Musar sobre Gênesis 3:4

The purpose of these garments was to be לשם ולתפארת, "for dignity and adornment," as stated by the Torah in Exodus 28,2. Genesis 2,28 reports: "Adam and Eve were nude; they did not experience a sense of shame." The serpent became jealous when it saw their nudity. This is the mystical dimension of all the forbidden sexual unions. The serpent had infected humans with a pollutant. The priests were warned by the Torah not to climb the altar by means of steps so as not to reveal even part of their bodies in the process (Exodus 20,23). It is a natural tendency of man to want to climb steps, to become G–d-like, the vision held out to Eve by the serpent in Genesis 3,4. This tendency became outlawed, i.e. ערוה. Adam later was מושך בערלתו tried to conceal the fact that he was circumcised, as stated by our sages in Sanhedrin 38b. The seven days of inauguration of the Tabernacle before Aaron took over in his capacity as High Priest were symbolic of the seven days of creation. On the eighth day Moses called upon Aaron; on that day he was crowned with ten crowns (Rashi on Leviticus 9,1). He was considered as if he had been created anew on that day. On that date Adam was resurrected, so to speak, because Aaron fulfilled the commandment of "sacrificing his own personality," i.e. אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן, performing an act which reversed the direction Adam had taken, when, instead of cementing his close relations with G–d, he had distanced himself from G–d by eating from the tree of knowledge and bringing death into the world. Nonetheless death henceforth would occur when someone, who was close to G–d (i.e. a priest) would fail to observe all the strictures on the performance of the service in the Tabernacle G–d had placed on the priests, just as death was the consequence of non-observance of G–d's law in the macrocosm, so now death would be the penalty for failing to observe G–d's law within the Tabernacle, the microcosm. At the creation G–d had warned with the words מות תמות; now two sons of Aaron died because they had approached G–d in a forbidden manner, as will be explained in due course.

When a woman experiences the pangs of birth, this results in impurity. After the birth, the impurity has been released through her pain. After the seven days of recovery from such impurity she no longer contains the ingredients that have caused it and therefore is free from any new impurity for a period longer than normal. Since, in the case of the birth of a female, the original impurity was stronger and lasted longer, the period during which she will be free from again contracting such impurity is correspondingly longer. [I have paraphrased the author's quotation of th anonymous source. Ed.] Another reason for that is that man lost his garments of light due to his sin and had to wear garments made of skin, i.e. something removed from the flesh of some animal. He became susceptible to נגע צרעת, afflictions of his skin. The Torah (Leviticus 13,1 expresses this by saying: נגע צרעת כי תהיה באדם … אדם כי יהיה בו נגע צרעת בעור בשרו. What all this means is that Adam, who was the cause of man having to wear clothing made of skin, is the cause of these skin diseases which afflict those who engage in slander. The serpent had been the one to indulge in slander against the Lord Himself when it said that Eve could safely eat from the tree of knowledge (Genesis 3,4) without incurring mortality. It seduced Eve and Adam to violate G–d's command.