5 replies to this topic

[FS613]

L'Chvod Rabbi Shapiro, Shlita:

 

If Adam and Chava "messed up" the world by their sin of eating from the Eitz HaDaas before the correct time,

 

why were they not simply allowed to do something to correct the effect of their sin and bring the world back up to the level of where it was before the sin;

 

instead of needing 6000 years of Jews learning Torah and doing Mitzvos to correct the world?

 

Thank you.

[Rabbi Shapiro]

For the same reason that when you murder someone, you are not simply allowed to do something that will bring your victim back. מעות לא יוכל לתקון וחסרון לא יוכל להמנות.

Adam HaRishon dropped an atom bomb on the DNA of the universe. He poisoned the world with the venom of the Nachash HaKadmoni. When a person does an Aveirah, it has an affect on the world, both physical and spiritual. Just as if you shoot someone doing Teshuva won't undo the damage, so too Adam could not undo the damage that he wreaked on the world with his sin.

But humanity as a whole can. We can and will rebuild the ruins of Adam's destruction iy"h, and when we do, Moshiach comes, at which point in time we take over and proceed to do what Adam failed to do.

The important rule here is, when someone does an Aveirah, the resultant damage, including the punishment and pain the sinner receives, is not an arbitrary response on the part of Hashem, the way, for example, a parent would punish their child for doing something wrong. Instead, the damage caused by an Avierah, including the punishment for the Aveirah, is a direct result of the Aveirah itself, in a deterministic cause-and-effect transaction. It's like saying that if you smash your leg with a hammer, you will feel pain. So too when you do an Aveirah, the results of the Aveirah were caused by the Averah itself, and sometimes those results are more devastating than others. And when Adam did his Aveirah, the results were devastating to the extreme.

But in any case, it is not difficult to understand that the damage caused by an Aveirha cannot be simply undone by another act, any more than physical damage caused by physical means cannot always be undone.

[FS613]

1) If a person does an Aveirah C"V and then repents, can the repentance undo all or some of the spiritual damage of the Aveirah?

 

2) If a person does an Aveirah C"V and then repents and then does a Mitzvah,

 

    can the spiritual energy of the Mitzvah undo all or some of the spritual damage of the Aveirah?

 

(I don't mean, what Adam and Chava did, which affected the entire universe. I'm talking about what an individual Jew does, today.)

 

Thank you.

[Rabbi Shapiro]

1) If a person does an Aveirah C"V and then repents, can the repentance undo all or some of the spiritual damage of the Aveirah?

 

2) If a person does an Aveirah C"V and then repents and then does a Mitzvah,

 

    can the spiritual energy of the Mitzvah undo all or some of the spritual damage of the Aveirah?

 

(I don't mean, what Adam and Chava did, which affected the entire universe. I'm talking about what an individual Jew does, today.)

 

Thank you.

1) Sometimes. Not always.

 

2) No.

[FS613]

Rabbi:

 

If the existence of this world is only the Ratzon Hashem;

 

then after the sin of Adam and Chava,

 

why couldn't Hashem just stop wanting the world to exist, in which case it would have disappeared,

 

and then He could create a new world, in which a new Adam and Chava would have the chance to do the correct thing,

 

and then Moshiach would come right away, and all of humanity would go directly into Olam Haba ?

 

(Instead of needing 6000 years to undo the damage of Adam and Chava's sin.)

 

Thank you.

[taon]

Becuase it was always going to be this way. Rav Shapiro mentions in one of the shiurim, even before th sin, thee malach hamaves already existed.. we are supposed to fix the world