“You grant him power forever, and he is gone; You alter his countenance and send him away” (Job 14:20) – the power that the Holy One blessed be He gave to Adam the first man was “forever” – it was eternal. But once he forsook the mindset of the Holy One blessed be He and followed the mindset of the serpent – “alter his countenance and send him away.” When He sent him away, He began lamenting over him: “The Lord God said: Behold, the man was as one of us.”
Rabbi Papus expounded: “Behold, the man has become as one of us” – like one of the ministering angels. Rabbi Akiva said to him: Enough, Papus.13Were that the case, it would have said: “Has become as one of you.” He said to him: How then do you explain: “Behold, the man has become as one of us”? He said to him: That the Holy One blessed be He gave him two paths, the path of life and the path of death, and he selected for himself another path.14He chose the path of death. Mimenu is interpreted as “from him.” He chose “one” path, by himself. Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon said: Like the Unique One of the world, as it is stated: “Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Rabbis say: Like Gavriel, as it is stated: “And behold, one man dressed in linen” (Daniel 10:5) – like this grasshopper whose garment is an intrinsic part of him.15This is according to the opinion that before the sin, Adam and Eve were covered with a fingernail-like covering. All of these opinions focus on the word haya and interpret it as “was” – now that he sinned, he is no longer. Reish Lakish said: Like Jonah – just as this one fled from his mission, as it is stated: “Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from before the Lord” (Jonah 1:3), so, too, that one fled from fulfilling the command of the Omnipresent. Just as this one did not spend the night in his glory,16The verse: “The word of the Lord was with Jonah a second time, saying” (Jonah 3:1), is expounded to mean that He spoke to him a second time but not a third time. That is, Jonah lost his prophetic spirit on that very day. so, too, that one did not spend the night in his glory. Rabbi Berekhya said in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina: Like Elijah – just as this one did not taste the taste of death, so, too, that one was not supposed to taste the taste of death. This is the opinion of Rabbi Berekhya in the name of Rabbi Ḥanin, who said: As long as he was Adam, he was as one.17Like Elijah, one, in the sense of the special one. Once his side was taken from him [to form Eve] – “to know good and evil.”