I have a couple of questions about Genesis

[zachor_ve_kavod]

Why did G-d not want Adam or Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  Did He originally want to keep people ignorant?

The first thing that Adam and Eve learned after having eaten the fruit, is that the were naked.  The primacy of this suggests its importance.  Why of all the things that man needed to learn, was the very first thing he did learn about was that he was naked and that this was wrong?  I'm guessing it has to do with the importance of modesty or maybe it has to do with man's transcendance over nature.  Or perhaps it has to do with the fact that worshiping the human body is idolatrous.

Any thoughts?

[q_q_]

Purely from the text, I would say..


Serving , obeying G-d is the ideal..
So there's a good reason why it would have been better not to have eaten the fruit, why G-d didn't want them to. Besides the fact that he wanted to be obeyed, and besides the infinite wisdom behind his command. Serving G-d is the ideal. It was easier without doing that. They would now get other interests, think more about them, more room to go astray.

Regarding the nakedness.

When you are young you don't care that you are naked.. when older you become more conscious.. And as your brain develops you make more thought out moral decisions.  So actually recognizing that you are naked, being embarrassed, not knowing why, is a key developmental stage in consciousness, a big change. It's no petty thing. It's a rite of passage. And it marks the beginning of an increase in consciousness that is a mark or the mark of adulthood.

Adam and Chavoh were there to serve G-d, but now it would be more difficult.

Infact, it is like childhood to adulthood.   No longer are they so completely provided for by their father.

[Ulli]

It could have something to do with our ability to sin. God wanted the best for us.

After Adam knew right and wrong God has to punish him because He is a just god and he didn't like to do it. So He made this tree forbidden because of His love to Adam and Eve not in order to keep them ignorant.

[muman613]

Shalom Zachor,

This is a very good question. Every year when we start reading Bereshies this is a question I ask.

It seems like having only one commandment would be the easiest thing in the world. All we have to do is not eat from the tree and we will be granted eternal peace.

You have heard that the commandment was really only until sundown and Shabbat started. If only they had waited and it would have been kosher to eat from the tree of good and evil. It is true that they violated this command within the first few hours after Chavas seperation from Adam.

I believe the moral of the story is that Hashem knew that man had a weakness. The snake, who represents our own evil inclination, was able to trick Chava into eating of the tree. This is to teach us that our own yetzer hara is capable of manipulating us into doing things which are against our own best interests.

The basic answer to your question is that Hashem was not playing any kind of game with us. He was not being petty nor was he being arrogant. Hashem simply wanted to see he creation in the light of free will. He knew that they would eat from the tree. And he knew what would come at the end of days. If you read our famous book of wisdom, Pirkie Avos, you learn that Hashem created ten things on the eve of the 1st Shabbat of creation. I will leave it to you to figure out what those ten things were.

We just started the book of Shemot, Exodus, and it is always my favorite Parshas Mishpatim and Yisro.

[Xoce]

Did He originally want to keep people ignorant?

I think it could be that rather than "ignorant" He would have preferred, out of love and for our own sake, that we remain innocent.  Child-like innocence rather than ignorance.

Nobody would consider a smiling, carefree, happy child ignorant.  Nor would they wish upon the child the knowledge of the complexities and suffering which comes from the inevitable choosing of evil over good.

Just some thoughts.
Although it is very very interesting that it is the "knowledge of good and evil" ...

[Xoce]

or does "knowledge of good and evil" just mean to know there is a difference? 

it would seem to me that "knowledge of good" would be a good thing

then again, I've thought about this before that maybe there can't be Good without Evil.  Like there can't be light without darkness.

... ?

But I do not think G_d wanted humans to be ignorant, but rather that He wanted to give us the opportunity to remain innocent, like children, out of love.

It would be a conscious opting out of this state, which lead to what it has lead to.  ahh, we humans are pitiful.

[The One and Only Mo]

Adam and Eve had everything in Paradise except permission to eat from the tree. Hashem wanted to see how his new creations would work, so he tested them as weakly as possible; giving them (only) % 99.99999999  of the universe. Hashem needed to know if man would be able to be live satisfied without having 100% of everything. In Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) we learn that a rich man is one who is satisfied with what he had. Human nature, however, is always to want more. Hashem created man and tested this theory. Adam and Eve, psychologically speaking, were underdeveloped. They couldn't reason, "I have access to % 99.999999 of the universe, and I'm in Paradise. I should be happy." They wanted EVERYTHING. So they ate from the tree. Despite Hashem punishing them for the sin, we see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were blessed with pretty much everything, as was King Solomon among others in Tanach and Jewish History. They were on a different level than Adam and Eve. But Hashem used Adam and Eve to teach us the value of life. To not only be happy with what you have, but to prove that despite human nature to always want more, we must look at what Hashem has given us, and always appreciate it.

[Xoce]

99.999999 %

   how true.  What failures we are to always want that 0.00000000000000001% that we are cautioned against!

[Masha]

Why did G-d not want Adam or Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  Did He originally want to keep people ignorant?

The first thing that Adam and Eve learned after having eaten the fruit, is that the were naked.  The primacy of this suggests its importance.  Why of all the things that man needed to learn, was the very first thing he did learn about was that he was naked and that this was wrong?  I'm guessing it has to do with the importance of modesty or maybe it has to do with man's transcendance over nature.  Or perhaps it has to do with the fact that worshiping the human body is idolatrous.

Any thoughts?

Chaim answered this question on Ask JTF (maybe even a couple of times, if I am not confusing things). According to my best understanding/recollection of his explanation, the problem is that the knowledge of evil can lead to corruption. Such is human nature. If you want to know what pornography is or what violence is for the best possible reason, i.e. just to know the difference between good and evil, you decide watch a pornographic film or a violent film. After you watch it, you are no longer an innocent person. Part of you has become tainted by the evil that you saw. You may even develop appetite for bad things or, in the most innocuous case, become desensitized to them.