(pages 75-80)
All of man’s talents and strength are given to be put to use to uplift them and creatively do good. Man is capable of understanding this role on his own when he looks at the world around him and observes how the world funtions. God also reveals His will to man.
There is a risk that man may consider himself as master of himself and the world, rather than a servant of God. He may come to think that his insight, creativity and talents show that he is an end to himself.
Garden of Eden – This episode of the Torah serves as the paradigm for God’s education of man. Everything was given to man with one exception. The fruit of the tree appealed to man. Man craves it. It seems good, subjectively, to him. And isn’t the whole world man’s to do with as he pleases – just like all the other things around are for man to have and use? Therein lies the error. Man’s task is to use the world according to God’s rules.
Banished from the Garden, God reveals Himself as a fatherly Judge. Life becomes more difficult with less ease and more effort needed to survive and flourish. This new existence serves as a constant reminder that nothing is to be taken for granted and everything is to be put to use for a higher purpose. (This is the path back to the Garden of Eden which man will ultimately return to by the end of history. And it is the path of every individual throughout history. GS)
Cain and Hevel – Labor creates the risk that man becomes attached to what he produced with his work. Cain (לשון קנין).
The Nefilim (those who fell) – Man declines even further as the need to provide for his physical necessities take up the bulk of his time and efforts.
Dor Enosh – Idolatry – Man projects his self-centered understanding of himself onto the universe. He no longer sees the forces of the world acting in harmony to serve God. Instead man sees each as their own force, much like he sees himself.
Noach remained the last person who understood what it meant to walk before God Alone, who stove for righteousness and also controlled and ennobled his animal nature.
He was saved with his family to bring about the reconstruction on mankind.
