## Da'at Zekenim on Genesis Chapter 3

###### Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:11:1
[Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:11:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Da%27at%20Zekenim%20on%20Genesis/r/3:11:1)

**המן העץ.**איתא במדרש, אני אומר לתלותך על עץ, ועתה יגנז וישמר להמן, שיתלה עליו. קרי ביה, הָמָן העץ:

**Daat Zekenim translated by Rb. Eliyahu Munk:**
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.]


###### Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:16:1
[Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:16:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Da%27at%20Zekenim%20on%20Genesis/r/3:16:1)

**אל האשה אמר וגו'.**פירש ר' שלמה ברבי משה, שתהיה בעצבון, ובעמל כל ימיך. וא"ת מאי איכפת לי, הרבה שפחות לשמשני, ת"ל והרונך, על כרחך תהי הרה. וא"ת תלד בשופי, ת"ל בעצב תלדי בנים. וא"ת אשמור עצמי, מליזקק לבעלי, ת"ל ואל אישך תשוקתך. וא"ת אכוף יצרי, ולא אזקק לו. ת"ל והוא ימשל בך, בעל כרחך תזקק לו:

**Daat Zekenim translated by Rb. Eliyahu Munk:**
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.


###### Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:16:2
[Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:16:2](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Da%27at%20Zekenim%20on%20Genesis/r/3:16:2)

**והוא ימשל בך.**אמרינן בב"ר, יכול ממשלה מכל צד, ת"ל לא יחבול ריחים ורכב. ופי' ר' יצחק יכול ממשלה מכל צד, שיהא לו רשות למשכן אשתו, ת"ל לא יחבול ריחים ורכב. ואשה נקראת ריחים, כדכתיב, ויהי טוחן בבית האסורים, כדדריש בסוטה, וכתיב, תטחן לאחר אשתי. ובירושלמי, תרגם פסוק זה, לא תמשכנון ריחיא ורכבא, ארי צרכי נפשאתא אינון, ולא תאסור כליין וחתנין, ארום כל דעבד אלין, כמה דכפר בעלמא דאתי. ופי', לא תאסור כליין וחתנין, שאם אירס אשה, לא יניחנה לישב עגונה באירוסין, זמן מרובה:

**Daat Zekenim translated by Rb. Eliyahu Munk:**
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.


###### Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:17:1
[Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:17:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Da%27at%20Zekenim%20on%20Genesis/r/3:17:1)

**ארורה האדמה בעבורך.**פי' בתאותך, מלשון בעבור הארץ, כמו שאמר אחר כך, וקוץ ודרדר:

**Daat Zekenim translated by Rb. Eliyahu Munk:**
ארורה האדמה בעבורך, “the earth will henceforth be cursed on your account.” [Seeing that the expression בעבור is usually understood as introducing a positive result, our author wanted to justify its use here. Ed.] He understands the earth being cursed as the result of Adam not having been able to resist his powerful craving to taste the forbidden fruit. He cites the use of the expression עבור as being used in a similar sense when the Israelites for the first time, instead of eating bread that descended from heaven. i.e. manna, eating bread that had originated from earth, something that they had on occasion longed for even in the desert. (Numbers chapter 11 and 21) Compare Joshua 8,11-12 where the Israelites eating normally grown food is described as עבור הארץ, according to our author as something they craved as having grown from the earth. The fact that G–d tells Adam that the earth will bring forth thorns and thistles instead of “bread,” shows that the punishment fits the crime, as thorns and thistles are certainly not what Adam craves in response to his working the soil.


###### Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:19:1
[Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:19:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Da%27at%20Zekenim%20on%20Genesis/r/3:19:1)

**בזעת אפך.**נמצא בספר ר' יהודה החסיד, שזו הקללה אינה מתקיימת, אלא בעובדי אדמה, ולא במלכים ושרים. אבל בעצב תלדי בנים, מתקיימת בכל הנשים. ולפי שהאשה, חטאה והחטיאה, לפיכך קללתה מרובה:

**Daat Zekenim translated by Rb. Eliyahu Munk:**
בזעת אפך, by the sweat of your brow;” Rabbi Yehudah hachassid draws our attention to the fact that this curse is one that affects only farmers who physically till the earth, but not people of a different vocation, especially the socially higher ranking people. The curse decreed for women concerning the pains endured during pregnancy and giving birth however, afflicts high ranking women no less than the lowliest servant maid. He attributes the distinction to the fact that the woman not only sinned but also seduced man to sin.


###### Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:24:1
[Da'at Zekenim on Genesis 3:24:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Da%27at%20Zekenim%20on%20Genesis/r/3:24:1)

**להט החרב.**זו גיהנם, המתהפכת מחמין לצונן, ומצונן לחמין, על הרשעים:

**Daat Zekenim translated by Rb. Eliyahu Munk:**
להט, “flaming;” ,the expression “flaming sword,” is a metaphor describing hell which is presumed as a domain in which freezing cold and burning heat constantly alternately, inflicting indescribable discomfort on its wicked inhabitants.