Parshas Berieshis 5776- transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures. To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
QUESTION:
If Adam and Chava would not have sinned would they still have been required to wear clothing?
ANSWER:
No: They would have not been required to wear any clothing, because then they would have had the full seichel. You have to know Adam and Chava lost daas by the sin. The eitz ha'daas was only a temptation. It was a daas of tov and rah, a knowledge of wavering between good and bad, which means to choose; it was a temptation.
Adam wanted to know how could it be that anybody should be so stupid as to choose rah. He was told that from this tree he would get that attitude of wavering, he wanted to sense what it means. What does it mean to waver? It seemed to him insane for anybody to waver. As soon as he tasted of the fruit, he lost the previous daas and now he wavered. Had it been the previous daas, they would see as clearly as possible who Adam is. His neshama would be shining through his body like a light from a lantern, and it would illuminate his body and everybody could see that he is a divine creature.
It was only after the chet that the light of the soul became dimmed and now the neshama didn't shine out of his body anymore and it was possible to think that he was an animal.