...Both the animal soul and Divine Soul aspire toward unity but in proportion to their own capabilities and world views. The Divine soul seeks to dissolve itself in the Infinite Light of G-d. Its self-ness is a frustrating barrier between itself and its Beloved, like trying to pick up a penny with wool mittens. The animal soul, on the contrary, can't really see beyond the shadow of its own outline, and so its definition of oneness is likewise limited. Therefore it strives for unity through physics and the unified field theory, telecommunications, universalism, sexuality, etc. All things which unify the physical pole of reality but preserve a level of individuality and, by necessity, a degree of separation from G-d. This last "leap" into complete union is only possible to the extent that these endeavors are explicitly subsumed within a larger context of Torah and mitzvot.

...This is the state of mind that prevails after eating from the Tree of Knowledge. The perspective of True and False collapsed into that of Good and Evil. These last two constant mitzvot aim to rectify all this, to heal and repair the level of mind called daat, knowledge, by directing it back to Truth. But what is Truth? Where is it to be found in this world? How do we recognize it? How do we know when we've got it? As post-Edenic creatures living in a post-Edenic world, our "taste buds" are not reliable in this regard. Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They took its fruit into themselves, and its impurities were absorbed by every cell in their systems. Since they contained the collective souls of all humanity, we inherit the effects of their deed. This means that our capacity to discern True and False is limited. If left to our own resources, it would be like trying to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We cannot go beyond ourselves, for we cannot escape the clouding influences of self-interest and ulterior motive.

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