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Daily manna from the Torah by Dr Ketriel Blad

Bereshit 1-4

In the beginning of

Genesis 2:4 –3:21

Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He built it into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.

Gen. 2:22-23 NKJV

How did the first man gain that much knowledge?

Translations of the divinely inspired Scriptures will never be able to express the richness of the original text that came from heaven. In the original Hebrew writings there is a play on words with the terms for man and woman. The Hebrew word for man in this particular verse is ish – איש. The feminine form is ishah – אשה, which was translated as woman. Though in English the relation between these two words exists, it is more evident in Hebrew. We can then understand why Adam said:

 “This shall be called ishah because out of ish she was taken”.

Now, before the creation of the woman, Adam had undertaken a very important task; to name all the animals. Originally, names weren’t used only to make a difference between one thing and the other; but to reveal the personality and mission of every living being. So Adam had a great ability to discern the nature and mission of each animal. How could he do this if he had just been created?

The answer lies in the verses cited above. First, it is written that the Eternal Almighty built a woman – ishah – and He brought her to the man. How could Adam know what the Eternal was doing while he was in a deep sleep? (2:21). This teaches us that even though the body was asleep or anesthetized, his superior soul – neshamah – was not asleep, but fully conscious; and that he could perceive what was happening around him. The first man, – Adam harishon – was created with that spiritual ability. His superior inner man had the spiritual ability to search, perceive, and understand everything that surrounded him, even what the Eternal had in His mind. Whatever the Eternal did and said, Adam was able to know through revelation. That’s the way human beings were created. This ability to perceive, though, was severely damaged when sin came into him through the forbidden fruit, and hence man, as we know nowadays, has but a trace of what he had in the beginning.

Adam knew, through revelation, not only how the Eternal had taken out one of his ribs and formed a new wonderful creature, but also how He had defined her. When Adam saw her, he gave the woman the same name that the Eternal had given her when He formed her – ishah.

The Hebrew Scriptures have at least five different terms for human being. We already know two of them, adam and ish. The term adam is related to the soil of the earth, adamah. The term ish denotes a higher being with royalty and dominion. Heavenly messengers, the angels, are defined using the term ish and even The Eternal uses this term to refer to Himself (אישׁ מלחמה Ex. 15:3).

Therefore, the Eternal and then Adam give a remarkable name to the woman, a name that implies honour and that reveals her nature and mission; she has a status of royalty and highness, thus, with the ability to reign together with her husband. He is ish masculine form – and she is ishah – feminine form – and both of them were created to reign together (Gen.1:26-28). The word ish is related to esh – fire.

The second man (1 Cor. 15:45, 47) was created with the same spiritual ability of the first one, without sin, but with a body similar to the body of sin of the first Adam after his fall. And in the same way as the first Adam, the second Man, the Son of Man, could perceive and understand, through his spirit, what was happening around him. He already knew that the man who climbed the tree was Zacchaeus (Luke 19:5) and he had already seen what Nathanael was doing under the fig tree (John 1:48). And in that way, he could reign in every circumstance guided by the Spirit of the Eternal.

But, as the verses we are dealing with show that the first man didn’t do anything but repeat the name that the Eternal had given the woman, the Son of Man didn’t do anything but repeat and transmit whatever the Eternal was giving to his spirit (John 5:19). The soul’s independence from the Eternal was the cause of the first sin.

The salvation program for man includes the restoration of the spiritual ability to search, perceive and gain information of everything that surrounds him. This restoration is available to all who enter the Messiah through the new birth as is written in 1 Corinthians 2:10: “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (NKJV)

Dear disciple of the Messiah, make an effort to submit your soul to the spiritual perception and live according to the knowledge that the Spirit of the Eternal reveals to you. Then, you will be restored as a human being and you will be able to reach the level of your first father – Adam, and of your second father – the Messiah. That is the right way of having control over circumstances. Man was created this way and this is the way the Eternal wants us to live our days and nights.

May the Eternal fill you with His Spirit,

Ketriel

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