פירוש על בראשית 3:7

‘ותפקחנה וגו [AND THE EYES OF BOTH OF THEM] WERE UNCLOSED — Scripture speaks here with reference to intelligence (the mind’s eye) and not with reference to actual seeing; the end of the verse proves this for it states,

AND THE EYES OF THEM BOTH WERE OPENED. Scripture speaks here with reference to intelligence, and not with reference to actual seeing. The end of the verse proves this: and they knew they were naked. [Even a blind person knows when he is naked! It must therefore refer to intelligence], as [explained in] the words of Rashi. In a similar sense is the verse, Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.³⁷⁵Psalms 119:18. Here too “the opening of eyes” has reference to understanding.

ותפקחנה עיני שניהם, they compared mentally, the advantages they had gained through the pleasant sensation of eating from the fruit of the tree, and the harm they had caused themselves thereby. The expression פקח implies weighing something carefully with both heart and mind. We find an example of this expression in such a sense in Job 14,3 אף על זה פקחת עינים, “Do you fix your gaze even on such a one?” [Job referring to the transient nature of man and if he is worth G’d’s attention. Ed.]