The First Sunset

Our Rabbis taught: On the day that Adam, the first man, was created, once the sun set upon him, he said: Woe is me, that because I sinned the world is darkening around me, and the world will return to chaos and void, and this is the death that has been decreed upon me from Heaven. He sat fasting and weeping all the night, and Eve was weeping opposite him. Once the dawn rose, he said: This is the way of the world. He arose and offered an ox whose horns preceded its hooves, as it is said, "And it shall please the LORD better than an ox or a bullock that has horns and hooves" (Psalm 69:32).