It could be easy to dismiss as myth the Bible account of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2–3). Can god-like wisdom come from eating fruit from a special tree? How could the fate of humanity be tipped toward toil and sorrow just because Adam and Eve selected fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad versus the Tree of Life?
But this passage from the beginning of the Book of Beginning — בְּרֵאשִׁית Beresheet (“in the beginning,” Gen. 1:1–6:8) really directs us to the key question the Creator asked the first couple before and after their fruit selection: Will you choose life or choose death? Appeal, similar to what Moshe posed in Deut. 30:19 and what’s seen in the Book of Revelation, was presented physically in the form of two trees, both of which the Holy One created.
And this choice of the path toward life versus the path toward death is one that each of us have to keep making from one moment to the next.
