Towards the Beginning

"This is the book of the generations of Adam.
On the day that G-d created Adam,
In the likeness of G-d He created him;
Male and female He created them.
He blessed them and called their name Adam
On the day they were created. (Genesis 5:1-2)

The Zohar explains:

Rabbi Shimon said
"High mysteries are revealed in these two verses.
'Male and female He created them'
to make known the Glory on high,
the mystery of faith.
Out of this mystery, Adam was created.

Come and see:
With the mystery by which heaven and earth were created
Adam was created.
Of them it is written:
'These are the generations of heaven and earth'
(Genesis 2:4).
Of Adam it is written:
'on the day they were created.'

'Male and female He created them.'
From here we learn:
Any image that does not embrace male and female
Is not a high and true image.
We have established this in the mystery of our Mishnah.

Come and see:
The Blessed Holy One does not place His abode
In any place where male and female are not found together.
Blessings are found only in a place where male and female are found as it is written:

'He blessed them and called their name Adam
on the day they were created.'
It is not written:
'He blessed him and called his name Adam.'
A human being is only called Adam
When male and female are as one."

Eve was therefore not simply born from Adam's rib, but rather Adam and Eve came into being as a single creature with two faces or sides - the one, male; the other, female. The biblical word tsela, usually understood to mean "rib", could be taken in the sense of "side" as in the phrase tsela 'at hamishkan ('the sides of the sanctuary'). Woman was created from Adam's tsela because she was to begin with a tsela, or a side or aspect of primordial man, who thus came to be two distinct persons.

Abigail Sarah Bagraim, Email info@abigailsarah.co.za

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License