Diaspora Yeshiva Toras Yisrael | Mount Zion, Jerusalem
Torah From Zion
Before and After
May 15th, 2025 / 17th of Iyar 5785
Hashem [God] created a perfect world and set the stage for Adam Harishon [the first man in the world] to come and live in it in eternal bliss. What happened?
Adam sinned, and Hashem adjusted things so that Adam could once again reach perfection. How?
Hashem brought death into the world.
At the very beginning of the universe, a principle was introduced that has continued ever since, on both an individual and national level. This principle is called: “Before and after.”
Before Adam’s sin, the universe was supposed to exist for 6 days. Afterwards, the world would exist for 6,000 years, to repair the damage of that first sin, which we are all in the process of doing.
This sounds depressing. The world was perfect, and then it fell into disarray. And with every mistake we make – as individuals or as the Jewish nation – Hashem makes still more adjustments to the universe, more “before and after.”
So are we getting closer to the Final Redemption, or are our wrong moves pushing us further away from it? Are we just sinking deeper and deeper into the mire of our own mistakes?
The answer has to be perfectly clear to us: We are getting closer to the Final Redemption! We are still living in a perfect world! We may be in the “after” and not the “before,” but this is not bedi’eved [acceptable but not ideal]. Absolutely not! Hashem accompanies us constantly, always setting things up in a way that we can succeed in reaching our tachlis [purpose].
Life isn’t a ball game. It’s not “three strikes and you’re out,” In Hashem’s world, you’re never “out.” Whatever your present situation, it was built upon your deeds until now, in a way that will enable you to succeed in the circumstances that are perfect for you. There may be detours, and admittedly, those detours may not have been there in your “before” position, but now that you’re in the “after,” you’re in the best place possible. Don’t think: “Since I messed up, I’m now in a worse position, and things will surely get worse and worse.” Wrong! You’re now in a new world, and this is davka [specifically] the one in which you can succeed!
Can we even imagine the “before” world of Adam Harishon, in which we would live eternally? Awareness of our mortality is an underlying current in our consciousness, and is of enormous benefit to us. Therefore, Adam, or us, before the sin or after the sin is the same person, with the same goal. The only thing that changes is how we will reach that goal.
Another advantage that mortality brought to Adam after the sin: Adam now beheld the greatness of Hashem all the more. Everything he saw would come to an end – except Hashem. This put the greatness of Hashem into a new relief, which Adam was meant to translate into fear of Hashem. We as well see a built-up world around us. You think the skyscrapers will be there forever? Or the mountains? It’s all transient. This is our world.
Many people feel fear, but it doesn’t lead them anywhere. For us, fear is a mitzvah [commandment]. Therefore, it has a measurement, a form and shape. It’s not just an emotion that dissipates, or gets put into a work of art, emptying the feeling out of you but leaving you with nothing. No! Translate the idea that Hashem is eternal into fear of Him. This itself is a mitzvah, and mitzvos [commandments] are the only things of value in this world.
Life goes by so fast, like a dream, so what’s left? The fear we feel when we appreciate that Hashem runs the world. This fear is the key to life, because this is what prompts us to do mitzvos. This is Rashi’s [Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki] answer as to why the Torah [the Jewish Bible] begins with the creation of the world and not the mitzvos. Get to the point! We’re here to do mitzvos, so teach us now! Why start with a story about the creation of the world written in a shorthand that no human being can possibly fathom?
Rather, the Torah’s account of the creation of the world, and the critical events that shaped mankind, teaches us that Hashem is master and owner of everything in the universe. Instead of starting with the mitzvos, the Torah gives us our main motivation in doing them. Once you know that He’s the boss, it follows that He can take land from this people and give it to another people.
On the national level as well, Klal Yisrael [the Jewish People] went into galus [exile]. This was a punishment, but from this new reality came forth new revelations of Hashem’s greatness. The light of Torah was spread to the gentiles, and righteous converts joined the nation.
Still, while change is usually natural and expected, it is not a given. We see this in how the Torah records the death of Sara Imeinu [Sarah, our Matriarch] at the age of 127. The Torah spells out that the days of Sara’s life were “100 years, 20 years and 7 years.” What is the message here?
Rashi explains: “When Sara was 20 years old, she was like a 7-year-old girl vis-à-vis beauty.” Why is the Torah talking about the beauty of women? Don’t we say at the end of Eishes Chayil [A Woman of Valor] (which is the conclusion of Sefer Mishlei [the Book of Proverbs]): Charm is false and beauty is emptiness! Why stress Sara Imeinu’s beauty?
Rather, the Sages [Rabbinic scholars] explain that a girl of seven possesses a temimus [innocence], an innocence that keeps her from becoming vain over her beautiful appearance. In many cases, a 20-year-old woman has lost that innocence. She knows that she possesses glamor and can attract men. Tzniyus [modesty] for her is now a nisayon [test]. Sara Imeinu, at age 20, still possessed that childlike temimus.
Sara’s life serves as a contrast for most of ours. She was able to go from age 7 to 20 to 100 without any need for Hashem to “turn the dials,” as it were, in response to a change in her tzniyus. This part of Sara remained unchanged, like Adam Harishon before the sin. We, however, do undergo changes that cause us to be faced with new challenges, and we should recognize that this is a healthy, positive part of Hashem’s plan, designed to bring us to our tachlis.
In short, “before and after” is not something that has to happen. We are not forced to behave in a way that incurs change. Only, if we do, we should not view our new situation with regret, longing to return to the “before.” Where we are at now is lechatchila [the ideal way] (for more on this subject, see chapter: Hillel and Shammai: Two approaches to teshuva [repentance]).
Pre and Post Sinai
Sometimes, there is a “before and after” that has nothing to do with sin. On a national level, the Jewish People went through a critical “before and after” at the Giving of the Torah. At this unparalleled event, we went from being a group of individuals to a nation, unified by an obligatory body of law. The Avos’ [Patriarchs] way of Hashem was eino metzuveh v’oseh [not commanded but doing]. These giants were able to grasp the entire Torah without its being given, and fulfill mitzvos in a manner of “rugged individualism” that would now be relegated to history.
For us, we have a Shulchan Aruch [a book of Jewish Laws]. Our performance of mitzvos is regimented. We have to follow a fixed pattern. Of course, there is plenty of room for self-expression, but ultimately, it is our way of expressing Hashem’s will, not our own. In Pirkei Avos [Ethics of the Fathers], we are adjured to “make Hashem’s will our own,” but this was not the reality of the Avos, or all the generations of Jews that existed pre-Sinai.
So have we lost out? Should we see ourselves as shackled by the limitations that our Avos needed only view as voluntary? Are we justified in longing for an era in which a man could cling to Hashem and be righteous in the way that he personally saw fit, without having to constantly look up clauses in the Shulchan Aruch?
Absolutely not! The post-Sinai reality is for us the perfect world. Longing for some former reality would be a waste of time, like re-inventing the wheel. We’re not there anymore. There’s no looking back. We are now in our optimum environment. Whether we fulfill the mitzvos or not makes no difference to Hashem. They were given to us for our benefit, not His.
How can we succeed in our post-Sinai world?
What’s critical is to live uplifted, with the sense that we are not in a bedi’eved position, but rather lechatchila. The gentiles speak of the “pain and pleasure theory” (an idea that existed long before this phrase was coined in the 1700s. Rabbeinu Tam [Rabbi Jacob ben Meir] wrote of this idea), and this can help us orient ourselves, too.
Why do people do what they do?
One theory for mankind’s core motivation is “pain and pleasure.” You do something because it makes you feel good (either a physical sense or a moral sense, such as doing “the right thing, and sensing a rewarding feeling of justice); or, because you want to stay away from pain. These are man’s two prime motivations.
Adam after the sin had a motivation that he didn’t need before the years of his life were now limited, and this propelled him to action. This is a power we possess and can tap into. We can harness it to help us change in the direction we want our lives to go.
First, understand that when you do an action, it’s because you want to get pleasure or avoid pain. You want to avoid poverty, so you work hard. You want to avoid getting punished by parents, so you behave yourself. That’s how the gentiles use this principle. A guy wants to get rich, so they pound into him frightening images of how bad he’ll feel to be one-upped, and how great he’ll feel when he rides through the neighborhood in his new car, scaring him on one end and pumping him with delusions of grandeur on the other.
For us, this can be channeled into working on our middos [character traits]. If you want to control your anger, show yourself how it’s worth getting the pleasure of not being angry. You want to overcome a bad habit – convince yourself [or whoever you want to stop] that it’s more painful if you do it, and more pleasurable if you don’t. That’s the way to prevail upon a person.
Think: “If I procrastinate, I’ll end up in pain.” Imagine that pain, build up that picture in your mind, and you’ll change yourself for the better. “I’ll be so much happier if I don’t procrastinate and then have to catch up.” Imagine the embarrassment and frustration you’ll suffer. Make that sense of suffering so real that you’ll be motivated to avoid it by being diligent instead.
However, don’t let life become a constant game of fleeing from pain. Work to develop a taste in Torah study! (See introduction to Eglei Tal). The sweetness of finally cracking a sugya [Talmudic passage] in Gemara [Talmud], or saying over a Tosafos [commentary on the Talmud] – who can even describe it? The joy of doing a mitzvah and feeling good about our new closeness to Hashem – this too should be a motivation.
Also, we must become students of Avraham Avinu [Abraham our Patriarch], not Bilaam Harasha [Balaam the Wicked].
We have to become students of Avraham, to learn from the middos [character traits] that built our nation – embarrassment, mercy, and chessed [kindness]. Bilaam was privy to daas Elyon [divine wisdom] as well, but in the end he did whatever he felt like doing. We, as students of Avraham Avinu [Abraham our Patriarch], have a Shulchan Aruch. When Moshiach [the Messiah] will come, there will be even less free choice. There will be only one way to go, just doing good. As a result, there will be less reward. The real reward is now.
So how do we know if we’re going in the right way? They say that 1,000 go into the beis medrash [study hall] and only one comes out. We want to be that one person who succeeds in life. How?
The sages adjure us to be talmidim [students] of Avraham Avinu and not Bilaam Harasha. Avraham and Bilaam are both “teachers.” They have their educational programs, and we have to be on the right side. Bilaam imparted knowledge “stam” [just]. He could tell you exactly what Hashem was thinking. He knew daas Elyon [divine wisdom], but for all of his knowledge, he did whatever he wanted.
Jews are merciful, bashful and we bestow kindness. Judaism is about action. If a person is busy learning and brushing off requests for help as if they’re a nuisance, like a bee buzzing nearby, he is missing the quality of bestowing kindness. Judaism means action. Mercy is not something we feel in our hearts alone. It has to spur us into action.
Avraham listened. “Eikev asher shamata bekoli – because you listened to Me,” Hashem says to Avraham, “I have a great eikev [reward], a great reward to give you.” But who really listens? Yes, you learn but are you listening? Sheim and Eiver learned, but they did not become Jews. They surely reached high levels in ruchniyus [spirituality], but they didn’t listen to Hashem like Avraham did.
Excerpted with permission from Imrei Mordechai, Vol. 2, A Collection of Inspirational Insights from the “Mussar Shmoozes” of HaGaon Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein Ztzvk”l, The Imrei Mordechai Institute, Diaspora Yeshiva Toras Yisrael, Mount Zion, Jerusalem, Kislev 5779.
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