GEN292 The Torah gives numerous clues about its attitude toward food.  The very first (negative) commandment given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden involved food. They are permitted to eat of every fruit and vegetable except from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. When the serpent tempted Eve and she and then Adam ate from this tree, they had to leave the Garden.  This act of eating changed the way man looked at the world.  Immediately after eating, “their eyes were opened,” and they realized they were naked. Genesis 3:7.  Eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil produced a new sense of good and evil in man.  Therefore, prior to eating the fruit itself, the association of food is with the commandment and with good and evil.  Thus, food had a moral quality form the beginning – eating either fulfilled or disobeyed God’s commandment.  Certainly, the result of the eating was a moral reaction.  Eating caused Adam and Eve to have a new sense of morality, or what was right and wrong.  Thus, this first Torah incident regarding food set the precedent for food in the rest of the Torah and in Judaism in general.  Food is associated in Judaism with a moral act.  AMEMEI 72