This reflection on Genesis 2 was written by Alex Israel for 929 and can also be found here
GDid woman really come from the rib of man? Or might chapter 2 be an instructive tale of how we build meaningful and loving human relationships?
In chapter 2 the human is created alone. Although the human has “everything”, resides in a lush garden with plentiful water and food, the human is lonely, lost, incomplete. The Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him,”(Genesis 2:18) but animals cannot provide companionship; they do nothing to alleviate Adam’s loneliness. Adam needs a human partner to share his joy and pain, to complement him.
But relationships don’t merely “happen”. They need to be created. When man eventually wakes from his slumber and discovers woman next to him, he bursts into poetry, into song. He is not merely noticing a woman by his side, but he experiences a sense of relief, or rapture. He has a companion “at last”:
“This one at last!
Bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh.”
Here, Adam senses that the person opposite him is the missing part of himself. She completely complements him and makes him whole again. Is there a more perfect portrayal of human relationship than this? The “other” is the segment of me that I am missing!
But, the biblical story asserts that the route and method to building this relationship with the “other” is by subduing myself, giving up something. Only by sacrificing something of me, can I make room for another, and only by making space for another individual will I experience true partnership. And, although I give up something, seemingly losing something dear to me, that other person will, paradoxically, make me feel more whole than ever before.
Chapter One of Genesis describes man and woman created in God’s image, but man and woman do not exchange a word! Chapter Two depicts the reasons that we seek love, the tug and pull, the loss and fulfillment that build our meaningful relationships. By sacrificing for another we establish togetherness, that can make us whole again.
Alex Israel teaches Tanakh at the Pardes Institute, Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi and Matan, Jerusalem.
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