Komentaryo sa Genesis 3:4: Rashi, Chizkuni, Sforno & Or HaChaim

לא מות תמתון YE SHALL NOT SURELY DIE — He pushed her until she touched it. He then said to her, “Just as there is no death in touching it, so there is no death in eating it” (Genesis Rabbah 19:3).

לא מות תמותון, according to Rashi, this expression means that the serpent had first pushed the woman against the tree to demonstrate that though she had touched it, she had not died. Neither would she die by eating from it. If you were to ask how did the serpent know that the woman would not die by touching that tree? G-d had threatened that anyone eating from that tree would die on that day, and the day had not come to an end yet?We must not ask such questions when examining the exegesis of our sages! Actually, this question has been asked, and answered as the serpent having convinced the woman that death would follow instantaneously if she would violate G-d’s commandment. In order to answer the doubters or deniers of the truth of the Torah, this dialogue was not completed until the next morning when the previous day had already passed without any harm befalling the woman. [Some commentators claim that the serpent had eaten herself and demonstrated that she had not suffered any harm. In that case we must assume that the animals had not been forbidden to eat from that tree. Ed.] A different interpretation of the words: לא מות תמותון: the serpent told the woman that she now risked nothing by eating, as if she had said that also touching had been forbidden, she could not die more than once anyways, so what did she have to lose by also tasting the fruit of that tree? The literal meaning of the words: לא מות תמותון, would therefore be: “you cannot die twice.”

לא מות תמותון “you will sure not die, כי יודע אלוקים כי בים אכלכם ממנו ונפקחו עיניכם, G’d did not forbid this fruit because it is lethal, but because He knows that through eating it you will attain additional knowledge so that you will be just like G’d, possessing total knowledge.