WHY WE’RE NOT IMMORTAL (YET)

In a sense, by obliterating the potential for evil (the source of death) we become immortal — for a moment. * G‑d wants us humans to choose Him freely. So even though G‑d ultimately wants good, he also allows for the possibility of evil so that we can choose to make the good materialize. As both personal experience and world history have shown, it hasn’t been an easy struggle…

Everything that exists in the world has a spiritual source from which it stems. Every corporeal being has a metaphysical source; every physical effect has both a physical and an ethereal cause. In medicine, the first step to curing a disease is to determine how it developed. By determining the root cause of the illness, both in a particular patient and in the world a large, doctors can establish a modality for healing. In matters of the spirit, things are no different. In tackling any issue from a spiritual perspective, it is critical to have a contextual framework within which to analyze the cause of the ‘illness’ and thereby set a path for healing.

Both historically and within the individual, death comes into being via spiritual channels, namely negativity and evil. Human action opens the floodgates of spiritual impropriety, and the consequence is the introduction of death into the human experience. The way to remove death from the earth is by reversing the process — by denying the spiritual darkness its forbidden fruits, and utilizing all of our energy exclusively for goodness. As Hana Arendt, G. K. Chesterton and Ayn Rand, among others, have eloquently articulated, evil does not emerge primarily in cauldrons of fiery darkness, but out of emptiness. Sometimes, we can’t help but sink into numbness and frivolity — we are human after all. But in the precious moments (or days or weeks) when we are especially inspired, we can harness the inspiration and throw our entire beings into it, or we can pursue it half-heartedly. By focusing all the energy of that moment for good, we transcend the negativity within us, and deny any empty space into which evil can creep in and fester. In a sense, by obliterating the potential for evil (the source of death) we become immortal — for a moment.

Humans were originally created to live forever. The concept of death was introduced when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thereby bringing negativity into their consciousness and by extension into the entire world. They were then banished from the Garden of Eden, as the Torah explicitly states, lest they eat from the Tree of Life and live forever. What was G‑d afraid of? Why couldn’t they eat from the Tree of Life and live forever? And if living forever is such a problem, why were humans created to be immortal in the first place?

G‑d wants us humans to choose Him freely. So he sticks us in a world (and a body) full of uncertainty, a reality in which denying G‑d and pursuing evil are viable options. For us to live and choose freely, evil has to exist in this reality. So even though G‑d ultimately wants good, he also allows for the possibility of evil so that we can choose to make the good materialize. As both personal experience and world history have shown, it hasn’t been an easy struggle.

Before Adam and Even ate from the Tree of Knowledge, good and evil each had their separate domains. They were clearly defined, and there was no confusion. Adam and Eve were purely good, and the evil that existed somewhere outside of them did not even enter their consciousness. That’s why they could walk around naked without being embarrassed — because there wasn’t an ounce of negativity, even in that area of life. Eating from the Tree of Knowledge brought with it a consciousness of evil, and everything we associate with the human condition today — the sense of divisiveness and internal conflicts we experience. G‑d doesn’t want us to live like this forever. He doesn’t want that negativity to be permanent, so He did us a favor and brought mortality with the negativity. But once we arrive at that state of being that is pure goodness and devoid of any negativity, which will occur in the Messianic era, we will once again live forever.

In the Messianic era, this immortal transcendence will become a permanent feature of the human experience. The fact that we will all experience it, and the fact that it is brought about through our own efforts, means that it is within the power of every individual to make it happen right now.

Reprinted with permission from Exodus Magazine