1

I was recently thinking, we create comfort for ourselves by keeping nature at bay.

Flies and mosquitos are annoying, would Adam and Eve have thought the same?

There were certainly serpents, maybe other pests that were even worse!

Was it really a paradise then if were there potato bugs, beetles and spiders!?

Improve this question
3
  • 2
    Insects definitely existed at the time; are you asking whether they were in the Garden, as opposed to everywhere else, or are you asking whether they bothered Adam and Eve during their stay?
    – DonielF
    Jun 23, 2020 at 23:26
  • Yeah, did they have a home or some magic that protected them from buggies?
    – Nephilim
    Jun 23, 2020 at 23:31
  • 2
    Well their magic 'Off' spray didn't work against snakes apparently.
    – user6591
    Jun 24, 2020 at 2:40

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

According to Rashi (see Beresihis 3:17), the land/ground began to produce flies, fleas and ants only after Adam and Eve sinned, therefore insects didn't existed prior to that.

Improve this answer
2
  • I don't know if that necessarily follows. There might have been flies, etc., before that too, and now there's just another source that produces them.
    – Meir
    Jul 24, 2020 at 14:40
  • That's an interesting idea.
    – Renato S. Grun
    Jul 24, 2020 at 14:45
4

The gemora chullin 60 a states that everything was created in its full form. "יב"ל כל מעשה בראשית בקומתן נבראו בדעתן נבראו בצביונם נבראו שנאמר (בראשית ב, א) ויכולו השמים והארץ וכל צבאם אל תקרי צבאם אלא צביונם" so we know everything existed.

But we saw that before Adam and Chavah's sin, they and the snake coexisted just fine and that's even more of a miracle then coexisting with creeping and stinging things. So it's safe to say that the mosquitoes ate other things than human blood and beetles kept to themselves and most likely the quality of life was in grand comfort.

After the sin, everything went south.

Improve this answer
4
  • Before the sin they coexisted with the snake fine? The result of interaction with the snake were the curses of pain and suffering and death to them and all their progeny. Is that less bothersome than the result of a mosquito bite?
    – user6591
    Jun 24, 2020 at 11:44
  • 1
    @user6591, I think it's fairly obvious that Geltman meant "coexisted just fine" as in that the snake didn't bite them.
    – Meir
    Jun 24, 2020 at 15:54
  • @Meir And I think it's fairly obvious being bitten by the snake would've been a preferred incident to what occurred.
    – user6591
    Jun 24, 2020 at 15:56
  • @user6591 Not disagreeing. But it didn't bite them, after all, and conversely the mosquitoes didn't try to convince Adam and Chava to eat from the Eitz Hadaas. So it's comparing apples to oranges.
    – Meir
    Jun 24, 2020 at 16:00

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .