For sinning and shifting the blame, rather than taking
ownership of their behavior, Adam and Chava were punished with the following:
Chava’s punishment:
1.
Discomfort of menstruation
2.
Discomfort from first relations
3.
Raising children will involve much self-
sacrifice and hardship
4.
Pregnancies will cause much discomfort
5.
Labor pains
6.
Her husband will dominate her, but she will
constantly seek him out
7.
Her desires will be in her heart
8.
She will be confined to the home and will not be
able to appear in public without her hair covered
9.
She will not be accepted as a witness in the
Bait Din- court
10. Death
To rectify for Chava’s sin, Hashem gave women the following
mitzvot to follow:
1.
A woman is commanded to light candles before
Shabbot. Since Chava extinguished the light of the world, when she had caused
Adam to sin, when a woman lights Shabbot candles, she rekindles the lost light.
2.
A woman is commanded to take a piece of challah
from her dough, to rectify Chava defiling the challah of the world—Adam.
3.
A woman is commanded to observe the laws of
niddah- impurity laws- to rectify Chava’s sin of causing Adam’s blood to be
spilled.
Adam’s punishment:
1.
Man’s strength will be diminished
2.
His height will be decreased
3.
He will become impure, as a zav- is a state of
ritual impurity arising from abnormal seminal discharge
4.
He will become impure through wasting seed
5.
He will become impure through martial relations
6.
When he sows the harvest, he will harvest thorns
7.
He will eat grass, like the beasts
8.
Earning a livelihood will cause man mental
sorrow
9.
Man will have to work for a livelihood with the
sweat of his brow
10. Death
Unfortunately, man and woman have been plagued with these
punishments until the days of machiach; however, by taking steps towards
rectifying Adam and Chava’s sin through the fulfillment of the mitzvot, we will
speedily bring back the sweet blissful days of Gan Eden.
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