What Makes You Tick

A Midrash

by Rabbi Dr. David M. Hargis

This lesson is transcribed from a teaching series given by Rabbi David Hargis to his congregation (Mishkan HaMelekh) in Hampton, Virginia.

Genesis 3:1-6 " Now the serpent was more crafty than any wild animal which Adonai, G-d, had made. He said to the woman, " Did G-d really say, 'You are not to eat from any tree in the garden?' The woman answered the serpent, "We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden, but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden G-d said, ' You are neither to eat from it nor touch it, or you will die.'" The serpent said to the woman, " It is not true that you will surely die; because G-d knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like G-d, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it had a pleasing appearance and that the tree was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her; and he ate."

There were three things which called Chavah (Eve) to fall:

1. She looked at the fruit (The lust of the eyes)

2. She considered it was good for food. (The lust of the flesh)

3. She considered it was able to make one wise. (The pride of life)

This gives us a clue as to the makeup of all mankind. All mankind has the genetic makeup of Adam and Chavah. As you can tell, heredity is an extremely powerful thing. No matter how much an individual is trained by someone, they will not fully or completely be free from their heredity, because of the curse upon Adam and Chavah. Only G-d can change those things.

There are two centers to a human being. The Pleasure-Center and the Honor-Center. Two centers created in mankind, before the fall.

The Pleasure-Center comes through the flesh, and the Honor-Center comes through the spirit. Together man became a "self". The knowledge of self, a living being, a soul. The combination makes them work together, otherwise, they'd never be able to coordinate the inner and outer part of your being.

The Honor-Center is at no location without the body being there. The Honor-Center works in conjunction with the Pleasure-Center as well. If you are hungry, for instance, your mind (Honor-Center) decides what to eat when the body (Pleasure-Center) says "I'm hungry". They work together and at times are at odds with one another. Neither center was ever created sinful.

The Pleasure-Center is sometimes out of whack or balance with the Honor-Center. Pleasure is a necessity and a choice. Honor is also a necessity and a choice. Just as it was important for Adam and Chavah to eat food, it was important for them to have honor or spiritual food. Dominion over the earth was an honor. Naming the animals was an honor. G-d gave man the honor of intelligence. But, the greatest honor that mankind was ever given by the Most High was direct fellowship.

The Most High walked with Adam and Chavah. He put up all the trees (except one) and let them eat of all of them, and they didn't have to do a thing. He came and walked with them in the cool of the evening, and they didn't have to do a thing. They received full honor from the Most High before the fall. We've been given His word, His ark, our high priests were able to go in and to fellowship directly with G-d, and how rare and wonderful that is to be in His presence! We are taught through the Word how absolutely fabulous it is to have an audience with G-d. The angels are spoken of as being special because they get to behold His glory. He says " I am going to give you the highest Honor I know - walking with Me - and I'm going to give you the highest Pleasure- to keep you alive, to cause you to have great joy in your work, to make sure that procreation takes place. He created it all for good. These centers were not to be at war with one another.

When Adonai took the 70 elders of Isra'el to His throne, the key thing they did was to eat. What does Elohim do when He invites guests in? He invites them for dinner. Eating is a good thing to the Most High. Avraham prepared a feast for the Most High. G-d creates things that He likes in their purest form. After all, it's part of His wisdom and genius. And G-d gave order to all of this.

It's the same thing as Him placing all the stars in the universe. Can you imagine what it would be like if there were no order to the galaxies?

He gave them the garden and the trees. Can you imagine the beauty and fragrances and tastes of that garden that G-d created? They didn't have to grow things from a seed, they simply had to tend to the garden. Probably every single fruit we know today was in that garden. Then G-d says, " just one tree, you need to leave alone."

Let's see... 30,000+ trees, and you can't have fruit from just one.

G-d wasn't trying to keep them from enjoying anything. He was trying to keep them in order, in a very special way. It is the order of choice. He didn't want robots. He wanted people He could honor. He wanted companionship, and in order to have that, there must be a choice. He told them what the consequence would be if they did not do His will. G-d set the rule on them so there would be order and beauty and peace, and not chaos. He was saying, " I'm not forcing you into this, but there are consequences if you do not obey. I can't give you instruction if there are not consequences."

So when Chavah went against this instruction, she chose her Pleasure-Center over her Honor-Center. Thus, this Pleasure-Center became the ruling center for all mankind. This is now what rules man's life. It tells man what is important. It's what man thinks is what is necessary for survival and life. The Honor-Center is now measly compared to the Pleasure-Center.

G-d said " in the day that you eat of this Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall surely die." In other words, G-d says the perimeter is not from what you eat , but in what way you obey HIM. That's where life and death is- in obedience. It's not in the Pleasure-Center, nor in the Honor-Center. It's in the balance in what He tells you is the way to live.

But what she chose, and what man continues to choose instead of obedience, is the Pleasure-Center. The Honor-Center is where you serve G-d, mankind and even yourself in a strange way because you are serving yourself in a better want. The best is not in what your Pleasure-Center wants, it's in what G-d wants and in obedience to what He wants.

Ephesians 4:17-24 "Therefore, I say this- indeed, in union with the L-rd I insist on it: do not live any longer as the pagans live, with their sterile ways of thinking. Their intelligence has been shrouded in darkness, and they are estranged from the life of G-d., because of the ignorance in them, which in turn comes from resisting G-d's will. They have lost all feeling. so they have abandoned themselves to sensuality, practicing any kind of impurity and always greedy for more. But this is not the lesson you learned from the Messiah! If you really listened to him and were instructed about him, then you learned that since what is in Yeshua is truth, then, so far as your former way of life is concerned, you must strip off your old nature, because your old nature is thoroughly rotted by its deceptive desires, and you must let your spirits and minds keep being renewed, and clothe yourselves with the new nature created to be g-dly, which expresses itself in the righteousness and holiness that flow from the truth."

Sha'ul understood completely the lies of the Pleasure-Center. He said that those people following the old nature, the old self are sterile. This means 'non-productive'; or 'cannot produce according to the pattern that G-d set'- lost feeling. Most people think that the more they feed the Pleasure-Center the more "feeling" they will get. Actually, this causes lost feelings, because the whole man is not known.

The reason we need the "new man" is because of the loss of the Honor-Center's balance. We need the new man to control the "Self". The Pleasure-Center or "outward man" perishes, but the inward man or Honor-Center is renewed daily. Sin, then, is not a choice between the two. Sin is the 'out-of- balance' of these two, so you cannot put this Pleasure-Center in it's place.

Sin is the transgression of the teaching of The Most High. His teaching is the fences/perimeters for us being the most beautiful, wonderful nebula we can be. So, as soon as we go out of His fences and of His statements on how we then should live, we cease to be an "in-order" being in G-d's universe. We become a rogue or chaotic object in the universe of The Most High's perfect peace.

In order to obtain a balance for the Honor-Center, we must perform selfless-acts. This doesn't mean it does not benefit you, it simply means that this does not feed your Pleasure-Center. Any action that we do that does not concern itself with what the Pleasure-Center wants, is actually an Honor-Center act. Anytime a soldier, sailor, airman or marine gets the very highest medals, they are for selfless actions. The Most High appreciates the giving of oneself for another. It is the essence of His Being.

Whether this it's the military, the home, rushing into a burning building, regardless of what it is, anytime one is willing to put themselves in harm's way or to forget about their Pleasure- Center in order to help someone else live, that person has fed the Honor- Center and come closer to what G-d intended for Adam and Chavah.

When we think of sin or crossing that boundary, let's not try to think of " well this is a line and I'm not supposed to cross it"- that's a bit too simplistic. The whole point is to keep you and I in order, so that we don't go into chaos and lose completely our potential and opportunity to live in the midst of the Living G-d again.

It is His love and His protection. It is not His restriction because He is offended, but His protection to keep us in balance.

In this context, to eat kosher, to eat in obedience with the commandments of G-d is the closest opportunity we get to make up for what Adam and Chavah did, because we're obeying what G-d should or should not go in the mouth. The whole world is bound in sin, because Chavah wanted to taste something. What G-d says to Isra'el is, " You are my holy people. I want every day that you live for you to be reminded of the great honor and pleasure that I'm giving you in being close to Me as I am bringing you." Every time you choose what goes into your mouth, and you choose what G-d says is clean, then you are making Chavah not your mother, and Adam not your father. You are removing yourself from the genes of the fall.

That's powerful isn't it?

G-d didn't say that to Isra'el so they couldn't taste pork or shellfish. He said it to protect us and bring us closer to Him. We get the opportunity to say to The Most High, " Chavah should not have disobeyed you, so therefore I will not disobey you even in what the world says is the smallest things." Chavah thought it was such a small thing to eat that fruit. And now people say, "G-d doesn't care" as if G-d changed His mind about it, He says "I am G-d I change not."

Why is it that the most of the Body which claims to know spiritual things, when told that G-d doesn't want them to have pork or shellfish gets upset and says " What?!? I am free!!" Wait.. You're free to do this pleasure and you're upset because G-d said ' don't do it' ? You're acting just like Chavah, and yet you claim to be born again and have a spiritual mind? This is why so many in the body understand so little of the Torah. They talk of the Spirit but they don't live it.

This is why Sha'ul said that the Torah is spiritually discerned. Talking adds nothing. Obedience is far better than sacrifice. G-d wants obedience to His word. He doesn't want you prancing around and saying how you're free to do anything you want. Messiah died on the execution stake so you are free to be a 'pleasure-dome'??? That's an abomination.

He died on the execution stake so that you can get the Pleasure-Center in order with the Honor-Center and to have the desire to obey The Most High more than your Pleasure-Center. So, anyone not willing to obey G-d more than their Pleasure-Center, does not have the Spirit, because it's their belly that guides them and not the Spirit of G-d. Oh that the we would turn to the Most High and be obedient to His word!