coherent and produce them as a single narrative. But in addition to the widespread midrashic view that Primal Adam was a physical androgyne, we also find readings that take him to be a male, from whom the female was created, as in our Western culture's more familiar interpretations of the story:
|
 | | And He took one of his ribs/sides
(
tsela
'): Rabbi Samuel the son of Nahman says, "one of his sides, as you say
and the side
(
tsela
')
of the Tabernacle on the North
" [Exod. 26:20]. And Shmuel said, "He took a rib from between two of his ribs."
|
| | (Theodor and Albeck 1965, 157)
|
First, the reading of Rabbi Samuel the son of Nahman is recapitulated in brief, namely that the first human was androgynous and the so-called rib was really a side. But then this view is challenged by Shmuel, who understands the rib as a rib and therefore holds that the first human was male and the woman was a secondary creation. All of the Rabbis assume that the two accounts describe the creation of one kind of humanity, not two kinds. According to the Talmud, Shmuel, who holds that woman was not created at the beginning, understands the verse "Male and female created He them" to indicate that it was God's
intention
to create both male and female at the beginning. Indeed, because the Rabbis' non-dualist anthropology precludes a theory of dual creation such as Philo's, there is no other way to read the verse. Thus even Shmuel, who does interpret the woman as a secondary construction, understands sexuality and difference to be essential rather than supplemental to the constitution of the human. The traditional rabbinic marriage ceremony, in which the following blessings are chanted, also follows the "rib" version of the story and understands sexuality as essential:
|
| | [Blessed art thou, O Lord King of the Universe,] who created the Adam in his image, in the image of the likeness of his form, and constructed for him, from him, an eternal construction. Blessed art thou, O Lord, the creator of humanity.
|
| | The Barren Woman will be exceedingly joyful and glad when she gathers her children into her with happiness. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who makes Zion happy in her children.
|
| | Make happy the loving friends, as you made your creature happy in the Garden of Eden in the beginning. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who makes the groom and bride happy.
|
| | Blessed art thou, O Lord King of the Universe, who has created joy and happiness, groom and bride, bliss, rejoicing, elation and cheer, love, brotherhood, peace and friendship. Quickly, O Lord, our God,
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|
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