“Because you did this [zot]”4Zot being the feminine form of “this.” – Rabbi Hoshaya said: It was because of this woman.5Because the snake lusted after Eve. Was every action that you took not because of her? Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon said in the name of Rabbi Hoshaya: From the beginning of the book until here there are seventy-one mentions of God’s name. This tells you that it [the serpent] was judged before an entire Sanhedrin.6The Great Sanhedrin consisted of seventy-one members.
Rabbi Hoshaya of Sikhnin said in the name of Rabbi Levi: He cursed it [the serpent] with leprosy. Those stone-shaped blotches on it are leprous. Rabbi Elazar said: Have you ever seen that after a person strikes another with a rod he then strikes him with a strap?7The strap inflicts less of a blow than a rod. So, “cursed are you from all the animals” (Genesis 3:14), all the more so [was it cursed] “from all the beasts of the field” (Genesis 3:14).8If the serpent was cursed to be worse off than the animals, this is already more severe than a curse to be worse off than the beasts (wild animals).
Why, then, was it necessary to state the lesser curse after already having stated the more severe one? Large domesticated animals give birth after nine or twelve months of gestation, whereas wild animals give birth after only six months (see later). This shows that animals are worse off than beasts. It was taught: A large kosher animal gives birth after nine months [of gestation], a large non-kosher animal gives birth after twelve months; a small kosher animal gives birth at five months, and the dog at fifty days, the cat at fifty-two, the pig at sixty days, the mongoose at seventy days, the deer and the fox at six months, and all the other swarming creatures at six months, the lion, the bear, the tiger, the elephant, the monkey, the hedgehog at three years, the serpent at seven years, and the adder at seventy years.9There are thus beasts that are in fact worse off (in length of gestation) than animals.
A certain scholar once sought to ascertain after how long the serpent bears an offspring. When he saw them mating with one another, he took them10The females. and placed them in a barrel, and provided them with sustenance until they gave birth. When the elders once traveled to Rome, he [the scholar] asked Rabban Gamliel: After how long does the serpent bear an offspring? He was unable to answer him and his face turned pallid.
Rabbi Yehoshua encountered him and his face was sickly. He said to him: ‘Why is your face sickly?’ He said to him: ‘I was asked a question and I was unable to answer it.’ He said to him: ‘What was it?’
He said: ‘After how long does the serpent bear an offspring?’ He said to him: ‘After seven years.’ He said to him: ‘From where do you know this?’ He said to him: ‘The dog is a non-kosher beast and bears offspring after fifty days.
A non-kosher animal gives birth at twelve months. It says [of the serpent]: “Cursed are you from all the animals and from all the beasts of the field.” Just as the animal is seven times more cursed than the beast [dog], so, the serpent is seven times more cursed than the animal.’ Towards evening, he [Rabban Gamliel] ascended and said it to him [the scholar].
He began banging his head against the wall. He said: ‘After everything that I toiled for seven years, this man comes and presented it to me with a reed.’11That is, effortlessly.