There is an "old saw" in child psychology that says, in so many words, "If you tell a child not to touch something, they will do precisely the opposite – they will touch it." Forbid a child to do thus-and-so, and they will try every method to achieve what has been forbidden. When these situations come up, many parents will say to their children something like, "If you decide to disobey my instructions there will be a punishment." I need not cite examples, we have all experienced these and similar events in our lives both as children and as adults.

The parasha this week is the first of the Torah. B’reshit – Genesis. The creation of the universe, the Earth and all that is on it. We read about the creation of man and woman and the poignant story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the temptation of both Adam and Eve by Gd using the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Again, we all know the story and yet each time we reread this section of Genesis, we never fail to stop just a moment and think about the temptations in our lives.

The high powered "Madison Avenue" advertising organizations are most adept at dangling "temptations" in front of us and our children and it is up to us as parents to both educate and steer our children away from these temptations, but who is steering us adults away from the temptations of "easy money or slimmer bodies or sleeker cars?" One need look no further than over our back fences to take note of how cheap, available mortgages have ruined whole swaths of our population. In many ways, I cannot blame a family for latching on to a nice house or a newer car but at what cost? I blame the mortgage market financiers and their ilk for bringing our economy virtually to its knees simply for their own avarice. They were and, in some cases, continue to be the "snakes holding out bright shiny apples" tempting the rest of us to leap without looking.

Adam and Eve paid a huge price for exercising their temptation. The Garden of Eden is no more and it is doubtful we will ever see the famed Garden again but temptation is still there. The Torah cautions us in the most direct way to look carefully at all the possibilities before we make a major decision. Our world is chock full of snakes dangling temptations and an incorrect choice could lead to huge negative consequences. Attorneys are famous for advising due diligence – check out all the facts – do your homework.

The legends of the Garden of Eden along with Adam and Eve give us pause to think about Utopia and just how precarious our lives really are and the amazing temptations all around us. The consequences of eating that candy bar could be just as disastrous as investing everything in a shaky deal so please think carefully before reaching out and tasting that delicious looking "apple."

Rabbi Rubovits