The first creation of Adam: 'It is not good that man is alone'

In the Torah we read (Genesis 2:18): “And the Lord G-d said: ‘It is not good that man is alone; I shall make him a helpmate opposite him.’”

The commentaries of the sages on this passage are simple and quite straightforward. 

Rashi wrote: “Because people might say: ‘There are two dominions! G-d alone rules over the upper worlds and He has no partner, and man is the sole ruler of the lower worlds, and he has no partner.’”

Nachmanides and Abarbanel mentioned two reasons: procreation and household help. 

My daughter Sophie Rose Shyfrin, a biologist, commented on the importance of sexual reproduction for all life forms. Organisms can reproduce asexually – by generating clones of themselves, or sexually, when the genes from both parents evenly combine in the offspring. Superficially, the former seems easier: an asexual organism doesn’t need to expend energy finding a mate to procreate. Yet, most multicellular organisms reproduce sexually. What makes it so advantageous? 

The answer is genetic diversity. Sexual reproduction allows generating an enormous number of potential combinations in the genes of the offspring, and therefore, creates individuals with a wide variety of traits. Thanks to this constant reshuffling of genes, species can adapt faster to ever-changing environments. To catch up, asexuals can only “wait” for mutations to randomly appear in their otherwise unchanging genes. In short, where the DNA of sexuals “runs”, the DNA of asexuals “crawls”.

Moreover, each offspring inherits two copies of each gene: one from the father, and one from the mother. If one copy contains a dangerous mutation, the healthy copy from the other parent can compensate for it. This is also the reason why incest leads to genetic defects: when the parents’ genes are so similar, there is less chance that a harmful mutation is masked. 

Nevertheless, the matter is not that simple. 

In my opinion, Adam and Eve, being immortal, were not supposed to have progeny. Indeed, painful pregnancy was part of the punishment of the woman after the Sin. 

Also, in the Torah we read (Genesis 4:1): “Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived.” According to the chronological order in the Torah, it happened after the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. 

Nevertheless, Rashi stated (Genesis 4:1): “[This took place], prior to the above episode, before he sinned and was banished from the Garden of Eden.”

According to the opinions of other commentators (Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra and Abarbanel), the sexual intercourse took place after the Sin – “after Adam had realized that he had been expelled from the Garden of Eden, that death had been decreed for him, and that he would not have to live indefinitely, it became necessary for him to have sexual relations with his wife in order to assure himself of children for posterity” (Torah Commentary by Rabbi Bachya ben Asher).

I believe that, in order to answer the question posed at the beginning of the article, it is necessary to analyze the basic principles of Creation. 

According to the Kabbalah of Information, the only Creation of EIN SOF (G-d in His essence) was information. The Creation is the information space made of concepts of different complexity and dimensionality. The dynamics of the Creation are the flow of information between the source and the receiver. 

According to the Law of Likeness, the distance in the information space is measured by the similarity of concepts. The longer the distance, the more difficult the information exchange. 

In my article The First Creation of Adam – Where, When, Why? I argued that the concepts of Man are present in the information space of Creation in the form of a hierarchy. 

The first Information World after Tzimzum was Adam Kadmon (Supernal Man). 

The second Adam was created in the information zone of the Sefira Malchut of the World of Atzilut (second account of the Creation of Man in the Torah). The third was the Man on physical earth (account of the six days of Creation). 

So, why was the woman necessary? 

In the passage from the Torah mentioned at the beginning of the article, we read: “it is not good…” (lo tov).

The phrase “no good” (lo tov, Hebrew) has great significance in the Kabbalah and is best explained by Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla in his book Gates of Light (Sha’are Orah). According to Rabbi J. Gikatilla, the phrase “is good” (ki tov, Hebrew) designates unification and the Sefira Yesod. 

“And ELoHIM saw ki tov (it was good).” – Genesis 1:12

Rabbi J. Gikatilla wrote: “Wherever there is distinction and separation, tov (good) is not to be found, for tov comes to bring peace and connect all things. Therefore, when ki tov is removed, separated and distinct from the world … then the whole world is destroyed and tov is not to be found in the world.”  

Further on we read: “…and tov will never be found while entities are distinct but only at the time they are being connected. For instance, when Adam was alone and separate, without being attached to his mate.”

In the language of the Kabbalah of Information, “is good” (ki tov) means increasing likeness and consequently decreasing distance, and “no good” (lo tov) means decreasing likeness and increasing distance. 

Man, woman and the letters

The basic information structure of the Creation is the Tree of Sefirot (concepts). Each Sefira corresponds to a certain name of the Almighty and to certain letters of the Tetragrammaton. 

In the world of Atzilut, the Sefira Chochma (Wisdom) corresponds to the letter yud (Hebrew) – the first letter of the Tetragrammaton. 

The Sefira Binah (Understanding) corresponds to the letter hey (Hebrew) – the second letter of the Tetragrammaton. 

Sefirot Chesed, Gvura, Tiferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod correspond to the letter vav – the third letter of the Tetragrammaton

Sefirat Malchut (Kingdom) corresponds to the letter hey – the last letter of the Tetragrammaton. 

Letters and numbers are the basic elements of Creation. They constitute an information code. 

In the book Sefer Yetzirah we read (1:1): 

With 32 mystical paths of Wisdom 

engraved Yah

the Lord of Hosts

the G-d of Israel 

the living G-d

King of the universe

El Shaddai 

Merciful and Gracious

High and Exalted

Dwelling in eternity

Whose name is Holy – 

He is Lofty and Holy –

and He created His universe 

with three books (Sepharim) 

with text (Sepher) 

with number (Sephar)

and with communication (Sippur).

Here, 32 mystical paths of Wisdom mean the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and 10 numbers. With this in mind, we should analyze the letters of the words “Man” and “Woman” in Hebrew. 

Genesis 2:23: “And man (Adam) said, ‘This time, it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called ishah (woman) because this one was taken from ish (man).’”

The word ish (man) has the Hebrew letters alef, yud, and shin. The word ishah (woman) has the Hebrew letters alef, shin, and hey. All these letters have a special meaning. 

In the book Sefer Yetzirah we read:

(1:10)

Two: Breath from Breath

With it He engraved and carved

22 Foundation Letters

Three Mothers

Seven Doubles

And Twelve Elementals

And one Breath is from them. 

 (1:13)

He chose three letters

From among the Elementals 

[in the mystery of the three Mothers

Alef Mem Shin]

And He set them in His great Name, 

And with them, He sealed six extremities...

(3:2)

Three Mothers: Alef Mem Shin

A great, mystical secret

covered and sealed with six rings

And from them emanated air, water and fire

And from them are born Fathers, 

And from the Fathers, descendants 

(3:3)

Three Mothers: Alef Mem Shin 

He engraved them, He carved them, 

He permuted them, He weighed them, 

He transformed them, 

And with them He depicted 

Three mothers AMSh in the Universe, 

Three Mothers AMSh in the Year, 

Three Mothers AMSh in the Soul, 

male and female. 

We should pay special attention to the last phrase of the quotation: “in the Soul, male and female.”

From the above-mentioned quotations, we can draw the conclusion that the letters alef, mem, and shin constitute the Great Name of the Almighty. From them emanated air, water and fire. In the Tree of Sefirot of the world of Atzilut, air corresponds to the six Sefirot of Zeir Anpin – the letter vav. Water corresponds to the Sefira Chochma – the letter yud. Fire corresponds to the Sefira Binah and the first letter of the Tetragammon – hey. 

The letters alef, mem and shin represent the name of the Almighty in the world of Tohu and correspond to the letters of the Tetragrammaton in the world of Atzilut. The letter alef corresponds to the letter vav, the letter mem corresponds to the letter yud, the letter shin corresponds to the first letter hey of the Tetragrammaton. 

The letters of the word ish (man) – alef, yud, shin – correspond to the six Sefirot represented by the letter vav (Zeir Anpin), and the Sefirot Chochma and Binah. The representation of the Sefira Malchut is missing. 

The letters of the word ishah (woman) – alef, shin, hey – correspond to Zeir Anpin, the Sefira Binah and the Sefira Malchut. The representation of Sefira Chochma is missing. From that, we can see that the words ish and ishah complement each other. Only together do they correspond to the Tree of Sefirot and the Tetragrammaton.

In Genesis 17:15 we read: “And G-d said to Abraham, ‘Your wife Sarai – you shall not call her name Sarai, for Sarah is her name’”.

The Hebrew letters of the name Sarai are shin, resh, yud; of the name Sarah – shin, resh, hey. The analogy between ish and ishah is obvious. 

According to the Law of Likeness, the combined structure of ish (man) and ishah (woman) has the shortest distance from the Tree of Sefirot and can interact with it fully.

That is why “it’s not good that man is alone.”

In the hierarchy of Creation, the world of Adam Kadmon (Primordial Adam) is followed by the world of Akudim. In the Tree of Sefirot, the Seifra Keter comes first, and the Sefira Malchut last. That was not the case for the world of Akudim. In the book Etz Hayim (The Tree of Life, Volume 2 - The Palace of Points) we read: “Now, when these points emerged (World of Tohu), which were from Keter to Malchut, their emergence was the opposite of that of the bound ones (World of Akudim). When the bound ones emerged, Malchut emerged first and Keter last.”

From that we infer that Adam Kadmon was complemented by the feminine Sefira Malchut.

The idea that man alone cannot serve the Almighty to a full degree is expressed in Zohar as part of the analysis of the death of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron. 

In the Torah we read (Vayikra (Leviticus), Chapter 10:1,2): “And Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his pan, put fire in them, and placed incense upon it and they brought before the Lord foreign fire, which He had not commanded them. And fire went forth from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord”.

In the Zohar (the article Visiting souls, Chabad.org) there is an explanation given by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai to his son Rabbi Elazar concerning Nadab and Abihu: “They were each only two halves of a body, for they had not married [and a man who does not marry is regarded as being only half a person].” 

In my article The Address of G-d, I showed that The Holy of the Holiest corresponded to the Sefira Malchut of the world of Atzilut. Not being married, Nadab and Abihu didn’t have in their souls the dimension of Sefira Malchut, which was the reason for their death. 

Woman and sacrifices 

A significant part of the Torah is dedicated to the commandments concerning the sacrifices in the Tabernacle, their types and rules. 

The fire offering didn’t have a personal character and was not connected specifically to the Jewish Holidays; it was offered on a daily basis, and its purpose was clear: to the Lord. 

The necessary part of the burnt fire offering is described in Parashat Tetzaveh Exodus (29:10): “You shall bring the bull to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lean their hands upon the head of the bull.”

The contact with the animal before slaughter means the passing of some of the “bad qualities” of the animal soul of Man to the animal. In Hebrew, the burnt fire offering is called Ola – letters ain, lamed, hey. The literal translation is “ascending.” As for ishah – letters alef, shin, hey – the literal translation is “fire (offering).”

One of the parts of the Kabbalah deals with gematria. Every letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a numerical equivalent. If two different words have the same sum of the numerical equivalents of letters, this means, in the kabbalistic tradition, that the notions represented by these words are deeply connected. 

The word “fire (offering)” – ishah, and the word “woman” – ishah, are one and the same. 

That means, in my opinion, that in the process of the fire offering, the female animal soul or a female part of the animal soul (in case the animal was a male) was sent back to the Lord. 

In the article The first Creation of Adam: The Serpent Within, I put forward the idea that by naming the animals, Adam and consequently Eve have acquired animal souls. It was the animal soul of the woman which was the cause of the primordial Sin. 

From that we can infer that the fire offering – ishah, was meant to atone for the primordial Sin.