The Sword of Circumcision and Torah Against Gehinnom

Another interpretation. "East of the Garden of Eden" Gehinnom was created. Gehinnom was created on the second day and the Garden of Eden on the third. "And the flaming sword": after the manner of, "and it shall set them aflame, the coming day" (Malachi 3:19). "That turns itself": for it turns itself upon a person and sets him aflame from his head to his feet and from his feet to his head. Adam said: Who will save my children from the flaming fire? This is the sword of circumcision, as it is said, "make for yourself knives [of flint]" (Joshua 5:2). The rabbis say: the sword of Torah, as it is said, "and a two-edged sword in their hand" (Psalms 149:6). And since Adam saw that his children were destined to be lost in Gehinnom, he held himself back from being fruitful and multiplying. But once he saw that after twenty-six generations his children were destined to receive the Torah, he engaged himself to raise up offspring. "And the man knew Eve his wife" (Genesis 4:1). "And He drove out the man." Adam went out and settled himself outside the Garden of Eden, on Mount Moriah, for the gates of the Garden of Eden are near Mount Moriah. From there he was taken and to there he was returned, as it is said, "to work the ground from which he was taken" (Genesis 3:23). Twenty-six generations did proper conduct precede the Torah, as it is said, "to guard the way of the tree of life" - "way," this is proper conduct, and afterward "the tree of life," this is Torah.