רבינו בחיי — כתנות עור

Q — After Adam's sin, why does Hashem Himself clothe him — and what is the meaning of dressing him in "כתנות עור"?

A — Rabbeinu Bachya brings the Midrash that in R' Meir's Torah scroll it was written כתנות אור (with an aleph) — garments of light, woven from the supernal radiance of Gan Eden, the same light Moshe attained at Sinai. "You can learn the dignity of the garment from the dignity of the One who dressed him" — the purpose of these garments was "להיותם כמלאכי השרת," to live forever like ministering angels. The chiddush: even immediately after the sin, when Adam's eternity-of-body was forfeit, Hashem still clothed him in a residue of Gan Eden light. The post-sin tikkun begins at the moment of the chet itself, and the original blueprint of man as a being of אור is not erased — only veiled in עור.