Komentarz do Rodzaju 3:16

עצבנך THY PAIN — viz., the trouble of rearing children (Eruvin 100b).

‘T’SHUKATHECH’ (AND THY DESIRE) SHALL BE TO THY HUSBAND, meaning for cohabitation. Yet you will not have the boldness to demand it by word, rather he shall rule over thee. It will all be from him and not from you. Thus are the words of Rashi. But this is not correct, for modesty is praiseworthy in a woman, just as the Rabbis have said:³⁹⁶Eruvin 100b. “This is a good quality in women.”
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said: “And thy desire shall be to thy husband, meaning your obedience.” This means you will obey whatever he commands you for you are under his authority to do his desire. However, I have found the expression t’shukah used only in connection with desire and lust.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that He punished her that her desire for her husband be exceedingly great and that she should not be deterred by the pain of pregnancy and birth or that he keeps her as a maid-servant. Now it is not customary for a servant to desire to acquire a master over himself, rather his desire is to flee from him. Thus her punishment is measure for measure; she gave [the fruit of the tree of knowledge] also to her husband and he ate at her command, and He punished her that she should no longer command him, but instead he should command her entirely at his will.

He shall strike you on the head, and you shall strike him on the heel: Most of the commentators said that the evil impulse draws its strength from the primordial serpent; and that the evil impulse is comparable at first to the thread of a spider, but afterwards to the ropes of a wagon. That is why it is stated, "He shall strike you on the head": As if he is alacritous and goes out and fights against his evil impulse at the head - meaning, at first, immediately when it comes upon him - then [the man attacked] will "strike you." For a person can easily defeat and remove it from upon him, like one who removes the thread of a spider. However, if at the head of its words, he makes room for his impulse and goes after its advice one day after another, until it becomes strong like the ropes of a wagon - then it is difficult to defeat it. And it is just the opposite, it defeats you. That is why it is said to the serpent, "and you shall strike him on the heel." For the heel is the end. And what it wants with this is that if he wants to fight you (the evil impulse) at the end, then you will strike him and defeat him - since it will be difficult for a person to remove the ropes of a wagon from upon himself. As the evil impulse is already tied to him with ropes of love for pleasures. So it becomes 'difficult to separate one engaged in intercourse with this uncircumcised and impure one.' And it is also a metaphor for repentance: That a person who does it in his youth - that is at the head of the days of his [youth] - it is easy for him to change his path. However at the heel, at the end, when he has already become used to his actions, 'even when he will age, he will not veer from it,' and then "you will strike him." And this is also said about the stringent transgressions - idolatry, sexual immorality, murder and that which is similar to them: Your impulse cannot make you transgress them so easily. Who is foolish [enough] to veer there; who will listen to it for this thing, to transgress these central transgressions? Rather with the heel - meaning the light commandments that a person tramples with his heels - "you will strike him." For it will be easy for you to make him transgress these. As this is the way of the evil impulse, since it begins with the heel and goes and spreads to the head; like the poison of a snake, which begins in the heel and goes and spreads to the head. So too does the evil impulse begin with the easy commandments that people trample with their heel; and afterwards, one transgression drags along another transgression. So it rises from the light ones to the stringent ones, as it stated (Psalms 38:5), "For my iniquities have gone over my head." And this is a metaphor for the sins that are the head of all the sins. That is why it is stated (Lamentations 1:9), "Her uncleanness clings to her skirts; she gave no thought to her end." For the understanding person will pay attention to when the evil impulse comes to defile him in his skirts - meaning in the lowest place, like the heel. Then it will rise from there and spread, and his end will be bitter. For it will raise him from the light ones to the stringent ones. And the evil ones will not understand, however the intelligent ones will understand.

הרבה ארבה עצבונך, the menstrual blood, known in the Torah and Talmud as נדת דותה (Niddah 9 and Leviticus 12,2) The prophet Jeremiah in Lamentations 1,13 describes the state of the Jewish people after the destruction of the Temple as כל היום דוה, as if she lost menstrual blood all day long.

אל האשה אמר. He (G'd) had said to the woman. G'd intended to make it clear that Eve would suffer three curses as retribution for the three features of the tree of knowledge she had wanted to enjoy. She had seen that the tree a) was good as food; b) a temptation for the eyes; and c) desirable to make one perceptive. G'd decreed that instead of enjoying the fruit of the tree she would suffer pains when producing her own fruit, i.e. her children. Regarding the temptation for her eyes Eve wanted to enjoy, G'd decreed that she would henceforth pine for her husband as a passive partner, her husband deciding if and when to indulge her desire. Her husband would always derive satisfaction from the mating process without a guarantee that her desire would be satisfied during union with her husband. Finally, instead of satisfying her desire to be G'd-like, she would be dominated not only by G'd but also by her husband.

אל האשה...הרבה, the word הרבה here is in the infinitive mode.

Your itzabon: Its explanation is not that it is an expression of pain, but rather an expression of toil - as in, "From all toil (etzev) there is some gain" (Proverbs 14:23). As even though they explained it in the Gemara, Berakhot (30b), Chapter 4, as an expression of lowly spirit - nevertheless the Sages, may their memory be blessed, explained in Bereishit Rabbah, Chapter 89:2, that it is an expression of toil. So the explanation of, your itzabon, is your toil - that you should toil and labor. This is as it is written with Adam (Genesis 3:17), "with itzabon shall you eat of it." However with the woman, the labor is not for sustenance, since it is surely the husband that sustains her. Rather it is in her nature to serve her husband, or to labor in order to attain jewelry and that which is similar.

אל האשה אמר, “to the woman He had said, etc.” G’d did not mention the woman’s eating from the tree as the cause of her punishment as He had done when He announced Adam’s punishment in verse 17. The reason is that she was punished both for the eating and for suggesting that her husband become her partner in crime. The serpent too, had been punished for giving criminal advice to the woman.

The pain of rearing children. Why was she cursed first with the pain of rearing children and then with the pain of pregnancy, which is chronologically out of sequence? Because at that time, they [already] had children, as it says in Sanhedrin 38b: “Two people entered the bed, and four left it.” And it says (4:1), “The man knew his wife,” on which Rashi comments: “This had already occurred before the previous narrative.” (See Divrei Dovid)

עצבון: nur ein geistiger und im Gemüte zu empfindender Schmerz. Wenn es einmal von einem körperlichen Schmerz vorkommt, so ist es auf die in Geist und Gemüt übergehende Folge zu beziehen. Rad: עצב, das durch צ modifizierte עזב, verlassen, also ein mit Widerwillen, durch Zwang, Härte, Gewalt geschehendes Lassen. עצב daher das Gefühl, wenn wir etwas aufgeben müssen, das wir gerne behalten oder erlangt hätten: Entsagung, Verzichtleistung. ולא עצבו אביו מימיו (Kön. I. 1, 6). David hatte seinen Sohn nie an eine Entsagung gewöhnt, nie eine Entsagung von ihm gefordert. ויתעצב אל לבו. ( I. B. M. 6, 6): Gott fühlte — menschlich gesprochen — dass er das Menschengeschlecht aufgeben, ihm entsagen müsse. — Zu Adam hatte Gott schon gesprochen: בעצבון תאכלנה. Mit dem Worte עצבון tritt der Mensch für eine geraume Zeit in eine ganz neue Stellung. Bis dahin hatte der Mensch Entsagung nicht gekannt. Außer dem Menschen kennt auch kein Wesen עצבון, kein Geschöpf stellt seine Ansprüche weiter als sie befriedigt werden können. Für den Menschen stimmt aber jetzt die Natur nicht mehr wie früher mit seinen Wünschen überein, er muss ihr alles abringen und nur durch Entsagung, durch Einsetzung eines Gutes, einer Freude kann er das andere erlangen. — Merkwürdiger Weise werden auch Götzen durch ein Wort von dieser rad. bezeichnet: עצבים. Die Menschen, die ja eigentlich nur sich selbst die Nötigung zur Entsagung verdanken, vergaßen den im Menschen liegenden Ursprung und glaubten sich von feindlichen Mächten umgeben, die ihnen den Schmerz der Entsagung auferlegten und Freude an der Qual der Menschen hätten; diese Mächte heißen deshalb עצבים, Versagende, und אלילים, Verneinende, immer "nein!" sagende Götter. — Also: "zum Weibe aber hatte er gesprochen, deine Entsagung und deine Empfängnis werde ich noch größer sein lassen". Schon dass die Anrede an die Frau nicht mit כי עשית זאת eingeleitet ist, beweist, dass es bloß eine Fortsetzung des zuvor an Adam Gerichteten ist. Von dem עצבון des Mannes ist das Weib größtenteils frei. Nicht es hat im Schweiße des Angesichts Brot zu erwerben. Gleichwohl wird seine Entsagung eine noch größere. Das ganze weibliche Leben vom frühesten Mädchenalter an, ist ein Leben voller Aufopferung. Entsagung für andere, und nun noch gar הרונך, wo das Weib mit der Aufopferung seiner eigenen Existenz mit seinem eigenen Fleisch und Blut Beitrag wird für eine neue Menschensprosse! בעצב תלדי בנים, es gibt keine größere Glückseligkeit für das Weib als Kinder zu haben, und diese höchste Glückseligkeit ist nur mit der höchsten Entsagung zu erkaufen.

אל האשה אמר, “to the woman He had said, etc.” Rabbi Shlomoh son of Rabbi Moshe interpreted the various clauses in this verse as meaning that woman’s life as a result of having seduced her husband into sin would from now on be a never ending experience of pain and travail. As far as her delegating her physical chores to maidservants etc., was concerned, G–d added that the pains associated with pregnancy were something that she could not delegate. She reasoned that at least the act of giving birth would then be a relief from such pain; G–d disabused her of that also. She then reasoned that her hope lay in abstaining from marital intercourse and thus not become pregnant again. G–d told her that she would undergo a psychological change by feeling desirous for marital intercourse with her husband. To the suggestion that she would control her urges for sexual release, G–d retorted that her husband would force her to engage in marital relations with her.

And to the woman He said, "How many evils have you caused yourself! Until now you didn't need to bear children, because you were not [destined] to die. But from now on, you will need to bear children, because you will surely die. If you don't give birth, the world will dissolve, since you will die. So therefore, 'I will increase [...] your pregnancy' - and that is 'your pain' - because 'in pain will you bear children.' For how much pain is there with children: The pain of pregnancy, the pain of birth and the pain of raising [them]. And don't fool yourself to say, 'I'll nullify the commandment of being fruitful, just as I nullified the commandment of the tree of knowledge, such that I won't sleep with my husband.'" That is why it is written, your longing will be for your husband - that you will desire him. And if you say, "I will conquer my impulse because of the pain" - it is hence stated and he will rule over you, so he will take you against your will.

אל האשה אמר, “to the woman He had said:” the gentiles asked Rabbi Joshua why the woman was punished for eating from a tree, seeing that she had not even been created yet when G-d issued the prohibition to eat from it to Adam. He replied that the Torah did not write that G-d forbade eating from the tree “to” Adam, but that it worded it as a general prohibition including the human species, by writing: על האדם, “concerning all his limbs and sinews,” or “the human species,” i.e. himself and all his offspring. (Compare 2,16) Woman, after all, had been constructed from what had been part of his body. A different exegesis: the woman had included herself in the prohibition when she had told the serpent that G-d had forbidden, quoting Him in the plural mode: לא תאכלו ממנו, “you (pl) must not eat from it.” (3,4).

והרונך AND THY CONCEPTION— viz., the pain of pregnancy.

והרונך, her pregnancy will be exactly the opposite of what it had been before she sinned. Our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 22,22) describe that at that time Adam and Chavah were created, copulated, and produced offspring, all on the same day. This is also what things will be like in the future according to Shabbat 30 “in the future woman will be able to give birth every day.” Such a situation will occur when the Jewish people once more regain G’d’s favour, as had been the case prior to the original sin.

You will give birth to children with etzev: Both birth and the toil of raising [children] most of the time are included in this. And so did the Sforno explain.

עצבונך והרונך, the word עצבון appears again in connection with man eating bread, (verse 17), both words describe the pain and discomfort associated when woman as well as man try to achieve their major tasks, woman to have children, man to produce food from the soil. Everything will be achieved only with toil and wearing oneself out in the process. Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra explained that the pain referred to is the pain involved in a virgin losing her hymen. The word הרונך, on the other hand, refers to her subsequent experience when pregnant and carrying a fetus in her womb.
My own father, of blessed memory, explained the word עצבונך as applying to the discomfort experienced during pregnancy, and the word הרונך as applying to the long period the pregnancy lasts. [as opposed to the almost immediate birth after fertilization which occurred in Gan Eden when Chavah bore Kayin and Hevel. Ed.] Our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 20,6) understand both words in a figurative manner, i.e. the frustrations experienced by the parents in raising their children in their image. They interpret the word תלדי as referring to the physical pain involved in giving birth, and the word בנים as referring to the mental anguish involved in raising these children.

עצבונך, “your severe discomfort.” According to Rashi this is not physical discomfort, but the mental anguish which is part of raising children. This seems difficult, for if this were the true meaning of the verse, why did the Torah not write the word הרונך, “your pregnancy,” before speaking about raising as yet unborn children? It appears more appropriate therefore to understand the word עצבונך as referring to the monthly discomfort of menstruating, something even women who do not bear children have to contend with.

You will not have the audacity... Although the Gemara calls this a praiseworthy trait for women, we could say that this means she is praiseworthy for not transgressing Hashem’s command, as she was cursed by Hashem not to demand relations. (Maharshal)

שוק .ואל אישך תשוקתך, Markt, שוק, Schenkel, שוקק eine starke Massen- bewegung von Heuschrecken und Rossen, also Grundbedingung: sich stark nach einer Seite hin bewegen; daher תשוקה: die Richtung des Gemütes und der übrigen Bestrebungen nach einem Ziele, das Streben, die Sehnsucht. Es liegt in der Natur des Weibes, dass es seine Lebenserfüllung nur in der Verbindung mit dem Manne fühlt — und doch wird der Mann ihr wieder neue Entsagung auferlegen: והוא ימשל בך! Schon durch die veränderte Stellung der Erde zum Menschen, die fortan nur immer der harten Arbeit des Mannes das Brot gewährt, ward das Weib in größere Abhängigkeit vom Manne, dem eigentlichen Ernährer, gebracht, und die ursprüngliche Gleichheit gefährdet. So gestaltet es sich in großem Ganzen, wo nicht die תורה die Erlösung und den Frieden in alles dieses bringt, Mann und Weib wieder in gleichen, Gott dienenden Priesterberuf einsetzt, und da wieder das Weib zur "Krone des Mannes" und zur "unschätzbaren Perle" seines Daseins macht (ProRaw Hirsch on Genesis 3: 12, 4. 31, 10).

והוא ימשל בך, “he shall rule over you.” We find a statement in B’reyshit Rabbah 20,7 by Rabbi Yossi Ha-g’leelee, (the Galilean) according to which this statement is supposed to be restrictive, -i.e. the husband not having complete control of his wife; he bases himself on an interesting comparison between the upper and lower millstones in Deuteronomy 24,6. He views the prohibition of a lender taking both of these millstones as security for an overdue loan, and the previous verse ordering a husband to please his wife for a whole year after they get married, and the Torah describing taking both millstones as equivalent to robbing the lender of his life, נפש, as proof that the husband–wife relationship must at all times remain one in which the wife continues to love her husband to the point of seeking physical union with him. He adds that we know that a woman is compared to the lower of the two millstones by citing a verse from Job 31,10: תטחן ואחר אשתי, “may my wife grind for another.” According to the Talmud tractate Sotah, Judges 16,21, where Samson’s suffering at the hands of the Philistines is described with the words: ויהי טוחן בבית האסירים, “he had to act as a grindstone in the jail,” which Rabbi Yossi understands as a chore that a husband must not impose on his wife, even so he is described as “ruling over her.” The Jerusalem Talmud interprets Deut. 24,6 as referring to anything that is a basic necessity for a person’s economic survival as being prohibited to be taken as a pledge, a millstone serving as an example of such necessities. The Jerusalem Targum also considers letting a woman to whom one is betrothed to be married wait for more than a year before the wedding is performed as a violation of the commandment discussed in this verse.

הרבה ארבה, “you will be in a state of retardation, held back throughout your life.” You will always be in a position of trying to catch up. If you were to ask that she could console herself by arguing that she would assign her household duties to her paid servants, G-d added that there were duties, such as her carrying a fetus in her womb which she could not outsource, i.e. הרונך, your pregnancy and the pain associated with her giving birth; if she were to respond that she would forego having marital relations with her husband, G-d added that it would become her second nature to long for the physical union with her husband, ואל אישך תשוקתך. If she would respond that she would learn to control such urges, G-d added that והוא ימשול בך, “he would exercise control over her.”

בעצב תלדי בנים IN PAIN THOU SHALT BEAR CHILDREN — This refers to the pangs of childbirth (Eruvin 100b).

בעצב תלדי בנים, you will experience anguish while engaged in raising them, by comparison to the other creatures on earth who do not experience such prolonged periods during which they have to look after all the needs of their young. The word לידה does appear in the context of raising children (not even one’s own) such as in the case of Michal, daughter of King Sha-ul, wife of David of whom we are told (Samuel II 21,8) חמשת בני מיכל בת שאול אשר ילדה לעדריאל בן ברזילי המחולתי“the five sons of Michal, daughter of Sha-ul whom she had born to Adriel son of Barzilai the Mecholti.” [Michal had not given birth to these five sons, but her older sister Merav, who had died very young so that Michal, her sister, had raised her nephews. Ed.]

Your longing will be for your husband: According to the straightforward understanding, the woman always yearns to find favor in the eyes of her husband. And this is the exact explanation of the term, "to your husband." And so did the Sages, may their memory be blessed, explain in Bereishit Rabbah 20:7: "There are four longings. The longing of a woman is only for her husband. The longing of the evil impulse is only for Kayin and his friends." And the explanation about this is that it yearns that they follow it. "The longing of rain is only for the land." The explanation is that the land benefit and be saturated from the rain. "And the longing of the Holy One, blessed be He, is only for Israel" - that they should follow Him. In this way, man is distinct from woman: The man does not concern himself that he should find favor in the eyes of his wife, but all of the woman's [energy] is that the man should be pleased with her. And if so, she is auxiliary to him.

תשוקתך, the meaning of the word is equivalent to תאותך, “your physical desire.

ואל אישך תשוקתך, “and your longing will be for your husband.” Rashi interprets this as the woman’s desire for marital relations with her husband, something that she does not express openly, by words of mouth, but has to wait for passively, seeing that her husband is the initiator, “rules over her.” Nachmanides takes exception to Rashi’s interpretation, saying that on the contrary, a woman’s natural reticence in these matters is praiseworthy, hardly a punishment. Ibn Ezra understands the word תשוקתך as “your obedience,” saying that the wife has to be obedient to the demands of her husband. She requires his permission to carry out plans of her own design, seeing that she is basically under his control. It would appear that seeing G’d said to the woman: הרבה ארבה עצבונך והרונך, “I will greatly increase your discomfort, etc.,” including that during pregnancy, that even if the woman takes care to minimize the incidence of marital relations in order to not become pregnant, her natural tendency to engage in marital relations will overcome her unwillingness to become pregnant again and again. In fact her husband, seeing that he rules over her, may force her to submit to having marital relations even against her will.

ואל אישך תשוקתך, ”and your craving will be for your husband.” The unusual thing here is that normally, when someone is in a subordinate position such as a slave to a master, the slave tends to use every opportunity to flee from the master. G-d decreed here that the natural orientation of a woman would be the reverse. She would pine for her husband, seek out his presence and nearness. She would be his willing subordinate.

All will come from him and not from you. Why does Rashi explain at such length, when he already said, “You will not have the audacity...”? It is to say that all depends on the husband. If she does not want [relations] and he does, he can compel her. But if he does not want and she does, she cannot compel him. Thus Rashi explained: “All [the initiative] will come from him and not from you.”

והוא ימשול בך, according to Rashi, [as understood by our author, Ed.] the meaning of this phrase is that her husband will be the driving force in all matters of marital union, and that seeing you do not experience the desire for such physical intercourse, unless he has been aroused, you will not be able to arouse him, but on the other hand, he can force marital union on you;”Our sages state in B’reshit Rabbah 20,18, “you might have thought from this phrase that her husband dominates her in every respect;” to prevent you from thinking thus, the Torah in Deuteronomy 24,6 wrote: לא יחבול רחים ורכב, “he must not inflict injury upon her by overburdening her.” [It is clear that the Torah there refers to the woman, as in the previous verse it had ordered the husband to provide his new bride with joy for the first year of the marriage. Ed.] Furthermore, that verse has been translated by the Jerusalem Talmud as meaning: “you must not take the upper millstone as pawn for overdue debts, as the livelihood of the debtor depends upon it.” Our author accepts a different exegesis which understands the verse to mean that a man who has become engaged to a woman, must not allow undue delay before the actual marriage, as his “bride” would then be considered as if her groom had abandoned her. [The word כי יקח in the previous verse refers to engagement not actual consummation, Ed.]

ואל אישך תשוקתך AND TO YOUR HUSBAND WILL BE YOUR DESIRE — for sexual relations. And, nonetheless, you will not have the temerity to proposition him with [your] mouth, but rather HE WILL RULE OVER YOU — everything will come from him and not from you.

And he will rule over you: Even though she subjugates herself for free, he nevertheless rules.

והוא ימשול בך, but he will rule over you, as a master over a slave telling him what to do. In Bereshit Rabbah 20,6 we are told that the numerical value of the word הרבה, i.e. 210 is an allusion that a fetus carried by its mother for 212 days before being born, is a viable baby.” [Each of the words הרבה ארבה, apparently counts as 1 also, in addition to the letters in the word הרבה. Ed.] This is the kind of baby born after 7 months pregnancy. Concerning babies born after 9 months of pregnancy, the Talmud Niddah 38 (also the same Midrash) states that a woman gives birth (normally) after 271, 272, or 273 days of pregnancy. Concerning impure large mammals the sages say that birth occurs 12 months after fertilization.
Chiyah bar Ada, who attended the lecture of Rav and failed to comprehend what Rav explained to him. Upon trying again to explain the matter to him, Chiyah bar Abbah still did not understand it Upon being asked by Rav why he had such trouble understanding the matter, he said that his ass was in labour trying to give birth and he was nervous, fearing that the ass would die due to complications. Rav told him that an ass being overdue or giving birth a few days prematurely was nothing to worry about, seeing we do not know the precise day it is anyways beyond our power to arrange for the birth to occur on that precise date.. If she gives birth prematurely, she would not give birth in fewer days than corresponded to the respective lunar months. If she gave birth late, she would still not exceed the number of days in a solar year. Thereupon Chiyah bar Ada quoted the verse in Job 39,1 “do you know the precise season when the mountain goats give birth? Can you mind the time when the hinds calve?” [he meant that how can I be unconcerned?. Ed.] Rav answered him by quoting the very next verse in Job 39,2: “Do you know the season they give birth, when they couch to bring forth their offspring? He replied: “The one verse refers to smaller mammals, [whose period of gestation is shorter] the other verse refers to larger mammals, whose pregnancy is lengthier.

תשוקתך THY DESIRE — Similar to (Isaiah 29:8), ונפשו שוקקה “and his soul hath appetite”, (desires).