The Tree(s) of Life & Knowledge

And from the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and bad.

And the Lord God made to grow from the ground every tree that was desirable to behold and good to eat, and the tree of life in the midst of the garden, whose height was a journey of five hundred years, and the tree of whose fruit they who ate would distinguish between good and evil.

And the Lord God grew out of the earth (Genesis 2: 9). It was taught, the tree that was spread over the face of all living things. Rabbi Yehudah Bar Ela'ayi said, the Tree of Life extended for the journey of five hundred years and the waters of Genesis split from beneath it. Rabbi Yudan [said] in the name of Rabbi Yehudah Bar El'a'i not only was it the case that the tree's branches extended for the journey of five hundred years, but it was also the case that its trunk extended for the journey of five hundred years.

A closer examination of the text which placed the two words בתוך הגן exactly between the words עץ החיים and עץ הדעת טוב ורע, makes it clear that both these trees stood next to one another. Although there were two trees, and it is physically impossible for both trees to be precisely in the centre of the garden, we must assume that they had a single trunk and that the two trees branched out at a certain point above the ground, one side becoming the עץ החיים, the other the עץ הדעת. The Torah continues by describing rivers which originated in that garden, describing their parameters and the countries which surrounded the garden. There were a total of four rivers which were all branches of a single river which flowed out of Eden. As long as that river was a single river its function was to irrigate the garden. Subsequently, this river split into what the Torah called ארבעה ראשים, “four headwaters.” You are aware already that though the Torah describes a scenery on earth when describing Gan Eden and what is related to it, the manifestations described by the Torah are metaphors for phenomena in the celestial regions.

See translation and footnotes below (Zohar, Pritzker Edition)

...the snake said to himself: Since I cannot make Adam stumble, I will make Eve stumble. He went and sat beside her, and began chatting with her, and said to her: If you say the Holy Blessed One commanded us not to touch it, look, I will touch it and I will not die. And even you, if you touch it, you will not die. What did the wicked snake do then? He went up and touched the tree with his hands and feet, and shook it until its fruits fell to the ground. Some say that he did not touch it at all, for when the tree saw him, it screamed and said to him, Wicked one! Wicked one! Don’t touch me! ...

We learned in the mishna: One who recited: Who creates fruit of the tree, over fruits of the earth, did not fulfill his obligation. The Gemara asks: That is obvious, as fruits of the earth do not fall under the rubric of trees. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: This ruling in the mishna is only necessary according to the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda, who said in another context that wheat is a type of tree, as we learned in a baraita: The tree from which Adam, the first man, ate, Rabbi Meir says: It was a vine, as nothing brings wailing and trouble upon man even today other than wine, as it is stated with regard to Noah: “And he drank from the wine and became drunk” (Genesis 9:21). Rabbi Neḥemya says: It was a fig tree, as with the object with which they were corrupted and sinned they were rehabilitated, as it is stated: “And they sewed together fig leaves and made for themselves loincloths” (Genesis 3:7). They must have taken the leaves from the tree closest at hand, the Tree of Knowledge. Rabbi Yehuda says: It was wheat, as, even today, the child does not know how to call his father and mother until he tastes the taste of grain.

Rabbi Aba of Ako said it was a citron (etrog)....

Rabbi Azarya and Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: God forbid! The Holy One Blessed be He never revealed the [type of] tree to Adam, and nor will He reveal it in the future...

And if the [Holy One] is concerned for the dignity of a [lowly] creation, all the more so...

And from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: God never described the tree as the Tree of Knowledge rather when Moses wrote the Torah he describes it as the Tree of Knowledge. And so too Adam did not know it was a Tree of Knowledge as [Eve] said to the snake "And from the tree which is in the center of the garden" (Gen 3:3). She did not describe it as the Tree of Knowledge.

"And the tree of knowledge of good and evil": Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair said, concerning this tree, during the time which the first man did not eat from [the tree], it was not called by its name but only as "tree" like all the other trees. But when [Adam] ate [from it] and transgressed on God's decree [the tree's] name was called "the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil." This is similar to many things regarding which their names are written in the beginning [of the story] with the name [received] at the end [of the story].

..."And it was full of bones (atzamot)" (Ezekiel 37:1). Do not read [the verse] as atzamot ("bones") but as etz mavet ("the Tree of Death"). This refers to the the tree that God told the First Adam not to eat from, and yet he ate from it. And [as a result] he was penalized with death (i.e. mortality) and so too were all his future offspring until the end of all generations....

And [Noah] planted [a vineyard]: There are three instances (in the Pentateuch) using the phrase "and he planted" (vayita). [The other references are:] "And God planted a garden in Eden" (Gen 2:8), "And [Abraham] planted a tree" (Gen 21:33). Our rabbis interpreted from here that [Noah] too a sapling from the Garden of Eden and so too Abaraham took his tree from the Garden of Eden.

Come and see: When Adam sinned, he sinned with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and he received a punishment, causing the infliction of death upon all inhabitants of the world...

And when Abraham appeared he mended the world with another tree, namely, the Tree of Life. And he proclaimed faith to all inhabitants of the world.

Wherever all thirty of the fruits mentioned above, whose roots are in the worlds of Creation, Formation, and Making, can be found, it is a mitzvah to obtain them. For whoever does much is surely worthy of praise. However, wherever they are not all available, there should be no less than twelve types of fruit, corresponding to the fruit of the supernal tree, the Tree of Life. It is established as a Holy Tree in twelve directions, the secret of the twelve permutations of the Name, YHVH. For each of these the kavvanah should be one of the twelve permutations, according to the order mentioned above . . . .