We read in Parashat Bereshit the famous story of Adam and Havah’s sin in Gan Eden. Hashem had commanded Adam and Havah not to eat the fruit of a particular tree, but the snake managed to convince Havah to taste some fruit. She did, and she then shared it with Adam. All three – Adam, Havah and the snake – were punished because of this sin.
The Gemara makes a fascinating comment about the snake.
Before this sin, the Gemara tells, the snake was the human being’s greatest and most loyal servant. The snake was at Adam’s service, ready to do anything he wanted. It would even go across the world to bring Adam precious jewels. Once the world was cursed because of the sin, the snake no longer served man.
What does this mean? In what way was the snake the human being’s greatest “servant”?
Let us take a step back and consider what exactly happened when the snake convinced Havah to eat the forbidden fruit.
We have all probably wondered, how could Havah have been tempted by this one tree? She was allowed to eat all the other fruit in the garden. How could she have been so foolish, desiring specifically the fruit of the one tree that Hashem had declared forbidden?
The answer is that the snake manipulated Havah’s imagination. She had her imagine that eating the forbidden fruit would bring her unparalleled joy and satisfaction. The snake sent her mind spinning, and she was tantalized by the bliss she imagined she would experience.
The imagination is such a precious and vital asset for all of us. It is only because of our imagination that we are able to aspire, to have ambitions that we work hard to realize. Imagination is what allowed for the great inventions that human beings have come up with. And it is through our imagination that we work hard to build for ourselves the kind of lives we dream about.
This is what the Gemara means when it says that the snake would go across the world and bring Adam precious jewels. Imagination allows us to pursue “jewels,” great achievements. It shows us valuable things “across the world,” that our eyes currently do not see, motivating us to work towards getting them.
But our imagination can also destroy us, as it destroyed Adam and Havah.
We might say that the snake was the first advertiser, or salesman, in human history. What do advertisers do? They manipulate our imagination. They put into our minds images of bliss that we will experience if we purchase what they are trying to sell. They have us imagine unbridled bliss on a luxury vacation, or riding a luxury car, or looking perfect wearing a certain article of clothing. This is when the imagination becomes our worst enemy, causing us to recklessly spend money on something we don’t need and which won’t make us happy.
Imagination also makes us anxious and self-conscious. When we are not invited to an event we expected to be invited to, our imagination gets to work, coming up with all kinds of reasons why we weren’t invited. We feel hurt and insulted, and then angry, because we imagine that the person intentionally scorned us. When we notice a stain on our clothing, or that we accidentally put on the wrong jacket that doesn’t match, we imagine everyone staring at us and secretly laughing at us.
And, of course, it is imagination that leads us to sin. Like Havah, we imagine that doing the forbidden act will bring us joy and bliss, when in truth it will leave us feeling ashamed and upset at ourselves.
The story of the snake in Gan Eden teaches us how careful we have to be with our imagination. We should use it to dream, to aspire to greatness, to motivate us to build and accomplish. But we need to be careful not to allow it to destroy us, to cause us unnecessary anger, anxiety and fear, and not to lead us to do things which we will regret.