ויכלו, when all the phenomena intended to comprise the physical universe had materialised

ויכל אלוקים ביום השביעי, at the beginning of the seventh “day,” a moment which is indivisible from the time frame which follows, so that both the six previous “days” were an entity in themselves, and the seventh day was a totally self-contained entity. Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 10,9 describe G’d as knowing the precise moment between the sixth and seventh day and describe it as “thin as a hair’s breadth.” [I believe the problem confronting the sages was the statement that G’d had completed all His work in the six days, and yet the Torah speaks of Him completing, ויכל, His work on the ”seventh” day, something that appears to be a contradiction to the former statement. Ed.]

וישבות ביום השביעי, G’d’s inactivity on the seventh day set it apart from the previous six days.

ויברך אלוקים את יום השביעי, this refers not only to the first Sabbath but to all subsequent Sabbath days. G’d endowed every Sabbath with this blessing so that it would more readily accommodate the additional “soul” He grants Jews on that day. Job 33,30 describes this phenomenon as לאור באור החיים, “designed that he may bask in the light of life.” Our sages (Beytzah 16) state that the words שבת וינפש in Exodus 31,17 refer to the loss of this additional soul at the end of the Sabbath.

אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם. These are the plants and the living creatures which had been the potential derivatives of heaven and earth already at the time when heaven and earth were first created. The potential ability for heaven and earth to produce the inhabitants of their respective domains was inherent in their respective composition from the first moment of their existence. When the Torah, in its very first verse, wrote the words את השמים and את הארץ, this was already an allusion to the additional factors which had been created together with heaven and earth, i.e. their ability to produce their respective derivatives.

ביום עשות ה' אלוקים ארץ ושמים, this potential was translated into an actual only on the day when G’d completed עשות, i.e. arranged in detail how these derivatives were to function and where and when. This occurred after the six “days” of creative activity. Only when that stage had been reached was G’d referred to in the Torah by His full name, i.e. ה' אלוקים.

טרם יהיה בארץ, these words emphasise that although all phenomena had been created, this referred to their potential, not to their functioning as they do nowadays. כל עשב השדה, had not yet sprouted,

כי לא המטיר, for G’d had not yet made it rain in such a fashion that it enabled the latent power of these plants to fully develop.

ואד יעלה מן הארץ, on the day they were completed, i.e. at the end of the sixth “day” a vapour rose from the earth equivalent to beneficial dew which irrigated the earth and enabled it to bring forth further vegetation without the help of rain or man’s labour.

וייצר ה' אלוקים, the animals had not rated involvement of both attributes of G’d in their creation and formation. Not only that, but in order to create man G’d had used עפר מן האדמה, the choicest of the dust available on earth. Moreover,

ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים, G’d personally blew a soul of life into man, a life force which had been readied to absorb what was previously called צלם אלוקים, “the image of G’d.” This has been attested to in Job 32,8 ונשמת שדי תבינם,”by means of the breath of the attribute of Shaddai You endowed them with understanding.” At any rate, ויהי האדם לנפש חיה, man had remained a living creature (similar to the animals) until You equipped him with a divine-like tzelem and demut.

אשר יצר, after G’d had created man in a manner appropriate to his superior status on earth, He placed him in Gan Eden, a location which was suitable to equip him with the צלם אלוקים, the divine image, enabling him to also fulfill the intellectual tasks involving the air and food in the garden.

ויצמח, G‘d made the food necessary for Adam sprout forth. The verse illustrates with what ease Adam could secure his requirements in Gan Eden.

נחמד למראה, looking at these trees resulted In the viewer experiencing intellectual stimulation both of his heart and his brain. He would thus be capable of “digesting” the additional intellectual insights granted him by G’d. Compare Kings II 3,15 ותהי עליו יד ה', “Elisha had now been endowed by G’d’s generosity.” [a reference to the additional spiritual insights he had asked from his mentor Elijah prior to the latter ascending to heaven. Ed.]

ועץ הדעת, a tree whose fruit results in those who eat from it gaining greater understanding of the relationship of good and evil. The word דעת, which appears here for the first time, helps us understand Genesis 4,1 והאדם ידע את חוה אשתו. Without this verse we would have been puzzled by the Torah telling us something that was so obvious. Who does not “know” his wife, especially when he had described her as “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh!” (2,23) In our verse we are told that the words ידע, דעת do not primarily refer to factual knowledge but to conceptual knowledge. This also helps us to understand why relatives, as in Ruth 2,1 are referred to as מודע לאישה, “someone whom her late husband had been intimate with, had been related to by blood.” It is normal for blood relations to be concerned with the physical and emotional needs of their kin. (compare Proverbs 17,17.)

טוב ורע, to choose that which appeared as appealing to the senses even though it would prove harmful, and to despise anything which did not appeal to his senses although he knew it to be useful to him.

ונהר יוצא מעדן, the Torah explains that Adam’s work did not entail anything strenuous, such as carrying pails of water, or such as getting wet in the rain.

שם אחד פישון, [The Torah] informed us of the praise of the river that irrigates the garden that is not known to us by informing us of the rivers that branch off from it that are known by their praised size and the goodness of their water and the goodness of their fruit.

לעבדה, a reference to perfecting his own personality, that which was supplied by G’d in an as yet unrefined state, the one called נשמת חיים. [the author searched to justify the use of the feminine mode in the word לעבדה and related it to נשמה, soul, a noun which is feminine and requires further refinement, just like שיר and שירה which both mean song, the latter, in the feminine mode being unrefined when compared to the former. Compare its use in the haggadah shel Pessach. Ed.]

ולשמרה, eating the fruit of the garden would ensure that man’s natural juices would not dry up. Man is equipped with natural heat, and if not supplied with the proper kind of nourishment he may dehydrate. The excellent fruit of the trees of the garden would replenish loss of moisture through evaporation on the skin in the heat of the sun.

מכל עץ הגן, depending on which tree’s fruit was in season. Each season required nutrients appropriate to the prevailing climate, and the fruit ripening during the various seasons would provide man with these nutrients. The prophet Ezekiel 47,12 expresses this thought in the words לחדשיו יבכר “in its appropriate month it will yield new fruit.”

ומעץ הדעת, the tree in the middle of the garden, in close proximity to the tree of life mentioned previously (verse 9) The meaning of חיים in connection with that tree is equivalent to the meaning of the words in Deuteronomy 30:19 החיים והמות נתתי לפניך, “I have placed life and death (to choose) before you.” [we may understand this to mean that the tree of life, if its fruit were eaten, would result in life of infinite duration, whereas eating from the tree next to it would result in life being shortened. Ed.]

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.

עזר כנגדו, a helpmate who will be equal to him, also reflecting the divine image. This is essential for him if he is to know what precisely his needs are and so that he can meet them in time. The reason why the Torah added the word כנגדו is that whenever one confronts someone of equal power, moral and ethical weight, such a confrontation is termed נגד. It is a head-on collision of will. When the two parties disagreeing are not of equal power, or moral/ethical weight, the confrontation is termed as one being עולה or יורד one of the adversaries either prevailing or losing in such an encounter. It is in this sense that we have to understand such statements as משה שקול כנגד כל ישראל, “that Moses was the equal of the entire Jewish people.” (Mechilta Yitro 1) However, the Torah did not mean for woman to be 100% equal to man, else how could the man expect her to perform household chores for him, etc.? Hence the letter כ at the beginning of the word כנגדו somewhat tones down this equality.

ויצר ה' אלוקים מן האדמה כל חית השדה, G’d now provided these creatures with their final shape, putting the “finishing touches” on them, so to speak. At that stage of the earth’s condition, the original product which the earth had produced, not based on seed which contains all the genetic material in microscopic form, was not adequate to produce the final product without input by G’d, personally.

ויבא אל האדם, in order for man to realise there was a need for an additional phenomenon, seeing that amongst the existing ones none met his need for a partner.

לראות מה יקרא לו, so that he would see which name would be appropriate for each creature, based on the specific tasks they performed in the universe.

נפש חיה הוא שמו, its name would provide all of us with a clue as to its function in G’d’s scheme of things. The essence of each animal, נפש, would be revealed by its activity on earth.

ויבן ה' אלוקים את הצלע לאשה, it was someone possessing the features of a human being, much like those of a man. She would be different from man only in some external physical features. She would possess the same ability to perfect her personality as did man.

זאת, this female

הפעם הזאת, finally, this time עצם מעצמי ובשר מבשרי, only this time, seeing that all females of the future will not be fashioned by the male undergoing such type of surgery.

לזאת יקרא אשה, all other female human beings in the future will be known as אשה,

even though they will not, like this time, be literally part of the flesh of their husbands.

כי מאיש לוקחה זאת, “this one,” the first woman ever.

על כן, seeing that on this first occasion G’d had aimed to make Adam’s wife as much part of him as possible, so that he even used Adam’s personal body as Chavah’s basic skeleton,

יעזוב איש את אביו ואת אמו ודבק באשתו, it is appropriate that a man leave the home of his parents in order to acquire a wife who is compatible with him, and who is a suitable mate for him to live with on a permanent basis. The Torah teaches here also that the expression דיבוק, “cleaving,” being in a state of true union, is not possible between two people who are not alike in their common purpose in life. Parents and children do not have the same tasks and challenges. Man and his wife do have to master the same challenges, hence the word “union” can be applied to their union, whereas the same word would be inappropriate for describing the relationship between father and son, or mother and son. By living together they will become of one mind on how to deal with their lives’ challenges.

והיו לבשר אחד, they are to work together in such close union as if there were in fact only one of them. (This had been the idea behind creating man as both male and female in the first place.)

And they were not ashamed. They used their limbs solely for the service of their Maker, not the pursuit of base pleasures. Therefore they considered marital relations no different than eating and drinking and their reproductive organs no different than their mouth or hands.