's why it's called the true ah, rah. What's evil? Evil is disconnection from God. God doesn't create evil. Only we can create evil. And the way we create evil is when we disconnect ourselves from our source. We disconnect ourselves from the word of of sham. We disconnect ourselves from from God himself. So, what happens? This tree is a ates a dust tov rah. A tree that's going to mix together tov rah if one eats from it. Pre-eating of the tree, one has clarity. There's God and there's good. And I know what to do. Apparently, once one eats from this tree, what happens is that clarity is lost. And now there's confusion in the world. And with that confusion, comes the opportunity of disconnection. And that's rah. Evil is when we disconnect ourselves from God. God doesn't create it. The only beings that can create it are you and me. Are we? Us. But that's a function of eating from this tree. Why is that? So, our sources tell us that apparently, before eating of the tree, the yetzer hara, as it were, the yetzer hara, we often loosely translate as the evil inclination, but the correct translation is yetzer is from the word litzor, which means to create. Rah in Hebrew means disconnection. So, it's a creative drive that enables disconnection. Now, we understand the yetzer hara is a function of the Satan that God places in our brain. It's there to test us or to intensify our choice so that any reward that we earn will truly be meaningful reward cuz we truly fought something, we've earned it. But his job, so to speak, is just to create disconnection. Is to create a a illusions, making pleasures seem like they're more pleasurable than they really are, creating doubts in our mind as what to the right thing to do is, creating doubts in our mind of does God really demand from us? His job is just to create illusion so that we'll disconnect, so to speak, from God's word. That's the function of the yetzer hara. And when we achieve and we conquer it and we overcome, Hashem can reward us cuz it is indeed a fight. A fight that we're capable of winning. But apparently before eating from the tree, that yetzer hara, as it were, was outside of ourselves. It's only once we imbibed and Eve and took it and she ate and offered to Adam and he ate, there was a change in the human being whereby whereby now the yetzer internal and with that comes a confusion and now there's a blurring together of what's good and what's bad. That's the merging, that's the the confusion or the fusion or the intermingling of good and bad. That's to wrap connection, das means connection, connection of good and evil. And it seems like Hashem wanted to avoid that. Keep it separate from you. Keep it outside of you. Keep it a place where you can manage it. Once they ate, there was a transformation whereby that confusion did overwhelm them and it was an overpowering, so to speak, of of desire and passion and and all those forces that we have inside of us, but now sort of taken out of sync. No longer can the mind have that clarity to connect, but those forces, those let's call them desires, powers of of of lusts and and cravings, whatever it might be, which are all part of the human being given in a place inside of us in order to to utilize for holy purposes. Never do we say desire is evil. But when it's it's when it overwhelms us and it confuses us, now we have a different challenge. And the original plan was that should be separate. That should be outside that overwhelming confusion. But by eating it, there came confusion. Now it's interesting, the possuk then ends and it says Hashem says from the etz hada'at, from this tree, the knowledge of which will mingle together the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, it will mingle together your knowledge of what's good and you have confusion and therefore have the ability to disconnect because your your passions and perhaps will overwhelm you, or there'll be confusion or illusions as to to really what how how good things really are, how pleasurable things really are. Lo tochel mimenu, don't eat from it. Ki beyom achalcha mimenu mot tamut, because from the day that you eat from it, mot tamut, you will die. I saw a very beautiful comment from the the Malbim, a a wonderful 19th century commentator from I believe um Poland. Mot tamut. And the Malbim offers and he says, "Why does it double the word? Die you shall die." Because really there's almost like a a this challenge now to fight, as it were, the the desires of ourselves that that that come from having eaten from this tree, this this overwhelming sense of my own importance and my my my pleasures and my lusts and my my even keen and my jealousies. These Now that this is part of me, most tammuz, it's going to be a continuous state, so to speak, of fighting those impulses. And when we give in to those impulses on some level, there's a little bit of death in that. Because real life is when we're connected to Hashem, we're not confused. So now this confusion is going to be an element of most tammuz. You surely will die. Not just a physical death, but a death in the sense that as we disconnect from Hashem in this world, there's element of death in that. That's going to be a continuous practice process. Most died tammuz, you will die. Over and over again, this disconnection. Disconnection again from Hashem is is really an element of death as I say just say. That that that really that is as it says with show him kamayson b'chayav. The evil are like dead in their lives while they're alive. So we see that Hashem had a had a wonderful plan. And he really did not want us to eat from it. But that was the test. And Adam and Chava were placed in a situation where they would be tested. And apparently had they passed that test, history could have progressed completely differently. History would have been finished. We could have entered into what we call the Gan Eden Hakadmon, Gan Eden, the eternal Gan Eden. And and and there wouldn't be part two in history, which is the world we know today, which is a correction, as it were, of the sin of of Adam. But I'd like to focus a little bit now on the nachash. The nachash was loosely translated was a snake, serpent, whose job was to intensify the test. Again, there can't be reward without a test. We know there has to be a test. If there isn't a test then any reward that God gives isn't meaningful. As someone once said, you know what you know, soccer is a great game. Just remove the goalie you'll be you can score so many goals. You know, what's so hard about that? Ooh, that's not a game. The game is when you have the goalie trying to block you. And you have three fullbacks getting in the way of the goalie. And you get around them then you succeed then you could cheer. Wow, I scored a goal. But without opposition, what's the what's the value of success? And for spiritual gain which and the reward that God wants to offer us for eternity, there has to be a challenge as well. So, one way in which Hashem wanted to intensify the challenge so we should truly receive the reward that he wants to give is he created a creature or being or creature let's let's use that word called the nachash. Now, the nachash was a very interesting type of animal in the garden because the nachash was as it says it was arum chapter 3 verse 1. Arum meaning naked. Didn't maybe didn't have fur. It seems to be that this nachash was unique in the animal kingdom because it could stand on two legs and it could it could talk to you and speak to you and and and discuss philosophy with you in a in a very unique way. Look at that tree, doesn't it engage you? Doesn't it just draw you in? Doesn't just make you want to think about beautiful ideas? It's it's it's it's a um a very interesting type of of animal or creature. Now, we have a tradition that says the nachash was more than just an animal. That this nachash was in fact the satan. And the satan was placed inside of this animal as it were that can walk and talk and can speak to us. Now, that's interesting in its own right why Hashem chose to place the Satan in a animal or in an animal that can address us. So, first of all, we have to understand that, you know, we understand that the Satan is an angel of Hashem. Satan works for Hashem. Satan is one of Hashem's most maybe most important angel. Cuz his job is to intensify our free choice. And by intensifying our free choice, allow us to earn the reward God wants to give us forever. Nowhere do we say that the Nachash is that the Satan is evil. He's doing his job. In fact, we might even say that he's the only angel that's happy when when we don't listen to him. He wants us to succeed because God wants us to succeed. But his job is to test us, and that he does very well. But God placed the Nachash, placed the Satan in this creature called the Nachash. And his job is to come up with the best test he can in order to convince Adam and Eve to eat of the tree. That's his job. That's what Hashem has commanded, instructed him to do. Now, just looking at the pasuk, the word says "venachash arum mikol chayas hasadeh." He was naked. It's interesting. And I look at the translation of arum, it says cunning. Interesting. Naked really means arum means naked. Yet, it's also a word in the Hebrew language for cunning. Cunning meaning crafty, tricky. It's sneaky. Why does the word naked and cunning mean the same thing? I would have thought that they're two polar opposites. You know, sometimes in the English language we'll say the naked truth, which I'm telling you the truth. I'm being extremely honest. To be cunning seems to be the opposite of naked, the naked truth. Perhaps we can suggest that maybe this nachash is going to offer an argument which has a very strong level of truth in it. And in essence is being nakedly honest. But by being nakedly honest he's also being extraordinarily cunning. Let's see if we can explore that and see what that means. So it says that the nachash hayah arum mikol chayas hasadeh. He was the most cunning animals from all the animals of the field. Asher asah Hashem Elokim which God created. Vayomer. And he says a very interesting line. He says to Adam and Chavah. He says to Chavah. Excuse me, to Chavah. He goes to Chavah, to Eve. Why to Chavah not to Adam? Because Adam was given the commandment, not Eve. And therefore he went to the weaker link as it were. You know, his job is to to convince them. He's doing his job well. Go to the weaker link. Go to the one who didn't hear it directly. Adam did hear it directly. Apparently his job was to have taught it well to Eve. So maybe we could say he didn't teach it well. Or maybe Eve wasn't going to learn it or didn't focus well enough. But in any case the nachash chooses well. And he goes to Eve. And what does he say to her? His opening salvo, his opening line, his opening attack is very interesting. Listen to the attack. He says af ki amar Elokim even if God said lo tochlu mikol ets hagan. He stops. Af ki amar Elokim lo tochlu mikol ets hagan. Even if God said don't eat from all the trees of the garden. Even if God said don't eat from all the trees of the garden. And he stops. What's wrong with that sentence? First of all, it's a fragment. Even if God said, "Don't eat from all trees of the garden." comma And he stops. Whenever you have an even, even if God said, "Don't eat from all trees of the garden." You just can't end the sentence there. You have to fill it in with something else. That's a fragment. You have to end it. Apparently, he wanted Eve to fill in the sentence in her mind. Even if God said, "Don't eat from all the trees of the garden." If you fill in the blank, who cares what God said? Apparently, it seems like that's what he was trying to to inspire in Eve's mind. Her to fill in the sentence where she would say, "Who cares what God said?" The question of that is is is that a powerful opening attack? One would think that the Nachash would use his his strongest argument. Is that the strongest argument he could use? I mean, we were in the Garden of Eden still. Eve was created by Hashem just a few hours before going to the Garden of Rosh Hashanah. She's intimately aware of the presence of the Almighty. Why would she want to do anything against that which Hashem wants? Why would she in her mind even think to think, "Who cares what God says?" Of course she cares what God says. She's aware of aware of God Hashem's enormity. His size, his power, his love, his his his creation, his gift of life to her. How could one betray Hashem when you're so aware of Hashem? What's the Nachash trying to do with an argument of "Even if God said, 'Don't eat.'" Well, if you fill in the blank, "Who cares what God said?" That doesn't seem to be a powerful attack. I'd like to share with you an approach that Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch says. And I want to thank David Foreman for for really uh highlighting this to me. Maybe what the nachash is saying, and this comes from Rav Hirsch, is you have to read the verse a little bit differently. Let's read it with a different inflection. The nachash turns to Eve and says, "V'yomer la'isha af ki amar Elohim even if God said lo tokhlu mikol eitz hagan, don't eat from all the trees of the garden. Even if God said don't eat. Why do you have to listen to what God said? Maybe Hashem communicates in another language. Well, what is that other language? Well, let me tell you. Eve, I'm from the animal kingdom. I'm a nachash. It's true I can walk and I can talk and I I can engage you in dialogue. That's very true. But I want to describe I want to ask you a question. I as an animal, when I look at that tree, you know what happens to me? My eyes get drawn towards cuz it that fruit looks so luscious. I I then begin to salivate. I think about it. And all of a sudden I I have a desire that my teeth just want to take a bite of it. And I just want to taste it and I want to just feel it and and be able just to enjoy it. Eve, let me ask you question. What happens when you look at that tree? You know what you would say back? It's interesting. I feel the exact same thing. I'm looking I'm so inspired by it. I'm so enticed by it. It just is attracting my attention. It looks so lush, so delicious. I just want to take a bite of it and enjoy it and and the snake turns to Eve, "Is it really? Wow. You and I have the same desires. Eve, let me ask you a question. That desire that you feel for the tree. The desire that you feel for that that fruit. Whatever it might be. For way to bait in the topic one it is. Whatever that desire you feel for the tree. Where did that desire come from? Did God create that desire? And of course Eve would say back, "Yeah, of course God created that desire. He created every aspect of who I am." So, Eve, let me ask you a question. Have Let me ask you a question. If God created that desire, why do you want to withhold and resist a desire that God created in you? If God creates desire, isn't it holy? Isn't it kadosh? Isn't it supposed to be utilized because it's a expression it's a something Hashem gave you? It's Hashem planted inside of you. It's his gift to you. He's speaking to you through that desire that he wants you to enjoy the world through it. He wants you to pleasure through it. It's He planted that desire there. Eve, why do you want to control and resist that which Hashem planted inside of you? He's the creator of it. I'm an animal and when I feel desire for something, Hashem wants me to go for it. He created that same desire in you. Maybe he wants you to listen to that language. That language that comes from within inside yourself. Even if God said don't eat. Why is God's word more important than the other way speaks to you, which is through the desires of your body, desires of your hearts, of your heart? They're both God created, aren't they? Why is one more powerful than the other? Even if I've I'm a little kid, even if God said don't eat, why is God's word the only thing you should listen to? Maybe you need to listen to the other part of your creation, the animal in you, which is also God's creation of you, the desires and your passions. Now, perhaps it sounds a little strange to us because we understand that of course the job of life is to have God's word rule the body. But maybe on the first day of creation, where there's an animal kingdom, and there's this completely new creation called the Adam, the human being, together with the animals. Maybe there's need for differentiation. Where are you? What side of the fence do you belong on? What's your relationship to the animal kingdom? Are you completely different being? Or are you in some ways similar because you do share something in common? Define yourself. What's the true holiness of who you are? Is it God's word that comes through the mind or God's word that comes through the body? Now, you know, when I say it might sound a little bit simplistic in in in some ways, but the reality, the message that's been communicated, I think is extraordinarily sophisticated, that that is the fight that we all face. The challenge of life is always God's word versus me, God's word versus my body, my passions, my lusts, my desires, my wants, my selfishness, my my my my insecurities and fears because, you know, I'm I'm in the body's naturally afraid and the mind knows God's there. That battle between the mind and the body is the is the challenge of a human being, every human being. And so right now the snake is addressing Hava and saying, "Well, who is the real you? Is it God speaking through your mind with a command? Or is that holiness of your body, which is your passion, desires, God's creation? Maybe that's what you're supposed to be listening to to find yourself. They're both holy, aren't they? Of course, we understand that the holiness of the body is is a function of when we direct it through the mind, but they are both inherently holy. You know, I just I I was told once Rabbi Foreman mentioned this and I think it's worth sharing that a a late-night uh radio caster was once interviewing a a a boy who were young teen a teenager who had chosen celibacy before marriage. And this interviewer was giving him a tough time and asking him a question and saying to him, "Let me ask you a question. You've you've chosen celibacy before marriage." And so there was a kid who was a so so religious person in his own right. And he said, "Yes." And he said, "Um let me ask you a question. Are you are you attracted to the opposite gender?" And he said, "Yeah, of course I'm attracted." And he said, "Let me ask you a question. Um do you believe in God?" He goes, "Of course I I believe in God. That's the my motivation for what I'm I'm doing." He goes, "Let me ask you one more question. Who created the attraction? Didn't God create the attraction? If God created the attraction, why do you want to limit and withhold and resist that which God created? God created it. If God created it, isn't it whole? So, why aren't you going for it? Why aren't you pursuing it? Why aren't you following it? Apparently, this teenager couldn't really answer that. But when we think about the question, whose question was that? That was the question of the nachash. That was the snake. God created desires and passions. Why don't you follow them? They're his creation. Why is God's word more important? They're also natural desire. We see how easily one could fall into that trap. Because our desires and passions do possess us and are so much a part of us and differentiating between that part of ourselves and God's word and separating the two so God's word rules over them is one of the challenges of life. And one can almost hear that argument in one's head. Well, if God created desire, well, you know, why why resist it? Why control it? We have to understand a higher level vision of life. The kedusha comes through channeling it and utilizing it properly. But on day one of creation, not a bad test for the first man and woman, for the first woman in this case. Who are you? Are you totally separate from the animal kingdom? Or since you share common qualities, maybe you're supposed to act on those qualities because they too are God created. And we know, of course, Eve failed test. And she does eat. Now, just two points I want to make on this. Number one, it's interesting that before Eve is created, so we know that God creates Adam and he says that famous line Lo tove hayos Adam levado eslo kinegdo, it's not good for a man to be alone. I'm going to create for ezer kinegdo, a helpmate who's in opposition. Rashi tells us if he's zocher, she'll be an ezer. If he's lo zocher, kinegdo. Say if a person, if a man follows the word of Hashem, she'll system and help him. If a man resists Hashem, she'll be in opposition. A woman is a spiritual compass. And then, after saying let's create an ezer kinegdo, Hashem commands Adam to go out and name the animals. What does Hashem say? It says Hashem says vayavei Adam lieros mai yikra lo. Hashem presents to him all the chayos hasadeh v'chol of hashamayim, the the animals, the birds. Brings it to Adam to see what you'll what what will you name them? Apparently, the names of the animals were Adam's invention. Kol asher yikra lo Adam nefesh chaya shmo. And the name which Adam will give, that will be his name. And just for example, I'd like to use this example, and which could be true, but I think it might be true. Adam looked at the elephant and called the elephant peel. Pei yud lamed. So, it's interesting. Why did he call the elephant a peel? Well, the letter pei means mouth. The letter yud, the letter yud means yada, hand. Interesting. Where's the hand of the elephant? It's on its mouth. And the letter lamed means lamed, which means teach. Interesting, you know, that trunk of the elephant, that hand of the elephant which is on his mouth, is an extraordinary organ. It can pick up trees. Some countries they actually use them almost tractors. At at same time, it's so refined and and so delicate that it can extract a seed from a nut. It's like a laparoscopic instrument in the operating room at the same time being a caterpillar tractor. You know, we human beings, we can create tractors and we can create laparoscopic instruments. But that we I've never created a tractor which also has the capacity to to dissect seeds from nuts. That we can't do. But you look at that trunk of the elephant. It has two opposite qualities, strength and detail in one. Strength and exactitude in one. That's only something I could create. So interesting. Adam looks at the elephant and says, "You're a peel. Pay your lemon. The hand on your mouth teaches." What does it teach? It teaches the glory of Hashem. It teaches how great Hashem is. Only Hashem could create such a wondrous organ. That's the trunk of the elephant. That's a peel. Pay in case. Adam is tasked to name the animals. Before Eve is created. And our sages say something very interesting that he was really told to go out to the animals and really look at them. Really examine them deeply. See what his relationship to them is. So perhaps we might suggest that Hashem in his infinite kindness he knew what he was asking of the snake. He was asking of the snake to really test them. Test them to say, "Who are you? Are you an animal with desires and passions? And of course God's word is part of it. Or you something totally different in the animal kingdom where God's word is to completely control the animal in you. As God knows the test that he's asked the snake to perform, maybe he's giving Adam this assignment before creating Eve so that Adam should have an intimate awareness of how different he is from the animal kingdom. So that when this test comes down the pipe, he'll be alerted. He'll be ready for it. He'll be able to to say, "You can't fool me with this one. I have nothing in common with the animal kingdom." But the snake was tricky. The snake went to Chava. Maybe Chava didn't get the messages clearly. Now, it's also interesting to make a comment. At the end of the story, what happens? So, Hashem speaks to Adam. He asks Adam a question, and he says to Adam, he said, "Why did you do it?" And Adam, in that enormous lack of gratitude to Hashem for creating Eve, says, "Ha'isha asher the the woman asher nasati imadi that you gave to stand beside me, she gave to me to eat." God turns to Eve and says, "Why did you do it?" And he says, "Ha nachash hishiani." The snake seduced me. Then Hashem turns to the nachash, and he says to the nachash, he doesn't ask the nachash a question. What does he say to the nachash? In chapter 3, verse 14, Hashem turns to the nachash and says, "Vayomer Hashem Elohim el ha nachash, ki asisa zot." Because you did this, Hashem doesn't ask why he did it, like he asked Adam and Chava. The answer is because he knows why he did it. I told you to eat But then Hashem says, "Arurata mikol habahaema." You're going to be cursed from all the animals. "U'miko chayas hasadeh u'miko chayas hasadeh u'miko chayas hasadeh." "Al gachonach telech u'afar tochal kol yemai chayecha." You're going to crawl on your stomach now. No more legs. And eat dust the rest of your life. "V'aiva ashite beincha u'vein ha'isha u'vein zar'acha u'vein zar'ah." And I'm going to create hatred between you and and mankind. Who you wish to be out of my curve. They're going to want to step on your head and you're going to try to bite their heel. There's going to be an enmity between you and the man and you you and mankind now. Now, question. As we see, God doesn't ask the Nachash why he did it. He knows why he did it. Because he programmed it. He told him to. If he if that's so, why does he seemingly punish him at the end of the story? He really did that which Hashem asked of him. You know? Why? So, Rav Hirsch offers something very interesting. Rav Hirsch says, once again, who says it's a punishment? How can you punish an angel? Remember, he's the Satan. In this body, in this Nachash. An angel can only do the will of God. An angel can't disobey God. So, how can he punish him for doing what he was supposed to have done? True, he did his job well, but that's what he was told to do. So, Rav Hirsch suggests and says, maybe it's not a punishment. Who says it's a punishment? It's a consequence. But, the consequence isn't for the Nachash. Isn't for the snake. It's for mankind. We should understand something. That argument that the snake used that says there is no difference between the human being and the animal. That argument is baseless. That argument has no legs to stand on. No longer can you walk on two legs and crawl on your stomach. It's a baseless argument. Never think that's true. We're entirely different than the animal kingdom. We're controlled by God's word. Not by the animal inside of us. We rule the animal inside of us. We stand on all We stand upright with the head has to be above the heart. And head and a above loins. Animals walking on fours had heart, passion, only instinct. We God's word has to be what controls us. The word Niddah says that the baby in the womb holds its head. Why? Because in the womb it's connected to your mind and understands the source of my connection is my mind because that's where God's word flows. That has to direct me. And now what happens? Snake is going to be despised by mankind. That same snake which was almost like a friend that could talk to you and address you and say, "Join me in the animal kingdom. Be like me." That snake becomes a reptile which is the polar opposite of a human being. You know, the the reptile kingdom is is the most unhuman-like type of animal out there. You know, when we go to the zoo, we like going to the gorilla cage. Why? Because they're so human-like. They seem to hold their children in similar ways and and and and and walk with them and there's certain enjoyment looking at an animal that does things very much like the human being. Of course, they don't have a way to do that. But the enjoyment of going to the reptile cage is there's a strangeness in it. They're so unhuman-like. And therefore, they've always been a symbol throughout history of of of of being unhuman. You know, modern tales also. You know, this idea that the the snake is always like Voldemort likes the snake, you know, if Harry Potter fans out there. You know, it's it's whenever we're talking about a being that's unhuman, it relates to the snake. Hashem turns this same creature that said, "Join me in the animal kingdom." into a creature now which says, "I'm so different from you." So, we should never again make that error to think that the real me is the animal. The real I is God's word. And that's how we should live our lives. That's how we direct our lives. I think there's a little bit of the wisdom that we we gain from just a a little a view of this story. And God willing going forward now the next number of weeks, we hope to explore together a few more of the stories in in the book of gracious as well as we shall find the depth of the meaning and help us to live our lives with more color and more verb and more meaning and more beauty. Wish everybody a wonderful week. Thank you so much for listening.