The Garments Of Adam And Eve
Targum Jonathan on Genesis 27:15
Source & License
Adapted from Targum Jonathan (Targum Jonathan on Genesis 27:15)
Edition The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862
License Public Domain (Public Domain) And Rivekah took the pleasant vestments of Esau her elder son which had formerly been Adam's; but which that day Esau had not worn, but they remained with her in the house, and (with them) she dressed Jakob her younger son.
Commentary Some say that the repentance of Adam and Eve earned a different set of garments for them, garments of light. At the End of Days, God will dress the Messiah in such a garment, which will shine from one end of the world to the other. And the Jews will draw upon its light and say to the Messiah, "Blessed is the hour in which the Messiah was created." This is an example of what might be called a "chain midrash," because it links together the chain of the generations, from Adam until the Messiah. Other similar midrashic traditions are found about the staff of Moses, the book that the angel Raziel is said to have given Adam, and the glowing stone known as the Tzohar. Sometimes there are contradictory lines of descent, as in the case of Adam's garment. According to one account in Midrash Tanhuma, the garment was diverted into the hands of the evil king Nimrod, while in an opposing account, it was transferred from Noah to Shem to Abraham, who passed it down to Isaac. Isaac is said to have given it to Esau, his firstborn, but Esau entrusted it to his mother, Rebecca, when he saw his own wives practiced idolatry. And, as is reported in the biblical account, Rebecca took the beloved garments of her son Esau and gave them to Jacob, at the time he received the stolen blessing. According to Sefer ha-Zikhronot, the garments of Adam and Eve were among eight things created on the first day of Creation. Other sources describe them as being created at twilight on the sixth day of Creation. As is apparent, (here were alternate explanations about the nature of the garments of Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:21 seems to clearly state that they were made of the skins of animals, while in the midrash they are also described as consisting of a hornlike substance. The notion that their original garments were made of light derives from the word or, which when spelled with an aleph means "light," while when spelled with an uyin means "skin" as well as "leather." It is spelled with an ayin in Genesis 3:21, but Genesis Rabbah 20:12 states that in the Torah scroll of Rabbi Meir, the or in the biblical verse was written with an aleph. Zohar 2:229b explains that they were originally garments of light, not of skin, for when Adam was about to enter the Garden of Eden for the first time, God dressed him in garments of light, of the sort used by the angels in paradise. Indeed, the light of Adam's garments was more elevated than their own. Had he not been wearing those garments, Adam could not have entered the garden. And when he was driven out of Eden, he required different garments, so the Lord made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them (Gen. 3:21). A variant of this myth has Noah's son, Shem, giving the garments to Abraham, who wears them when he takes Isaac to Mount Moriah to be sacrificed. Later they were inherited by Isaac, who gave them to his firstborn son, Esau. These were the garments Jacob put on when he pretended to be Esau in order to receive his father's blessing. Thus when Jacob entered the room, Isaac smelled the fragrance that he had smelled when he was tied upon the altar. Rabbi Tzadok ha-Kohen of Lublin (1823-1900) proposes that the sin of Adam and Eve, followed by their repentance, brought them to a more exalted state than before the sin, symbolized by their receiving new garments, replacing the garments of skin with garments of light. This is a surprising view of the role of sin and repentance in stimulating spiritual growth. Rabbi Yosef Hayim of Baghdad, known as Ben Ish Hai, asserts in Ben Yehoyada that Torah study has the power to reverse the process, changing garments of skins back into garments of ligh t
