Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
The earth is not the only thing created that was made to suffer through
the sin of Adam. The same fate overtook the moon. When the serpent
seduced Adam and Eve, and exposed their nakedness, they wept bitterly,
and with them wept the heavens, and the sun and the stars, and all
created beings and things up to the throne of God. The very angels and
the celestial beings were grieved by the trans gression of Adam. The
moon alone laughed, wherefore God grew wroth, and obscured her light.
Instead of shining steadily like the sun, all the length of the day,
she grows old quickly, and must be born and reborn, again and
again.[92] The callous conduct of the moon offended God, not only by
way of contrast with the compassion of all other creatures, but because
He Himself was full of pity for Adam and his wife. He made clothes for
them out of the skin stripped from the serpent.[93] He would have done
even more. He would have permitted them to remain in Paradise, if only
they had been penitent. But they refused to repent, and they had to
leave, lest their godlike understanding urge them to ravage the tree of
life, and they learn to live forever. As it was, when God dismissed
them from Paradise, He did not allow the Divine quality of justice to
prevail entirely. He associated mercy with it. As they left, He said:
"O what a pity that Adam was not able to observe the command laid upon
him for even a brief span of time!"
To guard the entrance to Paradise, God appointed the cherubim, called
also the ever-turning sword of flames, because angels can turn
themselves from one shape into another at need.[94] Instead of the tree
of life, God gave Adam the Torah, which likewise is a tree of life to
them that lay hold upon her, and he was permitted to take up his abode
in the vicinity of Paradise in the east.[95]
Sentence pronounced upon Adam and Eve and the serpent, the Lord
commanded the angels to turn the man and the woman out of Paradise.
They began to weep and supplicate bitterly, and the angels took pity
upon them and left the Divine command unfulfilled, until they could
petition God to mitigate His severe verdict. But the Lord was
inexorable, saying, "Was it I that committed a trespass, or did I
pronounce a false judgment?" Also Adam's prayer, to be given of the
fruit of the tree of life, was turned aside, with the promise, however,
that if he would lead a pious life, he would be given of the fruit on
the day of resurrection, and he would then live forever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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