Ashrei adam oz lo bach, mesilot bilvavam” — Happy is the person whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to You. (Tehillim 84:6)
Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein asks in his Emor shiur: What are your values really worth? In the market, worth is only what someone will pay. So when we claim “family, honesty, integrity,” are we willing to sacrifice time, money, comfort, or ego — or are they just cheap opinions?
This question takes us back to the Garden. Hashem commanded Adam: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat” (Bereishit 2:16) — including the Tree of Life in the center. The plan was slow and relational: start at the edges, taste new fruits, come back to Hashem with every experience, and let Him teach good and evil from His perspective. The pathways to Him were meant to be walked in constant conversation.
Every Child Should Know Good and Evil
But the Tree of Knowledge stood there too. As Rabbi Fohrman teaches, eating from it first meant seizing the power to define morality yourself instead of receiving it from the Creator. Relationship with Hashem — the Tree of Life — had to come first.
Rabbi Manis Friedman flips the story beautifully: Eve wasn’t weak. She understood the deeper plan. Staying immortal in perfect Eden would leave their children with no mission, no challenges, no growth. She chose mortality and a broken world so her descendants could do real tikkun and reach heights angels cannot. That’s why she’s called Chava — mother of all life.
During these Omer weeks of Parshat Emor, we count seven perfect weeks from Pesach to Shavuot because the whole point of leaving Egypt was to receive the Torah — the Etz Chaim, the Tree of Life we sing about every Shabbos.
The Torah itself proves this isn’t just opinion — it’s woven into the text. In Rabbi Fohrman’s A Book Like No Other series on Shavuot, he shows that when Hashem gives the Ten Commandments, He deliberately echoes Rebecca’s words to Yaakov in Genesis 27: “And now, my son, listen to my voice — ve’atah b’ni shema b’koli — to what I command you.”
Genesis 27
At Sinai, Hashem says, “And now, if you will listen to My voice — ve’atah im shamoa tishma’u b’koli — and keep My covenant.” The exact phrasing, the exact order, even referencing Yaakov’s name — it’s all there. The family story of deception and blessing is redeemed and becomes the foundation for the Jewish people to become one family under the Ten Sayings.
Nathaniel Jeanson’s book Traced proves we’re literally one family. Using Y-chromosome DNA passed from father to son, he built a global family tree. Every man alive traces back to the same small group of ancestors — matching the biblical line from Noah’s three sons. Modern genetics confirms what Torah always taught: we are all brothers and sisters.
If we’re truly one human family, we need one Father’s house rules. That’s the Ten Commandments — the Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Sayings. Without them, brothers fight, families fracture, and nations collapse. Only by keeping “I am Hashem your God,” “Honor your father and mother,” “Do not murder, do not steal,” can we live as one united family.
Stone Tablets With The Ten Commandments Of God In Hebrew. Vector Illustration. EPS 10. Royalty Free SVG, Cliparts, Vectors, and Stock Illustrations. Image 214159662.
Pirkei Avot makes the foundation clear:
Yosei ben Yoezer taught: “Let your house be a meeting place for the Sages, sit in the dust of their feet, and drink their words thirstily.”¹
One who learns even a single letter must honor his teacher, just as David honored Achitophel.²
The Tree of Life and Adam and Eve
Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua said: “Let the honor of your student be as dear to you as your own, the honor of your colleague like reverence for your teacher, and reverence for your teacher like reverence for Heaven.”³
And directly: “If there is no Torah, there is no derech eretz; if there is no derech eretz, there is no Torah.”⁴ Without Hashem’s word, proper conduct has no root.
Professor Haim Shore and Baal HaTurim reveal the math: עץ (tree) equals 160, same as צלם (image). Man is created in the tzelem Elohim — only by connecting to the Etz, the Tree of Life, do we truly live up to that image.
Here’s the Hebrew letter values chart:
And this is the living Etz Chaim we sing about every Shabbos:
Where do you derive your values? When culture shifts, do you shift — or do you turn first to Hashem’s word? Are you willing to pay the price?
Adam and Eve chose the harder path so we could have this mission. The kohanim in Emor keep themselves holy to bring Hashem’s sanctity into the world. We are called to do the same — to root our values in Torah, walk the highways always on our hearts, and live as one family under the Ten Sayings.
Shabbat Shalom. Chazak ve’ematz.
Hazan Gavriel ben David
Footnotes ¹ Pirkei Avot 1:4 ² Pirkei Avot 6:3 ³ Pirkei Avot 4:12 ⁴ Pirkei Avot 3:17