Rabbi Yoḥanan then explained to them: Why are gentiles ethically contaminated? It is because they did not stand on Mount Sinai. As when
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. Rav Aḥa, the son of Rava, said to Rav Ashi: What about converts? How do you explain the cessation of their moral contamination? Rav Ashi said to him: Even though they themselves were not at Mount Sinai, their guardian angels were present, as it is written: “It is not with you alone that I make this covenant and this oath, but with he that stands here with us today before the Lord our God, and with he that is not here with us today” (Deuteronomy 29:13–14), and this includes converts.
And if you wish, say instead: Even when he finds the wife, he also engages in bestiality with the animal, as the Master said: The animal of a Jew is more appealing to gentiles than their own wives, as Rabbi Yoḥanan says: At the time when the snake came upon Eve, at the time of the sin of her eating from the Tree of Knowledge, it infected her with moral contamination, and this contamination lingers in all human beings. The Gemara asks: If that is so, a Jew should also be suspected of engaging in bestiality. The Gemara answers: With regard to the Jewish people, who stood at Mount Sinai and received the Torah, their contamination ended, whereas in the case of gentiles, who did not stand at Mount Sinai and receive the Torah, their contamination has not ended.
but you shall die as mortals do,fall like any prince.
Rabbi Simai taught: When Israel accorded precedence to the declaration “We will do” over the declaration “We will hear,” 600,000 ministering angels came and tied two crowns to each and every member of the Jewish people, one corresponding to “We will do” and one corresponding to “We will hear.” And when the people sinned with the Golden Calf, 1,200,000 angels of destruction descended and removed them from the people, as it is stated in the wake of the sin of the Golden Calf: “And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward” (Exodus 33:6). Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: At Horeb they put on their ornaments, and at Horeb they removed them. The source for this is: At Horeb they put them on, as we have said; at Horeb they removed them, as it is written: “And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb.” Rabbi Yoḥanan said: And Moses merited all of these crowns and took them. What is the source for this? Because juxtaposed to this verse, it is stated: “And Moses would take the tent [ohel]” (Exodus 33:7). The word ohel is interpreted homiletically as an allusion to an aura or illumination [hila]. Reish Lakish said: In the future, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will return them to us, as it is stated: “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads” (Isaiah 35:10). The joy that they once had will once again be upon their heads.
“Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you along the way and to take you to the place that I have prepared” (Exodus 23:20).
“Behold, I am sending an angel” – that is what is written: “I had said: You are divine beings” (Psalms 82:6). Had Israel waited for Moses and not performed that act, there would have been no exiles, and the angel of death would not have had dominion over them. Likewise it says, “[The tablets were the work of God] and the script was the script of God, engraved [ḥarut] on the tablets” (Exodus 32:16). What is ḥarut? Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya: Rabbi Yehuda said: Freedom [ḥerut] from exiles. Rabbi Neḥemya said: Freedom from the angel of death. When Israel said: “Everything that the Lord spoke, we will perform and we will heed” (Exodus 24:7), the Holy One blessed be He said: Adam the first man, I commanded one mitzva for him so that he would fulfill it, and I likened him to the ministering angels, as it is stated: “Behold, the man has become like one of us” (Genesis 3:22); these, who perform and fulfill the six hundred and thirteen mitzvot besides the generalizations, the specificities, and the details, is it not logical that they live and endure forever?
Likewise it says: “And from Matana to Naḥaliel” (Numbers 21:19) – they received it from the Holy One blessed be He so they would be alive and enduring forever. When they said: “This is your god, Israel” (Exodus 32:8), death came upon them. The Holy One blessed be He said: You followed the approach of Adam the first man who did not withstand his ordeal for three hours, and at nine hours he was sentenced to death. “I had said: You are divine beings,” but you followed the attribute of Adam the first man; “indeed, as men you will die” (Psalms 82:7). What is: “As one of the princes you will fall” (Psalms 82:7)? Rabbi Yehuda said: Either like Adam or like Eve.
Another matter: “As one of the princes you will fall” – Rabbi Pinḥas HaKohen ben Rabbi Ḥama said: The Holy One blessed be He said to them: You have toppled yourselves. In the past, you were served by means of the Divine Spirit; now, you are served only by means of an angel. That is, “behold, I am sending an angel before you.”
In the same way - before the Jewish people sinned – when the Jewish people stood on Mount Sinai, the impurity of that snake left them. For then the evil impulse was abolished from the world and pushed away from them. And so they then united with the Tree of Life, and climbed upwards and did not descend downwards. So they then knew and they saw the supernal lenses and their eyes were enlightened. So they rejoiced to know and to hear. And so the Holy One, blessed be He, wrapped us with a belt of the letters of the holy name which that snake could not overcome, such that he could not render us impure, as before.
Once they sinned with the calf, all of these levels left them, as did the supernal light; and the protective belt that was adorned with the holy supernal name. So they drew the evil snake upon themselves as before and brought death to the whole world. And afterwards, what is written? “Aharon and all the Children of Israel saw Moshe; and behold, the skin of his face was radiating, so they were afraid to approach him” (Exodus 34:30).
§ The Gemara further discusses the sin of the Golden Calf. Reish Lakish says: Come and let us be grateful to our ancestors who sinned with the Golden Calf, as had they not sinned we would not have come into the world. Reish Lakish explains: As it is stated about the Jewish people after the revelation at Sinai: “I said: You are godlike beings, and all of you sons of the Most High” (Psalms 82:6), which indicates that they had become like angels and would not have propagated offspring. Then, God states: After you ruined your deeds: “Yet you shall die like a man, and fall like one of the princes” (Psalms 82:7).
So the Israelites remained stripped of their finery from Mount Horeb on.
AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL STRIPPED THEMSELVES OF THEIR ORNAMENTS. The meaning of this is that when they heard this declaration, they stripped and divested themselves of all their ornaments, even more so than they had done before. Now Onkelos who translated the word edi (ornament) as “the equipment of armor,” was in agreement with the opinion of the Sage in Bereshith Rabbah who said “He tied them with belts.” That is to say, at the time of the Giving of the Torah the Holy One, blessed be He, girded them with weapons of armor to save them from all mishaps and the angel of death, just as the Rabbis have interpreted: “‘charuth’ (graven) upon the Tablets — ‘cheiruth’ (freedom) from the angel of death” [was given to the Israelites together with the Tablets of the Law], these [weapons of armor] being the Names of the Holy One, blessed be He. Thus Israel now accepted upon themselves death from their own free will as a form of punishment for the incident of the calf. This was indeed an expression of great repentance and regret for their sin.
As it is taught in a baraita: Rabbi Meir says: The tree from which Adam the first man ate was a grapevine,
There are people who display a strong tendency towards evil, a tendency which intensifies as they grow up, whereas others can control their evil urges with ease and are able to repent and find their way back to innocence with relative ease. Such tendencies are the result of the composition of their respective life-force at the time of conception. The holy thoughts and aspirations of the parents at the time of marital intercourse determine to a large degree the natural tendencies which we will observe in their offspring. If a parent concentrated on physical gratification at the time he engaged in procreation, he cannot be surprised if he transmitted tendencies of the desire to fulfil himself sexually to his offspring. If at the time the father indulged in marital relations with his wife he fantasized about some other woman's body, he cannot be surprised if his offspring develops adulterous or promiscuous tendencies. [This concept is not dissimilar to present-day theories about the genetic material injected into the sperm determining the quality of the body. In this case we speak about "moral" genetical material. Ed.] We have an interesting story about this in the Eyn Yaakov on Berachot 10. King Chiskiyah had failed to marry having seen with his mental eye that his offspring would not be worthy. He fell sick, and Isaiah told him to make his last will and testament as he was going to die. When he challenged the prophet why death at such an early age had been decreed upon him the prophet accused him of failing to fulfil the first commandment of the Torah, to procreate. He did not accept Chiskiyah's reason for not marrying and told him that the worthiness of his children was G'd's concern, whereas his only concern should have been to keep G'd's commandment. In the course of the conversation Chiskiyah suggested to Isaiah that he should give him his daughter in marriage and that perhaps their combined merits would suffice to produce worthy children. After refusing initially, Isaiah agreed in the end. The result was that Chiskiyah produced two idol-worshipping sons Menashe and Ravshakeh. Menashe and Ravshakeh may have been born with idolatrous tendencies due to thoughts which their father had entertained at the time he begat them. If one observes a person who has always conducted himself in the most pious manner commit an obvious sin, one must assume that he was not aware that he committed such a sin. Our argument that the various manifestations of spirituality we encounter contain both positive and negative elements is best proven by the tree of knowledge. The fact that G'd planted that tree within גן עדן is proof that it contained positive elements. G'd's garden is certainly not a place in which He had planted evil incarnate. Bereshit Rabbah 21, claims that if only Adam had waited till nightfall before eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge he could have used the juice to proclaim the sanctification of the Sabbath with it. [I have not found this in the section of the Midrash quoted. I presume this is based on the prohibition applying only "on the day you eat from it," as opposed to "the night you eat from it," etc. Ed.] This is in accordance with the view expressed in Sanhedrin 70 that the tree of knowledge was the grapevine.