By Rabbi Joshua (sartorially known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
The Torah informs us, after recording God's punishment of Adam and his wife Chava for eating from the forbidden fruit, that God made them garments of skin and clothed them (Bereishis, 3:20). According to Rashi, God made clothing for them because they had been walking around unclothed without feeling shame, but the snake saw them having marital relations, desired Chava, and caused her to sin. However, if the purpose of the clothing was merely to cover their bodies, why was there a need for God to make these clothes? Didn't Adam and Chava themselves make clothing out of fig leaves after their sin? Rabbi Yosef Wanefsky, zt'l, of Yeshiva University, in his work From the Shadow of Insight, strengthened this question by referring to the talents of Kayin, Yaval and Tuval Kayin, who built cities and made all kinds of tools for man's benefit. Didn't Adam and Chava have the innate intelligence to make their own clothing? Why was it necessary for God Himself to make these clothes? He answers that God was thereby helping them extricate themselves from their spiritual despondency that came as a result of their sin. I would like to elaborate on this explanation, on the basis of a seminal idea of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik,zt'l.
Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik explained that mystery of the Parah Adumah, or Red Heiffer, whose ashes are used in the process of purification from impurity which comes as a result of contact with a human corpse, is the mystery of death itself. Man is unable to come to terms with the fact that he is not in control of his own mortality, but must eventually die. That is why, whereas in the purification process from other types of impurity, one merely immerses himself in a mikvah after the passage of a certain amount of time, in the purification process for corpse defilement, there is an additional need for haza'ah, or the sprinkling of ashes mixed with water upon the person being purified. This sprinkling is not under the person's control, just as death is not under man's control Haza'ah, says Rav Soloveitchik, being done by an outside source, indicates that man cannot, on his own, deal with his own mortality. He needs to attach himself to an outside source, namely, God, who is described by the prophet as, in the future, sprinkling purifying waters on the Jewish people, in order to come to terms with the fact that he will inevitably die. Once man realizes that he is not in control of his own life and that he will eventually die, he realizes that he needs to turn to God, Who is eternal. By doing so, he connects with his own soul, the tzelem Elokim, or image of God, with which he was created, and is able to emerge from the despondency that thoughts of his eventual death generate within him. How does all of this, however, relate to the clothes that God made for Adam and Chava after they sinned?
In last year's Netvort to parhsas Bereishis, we mentioned Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch's explanation of the sin of eating from the 'eitz hada'as,' or the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Rabbi Hirsch writes that since Adam must have had free choice at the time that God commanded him not to eat from the 'eitz ha-da'as, it cannot be that eating from that tree changed his nature at all, as some other commentators wish to explain. Rather, we must explain the term 'eitz hada'as' not as the tree that introduced knowledge of good and bad into man but, rather, as the tree which would serve as the model for what is considered good and bad for man. After the serpent urged Chava to eat from the tree, the Torah relates her thinking: " And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, and she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate"(Bereishis 3:6). Chava's decision was, then, based on her own personal assessment of the utility of the tree's fruit, rather than on the instructions given by God. Animals, says Rav Hirsch, follow their instincts when they act, and serve their personal needs. Man, however, has a higher calling, and his decisions on how to act must be made in accordance to God's instructions. As a punishment to Chava and Adam for following their own criteria for morality, they became subject to death. The educative purpose of this punishment, as we explained, was to force man to turn to God. Understanding that God gives ultimate meaning to his life, then, moves man to turn to God for guidance in living that life each day. In this way, the punishment of being subject to death, to being mortal, served as a corrective to man's sin.
Based on our explanation of the punishment for eating from the eitz hada'as, we can now better understand Rabbi Wanefsky's explanation of why God made clothing for Adam and Chava after they sinned. Adam became despondent after his sin because he realized that he was now subject to death, and so his life was not completely under his control. Rabbeinu Bachya and others explain that when God made clothing for the fallen couple, He was showing them His love for them, despite their sin. In light of Rav Soloveitchik's teaching, we can view this as a kind of sprinkling of the Parah Adumah ashes mixed with water, an act of haza'ah, on God’s part, that man requires in order to deal with his own mortality. Once Adam and Chava experienced this act, and realized that, despite being subject to death in this world, their connection with God and immortality still existed, they could then move on to the further step of a full repentance and return to God.
