To live or not to live?

B"H

Tractate Erovin, Ch. 1, pg. 13b reads:

נחלקו ב"ש וב"ה הללו אומרים נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא יותר משנברא והללו אומרים נוח לו לאדם שנברא יותר משלא נברא נמנו וגמרו נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא יותר משנברא עכשיו שנברא יפשפש במעשיו

Loosely translated:
The followers of Shamai and the followers of Hillel had a disagreement: The formers argued "it's more beneficial for Adam not to have been created, more so that having been created" while the latter argued "it's more beneficial for Adam to have been created, more so than not having been created." They debated the matter and concluded that "it's more beneficial for Adam not to have been created, however, now that he has been created he should examine his deeds..."

This verse uses the term "Adam" which could be understood to mean the first human being Adam, but could also be understood to mean all Adam's descendants (i.e., all of humanity), by extension.

The above disagreement is a bit odd, to say the least. While the position of the followers of Hillel can be understood plainly, what do the followers of Shamai mean by it's better not having been created?

After all, we were created. Having said that how could they come to the conclusion that it's better than we weren't created?

An explanation:
An analogy is in order: suppose a person is requested to invest a very large sum of money in some business venture. He is told that there's 248 possible outcomes in which he's going to double his/her investment, while there are 365 other outcomes in which he/she will loose everyting. Any reasonable investor is going to back out of the deal really quickly. Why the odds of loosing are significantly greater than those of gaining.

Now, the analog in the Jewish soul: when it descends into this world it invests itself in a corporeal body. The Jew is obligated to keep 248 positive commandments. When a positive commandment is perform, a Jew's bond to the Almighty gets stronger. While the Jew is also obligated to keep 365 prohibitive commandments. When a prohibition is transgressed, heaven forbid, a Jew's bond to the Almighty weakens.

A straight forward calculation reveals that "it's more beneficial for Adam not to have been created..." because there are just so many more ways Adam (i.e., a person) can get hurt from this, than he/she can benefit from it."

This is also alluded to in the word נמנו, which the Gmarah uses: in this context it means "debated" but it is etymologically related to מנו (=the counted.) I.e., the students of Shamai and Hillel counted the mitzvot and came to the conclusion that there are too many prohibitions relative to the positive commandments.

So the question then becomes: Why were we created after all, then?


To answer it, we can dig a bit into the Jewish understanding of performing a commandment. The performance of mitzvot (commandments) can be in one of three ways:
1. the mitzvah is performed with all the right intention, livelihood, joy and enthusiasm, or
2. the actual mitzvah-action is performed, but it's not accompanied by any of the above or
3. all the intentions etc are right, but there's no actual physical performance.

It's explained that when a person does a mitzvah, an angel is created (to advocate for that person.) However, כמים פנים אל הפנים i.e., just as a person performs the mitzvah so to is the angel that's created. Each angel has a "body" (albeit noncorporeal) and a "soul". So:
1. when the performance of a mitzvah is done with all the right spirit, the angel is created with a good body and a health soul.
2. when the performance of the mitzvah is done without the right intentions, i.e., it's lacking in spirit, so too is the angel: a strong body, but it's lacking a soul.
3. when the performance of a mitzvah is lacking in the actual doing, but there's all the right intention is spirit, then a soul of an angel is created but there's no body to vest it into.

G-d Almighty does something very neat, as it alluded to in Kiddushin Ch. 1, pg, 40a:
מחשבה טובה מצרפה למעשה

Loosly translated:
(G-d) joins a good thought to a deed.

In the context above: there's a number of soul-less angels out there that resulted from a mitzvot performed without the right intentions and a number of body-less angel-souls out there resulting from Jews having the right intentions but not following up on them. So, the Almighty takes a these souls (=good thoughts) and joins them in these angel bodies (=deed), thereby creating a good and healthy angel!

So, in a sense each positive mitzvah can be counted twice: once on the count of the intentions, and once on the count of the actual deed. And rewards for the mitzvah are dished out.

On the other hand, a person can have all the intentions in the world to transgress, but never actually does anything to actualize these intentions, then there's no punishment dished out -- since there's no deed associated with these intentions.

So, we find that on the account of positive commandments there's twice the reward per mitzvah than prohibitions. This can explain why Adam was indeed created: true there are many more possibly paths leading away from the almighty, but each path leading to the almighty is twice as wide. That is, indeed there are 365 prohibitions that detract from a persons connection to the Almighty, but there are 2x248=496 ways to connect to the Almighty), so to speak. The landscape changes because with positive commandements, intentions alone carry weight, while with prohibitions they do not!

While on the subject of deeds, the Gmarah continues:
עכשיו שנברא יפשפש במעשיו

I.e., now that the person is created, he should examine his deeds, to ensure that he/she is heading in the 2x248 direction rather than in the 365 direction, heaven forbid.

This also connects to the month of Elul (which we're in, at the time of writing). The month of Elul has been specifically set aside as the month of introspection and self-adjustment and self-refinement. A person should examine his/her deeds and ensure that he/she is on the correct path as we approach the days of Awe which immediately follow the month of Elul.

Leshana tovah tikatevu vetichatemu.