Eve came to the world and became wrapped up with a snake.
Noah came to the world. What is written about him? "He drank from the wine and was drunk."
Sarah came to the world. She descended and she came back up, as it is said, "And Abram came up from Egypt, he and his wife with him."
For this, Sarah earned transcendental life . . . that life belonged to her.
-Zohar 1:122b
In the beginning, there was happiness.
G-d formed the human being from the moist earth, breathed His own breath within His craft, and placed the two of them in a garden of delight. There they ate the luscious fruits of enchanting trees, savored the pungent aromas of fecund blossoms, delighted in a symphony of richly multicolored birds, bathed in refreshing spring waters and lay down to rest peacefully upon a mattress of soft moss beneath the open sky. They played and delighted, rejoiced and celebrated. They delighted in G-d's creation and He delighted in them, and in that way, the Creator was found within His creation, the Infinite Light within the finite bounds it had emanated. The sparks of holiness that had fallen at the outset of Creation were pulled towards the light in harmony, as metallic dust is pulled towards a magnet. Heaven and earth, spirit and matter, soul and body were at peace.
And then Eve said, "I feel."
"I feel happiness, I feel pleasure."
"I taste, I enjoy. I love and yes, I fear."
Happiness had been stung; it had swollen and the wound festered. No longer open to contain the luminance from beyond, like a leaf in the autumn it shriveled and fell earthward. There was now no smile without a tinge of sadness, no sweet song without bitterness, no delight without pain. Now there was no human emotion, no experience of life left uncontaminated by the primordial snake, that ubiquitous sense of "I am."
| Happiness was poisoned by "I am" |
"And they both opened their eyes and saw that they were naked." The garden was no longer. In its place was a jungle of confusion, the voices of a thousand dissonant emotions all screaming at once.
"Where are you, Adam?" G-d cried out. "Why can I no longer find you?"
"Because I felt my nakedness," Adam called back. "I felt that I am here, and I was ashamed."
"Adam," G-d cried again, "you have tasted of the fruit of knowing, of feeling that which is good and that which is evil, of being who you are as though I am not there. You have left My garden of innocent delight and entered into the chaos of your own creation. And so, you can no longer find me there, for all you find is your own self."
As chaos had entered human life, so it had spread throughout the creation. Like an ineptly crushed walnut, the sparks of primal light that were to be gathered were now crushed helplessly into the fragments of their own shells. The entire cosmos had become a mayhem of darkness and light.
"So now you must bend down to work the earth from which you were taken; go deep down into each and every emotion and experience of life to pick up the pieces and rebuild them as they once were. You must recreate the human being; you must recreate your world."
The Zohar whispers secrets; the masters of secrets unravel them.
Noah entered the world. A new world, a virgin spring of life. The cacophony that had crescendoed since the time of Adam and Eve had been washed away, the purified air crowned with a fluorescent rainbow. It was a world beckoning to start anew, with joy and celebration.
"And Noah, a man of the earth, planted a vineyard. And he drank from the wine . . ."
He drank much wine, and he rejoiced. He drank yet more, so that he would not feel that he was rejoicing. He intended to repair that which Eve had broken, to heal the wound she had gashed into happiness. In Noah's joy, there was no self, no "I feel," no "I." Because Noah was smashed beyond all senses.
| His happiness was good, but it healed nothing |
The happiness, yes, that was good. But it was not healed, its receptors still unopened to receive light. For the "I" had not been rectified, only confused and disrupted.
In wine, the knowers of secrets say, there are two portions: there is the heavenliness of wine, that which "rejoices G-d and man"; and there are the dregs of the wine, that which awakens anger, murder, confusion and loneliness. To find heaven in wine, they say, you must start with awe of heaven. Do not rely upon the wine to do that for you, for then you will find only the dregs.
Sarah entered the world.
How can I describe to you Sarah, our mother? More beautiful than Eve, the paradigm of the feminine divine spirit. Abraham's first disciple, yet greater than him in prophecy; a woman of pure vision, one in whose presence all felt the heavenly emanations, for she herself never lost consciousness of that light. A brilliant, insightful woman, yet one dominated by simple faith-in Abraham and in his G-d, for she had supported him in all his trials. It was on the foundation of that simple faith that Sarah attained everlasting joy.
Sarah descended into Egypt. Into the den of the snake. She lay flat on her face the entire night, sobbing, "Master of the Universe! Abram came here with your promise of protection. I came only with simple faith in You. Abram stands outside, while I am locked within the prison!"
G-d replied, "My precious Sarah, all that I have done, I have done only for your sake. As far as I am concerned, you are the center of this story."
And He placed an angel with a whip at the door, who said to Sarah, "You tell me to strike, I will strike. Tell me to desist, I will desist."
There, that which Eve had broken, Sarah began to repair. The sparks of holiness long scattered and fallen into the snake's domain were drawn to her. Pharaoh's riches were placed in her hands and the hands of her husband-his servants, his cattle, his gold and his silver.
Pharaoh's hands never touched Sarah. She descended and she rose back up, with all the wealth of Egypt in her hands.
Sarah did not seek happiness, yet happiness was hers.
| Sarah did not seek happiness-happiness sought her |
She bore a son and called him
Yitzchak, meaning "He will laugh," for she said, "The Almighty has made laughter for me." On that day, many barren women conceived, the sick were healed, the crippled walked again, the blind were granted vision and laughter filled the world. On the day Yitzchak was born, Rabbi Levi declared, the stars began to shine more brightly.
In our history of happiness we have passed through three prototypes:
Eve, who began with delight and joy, yet ended with loneliness and confusion.
Noah, who attempted to create happiness, artificial happiness, with nothing to hold it tight. More confusion, more loneliness.
Sarah, who began with a sense of nothingness before a Higher Presence, with simple faith and awe. She made herself an empty vessel and the waters of heavenly delight descended to fill it until it overflowed. She did not pursue happiness-she made herself into one that happiness pursues.
Yet that still was not the ultimate healing of Eve's wound. For that Sarah had to venture into the world of "I" and even there remain unscathed. This was the ultimate healing, when Sarah was able to say, "G-d has made laughter for me. I am happy. Joy is mine." For even her sense of "I" was swallowed within a greater light, like the light of a candle against the bright midday sky.
Sarah is our mother, each one of us is her child. She laid the path and we only need follow.
By Tzvi Freeman 
