"For Instruction shall come forth from Zion, The word of the L-rd from Jerusalem." -- Isaiah 2:3

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GENESIS — 3:6 saw 

GEN372 Adam’s sin is due to enticement toward illusory pleasures… Understanding the evil of worldly pleasures will lead one to spurn them. … The enticement of the eyes, which are tempted by the appearance of things that seem good and pleasant, draws one’s nature to these pleasures to such an extent that one needs great strength and shrewdness in order to remove himself from their [influence]. It was this enticement that caused the first sin to be committed.  Yet, when a person discerns that this “good” is totally false, illusory, and without any permanenceand the evil in it is real or imminently about to emerge from it, then surely he will loath it and reject it total.  This, then, is the entire lesson that one must teach himself: to recognize the flimsy nature of these pleasures and their falseness until he instinctively comes to loathe them and will find no difficulty in casting them out.  PATH 102

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GENESIS — 3:6 tree 

GEN373 We should save others from embarrassment.  Why was the tree not identified? Because God does not wish to grieve any of His creations.  Had the tree been identified, people might have said, “This is the tree through which the world was afflicted.”  Midrash Tanchuma cited by Rashi on verse 7.  God saved even an inanimate object from shame; all the more so must we try to save people from embarrassment.  PLYN 29

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GENESIS — 3:7 knew

GEN375 Do not strive to see him in the hour of his degradation.  Pirkei Avot IV:23   Whence do we learn this? – from Adam. When he ate of the tree [of knowledge] and became degraded—as we read, “they knew they were naked” [this verse] – the Holy One did not manifest Himself to them then, since they were in a state of disgrace.  Rather [did He wait until] “They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” [this verse]. Only after that “they heard the sound of the Lord God walking about in the garden.” [this verse].  SINAI2 163

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GENESIS — 3:7 opened

GEN377 Most common folk and many distinguished people are filled with wonder when observing something they are unaccustomed to seeing – for example, a solar or lunar eclipse, thunder and lightning, thunderbolts, a tempest, and the like.  But they feel no wonder at the movements and courses of the spheres – sun, moon, and stars – at sunrise and sunset, the falling of the rain, the blowing of the wind, or similar phenomena that are ever present and are seen regularly.  They are awed when they see the ocean, its waves and storms, and the many living creatures in it; but they are not awed by the flow of the rivers and the gush of water from the springs, [flowing] day and night without lull or letup, and by many other such phenomena.  Therefore, my brother, you should reflect on all that God has created – what you have grown accustomed to and what you have not grown accustomed to, what you have seen before and what you have never seen.  … Pretend that you had been devoid of vision before ever perceiving them, and that only later did you open your eyes, see them, and come to know them.  The ignorant resemble the blind, and that, when they gain knowledge, it is as if their eyes are suddenly opened, and they can see! As Scripture says of Adam and Chavah [the verse], though we know that they could see beforehand.  DUTIES 747

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GENESIS — 3:7 opened

GEN376 It is not said, And the eyes of them both were opened, and they saw.  For what was seen previously was exactly that which was seen afterwards.  There had been no membrane over the eye that was now removed, but rather he entered upon another state in which he considered as base things that he had not previously considered base.  Know, moreover, that this expression, I mean, to open, refers only to uncovering mental vision and in no respect means that the sense of sight has been newly acquired.  EWM 132

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GENESIS — 3:7 perceived

GEN378 And they interpreted this as follows: When the hands write a scroll of the Torah in purity, they are honored and praiseworthy. When they do something improper, they are loathsome.  So it is with the sex organs of Adam and Eve.  Prior to their sinning, it was one way, but after they sinned, quite different.  As in every organ, there is that which is laudatory when the man performs what is good, so there is offensiveness when man does evil.  So it was with the first man concerning the sex organs.  Accordingly, it follow that God’s ways are just, holy and pure.  All that is ugly results from man’s activities.  Iggeret haKodesh—The Holy Letter.  HTBAJ 158-9

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