So too the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Israel: My children, I created an evil inclination, and I created Torah as its antidote. If you are engaged in Torah study you will not be given over into the hand of the evil inclination, as it is stated: “If you do well, shall it not be lifted up?” (Genesis 4:7). One who engages in Torah study lifts himself above the evil inclination. And if you do not engage in Torah study, you are given over to its power, as it is stated: “Sin crouches at the door” (Genesis 4:7). Moreover, all of the evil inclination’s deliberations will be concerning you, as it is stated in the same verse: “And to you is its desire.” And if you wish you shall rule over it, as it is stated in the conclusion of the verse: “But you may rule over it” (Genesis 4:7). The Sages taught: So difficult is the evil inclination that even its Creator calls it evil, as it is stated: “For the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). Rav Yitzḥak says: A person’s evil inclination renews itself to him every day, as it is stated: “And that every inclination of the thoughts in his heart was only evil all day [kol hayyom]” (Genesis 6:5). “Kol hayyom” can also be understood as: Every day.
שֶׁבָּא נָחָשׁ עַל חַוָּה הֵטִיל בָּהּ זוּהֲמָא, יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁעָמְדוּ עַל הַר סִינַי — פָּסְקָה זוּהֲמָתָן, גּוֹיִם שֶׁלֹּא עָמְדוּ עַל הַר סִינַי — לֹא פָּסְקָה זוּהֲמָתָן.
the snake came upon Eve, i.e., when it seduced her to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, it infected her with moral contamination, and this contamination remained in all human beings. When the Jewish people stood at Mount Sinai, their contamination ceased, whereas gentiles did not stand at Mount Sinai, and their contamination never ceased.
When Israel stood before Mount Sinai, the impurity of the serpent was removed from them, so that the evil inclination was suppressed among them, and in consequence they were able to attach themselves to the Tree of Life, and their thoughts were turned to higher things and not to lower. . . . When they sinned by worshiping the calf, they were degraded from their high estate and lost their illumination, they were deprived of the protective girdle of the Holy Name and became exposed to the attacks of the evil serpent as before, and so brought death into the world.
R. Jose said: You rightly said that when the serpent copulated with Eve he imposed pollution in her. We have been taught, however, that when Israel stood at Mount Sinai, that pollution ceased. It ceased for Israel, who received the Torah, but the other nations, the idolaters, who did not receive the Torah, remained polluted with it. [R. Isaac] said: What you say is right. But observe that the Torah was given only to males, as it is written, “And this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel” (Deut 4:44), so that women are exempt from the precepts of the Torah. Furthermore, after they sinned they reverted to their former state of pollution, from which it is more difficult for a woman to rid herself than for a man. That is why greater numbers of women are found to be addicted to magic and licentiousness than men.
The seductive power of the serpent removes the aleph from the words אדם and אצת, respectively, turning אדם, “Adam,” into דם, “blood”; and אמת, “truth,” into מת, “a dead person.״ Likewise the דמות, formerly the human being in the “image” of God, is reduced to דם and מות, “blood” and “death,” blood on account of Adam, and death on account of Eve, who brought death into the world. After the expulsion from the garden, Adam sired offspring and the offspring produced offspring. It all derived from a putrid drop. For the drop became putrid as a result of the contamination of the snake.
“Why should [Adam] name her now, after the sin, and furthermore, he should have named her ‘Chaya’ ( חיה). It appears that prior to the sin, she was called ‘Chaya’ according to the explanation ‘mother of all the living’ (אם כל חי), but after the sin had caused death for the generations her name was changed from ‘Chaya’ to ‘Chava’ (חוה). ‘Chava’ is derived from the [Aramaic] word chivya (חיוא), which means ‘snake.’
Atonement is required only for sin, . . . but what sin is committed at the time of giving birth that requires a sacrifice? . . . Perhaps the sacrifice is not on account of the mother’s own sin, but on account of her mother’s [that is, Eve’s], for she was “the mother of all the living”
The Gemara poses a question: Is that so? Is it proper for a woman to demand her conjugal rights from her husband? But didn’t Rav Yitzḥak bar Avdimi say: Eve was cursed with ten curses, due to the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, as it is written: “To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your pain and your travail; in sorrow you shall bring forth children; and yet your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16)? Rav Yitzḥak bar Avdimi proceeds to explain this verse. “To the woman He said: I will greatly multiply [harba arbe]”; these are the two drops of blood unique to a woman, which cause her suffering, one the blood of menstruation and the other one the blood of virginity. “Your pain”; this is the pain of raising children. “And your travail”; this is the pain of pregnancy. “In sorrow you shall bring forth children”; in accordance with its plain meaning, i.e., the pain of childbirth.
הָנֵי בֵּי תְרֵי דְּמַצַּעָא לְהוּ אִשָּׁה נִדָּה, אִם תְּחִלַּת נִדָּתָהּ הִיא — הוֹרֶגֶת אֶחָד מֵהֶן, אִם סוֹף נִדָּתָהּ הִיא — מְרִיבָה עוֹשָׂה בֵּינֵיהֶן. מַאי תַּקַּנְתֵּיהּ? נִפְתַּח בְּ״אֵל״ וְנַפְסֵיק בְּ״אֵל״.