Parashat Bereishit: A Taste of the Tree of Life
How Can Eating Become a Path from the Tree of Knowledge to the Tree of Life?
What Is More Vital – What We Eat or How We Eat?
Food has always been a struggle for me. As a child, I had a very sweet tooth and knew exactly how to move a chair to my mother’s pantry to reach the top shelf where she kept the snacks and candies. When I couldn’t find an open bag, I would make a small slit in the corner of a new one and carefully slide out a single candy, leaving the bag appearing untouched. The problem was that after repeating this procedure several times, the sagging bag would eventually reveal my ‘crime.’ At times, my craving was so persistent that I ended up emptying the bag completely. My face flushed with embarrassment, knowing full well what was coming – my mother’s inevitable scolding.
Even after moving to Israel and becoming Torah observant, my parents would bring me my favorite black Haribo licorice on their visits, until I finally told them that, although it was verified kosher, it no longer fit into my diet. Gradually, I became more mindful of my eating, realizing that kosher certification alone does not legitimize consuming foods laden with synthetic additives, artificial coloring, and preservatives. Embracing the principle of “we are what we eat,” together with the mitzvah to safeguard our health (Devarim 4:15), I embarked on a cleaner diet and learned to eat more consciously. Once I eliminated refined sugar, my cravings gradually diminished. It was no surprise – refined sugar is highly addictive, something I had never been taught growing up, not even in a home with two medical doctors, nor by my own husband, the doctor. It was through alternative health wisdom and the undeniable lessons of my own body that I learned otherwise. Over time, I let go of other foods as well, each change bringing greater vitality and clarity – but this is not the place to detail them all.
I’ve learned much from the Rambam’s Hilchot De’ot (chapter 4), yet from a Torah perspective, even more important than what we eat is how we eat. Do we eat l’shem Shamayim – for the sake of Heaven – to become strong and healthy in order to serve Him, or do we eat merely to fill the emptiness within? I still struggle with this deeply. I believe this is the essence of our ongoing challenge: to repair the original eating of the forbidden fruit and, thereby, bring about world redemption
What is the Difference Between Unholy and Holy Eating?
I’ve learned from my friend Sarah Yehudit Schneider that, according to Rav Tzaddok, the Tree of Knowledge was not a tree, or a food, or a ‘thing’ at all. Rather, it represents a way of eating. When we take self-conscious pleasure from the world, we momentarily fall from G-d-consciousness and eat in unholiness – from the Tree of Knowledge. In this post-Edenic world, no one completely escapes the pleasure principle, except in rare, elevated moments. The pleasure itself is not the problem – it is how we take it. In moments of unselfconscious rapture – when we are one with the moment, with the music, the prayer, the landscape, or the taste itself – we experience a glimpse of holy pleasure. But when we grab it, trying to possess or consume it, we fall into unholiness. Our work is to learn to eat l’shem Shamayim – for the sake of giving pleasure to Hashem (Based on Sarah Yehudit Schneider, Eating as Tikun).
When humanity ate from the Tree of Knowledge, the world became corrupted; sparks of holiness fell into their husks, and the pure became mixed with the impure. Today, every fruit contains both – the residue of the Tree of Knowledge and the spark of the Tree of Life, its antidote. Mindful eating connects us to the Garden of Eden before the fall, when we ate fruit in the radiant presence of the Shechinah. It anticipates the ultimate redemption of humanity and our return to Eden, when we will once again eat from the Tree of Life (based on Rav Tzaddok HaKohen of Lublin, Pri Tzadik). By blessing our food and consciously linking it to its Divine Source, we elevate our eating and transform each bite into words of Torah. Every time we bring food to our mouth, we are given a choice – whether to continue eating from the fruit of knowledge or, like a tzaddik, to eat from the Tree of Life. This dilemma is still an ongoing struggle for many of us.
How Can We Return to Get a Taste of the Tree of Life?
When the Torah opens with the story of Creation, food immediately appears as a sacred medium between humankind and the Divine. The very first command given to Adam and Chava concerns eating:
ספר בראשית פרק ב פסוק טז וַיְצַו הַשֵׁם אֱלֹהִים עַל הָאָדָם לֵאמֹר מִכֹּל עֵץ הַגָּן אָכֹל תֹּאכֵל: (יז) וּמֵעֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע לֹא תֹאכַל מִמֶּנּוּ כִּי בְּיוֹם אֲכָלְךָ מִמֶּנּוּ מוֹת תָּמוּת:
““Then Hashem Elokim commanded the human, saying: ‘From every tree of the garden you may surely eat. But from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat…’” (Bereishit 2:16-17).
From this very first prohibition in the Torah, eating has become the earliest expression of free will – a spiritual act that can either unite or distance us from Hashem. In Gan Eden, the abundance of fruit symbolized Hashem’s overflowing generosity. Every tree was pleasing to the eye and good for nourishment (Bereishit 3:6), yet only one tree was forbidden. The test was not about deprivation but about awareness – to eat with consciousness. By partaking of the forbidden fruit, Adam and Chava shifted eating from an act of Divine connection to one of self-serving desire. Since then, our meals have carried the potential either to repeat the primordial separation or to repair it through mindful and conscious blessing.
The Zohar teaches that before the sin, Adam and Chava drew sustenance directly from Etz Hachayim – the Tree of Life. This tree represents Torah itself – a channel of pure Divine vitality. Hashem desired that Adam cleave to Him in perfect oneness – with one heart, in a state of unchangeable unity. But when Adam and Chava turned toward the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil – they abandoned the one, eternal tree, exchanging direct light for duality, wholeness for fragmentation, wherein good and evil intermingle. In doing so, they descended from life to death, as the Holy One said: “Adam, you have forsaken life and clung to death.” (Zohar I, 221b). Yet even after the expulsion, the path of return remains open. Every time we choose to eat with holiness – to recite a bracha with intention, to share food with gratitude, to elevate the sparks within creation – we get a taste again of the Tree of Life.
What are the Redeeming Qualities of the Tree of Knowledge?
Despite the tragic repercussions of eating from the Tree of Knowledge, this tree still has the redemptive quality of imbuing humanity with Free Choice. In contrast to every other creature, even the spiritual angels, we now have the ability to overcome evil by choosing good.
Rabbeinu Bachayei explains that Etz Hachayim “was in the very center of the garden,” symbolizing the harmony of Divine vitality flowing from above. It “gave long life to those who ate from it,” while the Etz Hada’at – the Tree of Knowledge – “instilled within those who ate from it will and choice, whether for spiritual or physical matters.” Before eating from it, Adam’s actions were entirely spiritual, aligned with Divine awareness like those of an angel of Hashem, whose every movement reflects higher consciousness. After eating, he drew to himself will and choice and became clothed within physical desire. This new capacity for choice, Rabbeinu Bachayei explains, was both elevated and dangerous – “a Divine attribute, good from one aspect and harmful from another,” for it introduced the struggle between body and soul. When choosing the Tree of Knowledge, humanity “cut off the higher planting,” severing the human soul from its direct connection to the Source of eternal life (Rabbeinu Bachayei, Bereishit 2:9).
Rav Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin expands this vision, teaching that the Etz Hachayim is the Torah itself – “the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden… the central point from which all other trees draw nourishment.” Etz Hada’at stands beside it, also channeling vitality to all creation. Before Adam’s sin, both trees were united in holiness, for “had Adam not sinned, even the Tree of Knowledge would have been transformed into the Tree of Life, and evil would have been utterly nullified from the world.” Through sin, however, “even the Tree of Life – the Torah – became interwoven with the aspect of the Tree of Knowledge, containing pure and impure, permitted and forbidden.” Our task in this world is to restore Torah, and all eating, to its pristine source of light – separating the holy from the profane and returning creation to its original harmony through mindful eating (Rav Tzadok HaKohen, Makhshavot Charutz, Ot 15).
How Can We Participate in the Repair of Eating from the Tree of Knowledge Today?
According to Arizal, when Adam sinned, his act caused the Divine light that animated creation to shatter and scatter. The nitzotzot kedushah – sparks of holiness that sustained the lower worlds – fell into the grasp of the kelipot, the shells of impurity. These sparks became trapped within material existence, giving vitality even to forces of concealment. The main life-force of these shells arises from the sparks of holiness hidden within them, and we are required to refine them and elevate them back to their original place (Etz Chayim, Gate 9, Chapter 2).
Arizal further reveals that eating in holiness rectifies this very separation. Through mindful achilah b’kedushah, one elevates the fallen sparks of holiness (nitzotzot) that were dispersed through Adam’s sin, restoring them to their Divine root. When food is eaten with gratitude, purity, and intention, it becomes spiritual nourishment that reunites body and soul, reconnecting humanity to the Etz Hachayim (Rav Shemuel Vital, Machberet HaKodesh, Sha’ar HaShabbat).
Food was never meant merely to sustain the body. It was designed to sustain consciousness. Each fruit, grain, and seed holds a whisper of Eden, inviting us to restore harmony between our physical and spiritual selves. The act of eating can once again become an entryway into Eden, where every bite becomes an offering of awareness that unites body and soul in His service, a doorway back to Hashem’s presence in the Garden.
