(כב) בֶּן בַּג בַּג אוֹמֵר, הֲפֹךְ בָּהּ וַהֲפֹךְ בָּהּ, דְּכֹלָּא בָהּ. וּבָהּ תֶּחֱזֵי, וְסִיב וּבְלֵה בָהּ, וּמִנַּהּ לֹא תָזוּעַ, שֶׁאֵין לְךָ מִדָּה טוֹבָה הֵימֶנָּה:
(22) Ben Bag Bag says: Search in it and search in it, since everything is in it. And in it should you look, and grow old and be worn in it; and from it do not move, since there is no characteristic greater than it.
Midrash is a reading of the plain sense of things, but only if we recognize that the plain sense grows and changes throughout history and that this is the Bible’s underlying meaning.(Daniel Boyarin, Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash)
(א) ויאמר אלקים נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו. רבי יוחנן פתח: (תהלים קלט): אחור וקדם צרתני וגו' אמר רבי יוחנן: אם זכה אדם, אוכל שני עולמות, שנאמר: אחור וקדם צרתני, ואם לאו הוא בא ליתן דין וחשבון, שנאמר (שם): ותשת עלי כפכה. אמר רבי ירמיה בן אלעזר: בשעה שברא הקדוש ברוך הוא את אדם הראשון, אנדרוגינוס בראו, הדא הוא דכתיב: זכר ונקבה בראם. אמר רבי שמואל בר נחמן: בשעה שברא הקב"ה את אדם הראשון, דיו פרצופים בראו ונסרו ועשאו גביים, גב לכאן וגב לכאן. איתיבון ליה, והכתיב: ויקח אחת מצלעותיו?! אמר להון: מתרין סטרוהי, היך מה דאת אמר: (שמות כו): ולצלע המשכן, דמתרגמינן ולסטר משכנא וגו'.
(1) ... Said R’ Yirmiyah ben Elazar: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created him [as] an androgyne/androginos, as it is said, “male and female He created them”. Said R’ Shmuel bar Nachmani: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created [for] him a double-faced and sawed him and made him backs, a back here and a back [t]here, as it is said, “Back/achor and before/qedem You formed me” [Ps 139:5].
They objected to him: But it says, “He took one of his ribs . . . ” [Gn 2:21]! He said to them: [It means] “[one] of his sides”, just as you would say, “And for the side of the Tabernacle/ mishkan” [Ex 26:20].
(ד) ויאמר האדם זאת הפעם - רבי יהודה בר רבי אמר: בתחלה בראה לו וראה אותה מליאה רירין ודם והפליגה ממנו, וחזר ובראה לו פעם שנייה. הדא הוא דכתיב: זאת הפעם, זאת היא של אותו הפעם. זאת הפעם - זאת היא, שעתידה להקיש עלי כזוג, היך מה דאת אמר (שמות כח): פעמון זהב ורמון. זאת הפעם - זו היא שהיתה מפעמתני כל הלילה כולה. בעון קומי רבי שמעון בן לקיש: מפני מה אין כל החלומות מיגעין את האדם וזו מיגעת את האדם? אמר להם: שמתחלת ברייתה אינה אלא בחלום, שנאמר עצם מעצמי ובשר מבשרי. אמר רבי תנחומא: נשא אדם אשה מקרובותיו, עליו הוא אומר: עצם מעצמי לזאת יקרא אשה, כי מאיש לוקחה. זאת מכאן שניתנה התורה בלשון הקודש. רבי פנחס ורבי חלקיה בשם רבי סימון אמרי: כשם שניתנה תורה בלשון הקודש, כך נברא העולם בלשון הקודש, שמעת מימיך אומר גיני גיניא?! אנתרופי אנתרופא?! גברא גברתא?! אלא, איש ואשה. למה? שהלשון הזה נופל על הלשון הזה:
(4) "And Adam said: this is now..." Rabbi Yehuda bar Rebbi said: In the beginning He created her, and [Adam] saw that she was full of secretions and blood and separated her from him, and He returned and created her a second time. As it says: "this is now" this is the woman this time. This is now for me the one who will be my partner in the future. As it says: "A golden bell (pa'amon) and a pomegranate" (Exodus 28:34). "This is now" - this is she that perturbed me all night.
Rabbi Tanhuma said: if a man marries a relative, of him it is written: "bone of my bones." "This one shall be called 'woman' because she was taken from man." From here we learn that Torah was given in Hebrew. Rabbi Pinchas and Rabbi Hilkiya in the name of Rabbi Simon said: just as the Torah was given in Hebrew, so too the world was created in Hebrew. You have heard it said: 'man' and 'woman' [in other languages as distinct words, unrelated to each other], so why ish and isha [the words for 'man' and 'woman' in Hebrew, which are related to each other]? Because this word falls from this word [and, hence, the grammatical inconsistency is explained if the Torah was given in Hebrew].
(א) ויבן ה' אלקים את הצלע - ר' אלעזר בשם רבי יוסי בן זמרא אמר: ניתן בה בינה יותר מן האיש. דתנינן: בת י"א שנה ויום אחד נדריה נבדקין, בת י"ב שנה ויום אחד נדריה קיימין ובודקין כל י"ב, אבל לזכר בן י"ב שנה ויום אחד נדריו נבדקין, בן י"ג נדריו קיימין ובודקין כל י"ג. רבי ירמיה בשם רבי שמואל בר רב יצחק אמר: אית דמחלפין דרכה של אשה להיות יושבת בתוך ביתה, ודרכו של איש להיות יוצא לשוק ולמד בינה מבני אדם. רבי איבו ואמרי לה בשם רבי בנייה: והוא תני בשם ר"ש בן יוחאי: קישטה ככלה ואח"כ הביאה לו. אית אתרין דקריין לקלעתא בנייתא. אמר רבי חמא בר חנינא: את סבור שמתחת חרוב אחד או שקמה א' הביאה לו, אלא משקשטה בכ"ד מיני תכשיטין, אחר כך הביאה לו, הדא הוא דכתיב (יחזקאל כח): בעדן גן אלקים היית, כל אבן יקרה מסוכתך, אודם פטדה וגו.'
(1) "And God built [out of] the rib" - Rabbi Eliezer said in the name of Rabbi Yossi the son of Zimra: woman was endowed with more understanding than man. As it is taught: at eleven years and one day, her vows stick; at twelve years and one day her vows apply; and all twelve-year-olds are checked. But for males, at twelve years and one day his vows stick; at thirteen years they apply, and all thirteen-year-olds are checked. Rabbi Yirmiya said in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Yitzchak: there are those that say the opposite, as the way of a woman is to sit in her home, and the way of a many is to go out to the marketplace and learn understanding from others. Rabbi Aybu said, and some attribute it to the name of Rabbi Benaya, and it is [also] taught in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai: [God] adorned her [Eve] like a bride, and afterwards brought her to him [Adam]. In some places they call 'kil'ata' [braids] 'bin'yata' [net-works]. Rabbi Hamma bar Chanina said: you think that she was brought to him under a carob or sycamore tree, rather she was adorned with twenty four kinds of finery, and then brought to him, as it says: "In Eden, the garden of God you were, and all precious stones were your covering: the carnelian, the topaz..." (Ezekiel 28:13).
Alphabet of Ben Sira 78: Lilith
When God created the first man Adam alone, God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” [So] God created a woman for him, from the earth like him, and called her Lilith. They [Adam and Lilith] promptly began to argue with each other: She said, “I will not lie below,” and he said, “I will not lie below, but above, since you are fit for being below and I for being above.” She said to him, “The two of us are equal, since we are both from the earth.” And they would not listen to each other. Since Lilith saw [how it was], she uttered God's ineffable name and flew away into the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Maker and said, “Master of the Universe, the woman you gave me fled from me!”
The Holy Blessed one immediately dispatched the three angels Sanoy, Sansenoy, and Samangelof after her, to bring her back. God said, “If she wants to return, well and good. And if not, she must accept that a hundred of her children will die every day.” The angels pursued her and overtook her in the sea, in raging waters, (the same waters in which the Egyptians would one day drown), and told her God's orders. And yet she did not want to return. They told her they would drown her in the sea, and she replied. “Leave me alone! I was only created in order to sicken babies: if they are boys, from birth to day eight I will have power over them; if they are girls, from birth to day twenty.” When they heard her reply, they pleaded with her to come back. She swore to them in the name of the living God that whenever she would see them or their names or their images on an amulet, she would not overpower that baby, and she accepted that a hundred of her children would die every day. Therefore, a hundred of the demons die every day, and therefore, we write the names [of the three angels] on amulets of young children. When Lilith sees them, she remembers her oath and the child is [protected and] healed.
