Why Adam Eve and the Serpent Refused to Confess Their Sin

"And the man said: The woman whom You gave to be with me [she gave me of the tree, and I ate]" (Genesis 3:12). The Holy One, blessed be He, opened the way for him, saying, "Have you [eaten] of the tree?" and so forth, because He wanted him to confess his sins; for when one says "I have sinned," the Holy One, blessed be He, forgives him. But he did not do so. Rather, concerning the good that the Holy One, blessed be He, had done for him in giving him the woman, he complained against the Holy One, blessed be He, when he said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me," and so forth — that is to say: You caused me to sin, for You gave me a woman who gave me of the tree, and I ate. Since the Holy One, blessed be He, saw that he did not begin with remorse, He began to ask the woman, "What is this that you have done?" — and He desired that she would say "I have sinned," so that He might forgive them, just as He did for David, who said, "I have sinned" (II Samuel 12:13), and the prophet answered, because she confessed, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die" (ibid.). But she did not do so. Rather, she sought to turn the sin back upon the serpent, as it is said, "And the woman said: The serpent beguiled me," and so forth. What is "beguiled me" (hishi'ani)? This teaches that the serpent came upon Eve and cast filth into her. And of all of them He asked, "Why did you do this thing?" — but of the serpent He did not ask, because the serpent was able to answer, "The words of the master and the words of the disciple — whose words does one heed?" For this reason He did not ask him, because one does not plead on behalf of an inciter; and as it says, "[Neither] shall you spare, nor shall you conceal him" (Deuteronomy 13:9). Three entered [into judgment] — Adam, Eve, and the serpent — and four came out guilty: these three, and the earth with them. And why was the earth cursed? Because it too, at the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded it to bring forth a tree whose taste of wood and fruit would be alike — as it is written, "a fruit tree yielding fruit" (Genesis 1:11), that the taste of the wood should be like that of the fruit — [the purpose was] that when He commanded Adam not to eat of the fruit, he would keep His command and eat of the wood and not of the fruit. But because the earth did not bring forth thus, but rather a tree yielding fruit, and the wood was not like the fruit, he transgressed His command and ate of the fruit. Therefore it is as one cursed.