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How to become an adult?
What makes a man an adult? Is it really just age? The sages of Talmud discuss this issue, speaking of Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As is known, when Adam and Eve have eaten the fruit of this tree, they have “opened the eyes”, that is the “adult life» has started for them. A question is raised in “Midrash Rabba”1: what was this tree (the text of the Torah does not specify what species of trees as it relates) or, in other words, the knowledge of what makes a person an adult? Sages give four answers.
Answer I.Tree of Knowledge is wheat. It absolutely does not matter that the wheat is not a tree, this response is figurative. Its sense is that the child becomes an adult, when he can earn his bread himself. First-earned money give some freedom from the parents, even if they are earned through hard work. The sages compared this with the fact, as a dove, released by Noah after the Flood, returns with an olive branch in its beak. But the olives — they are bitter? Yes, and the dove like says to Noah by this, that the bread, bitter as the leaf of an olive tree, is better than sweet as honey, but from someone else's hands.
Answer II. Tree of Knowledge is a grape. Grapes is a symbol of wine, and wine is a symbol of pleasure. Wine, cigarettes, drugs: all this is “older pleasures” in the eyes of children. So, they try them. Try “to be like adults”. These words evoke the irony in an adult man, but please think of yourself in childhood! And really, when a man experiences feelings unknown before, he changes. Becomes an adult? Maybe. I want to add from myself that having fun is a science that needs to learn and teach. The parents help the child from the birth to learn to sit, stand, speak, etc. Why they don't learn how to have fun? For example, a child can learn to speak on street. But at home they correct him: what and when to say, and what is better not to say at all. In addition, a child learns the first words at home anyway. I think that the same should be with the pleasure.
Answer III. So, we are approaching the subject of the book. Tree of Knowledge is a fig. You remember that Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves after eating the forbidden fruit. By the way, do you remember, what exactly did they cover up with those leaves? Right, not the head (so that the sun will not bake). Thus, the relationship between sex and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is set. The sense is the following: sexual experience makes a person an adult. It is especially true for girls. Not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings, I'll say: when the girl has become pregnant, then she has become adult.
Digressing the subject not for long, I note that we are discussing the Midrash, that is figurative model, which can not be understood literally. It does not lead from the Midrash that it is possible to equate the Tree of Knowledge and the sex. It is exactly that mistake which the early Christians committed, when declaring the sex “Original Sin” of the humanity, which sin (unfortunately for the church fathers) accompanies the human throughout all his history.
Answer IV. Tree of Knowledge is a etrog. The etrog is a tree of the family of citrus, the wood and the fruits of which are equally edible. The fruits symbolize the goal, the wood — a tool. If I understand the words of the sages correctly, the idea sounds so: one of signs of maturation is an ability not only to specify the dream, but also to offer a real plan for its implementation. Really, even in kindergarten a child can say “I want to become an astronaut”, but much later they begin to train and learn to make the dream a reality.
It is important to note that here is not a dispute of four positions, but four looks at the one phenomenon. I emphasize the word “one”. The process of maturation involves all four components.
And then all is individual: someone matures in 13 years, someone in 30, and someone did not mature at all.