“To Seth, too, a son was born, and he called his name Enosh; then commenced [huḥal] the proclaiming of the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:27). “To Seth, too, a son was born, and he called his name Enosh.” They asked before Abba Kohen Bardela: [Why does the Torah mention] Adam, Seth, Enosh, and then fall silent?18It lists Adam, Seth, Enosh, and stops there; afterwards it begins again from Adam, tracing the generations until Noah.
He said: Until here [Enosh] they were in the image and in the likeness [of God]. From here on, the generations became corrupted and were created in a deformed state. Four matters changed during the days of Enosh son of Seth: The mountains became rocky ground; the dead began bringing forth worms; people’s faces became ape-like; and they became devalued [ḥullin] before malevolent spirits.19As long as people had their divine image intact, malevolent spirits would not antagonize them, but now that the divine image became diminshed they became susceptible to their malicious influence.
Rabbi Yitzḥak said: It was they themselves who caused themselves to become devalued before the malevolent spirits, [as they declared:] ‘What is the difference between one who bows to an idol and one who bows to a person?’20Just as one may bow to a person greater than oneself, so, too, they concluded, one may bow to an idol in the image [tzelem] of a person.