Comentário sobre Gênesis 3:11

מי הגיד לך WHO TOLD THEE? — Whence has the knowledge come to you what shame there is in standing naked?

המן העץ the prefix ה in the word המן introduces a question which keeps troubling the questioner. (Compare Arugat habossem, Auerbach edition page 36)

מי הגיד לך, who revealed to you the difference between good and evil?

ויאמר מי הגיד לך כי עירום אתה, He said: "Who has told you that you are naked?" G'd meant: "what is different now? You stood before Me previously without feeling naked?" The new knowledge you display cannot have originated within you. It must have been provided by an external source. G'd therefore wanted to know: "Who has told you?" According to our exegesis that the feeling was generated internally, i.e. a result of the sin and the loss of the aura of holiness, we must understand the question as merely rhetorical. G'd did not want to shame man too much, therefore He Himself supplied the answer that Adam might have eaten from the forbidden tree, and the act of eating revealed this knowledge to him.

ויאמר...המן העץ, the letter ה in the word המן is like the letter ה in Kings I 29,19 הרצחת וגם ירשת, “did you really expect to get away with murder and inheriting (the murdered man)?” The question is merely rhetorical, it does not require an answer.

From the tree whereof I commanded you: And He did not say, "From the tree of knowledge." As in truth there is nothing in the tree of knowledge to cause him to sin, and that it have impure properties in it, like in all the types of non-kosher food, orlah (fruit from a three less than three years old) and that which is similar. Rather it is that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded man to be on that level of clinging to Him, which is impossible when he attains human knowledge - unless it is with great exertion, like [with] the few people of great stature. And, if so, the impropriety is that he transgressed a command.

From where... You might ask: Why did Rashi not explain as he did earlier (v. 7), that [“naked’ means that] Adam was stripped of the command? The answer is: Hashem’s question, “Who told you that you are naked?” related to Adam’s statement of, “I was afraid because I was naked.” Adam’s nakedness caused his fear. And he could not mean “stripped of the command,” [i.e., that the command was no longer relevant to him,] since a man who has no command need not fear. A man must fulfill only what he is commanded, and will not be punished for transgressing what he has not been commanded! And if Adam was afraid because he transgressed his [original] command, he should have said clearly: “I was afraid because I transgressed the command.” Thus Rashi explains it here as the shame of being unclothed. Another answer is: The verse cannot mean, “Who told you that you are stripped of the command?” since Adam obviously was aware that he had transgressed. (Re’m) I heard a different explanation. The verse should be read: “Who told you, ‘Are you naked?’” In other words, Hashem is saying: I did not ask why you are naked, so why do you answer Me about more than what I had asked? When I said, “Where are you?” I was only asking whether you sinned by eating from the tree! (Tzeidah L’Derech)

הגיד rad. נגד, vergegenwärtigen. Wie ist dir das Bewusstsein gekommen, dass du dich deines nackten Leibes zu schämen hast? — ׳אשר צויתיך לבלתי וגו. Es gibt im Hebräischen keine spezielle Bezeichnung für verbieten. Alle Gesetze sind מצות, Gottesanweisungen, was jeder von uns auf seinem Posten zu leisten habe; מצות עשה und מצות לא תעשה, Anweisungen, was wir zu tun und zu lassen haben. Auch die Verbote sind מצות. Alle Gottesgesetze sind im tiefen Grunde positiRaw Hirsch on Genesis 3: Auch die Verbote lassen uns nicht untätig, fordern vielmehr unsere wärmste Energie, unsere positivste Thätigkeit auf, uns zu zügeln, Neigungen, Triebe und Leidenschaften zu überwinden. Es ist das eine energievolle Tätigkeit, die oft eine bei weitem größere Kraftentfaltung fordert, als die Ausübung einer guten Tat, die Erfüllung eines עשה. Darum sollen wir uns zu einer ebenso freudigen Tätigkeit angespornt fühlen, wenn Gott uns etwas verbietet, als wenn Gott uns etwas gebietet. Es liegt diese Anschauung wohl dem Ausspruche R. Akiba׳s zu Grunde, dass Israel bei der Offenbarung am Sinai nicht nur על הן הן, sondern auch על לאו הן, nicht nur die Gebote, sondern auch die Verbote mit "Jal" zu empfangen hatte.

המן העץ אשר צויתיך לבלתי אכול ממנו, אכלת? “Did you eat from the tree which I had commanded you not to eat from?” [this is the plain meaning of that line. Ed.] [Our author claims that there is a Midrash (Esther Rabbah 92) according to which the peculiar positioning of the word: ה-מ-ן, where we would have expected the word האכלת, “did you eat?” at the outset, conveys an additional meaning, i.e. a hint that the tree Haman would be hanged from is already alluded to here, as the words: המן העץ could be understood as meaning “Ha-m an, the tree” would be hanged from that tree,” i.e. Adam’s sin also had a positive result, that tree had now become a source of potential disaster for the Antisemites. Our author adds the words: “G–d said to Eve that He had meant to hang her,” something that I have found no source for. Wherever I have found a reference to it, the statement in this book is quoted as the source. Ed.]

The Holy One said to him, "From your words, you are caught! How many times did I come to you and you were not concerned that you were naked." As it is written above (Genesis 2:25), "The two of them were naked." "But now you are concerned? Who told you that you were naked?" As only something that is fit for clothing, but does not have any, is called naked. It is not customary to say that a beast is naked, since it is not fit for clothing. For it is covered with the covering that is fit for it. And even great people who wear inferior clothing call themselves naked, because they do not have clothes that are fit for them. "And you also call yourself, naked" - meaning to say, that you are fit for clothes. "Who told you that you are fit for clothes? From the tree whereof, etc."

המן העץ HAST THOU EATEN OF THE TREE — The ' ה of the word המן expresses a question.

כי עירום אתה, that on account of familiarity with evil you felt the need to cover your genitals.

With wonder. [Rashi knows this] because otherwise Adam should have simply answered, “Yes” to Hashem’s question. But since the question expressed wonder and astonishment, Adam responded to this by saying, “The woman... gave me of the tree and I ate.”

By the reference to the tree as opposed to the fruit, the verse once more stresses that the trunk too was forbidden.