Minding Our Words
On Simhat Torah, we complete the reading of the humash鈥攁ll 79,796 Hebrew words of it鈥攁nd when we鈥檙e done, what do we do? We roll it up to the very beginning and start to read it all over again. Words, words, words. Devarim (Deuteronomy)鈥攚hich, of course, means 鈥�words鈥濃�攅nds with Moses鈥檚 death after the conclusion of his lengthy final oration; Bereishit opens with God demonstrating the power of words by creating the world with them.
The majestic, eloquent opening of Bereishit, the daily report of Creation, is chanted on Simhat Torah. But we conclude with Shabbat, the goal of creation (Gen. 2:4). This week, we go back to the beginning again, and proceed from that orderly first Creation story through the messiness of a different Creation account that takes us through the narrative of the wickedness that eventually prompts the Flood.
But words have power that extends well beyond the text itself. They have a power in shaping our lives, our culture, our often-unarticulated assumptions. Three such words in the two opening chapters of Genesis are tzela, 鈥榚zer, and adam. Each of these words has a long and honorable history of translation, but, for now, let鈥檚 keep it literal: rib, helpmeet, and human, respectively. Their impact upon our individual and shared sense of self, on our relations with others, on our way of being in the world, is hard to overestimate; yet they seem so innocuous. Together, particularly when read through the lens of age-old religious traditions of interpretation, they have shaped our vision of what it means to be a woman or a man.
Asked to describe the biblical story of the creation of woman, most of us would respond, almost unthinkingly, that she was created from Adam鈥檚 rib. After all, the story is well known. God puts the human to sleep and removes one of its ribs, building it into a woman.
讜讬旨址驻旨值诇 讛’ 讗直-诇止讛执讬诐 转旨址专职讚旨值诪指讛 注址诇-讛指讗指讚指诐 讜址讬旨执讬砖讈指谉 讜址讬旨执拽旨址讞 讗址讞址转 诪执爪旨址诇职注止转指讬讜 讜址讬旨执住职讙旨止专 讘旨指砖讉指专 转旨址讞职转旨侄谞旨指讛: 讜址讬旨执讘侄谉 讛’ 讗直-诇止讛执讬诐 讗侄转-讛址爪旨值诇指注 讗植砖讈侄专-诇指拽址讞 诪执谉-讛指讗指讚指诐 诇职讗执砖旨讈指讛 讜址讬职讘执讗侄 讛指讗侄诇-讛指讗指讚指诐:
And Lord God caused a slumber to fall upon the adam, and it slept and He took one oftzalotav [its sides, usually translated as 鈥渞ibs鈥漖 and closed the flesh in that place. And Lord God built the tzela [side, rib] He had taken from the adam into an ishah [woman] and brought her to the adam.[i](Gen. 2:21鈥�22)
Despite the brevity of the text鈥攐nly 26 words in the Hebrew鈥攚e can picture every step along the way: the scalpel, the blood, the stitches, the woman, the man. While each of us may imagine some of the details differently, what seems incontrovertible is that the woman is a latecomer, an afterthought. The man is at the pinnacle of creation; the woman is clearly depicted as inferior. He is whole; she is made from secondhand materials鈥攁 mere part, almost an appendage.
A closer look at the Hebrew word tzela leads us to different conclusions. The word appears 40 times in the Hebrew Bible. In 23 of those, it means a 鈥渟ide,鈥� not a 鈥渞ib鈥�; in 15, it means a 鈥渟ide room.鈥� The only places that it is translated as 鈥渞ib鈥� are the two occurrences here in the story of the creation of woman. That makes 鈥渞ib鈥� an unlikely translation, and transforms our mental image of what happened. Woman was part of the original adam, which had two sides. She was incorporated into the divine plan for the creation of humanity from the very beginning. As such she was not an afterthought, not secondary, but equal to its other part, which became a man.
But, there is certainly room to object that the woman was designated as an 鈥�ezer, a helper, for the man. As such, whenever she was created, she was not the primary actor; she was there to serve him. Again, a close look at the biblical text opens other avenues of interpretation that are probably more accurate. Let鈥檚 look again at the numbers. There are 21 occurrences of 鈥�ezer in the Hebrew Bible, including the two here in Genesis 2. Sixteen of those clearly refer to God. A memorable example is in Psalm 121:1鈥�2: 鈥淚 lift my eyes unto the hills, where does my help [鈥�ezer] come from? My help comes from God, Creator of heaven and earth.鈥� Overwhelmingly 鈥�ezer comes from a source that is not inferior, but superior. One could argue that, based on these texts, woman is actually superior to man. I prefer to state simply that she is clearly not inferior.
Finally, let鈥檚 take a look at the word adam itself. God introduces it in Genesis 1:26: 鈥淕od said: 鈥楲et us make an adam in our image, according to our likeness.鈥欌�� This creature, the last to be created before the first Shabbat, will partake of the divine. At the same time the word itselfseems to be a masculine equivalent of the word adamah (earth), which had appeared at the end of the previous verse. Ab initio this creature seems to incorporate different, even opposing, elements. The text continues, 鈥淎nd God created the adam in His image, in the image of God He created it, male and female He created them鈥� (1:27). The adam that God has created is both singular and plural, male and female. This is an egalitarian description of the creation of human without gender hierarchy or belatedness.
Seeing the creation of human as simultaneously incorporating male and female is not a modern invention. In Genesis Rabbah, an early collection of rabbinic expositions of Genesis, one finds this record of the attempt of a group of Rabbis to understand these texts.
讗诪专 专讘讬 讬专诪讬讛 讘谉 诇注讝专: 讘砖注讛 砖讘专讗 讛拽讚讜砖 讘专讜讱 讛讜讗 讗转 讗讚诐 讛专讗砖讜谉, 讗谞讚专讜讙讬谞讜住 讘专讗讜, 讛讚讗 讛讜讗 讚讻转讬讘: 讝讻专 讜谞拽讘讛 讘专讗诐.
讗诪专 专讘讬 砖诪讜讗诇 讘专 谞讞诪谉: 讘砖注讛 砖讘专讗 讛拽讘”讛 讗转 讗讚诐 讛专讗砖讜谉, 讚讬讜驻专爪讜驻讬诐 讘专讗讜 讜谞住专讜 讜注砖讗讜 讙讘讬讬诐, 讙讘 诇讻讗谉 讜讙讘 诇讻讗谉.
讗讬转讬讘讜谉 诇讬讛, 讜讛讻转讬讘 讜讬拽讞 讗讞转 诪爪诇注讜转讬讜?! 讗诪专 诇讛讜谉: 诪转专讬谉 住讟专讜讛讬, 讛讬讱 诪讛 讚讗转 讗诪专: (砖诪讜转 讻讜) 讜诇爪诇注 讛诪砖讻谉 讚诪转专讙诪讬谞谉 讜诇住讟专 诪砖讻谞讗 讜讙讜 ‘.
Rabbi Yirmeyah ben Leazar said: 鈥淎t the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, created the first adam, He created him an androgyne, as is said, 鈥楳ale and female He created them,鈥� etc. (Genesis 5:2).鈥�
Rabbi Shemuel bar Nahman said: 鈥淎t the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, created the first adam, He created him double-faced, then He sawed him apart and made him two backs, a back on this side and a back on the other side.鈥�
To this they object: 鈥淏ut it is written, 鈥榓nd He took one of tzalotav [鈥渋ts sides,鈥� usually translated as 鈥渉is ribs鈥漖鈥� (Genesis 2:21)?鈥� He responded to them: 鈥淸mitzalotov means] one of its sides, as is written, 鈥楢nd for the other side wall [tzela] of the Tabernacle,鈥� etc. (Exodus 26:20).鈥� (Gen. R. par. 8:1)
Rabbi Shemuel bar Nahman鈥檚 persuasive argument did not hold sway. For millennia, these texts have most often been read as creating gender hierarchy. Now that many of us inhabit a world in which men and women are, perhaps too slowly, reaching parity, we can revisit the issues and look at the meaning of the words.
As it is with our understanding of the words of the biblical text; so it is with our own words. Just a short time ago, we confessed our sins, many of them committed through the misuse of words. As Proverbs 18:21 reminds us, 鈥淒eath and life are in the hands of the tongue.鈥� Let us resolve to use the richness of our languages, of our words, to bring life to our sacred texts and to enrich our lives and those of others, women and men, with our careful usage.
Dr. Anne Lapidus Lerner, an emerita member of the faculty and a former vice chancellor of JTS, is the author of Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Modern 绿帽社 Poetry.
The publication and distribution of the JTS Torah Commentary are made possible by a generous grant from Rita Dee and Harold (锄鈥漧) Hassenfeld.
[i] All translations mine. When translating biblical and midrashic texts I have used masculine pronouns for God to avoid misrepresenting the original understanding of the text.
