A Tale of Three Apples

I am sure you have all discovered by now that I have been on a health and fitness drive in the past year or so. It had been an incredible journey and along the way I discovered many things about myself and broke many self-myths about my age and abilities. One major element of my health drive is food. This is how I rediscovered the Heavenly taste of apples. The history of our relationship with apples goes all the way back to the creation of the world. When Adam and Eve were created 5778 years ago (If you discount evolution and follow the traditional Jewish counting), they were placed in the Garden of Eden. This was a magnificent place, and according to one Midrash, there were a scent of apple trees in the Garden. What follows is a story that almost every child is familiar with. 

God tells them not to touch the ‘apple’ tree. The serpent tempts Eve to eat from the fruit, and Eve tempts Adam. They realise that they are naked, and it ends with their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The apple tree in this story serves as the tree of knowledge. By eating from the forbidden apple humans became wise and had an understanding of the world that no one else in the animal kingdom had before. We learned to grow crops, domesticate animals, harness fire, and more.

However, was the fruit of knowledge really an apple? The Torah gives us no clue as to the nature of the fruit. Jewish tradition does not associate this fruit with an apple. One rabbinic opinion is that it was a fig tree. Indeed, when they realise that they are naked, they grab the first thing next to them, fig leaves. Other views are that it might have been wheat or an Etrog, and more modern interpretations claim for the fruit to be a banana or a prickly pear. The apple is a Christian idea. There is a sexual connotation to the story of Adam and Eve and the temptation of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Red is the colour of temptation, and what is better for temptation than a juicy red apple. Paintings of Christian artists, such as the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach and the Flemish artist Rubens, feature red apples. Our first apple therefore represents the creation of the world, the formation of human society, and the agricultural revolution.

Our second famous apple belongs to Sir Isaac Newton. Young Isaac was sitting in his garden when suddenly an apple falls from the tree and hits him on the head. This apple and other falling apples around him triggered a brilliant insight in Newton, and he discovered the law of gravity. Newton’s apple, whether it did fall on his head or not, marks a milestone in the scientific revolution that changed the world. It marks the beginning of observation of our world in terms of scientific research and the formulation of theories rather than the reliance on religious and cultural myths. Newton’s apple, and the scientific discoveries that followed, helped us to build instruments that enabled a better observation of our world. It enabled us to harness the forces of nature to our needs, and the construction of mighty machines on land, sea and air. Newton’s observation of the falling apple poses a serious challenge to Biblical stories such as Adam and Eve and their passion for apples in the Garden of Eden. What could not be proven scientifically through empirical research is to be classified as no more than a myth or an allegorical anecdote. The scientific revolution was and still is the most significant challenge to religion.

Our third apple belongs to the realm of modern technology. Ten years ago the CEO of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs, waved a small device that could play music, make and answer calls, and surf the Internet. This was the prototype of all smartphones to come. Although there are so many other candidates before and after it, that particular apple device, the iPhone, represents more than any other device the information revolution. If Adam and Eve’s revolution gave us food, and Newton’s revolution gave us energy, the iPhone revolution placed in our pockets a vast and almost endless sea of knowledge. Yet, it is not only knowledge that it gave us. You can talk to it, and ask it questions, and it will give you good answers. You can ask it (nicely) to take you home, and it will. You can tell it about your aches and pains and it will find a remedy. More than that, these systems are so intelligent that they can even know about you more than you know about yourself and tell you what you want and need even before you even thought about it.

These devices gradually know more and more about your body and your mind. They can take your pulse, check your temperature, and record what you had for breakfast. We live in a world where intelligent phones run our daily lives, intelligent homes set up the heating for us and keep an eye on the neighbourhood while we are out, intelligent robots that clean for us, intelligent fridges that can ensure we are never out you do so there will be nobody to fix it after you.” With the apple from the Garden of Eden we started taking over the habitat of other animals, and clearing forests. We pushed wildlife away in order to clear way for our apple orchards, wheat fields and our domestic animals. With Newton’s apple we caused an incredible amount of pollution on land, at sea and in the air. Our world is increasingly becoming overpopulated.

We are yet to witness the full effects of the third apple. We might gain even more control of the world around us but we might not fully understand that control. We are in danger of losing our occupation and livelihood to machines. There is an increasing worry that technology will end in the wrong hands and the smart home that we installed in order to protect us will be used to attack us. Another worry is that of passive entertainment. We seem to be spending an increasing amount of time in front of screens rather than going out there and being active. Some people find it difficult to engage in conversation with one another, and many of us stopped reading books. As we benefit from all three ancient and contemporary apples that shaped the world, let us recall the blessing and the curse of these apples.  

Let us enjoy the blessing of agriculture and food, but let us avoid clearing more forests and destroying more natural habitats. Perhaps we can even create more natural beauty spots. Let us enjoy the blessing that science gave us, but also the extensive damage we cause to our world, and make an attempt to clean it up. Perhaps it is time to give up these plastic water bottles and supermarket carrier bags. Let us enjoy the blessing of information technology and the wealth of knowledge it brings to us wherever we go. Yet let us not forget to keep our minds sharp, our bodies healthy and our souls pure. And let us continue to enjoy the blessing of apples, not biblical. historical or technological apples, but real apples, that you can make a perfect strudel out of.