Kommentar zu Bereschit 3:23

to work the ground from where he had been taken – It is not for naught that the verse mentions “from where he had been taken.” I also found written in the midrash (Shachar Tov Tehillim 92) that the first man (Adam HaRishon) settled himself on Mount Moriah, and from where did they learn this? I further found in the words of our Sages (Chullin 60a) that Adam HaRishon offered a young bull with horns and hooves, and where did they find support in the Torah for this? It appears to me that the source for these statements is the verse “from where he had been taken.” That is to say, from the place about which it says “an altar of earth you shall make for Me…” (Shemot 20:21) As the Sages said, ‘the Holy One created him from the place of his atonement, if only that it be an atonement for him!’ (Bereshit Rabbah 14:8) This refers to Mount Moriah to which Gd sent him to work the ground, build an earthen altar from it and offer upon it an offering of atonement; he was taken from that earth and it is the gate through which he passed, as it gave him his thick, coarse substance through whose agency he fell into sin - as is explained above on the verse “…a tree which makes fruit.” (Bereshit 1:11) Therefore in the place which caused his sin, his atonement will be found because that place – that is, that earth – caused him to sin and therefore that earth is obligated to help him to attain atonement through working it into an altar upon which to offer a bull with horns and hooves. This is a correct explanation of the commandment ‘“an altar of earth you shall make for Me,’ because the damage will be fixed through that which caused the sin. Even according to the opinion that Gd gathered dust for the first man from the whole earth this is still the explanation, because the place about which it says “an altar of earth you shall make for Me” is the location of the foundation stone, from which the world was founded. Dust taken from the center of the world is like dust gathered from the whole earth. Through this the difficulty presented by the verse “…the land upon which you are lying to you I will give it and to your seed” is resolved. (Bereshit 28:13) Rashi explains the verse that Gd folded the entire land underneath Ya’akov. According to my explanation we do not have to say this, rather we can say that he lay down on the spot which is the navel of the world and its center - therefore it was as if he lay down on all the land in its entirety.

וישלחהו, He expelled him. G’d ordered Adam to leave the garden. The expression is used in the same vein as Exodus 12,33 למהר לשלחם מן הארץ, “hastening to send them out of the country.” (Pharaoh)

וישלחהו , the expression here means “expelled.” It is also used in this sense in Jeremiah 16,6 שלח מעל פני, “expel from my presence.

וישלחהו, “He expelled him.” According to Rabbi Joseph Kimchi, G’d first sent him outside the boundaries of Gan Eden, and subsequently expelled him by positioning the cherubs to prevent him for regaining access to that garden.

Es entsendete ihn ד׳ א׳. Dieselbe göttliche Liebe, die ihn in das ג"ע gesetzt, dieselbe entfernt ihn daraus. Sie hatte den Menschen von vornherein für diese beiden Lebensstellungen gebildet, entweder für die Pflichttreue im Paradiese, oder für die Erziehung zur Pflichttreue außerhalb desselben. Daher auch אשר לקח משם, die außerparadiesische Erde war ihm kein neuer Schauplatz. Es war der Boden, auf welchem und für welchen er geschaffen. Im Paradiese hatte er nur das Ziel kennen gelernt, die Heilesgestaltung auf Erden, für die er in der Schule der Entsagung reifen soll; eine irdische Heilesgestaltung, ein irdisches Paradies, dessen Ahnung sich bei allen Völkern auf Erden erhalten hat.

וישלחהו מגן עדן, “He expelled them from Gan Eden”. He was punished in a manner similar to that of a person killing another person through neglect rather than with intent to kill, i.e. he is exiled to a city of refuge. [the whole earth other than Gan Eden in this instance. Ed.] The reason why this penalty was appropriate was that at the moment when Chavah and Adam had eaten from the tree of knowledge they had not yet possessed the knowledge of good and evil which would have made them deliberate sinners.

האדמה אשר לוקח משם, the place to which Adam was transferred was compatible with the requirements of his constitution, more so than other areas on the globe.

לעבד את האדמה, seeing Adam had not been content with light duties in Gan Eden, while he lived from the fruit of the trees, something which was effortless, and he had preferred to violate G’d’s commandment, he would now have to leave the garden and perform hard work, as already indicated in verse 17. אשר לקח משם, to the same place he had been taken from by G;d when He had brought him to Gan Eden. Alternately, the meaning of these words could be in accordance with Onkelos, “the place from which he had been created;” a reference to the earthly part of him, not the divine part of him.