פרשת בראשית תשי"ג - בריאת האישה

And the LORD God said: ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.’

'לא טוב היות וגו IT IS NOT GOOD etc. — I shall make an help meet for him in order that people may not say that there are two Deities, the Holy One, blessed be He, the only One among the celestial Beings without a mate, and this one (Adam), the only one among the terrestrial beings, without a mate (Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer 12).

לא טוב היות האדם לבדו, the purpose of the human species on earth will not be achieved while man who is supposed to reflect the divine image will be left to personally carry out all the menial tasks of daily life on earth by being solitary.

לא טוב היות האדם לבדו, “it is not good for Adam to remain solitary;” this was not a new idea that G-d had; He had planned for it all the time; He did not want to impose a partner on Adam, and that is why He gave him a chance to name the animals and to find that all of them had suitable mates, something that he now felt he lacked. G-d therefore responded to a wish of Adam that he had not even voiced as yet. If the mate was provided in response to his longing he would appreciate his wife more.

And the LORD God said: ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.’

עזר כנגדו A HELP MEET FOR HIM — (כנגדו literally, opposite, opposed to him) If he is worthy she shall be a help to him; if he is unworthy she shall be opposed to him, to fight him (Yevamot 63a).

And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.

... but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him: Quoting Rashi: "When He brought them, He brought them before him male and female. He said 'Each has a mate, but I have no mate.' Immediately 'And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man.'" And he explained well, for as the verses about assigning the names are inserted within the matter of the help meet, that and the assigning of the names are resolved according the understanding of the commentators (Rashi and Radak) like its plain meaning - that each one will have a name for itself, so that each will be known and recognized through its generations with the names that he will call them, for it will be its name forever. And now, the Holy One Blessed Be He, when He wanted to make the help meet for him, He then brought them before him, for He needed to bring them to him in pairs, to assign names also to their females - for there are those that he assigned one name, and there are those that are split, such as bull and cow, he-goat and she-goat, ram and ewe, etc. And when he saw them mated with each other, he became desirous of them, and when he did not find among them a help meet for himself, he became sad and fell asleep. And God dropped a deep sleep on him so that he wouldn't feel the removal of a rim from his body. And my understanding is that the assigning of the name is the help meet. And the issue is that the Holy One Blessed Be He brought every animal of the field and every bird of the sky before Adam, and he discerned their nature and assigned them names. That is, the name that is fitting for them, based on their natures. And through the names, it became clear which is fitting to be a help meet for another, that is, fitting to procreate together. And even if we believe that the assignment of names is by convention, not nature, we can say that the assignment of names is the division of the species. For they passed before him, male and female, and he pondered their natures, which is a help meet for another, that is, the one that procreates with it. And he let this be known through names: He called the light [ovine] animals with with one name, for they could each help each other with procreation, since they could all procreate with each other, and the heavy [bovine] animals with another name, and the wild animals with another name, for they cannot procreate with each other, and so with all of them. And he didn't find in any of them one whose nature was to be a help meet to him, to be assigned his name. For the assignment of the names was the division of the species, and the separation, like a seal between one and another, and I have explained above. And the issue was not that it was in the Man's hands to find within them a help meet for himself, based on the fact that they were created with their own natures. Instead, if he would see a proper nature in one of the species and choose it, the Holy One Blessed Be He would fix its nature to him, as He did with the rib, and He wouldn't need to build it as a new construction. And this is the meaning of "and whatsoever the man would call every living creature, that was to be the name thereof," meaning that would be its name that the Holy One Blessed Be He would maintain that name for it, in the manner that I have explained. And what appears correct to me is that the desire was not before Blessed He to take the rib from him until Adam would know that there was not among the creatures a help meet for himself, so that he would desire to have for himself a help meet, like them. And because of this, He needed to take from him one of his ribs. And this is the meaning of "but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him," meaning - but for the name of the Man, he did not finaed a help meet that would be fitting for him, to be assigned his name, to procreate with him. And there is no need here for the words of the commentators (Raava on verse 18 and the Radak) who said that the name will come through here in place of a nickname, and that he did not find a help meet opposite himself, in the manner of the wives of Lemech (Below, 4:23) and Jeftach and Samuel (I Samuel 12:11). And this is why he said "This is now ...," meaning: This time, I have found a help meet for myself, which I have not found until now in all the other species, for she is a bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. And it is fitting that she will be assigned my actual name, for this one and this one can procreate together. (And in the word "this," there is a secret, which will be known from our commentary on the Parasha of "And this is the blessing," if my Rock blesses me to get up to there.) And therefore, he responded "because she was taken out of Man." And understand.

And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man.

And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.

על כן יעזב איש THEREFORE A MAN LEAVETH — The Divine Spirit says this, thus prohibiting immoral relationship to the “Sons of Noah” also (Sanhedrin 57b). לבשר אחד ONE FLESH — Both parents are united in the child.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife...” The holy spirit says this to forbid I chest to the descendants of Noah. “'And they shall be one flesh'- the child is formed by the two of them and thus their flesh is made one', so Rashi. This is without reason, for domesticated and wild animals also become one flesh through their children. In my view animals do not cleave to their sexual partners; the male approaches any female it finds and then leaves. For this reason the text says since the female of the adam was a bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, he cleaved to her and she was in his bosom like his own flesh and he desired her to be constantly with him. As this was so with Adam so was his nature transmitted to his progeny, to make the males, cleaving to their females, leaving their fathers and mothers and regarding their wives as if they were one flesh with them. Similarly, “you are our brother, our flesh (gen.37:27), “to the meat of ones flesh (Lev.18:6), those close in family are called “meat of flesh” and so will leave the “meat” of his father and his mother and their closeness and see that his wife is closer to him than they are.