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© 2016 John D. Brey.

Rabbi Yose said, "Israel accepted the Torah only so the Angel of Death would have no dominion over them, as is said: I thought you were gods, children of the Most High, all of you, but now that you have acted corruptly, you will surely die like אדם (adam) humans."

BT Avodah Zarah 5a: translated by Professor Daniel Matt.

Let him study the Torah, as it says, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life; and the tree of life is nought but the Torah, as it says, She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her!

BT Berakhot 32b.

Interpreting these statements from the Talmud the Zohar ( Hayyei Sarah 1:32a) says: "If only they had not sinned ---forsaking the Tree of Life --- they would not have reinflicted death upon the world."

Rav Yosef taught: " . . . When the serpent copulated with Eve, he injected her with זוהמא (zohama), filth [or: slime, lewdness]. Israel, who stood at Mount Sinai---their zohama ceased. 
 
BT Shabbat 145b--146a.

Interpreting this statement the Zohar (Be-Reshit 1:52a-1:52b) says: "Then he rose, drawn toward Adam and his wife, clung to them, inflicted death upon them and upon all subsequent generations. -----Until Israel arrived at Mount Sinai, his slime never ceased infecting the world . . . when Israel stood at Mount Sinai, before sinning, the slime of the serpent was eliminated from them [brit milah], for the evil impulse was repulsed by them, universally abolished."

The Talmud states in many places that the Torah is the Tree of Life. But instead of eating from the Tree of Life Adam eats from the tree of knowledge and therein becomes a slave to the angel of death. Adam and his offspring become mere humans and not the sons of God as was the original plan prior to the original sin.

Berachot 32b is clear that the angel of death thinks Israel are the sons of God and not the fallen humans associated with Adam's phallic-offspring. 

Prior to the calf-fiasco Israel represents what Adam represented prior to eating from the tree of knowledge. They stood at Sinai prepared to eat from the Tree of Life thereby returning all mankind to the state that existed prior to mankind being subjugated to the angel of death. Had Israel eaten from the Tree of Life rather than the tree of knowledge (the text come from the pen of God rather than from his mouth) they would have abolished the evil-inclination and mankind would no longer be sinners subject to the angel of death.

Sinai is commentary on the Fall of mankind. The events at Sinai fill in the blanks in Genesis concerning the true nature of the Fall. What does it mean to eat from the tree of knowledge rather than the Tree of Life? The question is not answered in Genesis. It's answered in Exodus when Israel as a corporate version of prelapsarian Adam chooses between the written-Torah come through the pen of God versus the oral-Torah come through the mouth of God (Gittin 60b).

Prior to Sinai all Israelites ritually eliminate the mark of the lapse (the Fall), the fleshly serpent (brit milah). Thus they stand at Sinai as Adam stood in the Garden as non-gendered humanity ("Jewish") which is to say as the sons of God's breath rather than the sons of the fleshly serpent. They're not marked as the serpent's offspring by the mark that marks the serpent's offspring, genitalia.

After the Fall, represented by the Golden Calf fiasco, Moses has Israel strip naked of their priestly garments. Like Adam and Eve they symbolically leave the Garden (Sinai) and find themselves naked where formerly they were adorned in the priestly garments that represent the adornment worn by the priestly sons of God.

"Look what is written: The Children of Israel were stripped of their ornaments from Mount Horeb (Exodus 33:6)! We assert that from that moment on they inflicted death upon themselves; that evil serpent they had just thrown off [brit milah] now dominated them [again].

Zohar (Be-Reshit 152b).

According to Sanhedrin 38b, Adam begins as a non-gendered human (a Jew) and then commits the sacrilege of allowing testes and a phallus to be added to his otherwise perfect body (epispasm) such that he’s now a min (Jewish heretic), and must be exiled from the Garden, where only non-gendered (Jewish) humans are allowed to reside. No animal is allowed in the Garden. All Gentiles are animals since they come from the testes, like all animals, rather than the breath of God, like all non-gendered (Jewish) humans.

The Israelites are symbolically made "Jews" (non-gendered, non-Gentiles) through ritual emasculation, brit milah, prior to arriving at Sinai, wearing their priestly garments stained with the blood of the sacrifice, which represents the removal of the flesh Adam saw added to the human body in order to make the original sin possible. Ritual emasculation allows Israel to stand at Sinai as symbolic representatives of how pre-lapse Adam stood in the Garden of Eden.

As such, they wear the priestly garments stained with the blood that returned them to the status of prelapse Adam. Those garments are their passport into Eden. 

But like Adam before them they fail the test. They’re only ritually circumcised not circumcised in the heart. They’re stripped naked like Adam and Eve, exiled from the mountain of God, Eden, and made to wander through this animal world as just one more animal species subject to sexual desire, phallic-sex, gendered reproduction, and most importantly, death.

The most holy place of the temple represents Eden. Before the high priest enters the most holy place he puts on a special garment that's his passport into Eden. If he loses this garment he can't enter the most holy place. There seems to be the implication that Adam could go between two Gardens, Eden (the most holy place) and the outer court where animals and Gentiles are allowed.

In Genesis 2:21, Adam removes his priestly garment to enter the Gentile garden. But this time he’s put into a deep sleep and testes and genitalia are added to his body while Eve is made from some of his flesh. He's happy when he sees Eve but never sees Eden again. He's unable to wear the priestly garment that allowed him in Eden. He's traded Eden for Eve. The closest thing he will ever experience to Eden in the remainder of his natural life is Pandora's (Eve's) box.

Sexual bonding is related to a return to Eden since Adam literally traded Eden to have sex with Eve. 

No phallically endowed human can enter Eden. And Abraham only ritually removed what never entered Mary's Eden when Jesus was conceived. There's reason to believe that if Jesus even had a phallus, which is questionable, it was literally removed by a Roman spear on the cross before he returned to Eden from whence he came.

The curtain separating the most holy place from the holy place is augmented with artistic renderings of the cherubs stationed to guard Eden. On Yom Kippur the high priest symbolically adorned in the priestly garment Adam lost when he was fashioned with the testes and the phallus enters back into Eden (the most holy place beyond the cherubs) to seek atonement for the sins of the congregation that result from Adam's original sin (the genesis of the evil-inclination).

The Zoharists, having read Hebrews chapter nine, have the priests remove the golden cord that binds the Yom Kippur bull and tie it to the body of the high priest as he enters the most holy place of the temple. They can't help themselves from making a comparison between the sacrificial bull and the high priest.

The Temple and the tabernacle are built from a similar design (Rabbi Elie Munk, Shemos 25:9). According to Exodus 26:33 the veil is to separate the most holy place from the holy place. Too many parallels prevent the serious student of the word of God from missing the fact that Eden represents heaven and that the Temple and Eden are parallel symbols of God's dwelling Presence.

Similarly, the Sinai narrative represents commentary on the expulsion from Eden. When Adam is exiled from Eden he must remove his priestly garment which is his passport into the Presence of God. Likewise, when Israel sins they must remove their priestly garments, their passport to the Presence of God on mount Sinai. When Adam leaves Eden the ground is stingy concerning its produce. When the Temple is destroyed the ground will not produce for Israel.

Eden, like Sinai, is associated with the mountain of God. Rivers flow down from Eden. The Tree of Life is in Eden, as the Menorah, symbolizing the Tree of Life, exists in the holy place of the tabernacle and Temple. Many thoughtful commentators have noted that the tabernacle is like a portable Mt. Sinai. Which is extremely important since the Sinai narrative is commentary on the expulsion from Eden.

When it's become evident that Exodus parallels Genesis, i.e., Exodus is commentary on the expulsion from Eden, we note (in Exodus) that God's presence doesn't remain in Eden when the Jew Adam is exiled from Eden. On the contrary, God leaves the "mountain of God" and takes up residence with his creatures. The Presence of God is exiled from heaven and takes up residence not "among" the Jews, but "in" the Jews (as noted throughout Jewish commentary).

God's Presence is exiled from the mountain of God, Eden, and Sinai, and has taken up residence in the people of God. The people of God are God's flesh and blood temple. His Presence is exiled from heaven to suffer exile with his people. When they suffer, he suffers, if they have a pain in their head, he has a pain in his head.

He foresaw the Temple built, destroyed, and rebuilt. IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED [symbolizes the Temple] built, as you read, That I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion: Thou art My people (Isa. LI, 16). NOW THE EARTH WAS TOHU (E. V. "UNFORMED") alludes to [the Temple] destroyed, as you read, I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was tohu---E.V. "waste" (Jer. IV, 23). AND GOD SAID: LET THERE BE LIGHT, i.e., rebuilt and firmly established in the Messianic era, as you read, Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee, etc. (Isa. LX, I).

 Midrash Rabbah, Bereshith, II, 5.

The sage's statement is clear: The Temple is being related to the creation of heaven and earth such that the destruction of heaven and earth (tohu bohu) is being compared to the destruction of the Temple. Both are being paralleled with the Fall of Adam.

Midrash Rabbah, Bereshith, XX. 8, says:

SO HE DROVE OUT (WAYYEGARESH) THE MAN. [Read] wayyagres, which intimates that He showed him the destruction of the Temple, [in connection with which it is written], He hath also broken (wayyagres) my teeth with gravel stones (Lam. III, 16). R. Lulianus b. Tibri [Tiberius] said in R. Isaac's name: He banished him to the open outskirts (migrash) of the Garden of Eden, and appointed watchmen to watch over it, as is written, I will also command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it (Isa. v, 6). [bold emphasis mine.]

The sages aren't making things up willy nilly. They realize Adam forfeits the priestly garment that allows him to enter into Eden when he's exiled from Eden even as no Jew is allowed to enter into the Temple without priestly garments. Similarly, no death exists until the expulsion from Eden. Eden, like the temple, is a place uncontaminated by death. No person who has had contact with death, a corpse, can enter into the Temple.

When the Temple is destroyed, no Jew is allowed to put on the priestly garment that's the passport into the Temple. The sages unify the signs and symbols rather than treating them as unrelated things. Every symbol in the Torah relates symbiotically to every other symbol in the Torah. 

God commands Moses to make a sanctuary that he (God) may "dwell" (Shekinah, Presence) with Israel. He formerly dwelt on the mountain of God, but now will dwell in the sanctuary that’s a portable version of the mountain of God (the mountain of God being representative of Eden). The cherubs woven into the curtain of the tabernacle are the same cherubs guarding the entrance to Eden, the same cherubs guarding the throne of God, the same cherubs who are found only where God's Presence dwells (Eden, Sinai, tabernacle and Temple).

The aggregate of all these allusions heightens the notion that the Temple is reflective of the Garden of Eden, the first environment in which man encountered God.

Rabbi Joshua Berman, The Temple: Its Symbolism and Meaning Then and Now, p. 27.

R. Hiyya b. Abba also said in R. Johanan's name: All the prophets prophesied only in respect of him who marries his daughter to a scholar, or engages in business on behalf of a scholar, or benefits a scholar with his possessions; but as for scholars themselves, — 'the eye hath not seen, O God, beside thee etc.' What does 'the eye hath not seen' refer to? — R. Joshua b. Levi said: To the wine that has been kept [maturing] with its grapes since the six days of Creation. Resh Lakish said: To Eden, which no eye has ever seen; and should you demur, Where then did Adam live? in the Garden. And should you object, The Garden and Eden are one: therefore Scripture teaches, And a river issued from Eden to water the garden.

BT Sanhedrin 99a.

Adam is created in the Temple, Eden, and brought out into the court where animals and Gentiles are allowed, to work on God's behalf, and to guard the entrance to the Temple, since only Adam is allowed to enter the Temple. But when flesh is rolled up and sealed (sagar סגר), Gen. 2:21, we're enlightened to the fact that a sagar is not always just a sagar, nor a garden, always Eden.

No animal is allowed inside the temple. And neither is an uncircumcised human being (uncircumcision being synonymous with gendered mammalian creation). Since Adam was to guard the entrance to the Temple so that no animal or gendered bi-bed enter the Temple it's only natural that after the surgery that makes him fit to have physical intercourse like every other animal he finds the entrance to the Temple (Eden) guarded against his re-entry.

At some point he realizes that he had to remove his priestly garment to be fitted for his fleshly accouterment. When he looks around for his priestly robe he sees it being worn by the surgeon who fitted him for phallic-sex. Now the angelic surgeon stands at the gate of Eden guarding it against Adam's return.

Thus did God speak to Abraham when He bade him set His seal upon that part of his body where man is most akin to the animal and thereby sanctify and dedicate his body to His purposes. . . This is the summons the seal of Abraham brings to you --- stifle animal desires at their onset, stifle them at their birth.

Rabbi Samson Hirsch, Horeb, p. 170.

Adam was the high priest of Eden until his epispasmic surgery (BT Sanhedrin 38b). After that surgery he is no longer the high priest of Eden. The surgeon stole his priestly garment, mixed the wool with linen, such that it now glimmered like the sheen of a serpent.

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life.

Genesis 3:24.

Our Rabbis said: S W O R D refers to the Torah, as is written, And a two-edged sword in their hands (Ps. CXLIX, 6). [1] When Adam saw that his descendants were fated to be consigned to Gehenna, he engaged less in [2] phallic-sex. But when he saw that after twenty-six generations Israel would accept the Torah, he applied himself to producing descendants . . ..

1. The idea is that the merit of circumcision and the study of the Torah would deliver his descendants from Gehenna (Y.T.).

2. Lit. translation. Possibly it means here: he refrained (entirely).

Midrash Rabbah, XXI. 9.

When Adam realizes what phallic-sex (animal procreation) cost him, for a time he refrained entirely from it. But when he realized that it was possible for his descendants to undo what occurred in Genesis 2:21, that they could return to the state of being circumcised, then he continued to produce offspring.

According to Midrash Rabbah, two things will redeem Adam's offspring from his (and thus their) Fall into animal-lusts and the death associated with them: Torah and circumcision. So it's pretty important when, in a discussion of Adam being driven out of the Temple precinct of Eden (and even out of the garden east of the entrance to Eden), we read that the thing that bars his entry back into the Temple precinct is not, " . . . 'the flame of an ever turning sword,' but, rather, `the flame of the ever-turning sword'" (Hirsch Chumash).

That "flaming sword" is, per Midrash Rabbah, the Torah. . . And yet the same sages claim the Torah is the Tree of Life? So what gives? How can the "sword" that's the Torah be both the guardian protecting the Tree of Life and the Tree of Life at the same time?

Moses' rod, representing the arrival of the Torah, not only transformed (הפך) into a serpent in front of Gentiles, but later in the Torah narrative, after Israel Falls, at Sinai, and becomes Jewish-Gentiles (like Adam before them), the rod of Moses is again transformed (הפך) in front of Jewish Gentiles, into a brass serpent (which scripture teaches will later become an item of idol worship just like the Torah scroll it represents).

The Hebrew word "transformed" (הפך) is the very word describing the actions of the "flaming sword" that guards the way back to the Tree of Life in the garden of Eden. The sages claim this "sword" is the Torah. And this particular "flaming" Torah guards the way to the Tree of Life at the gates of Eden, as well as the gates of the most holy place, and again at Horeb.

On Horeb Moses spied the Tree of Life behind a flaming bush. And flames prevented the children of Israel from entering the mountain of God with Moses. More importantly the "mountain of God" --- Horeb --- transforms (as it were) into the sanctuary. The sanctuary where the Tree of Life resides should anyone get past the flaming sword that guards the way to the inner sanctum.

The Hebrew word "sword" (representing both the Torah, and the guardian of the entrance to Eden, thus everlasting life, the Tree of everlasting Life) is "Horeb" (חרב). -----The "mountain of God" (which becomes the portable mountain of God, the sanctuary/tabernacle) is called "Horeb." The "transforming" (הפך) "sword" (חרב), is called "horeb."

The "flaming" and "transforming" "Torah" makes sure that no fallen soul returns to drink from the everlasting streams of the Living Torah in the inner sanctum of the portable Horeb, which is the sanctuary, and remarkably, the Torah-scroll. The Torah-scroll is a portable version of the tabernacle/Temple. And as such, is a portable version of Mt. Horeb. And as such, is a portable version of the garden and Eden.

The inner sanctum of Eden, of Mt. Horeb, the most holy place of the sanctuary, and the Torah-scroll, is guarded by the "flaming transforming" outer skene that if it's wrapped around what it hides (Gen. 2:21) becomes a fore-skene hiding what it should really illuminate if it remained in background rather than in the foreground as a good skene should.

The death-dealing letters of the flaming Torah-scroll (portable Mt. Horeb) are constantly transforming, from one interpretation to another, without any rhyme or reason that lets the good intentioned exegete find his way through the fire, through the flames, through the Lamb's skin, and the dead-letters, back into the Presence of the Living God, whose body is the fruit of the Tree of Life.