The Partner

"It is not good for man to be alone:" That they should not say that there are two powers: the Holy One, blessed be He, is unique in the upper beings and has no mate; and this one is unique in the lower beings and has no mate.

"A help opposite him (kenegdo):" If he merits [it], a help. If he does not merit [it], against him (an alternative meaning of kenegdo) to fight.

"I will make him a helper corresponding to him." If he merits it - a helper; if not - an enemy. Rabbi Joshua the son of Nechemia said: If he merits it, [his helper] will be like the wife of Rabbi Hanina the son of Hachinai; if not, like the wife of Rabbi Yossi the Galilean. Rabbi Yossi had a wife - who was his niece - whom he disparaged in front of his students. They said to him: Why don't you divorce her, she does you no honor! He said to them: she has a large dowry, and I cannot divorce her. One time he was sitting and teaching with Rabbi Eleazar the son of Azariyah, and when they finished, Rabbi Eleazar suggested that they go to Rabbi Yossi's house. Rabbi Yossi agreed, and so they went. When they got there, Rabbi Yossi's wife was scornful, and when she had left [the room] Rabbi Yossi looked in the pot. He said to her: there is nothing in the pot. She said to him: there is bread crumbs and vegetables. He went and found chickens. Rabbi Eleazar the son of Azariyah knew what he heard [understood that the marriage was an unhappy one]. They sat and ate [in silence]. Rabbi Eleazar said to Rabbi Yossi: Rabbi! You said that there was only bread and vegetables, and there was chicken! He replied: it was a miracle. When the meal was over, he said: Rabbi, you should leave this woman, she does not bring value to your life. He replied: her dowry is large, and I cannot divorce her. He said: we will cover the dowry, and you can divorce her. They did this, and he divorced her, and he found another woman to marry, who was better than the first. When he was finished financially supporting his first wife, she found and married a guardsmen of the town. After some time, an injury befell him [the guardsmen] and he was blinded, and she would go out with him around the streets to beg. When they approached the street of Rabbi Yossi, she turned around. He [due to his job] was a knowledgeable man when it came to the layout of the town, and he said to her: why do you not lead me down the street of Rabbi Yossi, I have heard it is a very generous man? She said: I was divorced from him, and I cannot face him now. Another time they called upon the neighborhood of Rabbi Yossi. He became angry with her on the first and second day, and eventually he started hitting her. The noise traveled, and they were shamed in the city. Rabbi Yossi examined the sound, and discovered that they were disgraced. He asked him [the former guardsmen]: why do you hit her? He replied: every day she deprives me of [potential] income from begging. When Rabbi Yossi heard this, he immediately brought them into his house, and supported them for the rest of his life, according to the verse: "And from your flesh do not turn away" (Isaiah 58:7).

ויאמר ה' אלוקים, G’d did not utter these words audibly, as is the meaning of the word when applied to human beings, but He “spoke” to Himself. Alternatively, G’d did utter words to that effect without directly addressing Adam, but Adam happened to hear these words. When the Torah speaks of “G’d speaking,” we must understand this as a sound created especially for that particular occasion. Seeing that Adam overheard the words אעשה לו עזר כנגדו, “I shall make for him a suitable companion,” he had entertained the hope that when all the animals paraded before him that he would encounter among them the helpmate, companion, G’d had spoken of. This is how we must understand the words in verse 20 ולאדם לא מצא עזר כנגדו, that he had not found a suitable helpmate when reviewing all the animals and naming them.
The Torah inserted these words between reporting on the commandment not to eat from the tree of knowledge and the sin, in order to make plain that man’s sin was due to the influence of the woman, as he had not eaten from this tree before she had been formed and been given to him as a mate, companion. Clearly, also when G’d gave Adam the commandments and forbade him to eat from that tree, seeing that the woman had not been created yet, she could not have heard this commandment from the mouth of G’d, but only from the mouth of her husband. The woman was clever enough to know that G’d had created both her husband and her. She presumed that communication from G’d took place by means of both her and her husband’s intellect, seeing that they were the only creatures who had been endowed with superior intellect.

לא טוב היות האדם לבדו, it is not good that he has no partner seeing that among the beasts he cannot find a partner, as none of them is on a par with him.

אעשה לו עזר, an assistant when the need should arise. Solomon, in Kohelet 4,9, paraphrased this when he wrote: טובים השנים מן האחד, “two are better than one alone.” Furthermore, woman was a necessity if man was to leave offspring behind to insure the continuity of his species.

כנגדו, she should be constantly present to attend to his needs; the prefix letter כ is to be understood as in Samuel I 9,13 כהיום, and as in Numbers 11,1 כמתאוננים, and as in Hoseah 5,10 כמסיגי גבול, in all of which instances the letter כ serves to emphasise what follows. (compare Genesis 25,31 where Yaakov insists that the sale of the birthright be effective immediately with the words כיום, “as of today”) Other explanations of the word כנגדו are that if and when her husband would embark on a sinful path of action, it would be woman’s task to prevent him from doing so by opposing it; these are familiar to all my readers, I am sure. The basic difference between man the species and woman his mate who were not initially created as two separate individuals as opposed to all the other living creatures, is to distinguish him favourably from all those other creatures. It draws attention to the fact that man is made from superior raw materials, and that as opposed to the other creatures among whom the male does not enjoy an advantage over the female, man, i.e. the male of the human species, does enjoy such an advantage. The male of the human species enjoys a position of authority vis a vis his female counterpart. The reason that he enjoys this right is the fact that woman is –after all- one of his own original limbs, and a person does have control over the various parts of his body. Seeing that the male of the human species had been the principal creation, woman became an adjunct to him, so that it is logical that man possesses superior strength to woman, and that also the power of his intellect is more manifest than that of his female counterpart.

לא טוב היות האדם לבדו, the purpose of the human species on earth will not be achieved while man who is supposed to reflect the divine image will be left to personally carry out all the menial tasks of daily life on earth by being solitary.

עזר כנגדו, a helpmate who will be equal to him, also reflecting the divine image. This is essential for him if he is to know what precisely his needs are and so that he can meet them in time. The reason why the Torah added the word כנגדו is that whenever one confronts someone of equal power, moral and ethical weight, such a confrontation is termed נגד. It is a head-on collision of will. When the two parties disagreeing are not of equal power, or moral/ethical weight, the confrontation is termed as one being עולה or יורד one of the adversaries either prevailing or losing in such an encounter. It is in this sense that we have to understand such statements as משה שקול כנגד כל ישראל, “that Moses was the equal of the entire Jewish people.” (Mechilta Yitro 1) However, the Torah did not mean for woman to be 100% equal to man, else how could the man expect her to perform household chores for him, etc.? Hence the letter כ at the beginning of the word כנגדו somewhat tones down this equality.