The Meshech Chochma has a very interesting thought on how to understand the sin of Chava ( perhaps we will get to the sin of Adam later on).
He points out that when Hashem told Adam about the trees, He said,
מִכֹּל עֵץ הַגָּן אָכֹל תֹּאכֵל:
Eat from every tree in the Garden
וּמֵעֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע לֹא תֹאכַל מִמֶּנּוּ
And from the tree that gives knowledge, good and bad, don’t eat...
But when Adam transmitted this information to Chava, he didn’t mention that it was a Mitzvah to eat from the other trees. He just told her, “Don’t eat from the forbidden fruit,” and then he added, on his own,
“Don’t touch the forbidden fruit.”
He didn’t stress, or even share the fact that it was a Mitzvah to eat from all the other trees. This is a Hiddush for us.
On this pasuk, where it says:
מִכֹּל עֵץ הַגָּן אָכֹל תֹּאכֵל:
Eat from every tree in the Garden,
The Meshech Chochma writes,
הוא מצוה להחיות נפשו
It’s a Mitzvah to give your soul life
ולהנות מפרי הגן
And to enjoy from the fruits of the Garden
It’s not there just to eat, in order to remain alive. Hashem wants us to enjoy it as well. It’s not a coincidence that food tastes good. And in order for a food to taste, there are many things that have to happen. Simply speaking, food has to have the chemicals that taste but tasteful foods, without functioning tastebuds, don’t work.
Hashem created flavors- tangy, for example, and also made receptors on the tongue, called taste buds, that can detect that flavor. Of course, there is much more than just “tangy” flavor. We know that the tastebuds on the tongue have the ability to taste five different types of flavors: Saltiness, sourness, bitterness, sweetness, and something called umami. Each of these is necessary to drive use to some purpose. Sweet or umami flavors drive us eat sugars, carbohydrates or proteins. We need saltiness because we need salt. And sour and bitter flavors help us stay away from things that aren’t healthy.
So the food has taste, and the tastebuds can detect the taste. But that’s still not enough- you need a brain to be able to process all of that, and tell you that you’re tasting something good/bad.
All of this wasn’t necessary. We could have survived without the sweet or umami aspect, and maybe just had the sour/bitter to protect us. But G-d wanted us to enjoy the world. There is no question about it. And Adam should have conveyed that to Chava. The Meshech Chochma says that if Adam would have told Chava about the Mitzvah of eating from the other trees, it would have protected her from eating from the Etz HaDa’at.
Chava ate from the other trees before she ate from the Etz Ha’Daat, but since she didn’t know about the Mitzvah, she couldn’t fulfill it. Even if you hold that a Mitzvah doesn’t need kavana, you still have to know the Mitzvah exists.
(For example, if you eat Matzah on Pesach without kavana, maybe the Mitzvah doesn’t need kavana and it counts, but if you thought it was a regular weekday, than it wasn’t a Mitzvah at all.)
Chava had no idea that she was doing a Mitzvah, and therefore, it couldn’t protect her.
The lesson for us is that we need to know about this Mitzvah. Hashem wants us to enjoy. The Meshech Chochmah brings down a Yerushalmi which is also quoted by the Mesilat Yesharim. A Nazir is punished because he stays away from wine. What’s wrong with that? The Yerushalmi explains that a person will held accountable for the pleasures of the world that he didn’t enjoy. The Nazir didn’t appreciate, or go out of his way to see how much Hashem wants him to enjoy this world. Of course, Hashem ultimately wants us to enjoy the World to Come, but Hashem isn’t waiting for that. He’s giving us a lot of pleasure in this world.
This is an important piece of information, that will protect us. It will give us an appreciation and gratitude, and that’s the whole basis of our religion. The Hovot HaLevavot says the whole Avodat Elokim is based on the principles of gratitude and appreciation.
So let’s go out today and buy ourselves something delicious, either to save for Shabbat or even to enjoy any day of the week, and say, “Wow! I appreciate that tangy flavor!” We have to appreciate all the different nuances of the food- the smells, the colors, and all of the things G-d put together in order to give us an enjoyable experience. Let’s say Thank You, which goes back to our good ol’ Shehakol Ni’hiyah Bidvaro.
Have a wonderful day.