As we learned in class, Adam only ate the fruit because Chava told him it was okay to eat. We learned that the snake tricked Chava, who then convinced Adam to eat. I have heard elsewhere that Hashem told Adam 'don't eat from this tree' and Adam told Chava 'don't touch the tree or eat from it'.
If this is true, was it really Chava's fault that she ate the fruit? The snake pushed Chava into the tree. When nothing happened to her, she began to doubt what she was told, but should she have told Adam before she ate the fruit?
In my opinion, Chava is partly to blame. Despite the warning, when the snake pushed her into the tree, she then proceded to eat from the fruit. Adam is also to be blamed. Instead of adding to what he was commanded, he could have told Chava what Hashem had said, and warned her not to touch the tree because there was a possibility it would tempt her.
This whole concept of "Whose fault is it?" raises an important question. If Hashem already knows what will happen, what is the point of giving us free will? When I think about the concept of free will, I think that Hashem lays several paths before us. For example, I'm at a red light. I can choose to go around the block, or take the direct route to wherever I'm going. The same concept it true in the case of Adam and Chava. Evil was supposed to be released into the world anyway. If Chava had resisted the temptation to eat from the tree, their descendants would have defied Hashem and eaten from the tree. Chava took the "direct route" instead of "going around the block". If evil had not been released into the world, we would live in a very different place than the one we know today.
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