מקורות למבחן על בראשית פרק ג׳ וד׳

IBN EZRA

The "Tree of Knowledge" gave rise to sexual desire, and it is for this reason that the man and his wife covered their private parts... When Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge, he "knew his wife," this knowledge being a euphemism for sexual relations. This is called ["knowing"] on account of the Tree of Knowledge. When a youth "knows good and evil," then his sexual desire begins. (Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra, commentary to Bereishit 3:6)

BENNO JACOB

The tree distinguished between good and evil, between the permitted and the forbidden, between life and death, independent of the specific content of the command. On the contrary, the man's test was to see whether he would be influenced by practical considerations regarding the utility of the command, whether he would direct his will solely to obey the Commander. The man was given the command so that he should not think that he is God, but rather he should know that he has a Master and Commander. The fruit of the tree was not harmful, nor did it contain deathly poison. On the contrary, it was good to eat. (Benno Jacob, cited by Nechama Leibowitz, Iyyunim Chadashim be-Sefer Bereishit, p. 20)

Years ago a learned man propounded as a challenge to me a curious objection... This is what the objector said: It is manifest from the clear sense of the biblical text that the primary purpose with regard to man was that he should be, as the other animals are, devoid of intellect, of thought, and of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil. However, when he disobeyed, his disobedience procured him as its necessary consequence the great perfection peculiar to man... Now it is a thing to be wondered at that man’s punishment for his disobedience should consist in his being granted a perfect that he did not possess before, namely, the intellect...

[The answer:] For the intellect that God made overflow unto man and that is the latter’s ultimate perfection, was that which Adam had been provided with before he disobeyed. It was because of this that it was said of him that he was created in the image of God and in His likeness. It was likewise on account of it that he was addressed by God and given commandments, as it says: "And the Lord God commanded, and so on" (Bereishit 2:16). For commandments are not given to beasts and beings devoid of intellect. Through the intellect one distinguishes between truth and falsehood, and that was found in Adam in its perfection and integrity. Fine and bad, on the other hand, belong to the things generally accepted as known, not to those cognized by the intellect. For one does not say: it is fine that heaven is spherical, and it is bad that the earth is flat; rather one says true and false with regard to these assertions... However, when he disobeyed and inclined toward his desires of the imagination and the pleasures of his corporeal senses, inasmuch as it is said: "That the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes" (Bereishit 3:6), he was punished by being deprived of that intellectual apprehension. He therefore disobeyed the commandment that was imposed upon him on account of his intellect and, becoming endowed with the faculty of apprehending generally accepted things, he became absorbed in judging things to be bad or fine.

RAMBAN

"And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The commentators have said that the fruit thereof caused those who ate it to have a desire for sexual intercourse, and therefore Adam and Chava covered their nakedness after they ate of it [the fruit]. They quote a similar expression, the saying of Barzilai the Gileadite: "Can I distinguish between good and evil?" (II Shemuel 19:36) - meaning that this sexual desire was already removed from him. But in my opinion this interpretation is not correct since the serpent said, "And you shall be like Elokim, knowing good and evil."[2] And if you say that the serpent lied to her, now, "And the Lord said, Behold man has become like one of us knowing good and evil" (Bereishit 3:22)...

The proper interpretation appears to me to be that man's original nature was such that he did whatever was proper for him to do naturally, just as the heavens and all their hosts do, "faithful workers whose work is truth, and who do not change from their prescribed course," and in whose deeds there is no love or hatred. Now it was the fruit of this tree that gave rise to will and desire, that those who ate it should choose a thing or its opposite, for good or for evil. This is why it was called the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, for "knowledge" in our language is used to express will...

Now at that time sexual intercourse between Adam and his wife was not a matter of desire; instead, at the time of begetting offspring they came together and propagated. Therefore, all the limbs were, in their eyes, as the face and hands, and they were not ashamed of them. But after he ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, he possessed the power of choice; he could now willingly do evil or good to himself or to others. This, on the one hand, is a godlike attribute; but as far as man is concerned, it is bad because through it, he has a will and desire. It is possible that Scripture intended to allude to this matter when it said, That God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. The “uprightness” is that man should keep to one right path, and the “seeking out of many inventions” is man’s search for deeds which change according to his choice...

Thus, man passed all at once from childhood to adulthood. The slow development that passes over every individual, little by little, fell upon Adam suddenly and all at once. A moment earlier he had been perfect and innocent, pure as a child - and now he is already an adult. Together with all the good in an adult's world, he acquired also all the bad - the splitting and the rift, the shame and the sin. In contrast to the adults in our world, however, it was he who brought all this evil upon himself. It was not part of the natural order of things that he should reach maturity. It was not the way of the world that imposed upon him the spiritual rift between free willed devotion to spiritual knowledge and drunken addiction to physical desire. Rather, it was he, through the exercise of his free will, who brought this all upon himself.