859. “And the sons of the gods saw the daughters of the man.” The sons of the gods are the great ones in the generation, whose fathers were the great ones of the generation, and did not delay their contemporaries from sinning. However, those great ones of the generation who are not the sons of the great ones of the generation, their words are not heard and they cannot protest, and they have no sin if they do not protest. The “sons of the gods” is since they were created from the name Elokim [God], as it is written, “And God created the man.”
860. “Now there was a day when the sons of the gods came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.” He is Satan; he is the evil inclination; he is the angel of death. That day was Rosh Hashanah [beginning of the year], a day when each person should reform himself. Similarly, it is not the conduct of the evil inclination to slander except when a person wishes to reform his ways.
861. An old man in the house is a good sign for the house. Similarly, a righteous in the generation is a good sign for the world. The Creator casts the dread of the arbiter and the leader on people, and as long as the dread from the arbiter is upon the generation, it is known that he is righteous and they are righteous. If the dread of the arbiter has been removed from people, he is at fault, and they are more at fault than him.
862. The verse, “And the fallen ones were in the land” comes to show that they were Adam and his wife, who were the ones who fell in the land without a father or a mother. They were called “fallen” since they fell from the merit they had had, meaning they were fallen compared to what they were before. They were fallen because they were expelled from the Garden of Eden and did not return there.
863. For this reason, the Torah reiterated that they were in the land, Adam and his wife, who was the mother of all creations, and they were still alive, and did not prevent the people of the generation from committing transgressions. And who are those who commit transgressions? They are the great ones in the generation, men of renown, who were great in the generation.
864. “In those days, the fallen ones were in the land.” They should have had prevention, preventing themselves from transgressions for the people of the generation, but they did not prevent, and before their very eyes, they came to the daughters of men with whoring and they bore for them. And who are those fallen ones who were in the generation? They are those mighty ones that none like them were seen in the generation, men of renown, the known name, which the Creator called them, as it is written, “And called their name Adam.”