It wasn't just the companionship of God, or a life free from toil. According to tradition, he lost seven precious gifts – treasures that will only be restored in the Messianic Age.
One of these was the celestial light. Imagine a light so pure, so radiant, it surpasses anything we can comprehend today. But there were others. The Zohar, that foundational text of Jewish mysticism, mentions the resplendence of Adam's face, a divine glow reflecting his proximity to God. He also lost eternal life, his towering stature (a sign of his spiritual perfection, perhaps?), and the abundance of fruits from the soil and the trees. And finally, he lost the original luminaries of the sky – the sun and the moon. In that original state, the moon shone as brightly as the sun, and the sun itself possessed a sevenfold intensity (Legends of the Jews). Quite a downgrade, right?
So, what happened after the expulsion? Imagine the scene: Adam and Eve, utterly bereft, build themselves a simple hut. For seven long days, they sit there, consumed by grief and remorse. Can you feel their despair?
Then, hunger sets in. They venture out, desperately seeking sustenance. For another seven days, Adam searches high and low, hoping to find some remnant of the delicacies they enjoyed in Paradise. But it's no use. Nothing compares.
Eve, in her anguish, suggests a drastic solution: "My lord, if it please thee, slay me. Mayhap God will then take thee back into Paradise, for the Lord God became wroth with thee only on account of me." (Legends of the Jews). Think about the weight of that statement! She believes she is the sole cause of their downfall.
But Adam, horrified, rejects her plea. They continue their desperate search. Nine more days pass, and still, they find nothing even remotely resembling their former food. All they see is food fit for cattle, for beasts. Imagine the humiliation, the stark contrast to the divine bounty they once knew.
Finally, Adam proposes a solution: penance. "Let us do penance," he says, "mayhap the Lord God will forgive us and have pity on us, and give us something to sustain our life." (Legends of the Jews). He understands that atonement is the only path forward.
But knowing Eve isn't strong enough for the intense physical mortification he has in mind for himself, he prescribes a different penance for her. "Arise," he tells her, "and go to the Tigris. Take a stone and stand upon it in the deepest part of the river, where the water will reach as high as thy neck. And let no speech issue forth from thy mouth, for we are unworthy to supplicate God, our lips are unclean by reason of the forbidden fruit of the tree. Remain in the water for thirty-seven days." (Legends of the Jews).
Imagine Eve, standing silently in the cold river for over a month, a symbol of repentance and humility. It's a powerful image, isn't it? A testament to their longing to return to God's grace. And it makes you wonder: what penance are we willing to undertake to reconnect with the divine?