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מצלעותיו OF HIS RIBS — The word means of his sides, similar to (Exodus 26:20) ולצלע המשכן “and for the second side of the tabernacle”; this has a bearing upon what they (the Sages) say, (Eruvin 18a): They were created with two faces (sides).

ויפל, the word תרדמה describes a sleep far deeper than ordinary sleep every night,שינה , and שינה itself is a deeper sleep than תנומה. The reason why G’d made Adam fall into such a deep sleep was to ensure that he would not feel the surgery being performed on his body. Although, if G’d had wanted to, He could have performed painless surgery while Adam was awake and watching the proceedings, we must always remember that G’d does not perform miracles unless they are absolutely necessary. When there is a solution to a problem within the parameters of well known laws of nature, G’d makes use of them. Putting Adam into a deep sleep known as תרדמה was not something miraculous, seeing that such deep sleep does occur quite frequently in some people’s lives.
Our sages (Sanhedrin 39) state (surmise) that if G’d had removed this part of Adam’s body (skeleton) from him while he had been aware of it, he might subsequently have detested Chavah, remembering how she looked before she was fit to be presented to him. [The Talmud there illustrates the manner in which Rabban Gamliel’s daughter explained to the Roman Emperor who had claimed that G’d had stolen a rib from Adam, why it had been necessary to do this in a clandestine fashion. She invited the Emperor to watch her prepare a piece of raw meat and to observe every step before this piece of meat was fit to be served on the table. Having watched this, the Emperor lost his craving for the meat in question. Rabban Gamliel’s daughter told the Emperor to imagine what Adam would have felt like if he had had to watch how his mate was produced step by step. Ed.] Not having watched any part of the process, but being presented with a beautiful female all of a sudden, Adam was bound to be overjoyed and grateful to G’d not only for having taken care of his problem, but for the manner in which G’d had taken care of it. He realised, of course, that men in the future would not have their wives “manufactured” in the same way. We already explained on verse 18 why the other females of the species were not literally created through removing part of the male’s body and building it up with externally secured tissue made from earth. Having described Adam as in a state of תרדמה, the kind of sleep induced by an anesthesia, why did the Torah add the words ויישן, “he slept?” The Torah wanted us to know that the deep sleep lasted only until the operation had been performed and the wound had been closed up. After that Adam only slept the kind of sleep which is a form of quiet relaxation. It is possible that the sleep referred to in our verse as ויישן, was actually Adam’s first experience of sleep since he had been created. We must not forget that all the details we heard about man occurred in the second half of the sixth “day” of creation. This day was so full of activities that it did not end until the children Kayin and Hevel had been born (Sanhedrin 38).

ויסגר בשר תחתנה, “He filled in flesh in its place.” With reference to the letter ס in the word ויסגר, Bereshit Rabbah 17,6 writes that as soon as Chavah was created Satan was created alongside her. We did not find the letter ס which symbolises Satan [the סיטרא אחרא, “the spiritually negative section of the emanations in kabbalistic language, Ed.] until we came to this word in the Torah. If you were to point out that the letter ס already appeared in 2,13 where the Torah speaks of the rivers flowing around the whole land of Cush, סובב את כל הארץ כוש, the letter was used there only in connection with the rivers, not in connection with the creation of either man or woman and their fates.

From his sides. מסטריו means from his sides.

רדם .תרדמה, verwandt mit רהם. Dies kommt als Verbum einmal vor: רתם המרכבה (Micha 1), wo es anspannen, festbinden heißt. Möglich daher, dass רדם festbinden heißt und הֵרָדֵם den völlig gebundenen Zustand bedeutet, in welchem der Mensch jegliche Bewegung verliert, völlig unselbständig ist, also etwa: Betäubung. Dieser Grad der Kraft- und Machtlosigkeit liegt nicht in ישן, dem Ausdruck des gewöhnlichen Schlafes. ישן, Grundbedeutung: alt, auch schwarz, dunkel, wovon אישן לילה und אישון בת עין, das Dunkel der Nacht und das Schwarze im Auge. (Vergl. אגרוף.) Also: dunkel, glanzlos, lichtlos sein und altern, somit: Glanz, Kraft, Frische verlieren, und ישן als Schlaf, ist der Zustand des Schlaffseins, Mattseins, während תרדמה den ganz gefesselten Zustand bedeutet. Vielleicht war auch der Baum, unter welchem Elija, Kön. 1. 19, einschlief, ein Baum, dem eine betäubende Kraft innewohnt und der deshalb ר heißt. — צלע kommt sonst in תנ"ך nirgends als Rippe, sondern stets als Seite vor, weshalb ja auch צלוע nach einer Seite geneigt gehen, hinken heißt. — סגר verwandt mit סכר ,שכר, verstopfen, wo eine Lücke war schließen, wovon auch שכר, Ersatz, Lohn. — בשר, verwandt mit בַשֵר, verkünden, drückt die tiefe Bedeutung des reinen menschlichen Leibes aus: Herold des Geistes an die Welt und der Welt an den Geist zu sein. בשר Fleisch, umfasst alles, was nicht Blut und nicht Knochen ist, somit: Haut, Muskel und Nerv, also das, wodurch die Vermittlung zwischen Geist und Welt stattfindet; ohne בשר kein Bewusstsein von der Welt und keine Wirkung auf die Welt. Daher Gegensatz zu אבן :בשר (Jechesk. 36, 26). — בנה ,ויבן kommt auch sonst als gestalten vor, davon תבנית. — Also nicht wie beim Manne ward zum Leib des Weibes der Stoff von der Erde genommen. Eine Seite des Mannes bildete Gott zum Weibe, es ward der Mann gleichsam geteilt und der eine Teil zum Weibe ge- staltet, nicht עשה יצר ,ברא, sondern: בנה, nur ausgebaut, eingerichtet zum Weibe, also, dass das früher eine Geschöpf, nun in zweien dastand, und damit die völlige Gleichheit des Weibes für immer besiegelt. — Die Weisen stellen auch alle Eigentümlichkeiten der weiblichen Stimme, des weiblichen Charakters und Temperaments, sowie auch die frühere geistige Reife des Weibes in Zusammenhang mit dieser Bildung des Weibes aus bereits fühlendem, empfindendem, belebtem Menschenleib, im Gegensatz zum Manne, dessen Leib aus Erde geschaffen worden.

.ויפל תרדמה על האדם, according to the plain meaning of the text, the meaning of this phrase is that “G-d cast a deep sleep over Adam;” this was so that the surgery He performed on him should not cause him any pain. He made him unconscious.

ויסגור AND HE CLOSED UP the place where it was cut (Berakhot 61b).

ויקח אחד מצלעותיו, concerning the precise meaning of these words we find a disagreement among the sages (Bereshit Rabbah 17,6). Some scholars believed that when G’d created Adam he had two faces –seeing that the Torah reports G’d as having created אותם, “them,” not “him.” They understand man’s original appearance to have been something like the Siamese twins, and the word צלע meaning the same as when used in connection with the “sides” of the Tabernacle (Exodus 26,20) Other scholars understand the word צלע literally, as referring to one of Adam’s ribs. This is also the way Onkelos translates it. תחתנה, as if the Torah had written תחתיה,”in its stead.”

This [coincides with what] we said that they were created with two faces. I.e., this is true if we explain צלעותיו as “his sides.” But according to the simple meaning of the verse, צלעותיו are ribs.

וישן ויקח אחת מצלעותיו, “and while he was asleep, He took one of his ribs;” Samuel, in Breshit Rabbah 17,6 says that He took one rib from between other ribs, and that this justifies the word תחתנה, which is in the plural mode.

ויישן ויקח AND HE SLEPT AND then HE TOOK in order that he should not see the piece of flesh out of which she was created, for she might be despised by him (Sanhedrin 39a).

The place of the cut. Re’m writes: This follows the opinion (Eiruvin 18a) that Chavah was made from Adam’s tail. Thus nothing was missing from his body [and only the place of the cut needed to be closed]. Whereas according to the opinion that they were first created with two faces, ויסגר בשר תחתנה follows its simple meaning: Hashem filled in the missing flesh. But I would say that even according to the opinion that they were created with two faces, nothing was missing from Adam’s body. Adam and Chavah were two faces with [full] bodies, attached at the side, and only the place of the cut was missing. One might object that the above Gemara implies that ויסגר בשר תחתנה follows its simple meaning according to the opinion that they were created with two faces. Only according to the opinion that Chavah was made from Adam’s tail, does it mean “the place of the cut.” The answer is: Even according to the opinion that they were created with two faces, they were slightly fastened, [so a little flesh needed to be filled in]. (Maharshal) The verse reads simply according to the opinion that they were created with two faces, for Adam was left without a back and his whole body cavity was open. Thus it says that Hashem “closed,” as one closes an open house or an open chest. But according to the opinion that Chavah was created from Adam’s tail, the verse reads with more difficulty — thus Rashi continued to explain that according to this opinion, it means “the place of the cut.” (Nachalas Yaakov)

ויסגר בשר תחתנה, “He closed up that spot with flesh.” The Torah did not write: תחתה which would have meant that He replaced the area of the incision with flesh instead;

So that he not see. This is from Bereishis Rabba 17:6 and Sanhedrin 39a, where Rashi explains [that “And he slept . . . and He took” was in order] that Adam should not see the piece of flesh before it was perfected. And there it is clear that this explanation follows the opinion that Chavah was made from Adam’s tail. Thus, [contrary to the order of the verse,] Rashi on this verse first explains “the place of the cut” — which also follows the opinion that Chavah was created from Adam’s tail. This was to convey that also his comment of, “So that he not see the piece of flesh” is according to the opinion that Chavah was created from Adam’s tail. Re’m, too, offered this explanation. (Nachalas Yaakov)

ויסגור בשר; until the creation of woman the letter ס had not appeared in the Torah; this is to teach us that Satan had not found an entrance into the world until woman had been created. A different exegesis: the appearance of the letter ס is to remind us that a wife is always close to her husband. Concerning the query raised in B’reshit Rabbah that the letter ס had already appeared in the word: הסובב in verse 11 of our chapter, we must answer that the subjects in that verse are two rivers, not a human being.

בשר תחתנה, a reference to the flesh of man’s buttocks. (Compare B’reshit Rabbah 17,6.)