Musar על שבת 291:6

בחודש השלישי … ביום הזה באו מדבר סיני. Rashi says that all the Torah had to write was: ביום ההוא, "On that day." Why did the Torah write: ביום הזה, "On this day?" This was to teach us that words of Torah should always appear new in our eyes, as if they had been revealed to us this very day. It is therefore incumbent upon each one of us each and every day of our lives to remember the epsiode of Mount Sinai, the revelation, and the giving of the Torah. We must be conscious that G–d chose us from amongst all the other nations although we had been so inextricably mixed up with the Egyptians that our departure from Egypt is described in the Torah (Deut. 4,34) as the removal of גוי מקרב גוי, "one part of a nation from another part of that same nation." We must remain constantly aware of all the miracles G–d performed on our account so that we should be able to arrive at Mount Sinai and shed the pollutants from the original serpent still remaining within us. We should always keep before our mind's eye that G–d gave us the Torah, something that He did not give even to the ministering angels. We must also be aware that all our collective souls were present at Mount Sinai when all this occurred and when G–d spoke to us face to face. In view of all this, how could it even occur to a person for a moment to again risk being covered with the pollutant of the serpent by disobeying G–d once again? Are we not all part of the oath which formed the Jewish response to G–d's offer of the holy Torah, i.e. "we shall do and we shall hear?" I have written more about the moral implications of all this in chapter ten of my treatise עשרה מאמרות.

Man's diminution after his seduction by the serpent ended only when the Jewish people received the Torah. At that time the Jewish people finally excreted any residue of the pollutant absorbed by him by way of the original serpent. Man (Jews) was then fit to resume his original stature. We find an allusion to this in the words: והר סיני עשן (Exodus 19,18). The word עשן is an acronym for the three "perfections" עולם, שנה, נפש, which we described as having been possessed by Adam prior to his sin.

The metaphysical significance of all this is that the world was created with the letter ב, in the word Bereshit, which is a veiled reference to ברכה, blessing, benediction. Since Adam had preferred to follow the advice of the serpent, the source of curse, he was cursed himself, and with him the whole universe. Our sages express this by saying that the serpent cohabited with Eve, and infected her with its pollutant. This is the reason why the next section in our Parshah deals with the סוטה, the wife suspected of infidelity, and why the husband's feelings are described as ועבר עליו רוח קנאה. I have already described the meaning of רוח. When the Torah speaks about רוח קנאה it refers to the spirit of impurity with which man has become infested from the time Adam observed the serpent having sexual intercourse with his wife (Shabbat 146a). The Kabbalists pointed out that the dichotomy that the serpent caused in this "lower" world, the potential discord between man and his wife, had parallel results in the Celestial Regions, where the matches are made (who is to marry whom down here on earth). Originally, Adam had been created male and female, or, in the words of Bereshit Rabbah 8,1, דו פרצופי, with two faces in opposite directions, their common back not being visible until after Eve had been separated from him. After that separation, man and his potential partner remain united as one in the Celestial Regions. When the serpent polluted Eve, all this changed. Rashi already comments that the use of the word איש, איש, twice in 5,12, indicates that the trespass committed is twofold, a) against one's partner in marriage on earth, b) against the "איש מלחמה" in the Celestial Regions, i.e. against G–d. This is so because she tore asunder what even in the heavens formerly belonged together. The "pollutant" that the serpent impregnated Eve with, is a spiritual concept, i.e. Eve's counterpart in the Heavenly Regions became polluted. Pardes Rimonim already warns against our thinking that the קליפה, impurity, actually penetrated the holy regions of the Heavens. What is meant is that the complaint, or accusation of the forces of impurity that were leveled against the human beings now became "audible" in those Celestial Regions. Since it is incumbent on the true judge to dispense true justice, G–d's primary inclination to dispense חסד, kindness, was thwarted and He was "forced" to vacate the throne of Mercy and move over to the throne of Justice, and thereby restrain some of the largess He had intended to bestow upon those who cleave to Him. This whole episode is known as the כניסת הקליפה בתוך הקדושה, the penetration of the "peel" into the domain of sanctity. I have dealt with this at length in my introduction Toldot Adam. This then is what is at the root of the words "the spirit of jealousy overcame him, since she had become defiled, etc." The Torah depicts the effect of what happened when Eve had been seduced by the serpent. When the Torah continues with the apparent alternative of והיא לא נטמאה, "she had not become defiled," the obvious reference is to the "Eve" of the Celestial Regions, the spiritual counterpart of womanhood which could not actually become defiled; actual impurity cannot enter those regions.