פירוש על בראשית 1:28

וכבשה AND SUBDUE IT — The word lacks a ו after the ש so that it may be read as meaning: and subdue her (i. e. the woman), thereby teaching you that the male controls the female in order that she may not become a gad-about; teaching you also that to the man, whose nature is to master, was given the Divine command to have issue, and not to the woman (Yevamot 65b).

וכבשוה, the letter כ is “weak,” (without the dot inside) as in Numbers 32,29 ונכבשה הארץ לפניכם, “and the land will have been conquered before you.” The reason why there is no such dot is because it is in the imperative mode. On the other hand, if the letter כ here would have had the dagesh,” the construction of the verb would have been in the past tense, not an imperative.

וכבשה, this is not a directive to conquer earth with muscular power, but to subdue it by means of man’s superior intellect. It means that man is to use his intelligence to prevent predators from invading his habitats, demonstrating the fact that man is superior, can outwit the beasts.