Hebrew Bible Study
Hebrew Bible Study

Halakhah for Genesis 3:1

וְהַנָּחָשׁ֙ הָיָ֣ה עָר֔וּם מִכֹּל֙ חַיַּ֣ת הַשָּׂדֶ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשָׂ֖ה יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהִ֑ים וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ אֶל־הָ֣אִשָּׁ֔ה אַ֚ף כִּֽי־אָמַ֣ר אֱלֹהִ֔ים לֹ֣א תֹֽאכְל֔וּ מִכֹּ֖ל עֵ֥ץ הַגָּֽן׃

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman: ‘Yea, hath God said: Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’

Chofetz Chaim

And if the yetzer hara sees that in these ways he cannot prevail over the man, he deceives him in reverse, being so stringent with him in the area of lashon hara until he sees everything as entering into the category of lashon hara, to the extent that he sees it as impossible to live life thus constrained unless he separates entirely from the affairs of the world — as per the device of the [primal] subtle serpent, who said [to Eve] (Genesis 3:1): "Did G–d really say do not eat from all the trees of the garden"? [(when, in reality, he had interdicted only the Tree of Knowledge)]
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