The pasuk says that when the nachash (snake) seduced Adam and Chavah into eating from the Eitz HaDa’as, they realized they were naked, and “G-d made for them garments of skin and dressed them.” (Bereishis 3:21) The Medrash says that these garments of skin came from the nachash. The Ribbono Shel Olam skinned the nachash (which was a huge animal), took his hide and made it into clothing for Adam and Chavah. What is this Medrash trying to teach us?
These are metaphors. Chazal say that jealousy prompted the nachash to try to entice Adam and Chavah to eat from the Eitz HaDa’as and change the world. Rashi quotes the Medrash that the nachash observed them engaging in marital relations and he lusted for Chavah. He was jealous of Adam and hatched this plot to bring them down. Jealousy was the root cause that prompted the nachash to change the world.
What caused the nachash’s jealousy? He saw them engaging in private activity that is supposed to remain private between a man and a woman. He looked where he was not supposed to look, and he wanted what he was not supposed to want. The root of midas hakinah [the Attribute of Jealousy] is that someone looks where he is not supposed to look, and as a result, wants that which is really off limits to him. If someone restricts his eyes and his thoughts to his own four amos, there is no jealousy. That is the way it is.
I see my friend or my neighbor driving a better car. I want that car. I see that my friend remodeled his kitchen. I need to remodel my kitchen. He has granite counter tops. I also want granite counter tops. Why are you going around looking at his kitchen? His kitchen is his kitchen! Your kitchen is your kitchen. Maybe you can’t help seeing a car. But kinah stems from me looking into the private affairs of someone else where I have no business looking.
This is perhaps why a famous Gemara in Maseches Taanis (8a) equates the ba’al lashon horah to the nachash. The Gemara asks what pleasure does either get from their destructive actions? lashon horah is also an aveirah of revealing information which should be hidden. What is lashon horah? I know something about someone that others do not know. I spread it. Again, I am looking at that which should remain hidden. I see it and I share it with others. It is the same aveirah as the nachash—looking where you should not look, wanting what you should not want, and going where you do not belong.
The Tolner Rebbe explains the reason why the Ribbono Shel Olam punished the nachash by taking its skin and making garments of hide for Adam and Chavah. What is skin? Skin is the most basic covering of a being. It keeps hidden that which should be hidden. The nachash failed to understand that. There are things that should remain closed, should remain behind the screen, behind the skin. They should be hidden. Do not look where you are not supposed to look.
By taking the skin of the nachash, the Ribbono Shel Olam was teaching us that this nachash did not respect the privacy of a human being and looked where he should not look. As a result, the Ribbono Shel Olam took off his skin—uncovered him—and used that skin to cover the human beings. (R’ Frand)
