3: 1-14. The serpent’s enticement.
3. Of the fruit of the tree which is in the center of the garden God has said: ‘You shall neither eat of it nor touch it, lest yo die.'”
6. And the woman perceived that the tree was good for eating and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable as a means of wisdom, … 7. Then the eyes of both were opened and they realized they were naked; and they sewed together a fig leaf and made themselves aprons. 8. They heard the sound of HASHEM God manifesting Itself in the garden toward evening; and the man and his wife hid from HASHEM God among the trees of the garden.
7. This shame awakens the voice of conscience that reminds us we are not meant to be animals.
8. one should never enter another’s home suddenly and unannounced.
9. HASHEM God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 12. The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me – she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
9. Consider well how you have fallen from the heights; where is your exalted status?” 12. Adam did not confess. Instead, he hurled against God the very kindness of the gift of Eve, by implying that God was at fault for giving him his wife. [My husband puzzled me of this, “He never thinks he makes a mistake. He can alway turns the table around and blames me.” Now I know how so.]
19. By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread until you return to the ground, from which you were taken: For you are dust, and to dust shall you return.”
22. And HASHEM God said, “Behold Man has become like the Unique One among us, knowing good and bad; and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat and live forever!” 23. So HASHEM God banished him from the Garden of Eden, to work the soil from which he was taken. 24. And having driven out the man, He stationed at the east of the Garden of Eden the Cherubim and the flame of the ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the Tree of Life.
19. the bodies of outstandingly righteous people that have been exhumed were found not to have decomposed.
22-24. Man’s Expulsion from Eden. By eating the Tree of Knowledge, Man had become, like the Unique One among us, meaning that he had become unique among the terrestrial ones, just as God is unique among the celestial ones, for now Man can discriminate between good and bad, a quality not possessed by cattle and beasts. Because Man has this unique ability to know good and evil, and his desire for sensual gratification had become enhanced, there was a new danger.
24. The cherubim. These were destructive angels, who have the responsibility of preventing man from discovering and re-entering the garden. Cherubim is also used to describe the sacred, angel-like children that were carved from the cover of the Holy Ark; here they are destructive, and there they represent the life-giving powers of the Torah. This alludes to the paramount importance of education. Children can become holy or destructive, depending on how they are reared.
- enmity
- enticement
- hurl
- exalt
- instigator
- pronounce
- succumb
- squalor
- rhetorical
- thistles
- ravages