Ask the Rabbi
Question
Dear Sirs!
Thank you a lot for helping and investing your time in providing answers. For my investigation I would be glad to obtain your answear to exact (exact!) on following questions. If there are any conditions for receiving the answer, please give me a chance to meet those conditions before you decide not to respond. Do not ask me to turn to a local rabbi, because I and my community have no rabbi. Regardless, there is a near-zero chance that a rabbi in a small town will be able to provide the answer to questions like mine.
1) Who in the garden in Eden (גַּן־בְּעֵ?דֶן) commanded/told to the woman (אִשָּׁ?ה)
"You shall not eat of any tree of the garden." (לֹ?א תֹֽאכְל?וּ מִכֹּ?ל עֵ?ץ הַגָּֽן) ?
2) Whose voice the serpent imitated while questioning the woman for the first time:
"Did Elohim (allmighty God) really say: You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" (אַ?ף כִּֽי־אָמַ?ר אֱלֹהִ?ים לֹ?א תֹֽאכְל?וּ מִכֹּ?ל עֵ?ץ הַגָּֽן). ?
Answer
To the contrary, God told Adam: "And the Lord God commanded man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat" (2, 16), and there is just one tree from which he cannot eat (ibid, 17). Obviously Adam then told this to Eve. The serpent told her : "Did God indeed say, 'You shall not eat of any of the trees of the garden?'" (3, 1). It is not written that the serpent imitated any voice.












