창세기 3:20의 주석

ויקרא האדם AND THE MAN CALLED — Scripture now reverts to its previous topic (Genesis 2:20) beginning with “and the man gave names”. It broke it off (that is, interpolated the story of the serpent) only to tell you that through the giving of names Eve became his mate, as it is written (Genesis 2:20) “but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him,” and that therefore “the [Lord God] caused to fall a deep sleep upon him” and formed Eve. But because Scripture writes at the end of the story of creation of Eve (Genesis 5:25), “and they were both naked”, it therefore follows on with the passage dealing with the serpent, to inform you that because he saw her nakedness and that they displayed no feeling of shame in their actions, he desired her, and he came upon them with his evil plan and with deceit.

For she was the mother of all the living: Why did he give her a name [only] now, after the sin? And also, he should have called her חיה/Chaya? So it seems that before the sin, she was called חיה/Chaya, corresponding to the "mother of all the חי/living." But after the sin, when she had caused death for generations, her name was changed from חיה/Chaya to חוה/Chava. For חוה/Chava is formed from the term, חויא/snake. And Scripture is coming to explain why he did not call her נחש/snake explicitly: It is however because before this, she was the mother of all the living and called חיה/Chaya. So when he changed her name, it was unnecessary to change more than the yod to a vav, such that some remnant of the original name remain intact.

חוה, she is a necessary requirement for the human species to continue life on earth.

ויקרא אדם שם אשתו חוה. Adam called the name of his wife Chavah. We must understand why Adam had not named his wife immediately after he met her, before any of the happenings described by the Torah.

ויקרא האדם, when Chavah had originally been placed before him, he had named her just as he had named all the animals, the name חוה, however, was her individual name, not the name of the female of the human species. It is possible to explain that after Adam and his wife had eaten from the tree of knowledge, Adam gave her this name, seeing that due to having eaten from that tree, their libido had been awakened, and they knew that they would reproduce themselves. This is why Adam added: אם כל חי, the meaning of the word חי here referring to the kind of living creatures who possessed the power of speech. Generic names for human beings such as חי here, are also found in Psalms 145,21 ויברך כל בשר, where David does not refer to the animals blessing the name of G’d, but only to the human species doing this. The same applies to Isaiah 66,23 יבא כל בשר, where the prophet predicts that all of humanity in those days will come once a month to Jerusalem or even weekly, to pay their respects to the Lord in Jerusalem. [probably those living near Jerusalem will come once a week, whereas those living farther away will come only once a month. Ed.] The letter ו in the word חוה instead of the letter י was to distinguish her from the beasts of the field.

And the man, etc.: Now, after he had sensed about her that her nature had changed. As she had [previously] been clinging only to him, but now she had her own sense of good and evil. Hence, he called her Chavah.

A play on the word חיה [alive]. Rashi is answering the question: Why did he not name her חיה? Thus he explained, “A play on the word...”

חוה: Pielform von חיה, die Leben spendende. Es war dem Adam zuvor klar geworden, dass er nicht ewig leben, dass er sterben werde, es war ihm ferner gesagt worden, dass die Frau ihm Kinder gebären werde; da nannte der Mann seine Frau: die Leben gebende. Der einzelne stirbt, die Menschheit lebt, und es ist das Weib, durch welches auch der Mann fortlebt in den Kindern. Adam hätte zürnen dürfen über den Verlust des Paradieses durch sein Weib, und er nennt sie nach der schönsten Bestimmung des Weibes! Dem Manne war Entsagung beschieden, dem Weibe war Entsagung beschieden; aber das Ziel, das dem Weibe für ihre Entsagung gegeben ward, ist das Höhere, sie ist die Retterin vom Tode geworden, die Lebenspenderin, in sie flüchtet sich die ewige Unsterblichkeit der Menschen. Und bedeutsam heißt sie nicht חַיָה, sondern . חוה finden wir immer für die geistige Belebung. אֳחַוֶךָ ,יְחַוֶה רעת Es ist somit das Weib in jeder Beziehung als אם, als die conditio sine qua non, nicht nur auf das leibliche Leben begriffen, sondern auch in Beziehung auf Geist und Gemüt der den Menschenberuf forttragenden Geschlechter. — Das היתה kann nur die ihr gewordene Bestimmung ausdrücken.

Because she was the mother of all the living: And even though she was not the mother of the animals and the beasts, "mother" implies an expression of [being] a matron, as in (Judges 5:7), "I arose, a mother in Israel." And "father" is likewise an expression of lordship and authority, as in (Genesis 4:21), "the father of all who handle the lyre."

חוה, a variant of the word חיות, “life.” It is a derivative of the root: .הוה היה

חוה EVE — חוה has the same sound as חיה (and similar meaning “life”) — she was so called because she gives life (birth) to her children; the interchange of ‘י and ‘ו is similar to that in (Ecclesiastes 2:22), מה הוה לאדם “for what hath a man”, where הוה is used in the sense of היה “to be.”

כי היא היתה אם כל חי, even though the function of the female of the species listed here also applies to all women after Chavah, she is used as the role model and therefore accorded this name. The reason is that she was the first woman ever to fulfill this role.

Because she was the mother of all the living (chai): If we will explain [it as], "the mother of all people, the expression, "living," is not exact; and is only man called living? Moreover, why did he call her this name after she ate from the tree of knowledge. Rather the explanation of, "all the living," is like that which the Rosh wrote (on Berakhot, Chapter 6, Paragraph 8) in explanation of the blessing, "Who blessed souls, etc. to give life with them to the soul of all the living" - that its meaning is that it is not the essence and necessity of man's life, but rather that which comes as a delight. And similar to this did we explain the meaning of, living, a few times earlier (on Genesis 2:10) - that its meaning is joy and the fulfillment of desire. And behold until the woman had human knowledge, she only wanted what was necessary to live, like a beast. Now that she attained human intellect, "she was" - the explanation of which is, she became - "the mother of all the living," [meaning] she brought forth all the delights of people. And because of that, she is called, "Chavah," and not, Chayah - since it is closer to the words of the reason: That is because most of the time, that delight changes into an obstacle and something that causes damage to people. And they said similarly to this in Bereshit Rabbah (20:11) - that it is [related] to the expression chiviya, meaning a snake that bites the heel.

Know therefore that G'd had already given the woman a name reflecting her distinction when He named both the man and the woman ADAM. We know from Ezekiel 34,31 that the name ADAM is a great distinction. The prophet proclaims: אדם אתם, "you are Adam" (referring to Israel). Our sages (Yevamot 61) have stated about Israel: "you have been called ADAM, whereas the Gentiles have not been called ADAM." There was therefore no reason for Adam to have named Eve previously. Now that his wife had been seduced by the serpent she had suffered a spiritual decline and no longer qualified for the name ADAM. In fact it is generally accepted that when a person violates G'd's law knowingly he forfeits his original name. This is what Solomon (Proverbs 10,7) meant when he said: ושם רשעים ירקב, that the "name" i.e. the original name of the wicked, will rot. Adam now had to give his wife a name which reflected her function in life, namely that she became the "mother" of all human beings. True, Adam had sinned too, but his sin had been unintentional as already pointed out. He did not forfeit his name on that account.

אם כל חיה, “mother of all living human beings.” According to Rabbi Simmon, in B’reshit Rabbah 20,11, what is meant is the “mother of all living creatures.” According to his view during all the 130 years that Adam lived apart from his wife, male disembodied spirits used her body warmth to produce living creatures that emanated from her womb. Female spirits also used her body as the means to reproduce. Our author directs the reader to a Midrash on Samuel II 7,14 where the words: והוכחתיו בשבט אנשים ובנגעי בני אדם, “I will chastise him with the rod of men and the affliction of mortals,” are explained in the manner he had described. The 130 years of which the Torah speaks are explained in the Talmud Eyruvin 18. A different exegesis: the words אם כל חי, are a compliment to Chavah who is the human mother of the human species. Devorah refers to herself in similar terms at the beginning of her famous song thanking G-d for her and Barak’s victory in Judges 5,7, where she refers to herself as “the mother of Israel.”

As a matter of fact Adam too experienced a diminution of status as expressed by his name. The Torah here calls him suddenly האדם, three or four times instead of אדם as previously. You must appreciate that the category of person called האדם is inferior to the one called אדם without the letter ה. Sifri 143 quotes Rabbi Yirmiyah on Leviticus 18,5: אשר יעשה אותם האדם וחי בהם, that האדם should perform these commandments in order to live by them, as including Gentiles. This is so because whenever the letter ה before the word אדם does not signify a definite article it refers to the human species as such. [I have condensed the proof presented by the author. Ed.] Although Adam declined in spiritual stature and forfeited the full extent of his name, this was a temporary phenomenon. The Torah again accords him his full name when it describes that he became the father of Sheth (4,25). He regained his stature having only sinned inadvertently.

There is another reason for the name חוה. First we must understand why "life" is attributed to Eve and not to Adam. After all, Adam was the "father" of all human beings! Besides, if the reason we have given for Adam calling חוה is that she is the "mother" of all human beings, he should have called her חיה, not חוה! Her name was to reflect two new developments. 1) She had listened to the urgings of the seducer. Adam called her by the name of the seducer, the word חוה being the same as חויא the aramaic for serpent. This is the reason given in the Zohar. The second new development was that she was condemned to bear children in pain. She alone deserved to be called "mother" of all human beings because it was only she who had to endure pain in connection with procreation. The Torah did not want to spell out the other reason, seeing that it is already alluded to in the name חוה.