Musar к Берешит 2:15

The two arms of man correspond to the emanations חסד and גבורה. The two legs correspond to the emanations נצח and הוד. The male reproductive organ within which all the forces of the body coalesce and form his seed and by means of which he unites with his wife, corresponds to the emanation מלכות. After the Torah had described the union of man and wife [i.e. man in the plural i.e. אותם, Ed.], it mentions that G–d blessed them (Genesis 1,28). He called their combined name אדם. Man had not become whole until joined by his wife as a separate entity. When this occurred Man's soul wore garments of distinction [i.e. the body. Ed.] Man's essence is his "interior," his body is merely his "clothing." This "clothing" was snow white, as if he were wearing clothing made of "light," i.e. כתנות אור. Man's body then could be described as illuminating both his soul and itself. This provided man with three different kinds of wholeness or "perfections." They are alluded to in the acronym מגן (usually understood as shield, protection). The three letters forming that acronym are the first letters of each of the words ממון, money, גוף, body, and נשמה, soul. This is what is meant when the beauty of Jacob is described by our sages as comparable to the beauty of Adam. The Torah refers to it when it describes the mental and physical state of Jacob/Israel shortly after his encounter with Samael. We read in Genesis 33,18: ויבא יעקב שלם, "Jacob arrived whole." We are told in Shabbat 33b, that the word "whole" comprised the three aspects we have mentioned as the perfection of Adam. The Talmud described one of the aspects in which Jacob was "whole,” שלם, as תורתו; this refers, of course, to the state of his נשמה, his soul, since it is Torah which illuminates our soul. Adam the whole was not deficient in any area that is part of life. He did not have any needs since he already found himself at home in גן עדן, in an ideal environment. His food was derived from the trees of גן עדן. He did not have to work for a living and was therefore free to directly devote all his time to the service of G–d. The Torah describes that Adam was placed in גן עדן in order לעבדה ולשמרו, was placed in such an undemanding environment in order to enable him to serve G–d without hindrance and impediment. Our sages interpret the word לעבדה as referring to the performance of positive commandments, whereas the word לשמרה refers to the care taken not to transgress negative commandments. Adam performed all six hundred and thirteen commandments in a theoretical, spiritual fashion. All of this is explained in Pardes Rimonim chapter הנשמה, and I have elaborated on this elsewhere (מסכת חולין item 104, new edition of של"ה השלם by Rabbi Meir Katz). Man unfortunately did not even manage to spend a single night in גן עדן before he sinned. (cf. Psalms 49,13). His "jewelry" was removed as a result of his seduction by the serpent. This brought in its wake that instead of wearing "garments" which illuminated his soul as well as his body, he had to wear garments made of the hide of flesh, i.e. animals which did not represent anything spiritual. Ever since, new generations of man are the product of the smelly drop of semen, i.e. semen which is polluted by the residual pollutant of the original serpent. Once Eve had become defiled through sexual union with the serpent, the defiled party had to leave the holy site, i.e. גן עדן, just as in the desert anyone who was ritually impure could not remain within the holy precincts of the מחנה שכינה, the camp hosting the Presence of G–d. The immediate result of this was the toil involved in securing his sustenance, his clothing and his shelter. This is what the Torah meant when it describes that G–d told Adam: "You will eat bread in the sweat of your brow" (Genesis 3,19). Because man was constructed from parts of nature, מטבע, he has a tendency to pursue money, matbei'a, as symbolized by the word מטבע. He uses this money, מטבע, to secure his needs.

Adam had been created and placed in Gan Eden in order לעבדה ולשמרה "to work and preserve it" (Genesis 2,15). The mystical dimension of the word לעבדה, is עבודה service of the Lord. He himself was meant to be the "service" or, as we expressed this later the "offering." He was a "living sacrifice." While alive in a body, he was supposed to be what the souls of the righteous are nowadays after they have left this earth and their bodies behind and when the archangel Michael offers their souls on the Celestial Altar. In an ideal world the attachment to G–d expressed by the word קרב would have existed during man's lifetime. Man is supposed to be close to this image of himself since man on this earth was created in the image of the אדם who sits on the "throne" in the Celestial Regions, the mystical dimension of אצילות. The domain of the אצילות is the domain from which unification with the אין סוף is possible. I have explained this process in my introduction to the chapter תולדות האדם.

Jacob and family experienced exile in all its forms and became so refined that a whole nation of 600,000 pure souls emerged. We have stated several times that these 600,000 souls correspond to the letters in the Torah, that Torah essentially represents Israel and that the Torah comprises the 70 "faces" in the Celestial Regions. Since Israel is called אדם, it was created in order to service and preserve the terrestrial part of the universe, to observe the Torah (Targum Yonathan on Genesis 2,16). Israel unfortunately aborted its mission by sinning during the episode of the golden calf. This is reflected in Psalms 82,7: אכן כאדם תמותון, alas, you shall die as man; (instead of living indefinitely just like the angels). David began to repair the damage caused by that aberration, but did not complete the repair. Only when the Messiah comes will the remainder of that damage be repaired.