When Adam opened his eyes the first time, and beheld the world about
him, he broke into praise of God, "How great are Thy works, O Lord!"
But his admiration for the world surrounding him did not exceed the
admiration all creatures conceived for Adam. They took him to be their
creator, and they all came to offer him adoration. But he spoke: "Why
do you come to worship me? Nay, you and I together will acknowledge the
majesty and the might of Him who hath created us all. 'The Lord
reigneth,'" he continued, "'He is apparelled with majesty.'"[36]
And not alone the creatures on earth, even the angels thought Adam the
lord of all, and they were about to salute him with "Holy, holy, holy,
is the Lord of hosts," when God caused sleep to fall upon him, and then
the angels knew that he was but a human being.[37]
The purpose of the sleep that enfolded Adam was to give him a wife, so
that the human race might develop, and all creatures recognize the
difference between God and man. When the earth heard what God had
resolved to do, it began to tremble and quake. "I have not the
strength," it said, "to provide food for the herd of Adam's
descendants." But God pacified it with the words, "I and thou together,
we will find food for the herd." Accordingly, time was divided between
God and the earth; God took the night, and the earth took the day.
Refreshing sleep nourishes and strengthens man, it affords him life and
rest, while the earth brings forth produce with the help of God, who
waters it. Yet man must work the earth to earn his food.[38]
The Divine resolution to bestow a companion on Adam met the wishes of
man, who had been overcome by a feeling of isolation when the animals
came to him in pairs to be named.[39] To banish his loneliness, Lilith
was first given to Adam as wife. Like him she had been created out of
the dust of the ground. But she remained with him only a short time,
because she insisted upon enjoying full equality with her husband. She
derived her rights from their identical origin. With the help of the
Ineffable Name, which she pronounced, Lilith flew away from Adam, and
vanished in the air. Adam complained before God that the wife He had
given him had deserted him, and God sent forth three angels to capture
her. They found her in the Red Sea, and they sought to make her go back
with the threat that, unless she went, she would lose a hundred of her
demon children daily by death. But Lilith preferred this punishment to
living with Adam. She takes her revenge by injuring babes—baby boys
during the first night of their life, while baby girls are exposed to
her wicked designs until they are twenty days old. The only way to ward
off the evil is to attach an amulet bearing the names of her three
angel captors to the children, for such had been the agreement between
them.[40]
The woman destined to become the true companion of man was taken from
Adam's body, for "only when like is joined unto like the union is
indissoluble."[41] The creation of woman from man was possible because
Adam originally had two faces, which were separated at the birth of
Eve.[42]
When God was on the point of making Eve, He said: "I will not make her
from the head of man, lest she carry her head high in arrogant pride;
not from the eye, lest she be wanton-eyed; not from the ear, lest she
be an eavesdropper; not from the neck, lest she be insolent; not from
the mouth, lest she be a tattler; not from the heart, lest she be
inclined to envy; not from the hand, lest she be a meddler; not from
the foot, lest she be a gadabout. I will form her from a chaste portion
of the body," and to every limb and organ as He formed it, God said,
"Be chaste! Be chaste!" Nevertheless, in spite of the great caution
used, woman has all the faults God tried to obviate. The daughters of
Zion were haughty and walked with stretched forth necks and wanton
eyes; Sarah was an eavesdropper in her own tent, when the angel spoke
with Abraham; Miriam was a talebearer, accusing Moses; Rachel was
envious of her sister Leah; Eve put out her hand to take the forbidden
fruit, and Dinah was a gadabout.[43]
The physical formation of woman is far more complicated than that of
man, as it must be for the function of child-bearing, and likewise the
intelligence of woman matures more quickly than the intelligence of
man.[44] Many of the physical and psychical differences between the two
sexes must be attributed to the fact that man was formed from the
ground and woman from bone. Women need perfumes, while men do not; dust
of the ground remains the same no matter how long it is kept; flesh,
however, requires salt to keep it in good condition. The voice of women
is shrill, not so the voice of men; when soft viands are cooked, no
sound is heard, but let a bone be put in a pot, and at once it
crackles. A man is easily placated, not so a woman; a few drops of
water suffice to soften a clod of earth; a bone stays hard, and if it
were to soak in water for days. The man must ask the woman to be his
wife, and not the woman the man to be her husband, because it is man
who has sustained the loss of his rib, and he sallies forth to make
good his loss again. The very differences between the sexes in garb and
social forms go back to the origin of man and woman for their reasons.
Woman covers her hair in token of Eve's having brought sin into the
world; she tries to hide her shame; and women precede men in a funeral
cortege, because it was woman who brought death into the world. And the
religious commands addressed to women alone are connected with the
history of Eve. Adam was the heave offering of the world, and Eve
defiled it. As expiation, all women are commanded to separate a heave
offering from the dough. And because woman extinguished the light of
man's soul, she is bidden to kindle the Sabbath light.[45]
Adam was first made to fall into a deep sleep before the rib for Eve
was taken from his side. For, had he watched her creation, she would
not have awakened love in him. To this day it is true that men do not
appreciate the charms of women whom they have known and observed from
childhood up. Indeed, God had created a wife for Adam before Eve, but
he would not have her, because she had been made in his presence.
Knowing well all the details of her formation, he was repelled by
her.[46] But when he roused himself from his profound sleep, and saw
Eve before him in all her surprising beauty and grace, he exclaimed,
"This is she who caused my heart to throb many a night!" Yet he
discerned at once what the nature of woman was. She would, he knew,
seek to carry her point with man either by entreaties and tears, or
flattery and caresses. He said, therefore, "This is my never-silent
bell!"[47]
The wedding of the first couple was celebrated with pomp never repeated
in the whole course of history since. God Himself, before presenting
her to Adam, attired and adorned Eve as a bride. Yea, He appealed to
the angels, saying: "Come, let us perform services of friendship for
Adam and his helpmate, for the world rests upon friendly services, and
they are more pleasing in My sight than the sacrifices Israel will
offer upon the altar." The angels accordingly surrounded the marriage
canopy, and God pronounced the blessings upon the bridal couple, as the
Hazan does under the Huppah. The angels then danced and played upon
musical instruments before Adam and Eve in their ten bridal chambers of
gold, pearls, and precious stones, which God had prepared for them.
Adam called his wife Ishah, and himself he called Ish, abandoning the
name Adam, which he had borne before the creation of Eve, for the
reason that God added His own name Yah to the names of the man and the
woman—Yod to Ish and He to Ishah—to indicate that as long as they
walked in the ways of God and observed His commandments, His name would
shield them against all harm. But if they went astray, His name would
be withdrawn, and instead of Ish there would remain Esh, fire, a fire
issuing from each and consuming the other.[48]