Musar к Берешит 3:5

When we reflect further upon this, we find that the first lashon hara that came to the world came through the serpent, and through denial of the living G-d, the snake saying to Eve (Bereshith 3:5): "For G-d knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened" (as Rashi there interprets it in the name of the Midrash: "Every craftsman hates his competitors. He ate from this tree and created the world. You eat from it and your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, creators of worlds.") And this brought death to all the world, and all hate it and wish to kill it, as Scripture says (Ibid. 15): "And hatred shall I place between you and between the woman… He will crush your head, etc." [aside from its other punishments: its legs were cut off, viz. (Ibid. 19): "On your belly shall you go"; and its food is dust, viz. (Ibid.): "And dust shall you eat"; and its faculty of speech was removed.

We shall answer the questions in order: As to their saying "against Elokim and against Moses," they emulated in this, the primal serpent, who also spoke against the Holy One Blessed be He, who said that the reason the Holy One Blessed be He did not permit eating from the tree of knowledge was (Bereshith 3:5) "For Elokim knows that on the day you eat from it… you will be like elohim" [which Onkelos translates 'great ones'], wherefore He withheld this good [of eating] from you. Here, too, in giving you manna, He gave you "faulty bread," and He is destined to exact punishment of you through it [see Rashi], that your bowels will burst, when you are not meritorious; for He wishes to conduct himself with you according to the attribute of din. And, in truth, it was not so. For it was in His mercy and lovingkindness that He gave them bread from heaven, which contained no waste, the like of which he had not even given to our holy forefathers, as it is written (Devarim 8:3): "And He fed you the manna, which you did not know, and which your forefathers did not know, to make it known to you that not through bread alone shall a man live, but by all that issues from the mouth of the L-rd shall a man live." And he also wished to spare them exertion. For is it not known that the cloud of the L-rd dwelt among them, because of which it is written in the Torah (Devarim 23:13): "And a place shall there be for you outside the camp [outside the cloud of glory], and you shall go out there outside." Therefore, He gave them manna to eat, which produces no waste and which is absorbed into the organs, so that they would always be clean and pure, wherefore it is written thereafter (7): "because we spoke against Hashem" [connoting "mercy"], who gave us manna in His mercies.

Eve was now ready to accept the serpent's statement that the only reason G–d had prohibited eating from the tree was that He did not want them to know good and evil just as He Himself did (Genesis 3,5). Reflecting on this, Eve saw that the tree was good as food, etc. (3,6).