Sin death and beyond

SIN, DEATH AND BEYOND: M.M.NINAN
The above diagram is the traditional Kabbalistic tree of life in which each ladder is a higher
form of life with existence in one or more of different dimensions. Thus order from the bottom
is:
• Non-living elements
• Minerals
• Vegetables
• Animals entering the soul level over and above that of body
• There are infinite number of creatures within the realms of body, soul, spirit, and divine
in one or more dimensions within them
• Adam extended all the way upto the Divine sphere at his creation being the son of God.
As someone with a divine dimension he was above decay and death which were in the
lower realms of existence.
But sin deprived him of all glory.
The earth and the heavenly bodies lost their brightness, which will come back only in the
Messianic time (Gen. R. xii.; Vita Adæ et Evæ, § 21; Philo, "Creation of the World," p. 60;
Zohar, iii. 83b).
Death came upon Adam and all creation.
God's day being a thousand years (Ps. xc. 4), Adam was permitted to live 930 years—
threescore and ten less than one thousand (Book of Jubilees, iv. 28, and Gen. R. xix.), so that
the statement "in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die" might be fulfilled.
The brutes no longer stood in awe of man as their ruler; instead, they attacked him.
Jewish teaching:The deadly effect of sin can be removed by repentance.
But while sin was of fatal consequence, and the effect of the poison of the serpent is still felt by
all following generations, unless they should be released from it by the covenant of Sinai ('Ab.
Zarah, 22b; IV Book of Esdras; Apoc. Mosis, xx.).
The Jewish haggadists emphasize one point not mentioned in the Bible, but of great doctrinal
importance to the Jews in comparison with the teachings of Paul and his followers: The deadly
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