Facing the Revolving Sword

The Beginning of Creation

Parshat Bereishit marks the dawn of creation and the mission of mankind. Hashem created the world in perfect balance—the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, every creature and element precisely designed. Then He formed Adam and Chava, placing them in Gan Eden, a paradise meant to be sustained through the Torah and fulfilled by Am Yisrael, whose purpose is to reveal Hashem’s Presence in the world.

Yet from the very beginning, creation faced its first test—the cunning of the primordial snake. The serpent enticed Chava to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, twisting the truth and presenting falsehood as wisdom. With subtle manipulation, it convinced her that eating from the tree would elevate her to Divine knowledge, that she would become a creator of worlds. Through this distortion, the snake planted confusion and falsehood at the root of human consciousness.

The Birth of Confusion

Rashi reveals that Chava had added to Hashem’s command. Hashem forbade eating from the tree, but Adam had added a safeguard—not even to touch it. The snake exploited this, pushing Chava’s hand to the tree and proving that touching it did not cause death, thereby convincing her that eating would not either. The fall of man began not with rebellion, but with misunderstanding—a distortion of the truth.

From that moment on, all sin and confusion in the world trace back to this same pattern: mixing truth and falsehood. “He didn’t really mean this; He meant that.” It’s the language of the snake, the voice of cunning that turns clarity into chaos.

The Revolving Sword

After the sin, Adam and Chava were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Hashem stationed Keruvim—angels of destruction—and placed the Lahat HaCherev HaMit’hapechet, the “flaming revolving sword,” to guard the way to the Tree of Life (Bereishit 3:24).

The verse could have stopped with the sword and the angels. Why emphasize that the sword revolves? Reb Noson reveals that this detail holds the key to understanding the root of all human confusion. The revolving sword represents the power of distortion—the faculty of evil to switch and exchange, to make light appear as darkness, good as evil, and falsehood as truth.

This is the birth of what Rebbe Nachman calls the Chamber of Exchanges (Heichal HaTemurot). It is the spiritual system through which good and evil are constantly swapped. Every test we face, every moral inversion we witness, stems from this revolving sword.

Living in a World of Exchanges

Today, we see this confusion everywhere. Basic truths that were once self-evident are now denied. Concepts as fundamental as morality, family, and identity are being rewritten. “A tree is a dog,” “two plus two is five”—it sounds absurd, yet people believe it. The world has lost its grounding in truth.

This, Reb Noson teaches, is the sword still spinning. Its rotation represents the continual motion of deception, the unending exchange between truth and falsehood that defines the exile of mankind. Until we learn to face the revolving sword—and not be fooled by its light and shadow—we remain barred from the Tree of Life.

When a person strengthens himself with happiness, he gains the power to face any test

The Sword That Changes

Reb Noson explains that this Lahat HaCherev HaMit’hapechet—the revolving sword—is the root of all confusion in the world. From it stems the Chamber of Exchanges, where falsehood is presented as truth, darkness as light, and impurity as purity. Humanity’s greatest downfall is not open rebellion, but being fooled into thinking the false is real.

The Torah gives a Jew the clarity to see through the distortion. Without Torah, a person is easily deceived. The Torah refines perception, allowing one to laugh at the absurdity of a world turned upside down. Those who learn Torah see clearly how society calls evil good and good evil. The Torah itself is the lens that restores vision.

The test of life, therefore, is not just resisting sin—it is seeing through the illusion. The revolving sword represents constant change, the world’s endless spinning of values, identities, and truths. Every generation faces this sword on the path back to the Tree of Life.

Passing the Test

Rebbe Nachman teaches that when a person realizes he cannot intellectually understand what is happening, that recognition itself becomes his salvation. If he stops trying to rationalize every twist and instead relies on emunah—simple faith—he can pass through the sword unscathed.

When a person tries to fight confusion with logic alone, he becomes entangled in its web. The sword turns, switching right and wrong, truth and falsehood, until he is cut and lost. But if he enters with humility—acknowledging, “I can’t make sense of this, so I’ll hold on to Hashem in faith and joy”—then he passes safely through.

This is the path to the Tree of Life. The Zohar calls the Tree of Life the inner Torah—the secrets of Divine wisdom that reveal Hashem’s presence in everything. Rebbe Nachman lived this vision. Reb Noson writes that the Rebbe saw godliness in all things—every word, every moment of conversation, every event in the world. The Torah was open before him as a living map of creation. That level of perception is the Tree of Life itself.

The Koach HaMedameh — The Power of Illusion

The same revolving sword that guards the Tree of Life is what blocks us from it. Its weapon is the koach ha-medameh, the faculty of distorted imagination. This power tricks a person into believing lies about himself, about others, and about Hashem.

It is the same force that caused the sin of the Golden Calf. The nation miscalculated by one day, and the Satan exploited the confusion—showing an image of Moshe’s coffin floating in the air to convince them he had died. The result was idolatry born from illusion. Nothing real had happened—only a distortion of perception.

Every fall in life follows the same pattern: we misinterpret, we imagine, and we are drawn into error.

The Joy That Breaks the Sword

Rebbe Nachman reveals that the only way to defeat this illusion is through simcha—simple, heartfelt joy. Joy breaks the hold of the koach ha-medameh. When a person strengthens himself with happiness—believing that Hashem values him infinitely, no matter what—he gains the power to face any test.

It’s not easy. But every moment spent rejoicing in faith, every prayer to remain joyful, every effort to see good amid confusion, weakens the sword’s spin. Through joy and emunah, a person finds the path between the blades and reaches his own Tree of Life.

Returning to the Tree of Life

The Torah opens with this lesson because it defines all of human existence: life is a walk through the revolving sword. Every generation must face new forms of distortion, yet the key remains the same—hold on to faith, hold on to joy, and don’t be fooled.

With these, a Jew can pass through the Chamber of Exchanges and reclaim the holiness that was swapped and hidden. In doing so, he not only finds his own Tree of Life but helps bring the world closer to its final redemption.

Shabbat Shalom—and may this year bring clarity, faith, and joy to overcome every test of the revolving sword, leading us all back to the Tree of Life.

Meir Elkabas