The Serpent Slanders the Creator and Eve Feeds the Animals

"For God knows" (Genesis 3:5). It does not say here "For gods know," but the serpent began to speak slander against his Creator. He said to her: From this tree the Holy One, blessed be He, ate, and created the world; and He told you, "Do not eat from it," so that you should not create other worlds. For every craftsman hates his fellow in the same trade. Everything created after its fellow rules over it. Heaven was on the first day, the firmament on the second, and the firmament cannot bear it. The grasses on the third do not supply its waters; the luminaries on the fourth, and so on; the birds on the fifth, like the Ziz of the field, which is a pure bird, and when it flies it darkens the disk of the sun. And you were created after everything, to rule over everything. Hurry and eat before He creates other worlds that will rule over you. This is what is written (verse 6): "And the woman saw that it was good" - she saw the words of the serpent. "For the tree was good for food" (Genesis 3:6). Three things were said about the Tree of Knowledge: good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and it adds wisdom. "The tree was desirable to make one wise," as you say, "A maskil [contemplation] of Ethan the Ezrahite." "And she took of its fruit and ate." She pressed grapes and gave to him. She said to him: What do you think, that I will die and another Eve will be created for you? "There is nothing new" (Ecclesiastes 1:9). What do you think, that I will die and you will sit idle? "He did not create it as chaos" (Isaiah 45:18). She began to wail at him with her voice. "Also" - this is an amplification: she fed the animals, the beasts, and the birds; all heeded her except for one bird whose name is Chol. This is what is written, "And like the Chol" (Job 28:18). It lives a thousand years, and at the end fire comes out from its nest and burns it, and an amount like an egg remains of it, and it grows limbs again and lives. Rabbi Yudan says: At the end of a thousand years its body wastes away and its wings molt, and an amount like an egg remains of it, and it grows limbs again.