According to one tradition, Eve was led astray because she made a restrictive measure for herself that became more important than the actual prohibition. While God had only forbidden Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge (Gen. 2:17): “but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die,” Eve added an additional limitation, and told the serpent that God had also forbidden touching it (Gen. 3:3): “Of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said: You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die.” The serpent saw that Eve added things, and pushed her against the tree. He said to her [jestingly]: “Here, you have died!” He also told her: “Just as you did not die by touching it, so, too, you shall not die by eating of it” (Gen. Rabbah 19:3). According to another tradition, it was Adam who added this restrictive measure: he heard the prohibition from God, but when he told Eve about it, he decided to add a further limitation, and expanded the prohibition to include touching the tree. Eve consequently thought that the prohibition included both eating from and touching the tree. The serpent said to himself: Since I cannot cause Adam to sin, I will go and lead Eve astray. He went and sat with her and talked a lot with her. Eve repeated what Adam had told her (Gen. 3:3): “It is only about fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said: You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die.” The serpent heard what Eve said, and realized he had a pretext to deceive her. He told her: “If you say that God commanded us not to touch the tree, why, I touch it and I do not die! You, too, if you touch it, will not die.” What did the wicked serpent do? He then stood and touched the tree with his hands and his feet, and shook it until its fruits fell to the earth. He said to her: “Here, I touched the tree and I did not die, and if you touch it, you will not die.” He added: “Here, I eat from the tree and I do not die, and if you eat from it, you will not die” (Avot de-Rabbi Nathan [ed. Schechter], version A, chap. 1; version B, chap. 1). This midrash reveals dilemmas from the life of the Rabbis, who aspired to live in accordance with the laws of the Torah, including prohibitions that pertain to all realms of life. The midrash presents man as inclined to surround himself with all manner of restrictive measures in order to distance himself from the actual prohibitions. This aspect of human nature is already reflected in the first prohibition that Adam and Eve were given. The first tradition portrays Eve as setting forth such a restrictive measure for herself and as forgetting the primary prohibition, while the second has Adam trying to protect Eve by means of such a measure, and Eve as precisely repeating the prohibition that was given to her. Both indicate the danger inherent in the making of restrictive measures that cause the initial prohibition to be forgotten. Another approach sees as the basis of this sin the jealousy that the serpent aroused between Adam and Eve, on the one hand, and God on the other. This interpretation is based on what the serpent says in Gen. 3:5: “but God knows that as soon as you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, who knows good and bad.” According to the midrash, which strengthens this direction, the serpent began by slandering his Maker. He told Eve: “He ate of this tree and created the world, but to you He says, Do not eat from it, so that you will not create other worlds. Everyone hates his fellow craftsman. Hurry and eat from the tree, before He creates other worlds, that will rule you” (Gen. Rabbah 19:4). Yet another midrashic tradition has the serpent telling Eve: “Know that this is only jealousy. Just as God can create a world, so you, too, can create a world. Just as He can kill and keep alive, so you, too, can kill and keep alive” (Avot de-Rabbi Nathan, version B, chap. 1). These traditions ignore the temptation posed by the fruit, instead focusing on a fundamental issue: man’s desire to control his fate and the world. Man wishes to sense mastery over his life and do whatever he pleases, without limits, and thereby resemble God, or even to be God himself.
In another hermeneutical exposition, the sin was a consequence of not believing that God’s aim is to act for man’s benefit. In order to explain this, the Rabbis cite the parable of a king who married a woman and allowed her to control his gold and silver and all his possessions. He told her: “Here, all that I have is in your hands, except for this barrel, which is full of scorpions.” An old woman came to the wife to borrow some vinegar, and asked her: “How does the king treat you?” She [the queen] answered: “The king treats me well. He lets me rule over his gold and silver and all that he possesses, except for this barrel that is full of scorpions.” The old woman said to her: “But all his jewelry is in this barrel; he wants to marry another woman and give them to her!” The wife put forth her hand and opened the barrel, the scorpions bit her, and she died (Avot de-Rabbi Nathan version B, chap. 1.). According to this parable, God’s intent was to give man all the good in the Garden of Eden and keep the evil from him. The serpent, however, engendered distrust of the Lord in Eve’s heart, thus causing her to sin.
These three different explanations of Eve’s sin offer fundamental reasons for what leads humans to sin. Transgressions result from the erecting of unnecessary restrictive measures; from man’s desire to feel like God, with mastery over his life; or from man’s lack of trust in God’s desiring only the best for man when He sets limitations. The use of Eve’s sin as a paradigm for human wrongdoing limits her personal guilt. The transgression is not a result of her having an unstable personality, of her being one who is easily tempted, or by the very fact of her being a woman. Eve is presented here as Everyman, and she reveals the shortcomings of every human being.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/eve-midrash-and-aggadah
