pirit returneth unto God who gave it,"
the rabbis teach "Pure as the soul is when entering upon its earthly
career, so can man return it to his Maker."(682) Therefore the pious Jew
begins his daily prayers with the words: "My God, the soul which Thou hast
given me is pure."(683) The life-long battle with sin begins only at the
age when sensual desire, "the evil inclination," awakens in youth; then
the state of primitive innocence makes way for the sterner contest for
manly virtue and strength of character.

8. In fact, the whole Paradise story could never be made the basis for a
dogma. The historicity of the serpent is denied by Saadia;(684) the rabbis
transfer Paradise with the tree of life to heaven as a reward for the
future;(685) and both Nahmanides the mystic and Maimonides the philosopher
give it an allegorical meaning.(686) On the other hand, the Haggadic
teachers perceived the simple truth that a life of indolence in Paradise
would incapacitate man for his cultural task, and that the toils and
struggles inflicted on man as a curse are in reality a blessing. Therefore
they laid special stress on the Biblical statement: "He put man into the
garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."(687) The following parable is
especially suggestive: "When Adam heard the stern sentence passed: 'Thou
shalt eat the herb of the field,' he burst into tears, and said: 'Am I and
my ass to eat out of the same manger?' Then came another sentence from God
to reassure him, 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,' and
forthwith he became aware that man shall attain a higher dignity by dint
of labor."(688) Indeed, labor transforms the wilderness into a garden and
the earth into a habitation worthy of the son of God. The "book of the
generations of man" which begins with Adam is accordingly not the history
of man's descent, but of his continuous ascent, of ever higher
achievements and aspirations; it is not a record of the fall of man, but
of his rise from age to age. According to the Midrash(689) God opened
before Adam the book with the deeds and names of the leading spirits of
all the coming generations, showing him the latent powers of the human
intellect and soul. The phrase, "the fall of man," can mean, in fact, only
the inner experience of the individual, who does fall from his original
idea of purity and divine nobility into transgression and sin. It cannot
refer to mankind as a whole, for the human race has never experienced a