Shemos: 28:30. You shall place the Urim and the Thummim into the choshen of judgment so that they will be over Aaron's heart when he comes before the Lord, and Aaron will carry the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord at all times.
The Urim and Thummim are referred to as instruments to divine the truth.
Devarim:33:8 And of Levi he said: Thy Thummim and Thy Urim be with Thy holy one
Bamidbar: 27; 21 And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the LORD; at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.'
The main question is of course a matter and right and wrong and it all goes back to this.
Here it says this
Bereishis:2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.'
Adam did not know right from wrong or good and evil or did he prior to eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
Hashem Elokim gives this warning and yet how could Adam know what it meant to 'die?'
What could he know also of life other than what any of us know. We are here. We exist have experiences, etc. Now if Hashem Elokim had said 'you will cease to be...' that would have been a stronger admonition although even ‘ceasing to be’ Adam would have no point of reference. He came to be. He was. What else is there?
Everything is hashgacha pratis so that given free will what did Adam even 'know' of disobeying?
It is our nature to ask questions, to seek to know what is good from what is evil. Without these answers what meanings could we give to our lives? How could we experience godliness otherwise?
There is a paradox here because we long for Mashiach to come bringing us back into a state of perfection. Is that perfection the end of the knowledge of good and evil; in other words if all is good and perfect how will we know that difference.
We know from Kabbalah that it is resistance that brings creation into being. The light contracted itself in order to become form. This is the resistance that Adam through Chevah showed by listening to the snake and partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Without Daas what becomes of the tree of life? This leads to another question of how come right there at the apex of the Chabad triad we find Daas? Is not Daas the forbidden fruit? And yet we still seek it!
There is something else going on here an opening perhaps due to the age of Mashiach.
Centuries of Torah studies say we are not going to stop asking questions and perhaps disagreeing with the answers but always seeking more in unification of the same.
Have we been looking at this askance? Instead of feeling guilty about sinning or the original sin itself maybe we should ask why would Hashem Elokim command us with such an obscure restriction knowing that it would be irresistible and that we would sin. It was and is all part of the Divine plan.
We learn from our mistakes. When we touch something hot we learn not to go there anymore. A car crosses the street and we think about waiting for the car to pass instead of moving forward. We have a chance to do mitzvoth and do so. All of these are choices that we make each day. So what is the lesson we may learn from this paradox?
Isn’t it the overwhelming imperative to choose good every time? Hashem Elokim could have said to only choose good, however choices do not work that way. Hashem Elokim instead left the choice up to us. We chose experience and yes learned of death but even more so of life and what it means; how precious it is against the backdrop of death.
The Urim and Thummim are placed close to the heart so that we will choose good with our whole being. This is the duty of the priest to choose well for the people in the prayers he presents before Hashem-Elokim. It is also our choice each day in all things to choose well.
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