“He said: Who told you that you are naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from it” (Genesis 3:11). “He said: Who told you that you are naked? Did [you eat] from the tree…?”44The underlying question is: Why did God ask Adam if he had eaten the fruit, since He obviously knew the answer. – Rabbi Levi said: This is analogous to a woman who needs to borrow vinegar, so she goes into the house of a snake charmer’s wife.
She says to her: ‘How does your husband treat you?’ She answers her: ‘He treats me with all generosity, except for this barrel that is filled with snakes and scorpions, to which he does not allow me access.’ She says to her: ‘All his gems are there, and he wants to marry another woman and give it all to her.’ What did she do?
She reached her hand into it, and they began biting her. When her husband came, he heard the sound of her screaming. He said to her: ‘Did you, perhaps, touch that barrel?’ So, the Holy One blessed be He said to Adam the first man: “Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you [not to eat from it?]”45You have no one but yourself to blame for your misery.