Commento su Genesi 2:23

זאת הפעם THIS NOW — This teaches that Adam endeavoured to find a companion among all cattle and beasts, but found no satisfaction except in Eve (Yevamot 63a).

זאת הפעם עצם מעצמי, “only this time will man’s wife be made of his own bone and flesh; in the future things will be reversed, a male will come forth from a female, not as this time.”

זאת, this female

ויאמר..זאת, for on the first occasion when G’d brought the domesticated animals, the free roaming beasts and the birds to be inspected by Adam, he had not seen among them one that would qualify as his mate. The reason was that none of them matched him in physical features even, not to speak of intellectual compatibility. However, this time, finally, when G’d brought Chavah to him, he recognised immediately that he had found a truly compatible mate. He did not only realise this by comparing her visible features, but he became aware that part of his body, or at least one of his ribs, had been removed, which confirmed his impression that Chavah must indeed be his other half.

This teaches. בא אדם על כל בהמה וחיה does not mean intimate relations, for this expression is only a hint, while the matter itself is expressed in (4:1): “The man knew his wife, Chavah.” (Maharam) Another answer: It means that Adam grasped with his intellect the nature of each animal and beast, for if he did not know their nature he could not have named them. Some commentators, [understanding Rashi literally,] ask: How could Adam have intimate relations with the animals? He was commanded against illicit relations, and that includes relations with animals! However, this question is asked by the ill-informed. In Sanhedrin 38b it says that at the seventh hour Chavah was given to Adam as a mate, and at the ninth hour were they were commanded by Hashem. Thus, the command was given after pairing Chavah [with Adam]. (Divrei Dovid) Another proof that Adam sought a mate amongst the animals is that it says: “This at last is bone of my bones,” implying that in previous times it was not “bone of my bones.” Rashi explains quite similarly in Yevamos 63a. (Nachalas Yaakov)

הפעם selbst heißt schon: diesmal, nun, endlich, wie: ,אמותה הפעם הפעם יזבלני אישי. Es heißt also entweder: diese endlich ist es! dafür spricht der Akzent auf הפעם; oder: diese endlich ist Bein von meinen Gebeinen usw. Es drückt dies הפעם das endliche Erreichen eines bisher vergeblich Erstrebten aus. "Gesucht habe ich unter allen Wesen, habe aber keins gefunden, das mir einen Teil meiner Aufgabe abnehme und ihn mir parallel trage; jetzt habe ichs gefunden." כי מאיש לקחה זאת; der Name אשה bezeichnet somit nicht die Abhängigkeit des Weibes vom Mann, sondern vielmehr die Gleichheit, die Zusammengehörigkeit Beider, die Teilung der einen einheitlichen Menschenaufgabe auf beide Geschlechter.

זאת הפעם, “this time;” he meant that this time the male’s partner was made of his own flesh. But he realised that this was a one time occurrence and would not repeat itself. Henceforth, instead of woman emanating from man, man would emanate from woman. (her womb).

לזאת יקרא אשה כי מאיש וגו THIS SHALL BE CALLED WOMAN, BECAUSE THIS WAS TAKEN OUT OF MAN — Here we have a kind of play upon words (the words אשה and איש sounding similar): hence we may learn that the language used at the time of the Creation was the Holy Tongue (Hebrew) (Genesis Rabbah 18:4).

הפעם הזאת, finally, this time עצם מעצמי ובשר מבשרי, only this time, seeing that all females of the future will not be fashioned by the male undergoing such type of surgery.

לזאת יקרא אשה כי מאיש לוקחה זאת, note that he did not say לזאת יקרא אדמה, “this one must be called אדמה, (as the feminine form of אדם). The reason he did not call here this was that she, as opposed to him, had not been formed directly from earth, but from refined matter, i.e. his own rib. Even though subsequent human beings who are born by woman and from sperm supplied by the male, are still referred to as אדם, although they do not originate in the אדמה, the custom is justified just as is the fact that the Jewish people whose ancestor was Yisrael, are called בני ישראל, “Children of Yisrael” though their genetic connection to the original Yisrael is extremely tenuous.

From this [we derive]... The proof is that איש and אשה have the same root. In no other language is there an etymological reason for her being called אשה. This is because only in the Holy Tongue is the word for woman derived from the word for man.

זאת הפעם עצם מעצמי; Rashi claims that Adam had already attempted carnal relations with each female of the species and had found such mating unsatisfactory. (The source appears to be the Talmud in Yevamot 63, as well as Rabbi Saadyah, Gaon) We would have to assume that each of these species had become pregnant from such relations before Adam had had relations with them. If we were not to assume this they would have become sterile after mating with a human being. (Compare Avodah Zarah,22).

לזאת יקרא אשה, all other female human beings in the future will be known as אשה,

The word איש is a general term for man, also sometimes used to refer to a specific human being. This is why sometimes the word is used as describing people in general, such as ואיש לא נעדר, and “no one was missing,” (Isaiah 40,26) or גדעון איש ישראל, “or איש ואשתו, “male and his mate” (Genesis 7,2). Seeing that the man is the predominant partner and the woman’s husband, seeing she is as if literally one of his organs, he is often referred to as אדון, “master.” In Judges 8,23 we read ויאמרו איש ישראל אל גדעון וגו'. The meaning is not that a particular Jewish man said something to Gideon, but that the Jewish people at that time suggested to Gideon that be become their ruler on an ongoing basis, even his children having a claim to succeed him. The reason why Adam did not refer to Chavah as אישה, as the feminine form of איש, was to avoid confusion with the word אישה when it means “her husband.”

עצם מעצמי, “bone from my bone;” Adam realised that this new creature was basically different from all the others that he had become familiar with, so that he concluded it could only be due to the fact that she shared the same raw material with him. The reason why G-d may have arranged this so was in order for the human being to be encouraged to set up a home only with its own species when leaving their parents’ home. This would encourage them in the words of the Torah: והיו לבשר אחד “to become one flesh.” (a body composed of uniform human raw material) None of the other creatures pursue females in order to set up “house” with them. The reason is that they do not miss the “missing rib” which G-d had taken from Adam and had given it to his wife.

even though they will not, like this time, be literally part of the flesh of their husbands.

לוקחה זאת, the letter ל is pronounced as a long syllable, whereas the vowel kametz is shortened into a chataf kametz. When Adam referred to Chavah merely as זאת, “this one,” as if she were merely some chattel, he did so because he did not refer to her alone but to her entire species, i.e. the female of the human species. `

לזאת יקרא אשה, “this person must be called “אשה,” as it had been taken from “איש.” Compare the words: נער and נערה, for “boy” and “girl,” and ילד and ילדה. The author was troubled why the Torah uses the expression: נערה בתולה, instead of אשה בתולה, for an adult virgin

כי מאיש לוקחה זאת, “this one,” the first woman ever.

כי מאיש לקחה, “for she emanated from the human species.” He meant that the female of the human species is reserved for a single male partner, as distinct from the beasts. Seeing that the females of the various animals did not originate from their male counterparts, the names they are known by reflect this. Example: תישים for male goats, as opposed to עזים, for the female of the species. [What about פר and פרה, for the male and the female of the species respectively? Ed.]

When the Torah writes in verse 24: ודבק באשתו, that there is a special bond between man and his wife, Rabbi Akiva in Sotah 17, explains this as follows: when a man and his wife are loyal to one another, forsaking the temptation to commit adultery, G-d Himself will be a constant companion of them, seeing that each of them has a letter of His name in their respective names, i.e. the letter י in the word איש, and the letter ה in the word אשה. If they conduct themselves in an unworthy manner, giving in to the temptation to engage in forbidden carnal relationships, G-d withdraws from them leaving only the letters אש, “fire,” burning lust, in their respective names. This fire will consume them. This “fire” will burn more fiercely in woman than in man, so that she will experience its destructive effect sooner than her erstwhile loyal partner, as the letter of G-d’s name was only a suffix in the word אשה, where in the name איש it is central to that word.