Spark of Jewish Experience

After Adam sinned, G-d gave him a choice of punishments, a smorgasbord; pick you poison. Either, “From the sweat of your brow, you will make a living”. In other words, it’s going to be difficult. Dealing with moody bosses, long commutes, compact sandwiches for lunch, ridiculed by the wife for not bringing enough money on the table, are just a few highlights of this punishment. The second choice is to eat grass with the animals. Although man has no problem making a living, the humiliation and disgrace of eating the same food next to the animal is a punishment. As some of us are aware, man picked “sweat of your brow.”

The Gemarah asks why did Adam pick ‘sweat of your brow”?  Wouldn’t it be more practical to pick the other? After all, what is the most cherished commandment G-d gave?  G-d wants us to learn His Torah. Time is always a challenge. If we didn’t have the burden of making a living, then we would spend more time learning G-d’s Torah. So why did Adam pick “sweat of your brow”?  Rav Henoch Leibowitz z’l teaches us that the humiliation of squatting down next to the animal will make it very difficult to learn. Man needs to be proud; his self-esteem has to be high in order to comprehend. Similarly, man has to be in a happy state to learn G-d’s Torah. Although “sweat of your brow” is difficult, even a minuscule amount earned will give man the confidence to learn Torah.

One should know, it’s very important to set aside time to learn. Without the learning of G-d’s Torah, even for a bit, makes a person lose its luster and confidence in oneself. Making a living is nourishment for the physical; learning Torah is nourishment for the spiritual. When G-d created man, the scripture says VA’YIETZAR – and He created – which is spelled with two yuds as opposed to one yud pertaining to creating the animals. The two yuds represent the physical and the spiritual. This is what sustains man and makes him complete.