Bereisheet 5782

Chizkuni on Genesis 2:8

“He placed Adam inside it.” When Adam had been created he did not find himself in the garden, for if he had been created in the garden he would have thought that the entire earth is such a garden. G-d deliberately created him outside the garden in order to show him that the rest of the earth was overgrown with thorns and thistles. His transfer to the garden, it was hoped, would make him grateful for having been placed in such a superior environment.

Rashi on Genesis 3:22

IS BECOME LIKE ONE OF US (or, like the Being who is One, Unique amongst us) — Lo, he is unique among the terrestrial ones, even as I am unique among the celestial ones. And in what does his uniqueness consist? In knowing good and evil, which is not so in the case of cattle and beasts.

Bavli Bava Metia 86b

The Gemara continues: Who are these three men? They are the angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael: Michael, who came to announce to Sarah that she was to give birth to a son; Raphael, who came to heal Abraham after his circumcision; and Gabriel, who went to overturn Sodom. The Gemara asks: But it is written: “And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening” (Genesis 19:1). The Gemara answers that Michael went along with Gabriel to Sodom to save Lot. The Gemara notes: The language is also precise, as it is written: “And he overturned those cities” (Genesis 19:25), and it is not written: They overturned those cities. Conclude from it that only one angel overturned Sodom.

Zechariah 5:9-11

9) I looked up again and saw two women come soaring with the wind in their wings—they had wings like those of a stork—and carry off the tub between earth and sky. 10) “Where are they taking the tub?” I asked the angel who talked with me. 11) And he answered, “To build a shrine for it in the land of Shinar;d [a stand] shall be erected for it, and it shall be set down there upon the stand.”

Ramban on Genesis 3:22

For the Euphrates is in our land and within our border, and Pishon, according to the words of the former scholars, is the Nile of Egypt. But as these are on earth so are there also in the heavens things similarly named, and those in the heavens are the foundations of these on earth, just as the Rabbis have said: “The king hath brought me into his chambers — this teaches us that the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to show Israel the treasures on high that are chambered in the heavens. Another interpretation of The king hath brought me into his chambers is that these are the chambers of the garden of Eden. It is on the basis of this that they have said: ‘The work of the garden of Eden is like the work of the firmament.’” The rivers correspond to the four camps of angels on high, and it is from there that the power of the kingdoms on earth is derived, just as it is written, The host of the high heaven on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.

Adam sinned with the fruit of the tree of knowledge below and on high, in deed and thought.

Radak on Genesis 4:1

“I have now produced a human being in this world who was not the result of a direct activity by His Creator, which makes me a partner to G’d the Creator.” G’d has given this human being His divine soul also, just as He had given it to the creation of His own, Adam, into whom He Himself literally blew this soul. The rest of this human being grew and developed within my body.