“The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of hide [or],56With an ayin. and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). In Rabbi Meir’s Torah, they found that “garments of or”57With an alef, meaning light. was written. These are the garments of Adam the first man, that were similar to the common rue,58A yellow plant. A variant reading has לפנס, “to a torch.” broad at the bottom and narrow at the top.
Rabbi Yitzḥak Ravya says: They were as smooth as a fingernail and as pretty as jewels. Rabbi Yitzḥak said: It was like the thin linen garments that come from Beit She’an. [And they were called] garments of hide because they adhered to the skin. Rabbi Elazar said: Goat hides. Rabbi Aivu said: Garments that cover the skin.
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Hare hides. Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥanina said: Hides with their wool. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: Radiant hides. And the firstborn sons would use them.59For religious rites, which was their purview, until they were replaced by the Levites.
Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: They were camel wool and hare wool. [And they were called] “garments of hide” because they were garments that come from hide. Rabbi Levi said: The Torah teaches you proper conduct: Eat according to your means, wear clothing that is less than your means, and dwell in a place that is more than your means. Eat according to your means – “From every tree of the garden you may eat” (Genesis 2:16).
Wear clothing that is less than your means –“The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife [garments of hide].”60The whole world belongs to God, and He could have made them garments of precious linen or silk. And dwell in a place that is more than your means – as two people resided in the entire world.