Daily Zohar # 5237 – Beresheet – Who is the serpent

Hebrew translation:

.

Zohar Beresheet
Continued from previous DZ
#437
“And the serpent was cunning…” (Genesis 3:1). Rabbi Yitzchak said that the serpent is the evil inclination that tempts to sin. Rabbi Yehuda says that it was an actual serpent. They came before Rabbi Shimon. He said to them, Certainly everything is one, for Sam-el was there and appeared riding upon a serpent. The form of the serpent is the Sat-n, that is the evil inclination that tempts people to sin and afterward rises above and accuses. So everything is one, and it is possible to say that the serpent is the evil inclination, and it is possible to say an actual serpent.
Notes:
Rabbi Shimon unites the two views: Sam-el rode upon the serpent, whose form is the Sat-n and the evil inclination. The same force both tempts below and accuses above.
#438
We have learned: At that hour the angel Sam-el descended from heaven and rode upon this serpent, and all creatures saw his form and fled from before him. And they came — that is, Sam-el and the serpent — with words to the woman and caused death to the world. Certainly with wisdom Sam-el brought curses upon the world, meaning that with cunning he tempted them to sin, and he damaged the first tree that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in the world, that is Adam the first man. And the matter of the cunning is explained before us in #446.
Notes:
Sam-el descended and rode the serpent, appearing in a terrifying form. Through cunning speech, he and the serpent caused Adam and Eve to sin, bringing death into the world and damaging the first human “tree.”

{||}