The fastest 100-meter run is 9.4 meters per second. Apparently, it is impossible to remember more than a million giga-bytes, and nobody has been able to lift a weight more than 1129 pounds. The highest tone detectable by the human ear is 100,000 herz, and the longest anyone survived without food is 382 days.

Dozens of world records have been broken in the past century, but how much further can we go? Experts say that our potential is limited by the laws of physics, biochemistry and thermodynamics. Despite human ambition, there are certain records that are unlikely to be broken.

Where does this human drive come from, to constantly push against limits and break records? Why are we so driven to accomplish what no one before us has been able to do? Do monkeys compete to see who can jump the highest, or fish to see who can swim the fastest? Animals may compete for survival: for food, shelter or a mate, but we don’t see them competing for its own sake. Is it because humans have intelligence? Is there anything intelligent about growing your fingernails five feet long, or climbing a mountain so high that you run out of oxygen?

The writings of Kabbalah and Chassidut describe the optimal state of creation, as it was before the sin of Adam and Eve, before the sins of self-centeredness and ego got in the way. There was only one perspective—the Divine perspective. Every element of creation, every plant and animal, naturally sensed its role and fulfilled it to its entirety. There was no angst, no sense that “there must be something more to it than this,” no drive to do more or outdo others. There was only peace among all elements in the universe.

But for Adam and Eve, this was not enough. They wanted more. They wanted to know what it was like to “know the difference between good and evil.” Not to do evil, necessarily, but to know what it’s like; to be familiar with it. And in a sense, this was G-d’s choice, G-d’s plan. He also wanted us to know evil, to know selfishness, so that we can learn and discover G-d on our own. In this way, we become partners with G-d in creation.