Bereshit 4: Trees and Relationships

(16) And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: ‘Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ (18) And the LORD God said: ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.’ (19) And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them; and whatsoever the man would call every living creature, that was to be the name thereof. (20) And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. (21) And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the place with flesh instead thereof. (22) And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. (23) And the man said: ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ (24) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.

(31) And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Rabbi Eleazar further stated: What is meant by the Scriptural text, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh? (Genesis 2:23)’ This teaches that Adam had intercourse with(entered upon) every beast and animal but his disposition was not cooled (satisfied) until he had intercourse with (entered upon) Eve.

(2) ויקח אחד מצלעותיו, concerning the precise meaning of these words we find a disagreement among the sages (Bereshit Rabbah 17,6). Some scholars believed that when G’d created Adam he had two faces –seeing that the Torah reports G’d as having created אותם, “them,” not “him.” They understand man’s original appearance to have been something like the Siamese twins, and the word צלע meaning the same as when used in connection with the “sides” of the Tabernacle (Exodus 26,20) Other scholars understand the word צלע literally, as referring to one of Adam’s ribs. This is also the way Onkelos translates it. תחתנה, as if the Torah had written תחתיה,”in its stead.”

Rabbi Aha said: when the Holy One, Blessed be He, came to create the world, he consulted the angels of the heavenly court. He said to them: "Let us make Adam" (Genesis 1:26). They said to him: this Adam, what is his nature? He said to them: his wisdom exceeds yours. He brought before them the domesticated beasts, the wild beasts, and the birds. He said to them: what are their names? They did not know. He brought them before Adam. He said to him: what are their names? Adam said: this is a ox, this is a donkey, this is a cow, this is a camel. And you, what is your name? Adam said to him: it is fitting that I should be called 'Adam' as I was created from the earth [adamah]. And Me, what is My name? Adam said to Him: it is fitting to call You Adonai, as You are the master [adon] of all your creations.