[Ed. Note] Out of the respect and recognition of the impact made by longtime BJL friend and contributor, Reb Shaya Gross, z’l, we will maintain a living memoriam to Shaya through the sweet words and thoughtful insights of his Divrei Torah. BJL readers will remember his weekly column on the Parsha and on various Torah ideas and concepts. These meaningful words will help us remember this special young man who will be sorely missed and for those who did not merit to know him, this will be the most appropriate way for them to become familiar with who he was.
When the serpent was enticing Chava to sin, Chava committed a huge blunder that led to her sinning & eating from the Tree of Knowledge. She told the serpent that G-d said not to eat or TOUCH the tree. G-d had only told her not to eat from the tree, He hadn’t told her not to touch it. Hence Rashi points out, quoting the Gemara in Sanhedrin, that Chava’s adding to G-d’s commandment is what caused her to sin, as ‘when you add to G-d's commandment you subtract’.
What does this mean that adding to one of G-d’s commandments causes one to subtract from G-d's commandments.
I suggest the following.
Picture the following scene and tell me if you haven’t witnessed something similar to it, be it a difference in age, gender, or chumros [stringencies]. You have a young man who is very sincere and interested in growing spiritually and he sincerely takes on a lot of chumros, like learning 16 hours a day, no schmoozing, no playing ball... And then what happens is he thinks that what he is doing is what G-d says he HAS to do, and that there is no place for fun, relaxing, or geshmak in Judasim, so he eventually completely abandons ship, because his humanness requires relaxing and enjoying, and his warped philosophy fueled by his Yetzer Hara tells him that it is all absolutely forbidden. It is very important for us to realize that the only things that are forbidden are what the Torah says are forbidden. Anything else while for some people at specific times may be good stringencies, but they are not required and even if at times we do those extra things they should never be viewed as requirements from the Torah. As the more we limit ourselves and prohibit ourselves in areas the Torah doesn’t limit or set guidelines in, the more confined we are in that area and then the more probable it is that we will completely abandon the Mitzva if it gets too tough…
This I suggest is what Chazal mean when they say, ‘if you add to the Torah you will eventually subtract from it’. And this I suggest could be the understanding here by Chava. She meant very well, adding the chumrah of not touching the fruit to help protect her from eating it, but her adding to the Torah and saying that this is what the TORAH says and requires, was a dangerous mistake that led her to completely violating the REAL Mitzva when it became too confusing and tough.
May we all take this lesson to heart that when we desire to grow closer to Hashem instead of just ‘assering’ on ourselves things and confining ourselves, let us rather try to make our mitzva observance more wholesome by the kavanos and feeling of joy that we have when we perform the mitzvos. And when our body tells us we need exercise, sleep, food etc. instead of stunting our bodily needs, let us elevate them by doing all of them for the right reason i.e. to keep ourselves healthy and happy so we can serve Hashem better with a more healthy and happy mindset.
