Play on Words
Male and Female as Fundamental Concepts
Welcome back to the Language of Life series.
The deeper we go down the rabbit hole of how the Holy Language works, the less time we need to spend on introductions and the more time we can spend learning Hebrew and the Torah that teaches us how to decode it.
You ready?
I hope so because here we go…
In our last installment, we looked at how Adam, the first human being stumbled onto the Hebrew language as the essential code behind all things. He could perceive and intuitively articulate the spiritual DNA of different animals as they appeared before him, encapsulating them in Hebrew words.1
The Torah frames this process of Adam naming each species he encountered within the larger context of his looking for a partner (who did not yet exist). Thankfully for him (and all of us who descend from her), she was eventually brought into being by God, Who performed the first-ever surgery and feat of genetic engineering in order to make her:
ּBereishit (Genesis) 2:21-22
וַיַּפֵּל ה׳ אֱלֹקים תַּרְדֵּמָה עַל־הָאָדָם וַיִּישָׁן וַיִּקַּח אַחַת מִצַּלְעֹתָיו וַיִּסְגֹּר בָּשָׂר תַּחְתֶּנָּה׃
וַיִּבֶן ה׳ אֱלֹקים אֶת־הַצֵּלָע אֲשֶׁר־לָקַח מִן־הָאָדָם לְאִשָּׁה וַיְבִאֶהָ אֶל־הָאָדָם׃
Hashem God put the [primordial] human being down to sleep, and He took one of his sides, and closed up the flesh beneath it.
Hashem God [then] built up the side that He had taken from the human being into an Isha-אשה (woman), and brought her to the human being.
Unlike the King James Bible, which mistranslates “Tsela-צלע” (the part taken from Adam to make the first woman) as an insignificant “rib,” the rabbinic understanding of the word is an entire “side” or “facet” that was taken from Adam 1.02
In other words, originally, the primordial human being was composed of two facets: a male side and a female side.3 The female side was removed from him,4 leaving him as a mere male, whose female side was “built”5 into a full blown woman, known in Hebrew as “Isha-אשה.” Reunited in marriage they could form Adam 2.06
Once the Divine anesthetics wore off, Adam came to and was immediately hit with a word to describe the magnificent new creature he saw before him: “Isha-אשה.”
ּBereishit (Genesis) 2:23:
וַיֹּאמֶר הָאָדָם זֹאת הַפַּעַם עֶצֶם מֵעֲצָמַי וּבָשָׂר מִבְּשָׂרִי לְזֹאת יִקָּרֵא אִשָּׁה כִּי מֵאִישׁ לֻקְחָה־זֹּאת
The [primordial] human being said, “this is the one time that bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh — this one will be called ‘Isha-אשה’ because from an Ish-איש this one was taken.”
I’m going to share 4 major lessons about Hebrew from this verse, and then leave you on a cliffhanger so that you make sure to read the next post.
Hebrew was Discovered, Not Invented - Note that in verse 22 the Torah had already referred to this new creature as “Isha-אשה.” Meaning, this was her name even before Adam named her. With one look at her, the same word ‘Isha-אשה’ poured out of Adam’s mind through his mouth. From here we see that Hebrew was neither engineered like Esperanto, nor did it evolve over time through social consensus. Hebrew was discovered — not invented.
“With one look at her, the same word ‘Isha-אשה’ poured out of his mind through his mouth.”
Hebrew is Counter-cultural - Because the Hebrew language reveals what things fundamentally are, not how society tends to think about them, a close look at Hebrew etymologies will inevitably stand in contrast to dominant social norms. Learning Hebrew deeply gives us an opportunity to become more self-aware of the value systems we were raised in and took for granted, and challenge our most profound beliefs about life.
It’s interesting that the instinctual perception of primordial man upon seeing his primordial wife was not that “she belongs to me,” but rather “she is the part me that that I am missing.” In English, on the other hand, “woman” stems from “wif-man” (i.e. wife [of] man). Subconsciously, this shapes English-speakers’ vision of women as “wives-of-men,” not as equals but opposites unto themselves.Hebrew Gets Lost in Translation - One of the hardest things to do in a language that is not your native language is make a joke — especially when the joke is based on a play on words. Take, for example, the (awful) joke: "I’m on a seafood diet — I see food and I eat it." Try translating it into Spanish: "Estoy a dieta de mariscos…veo comida y me la como." This doesn’t work. How about: "Estoy a dieta de 'ver-comer'…veo comida y me la como?” Unsurprisingly, it also doesn’t work. Plays on words rarely do.
Adam was clearly making a play on words in Hebrew with the name “‘Isha-אשה’ because from an Ish-איש this one was taken.” Try translating into English. It doesn’t make much sense: “this one will be called ‘woman’ because from a man this one was taken.”7 As mentioned above, the word “woman” does not imply this sort of connection to “man.” As we’ve been trying to explain, there is a great deal going on in Hebrew. As a result, a great deal gets lost in translation.
Rabbi Tanchuma uses this observation as evidence that the Torah was given in Hebrew. How else could Adam have made a play on words?
Midrash Bereishit Rabbah 18:4:
Rabbi Tanchuma said:
”From here we learn that the Torah was given in the Holy Language.”
We have a tradition attributed to the orignal author of the primary text of Jewish mysticism, the Zohar, Rabbi Shimon that extends this logic one step further:
The Universe is Made of Hebrew - Adam’s play on words doesn’t just prove that the Torah is still preserved in its original language. What Adam was actually saying is that the Hebrew language perfectly reflects the profound interrelationship between things in the universe since the universe was made with Hebrew:
Rabbi Pinḥas and Rabbi Ḥilkiya said in the name of Rabbi Shimon:
“Just as the Torah was given in the Holy Language, so too, the universe was created in the Holy Language. Have you ever heard anyone saying:
“Gyne / Gynea? - [‘Gyne’ is the ancient Greek word for ‘woman,’ but it has no linguistic male counterpart i.e. ‘Gynea.’]
“Anthropos / Anthropa? - [Similarly, the ancient Greek word for ‘man’ ‘Anthropos,‘ as in ‘anthropology,’ has no female counterpart i.e. ‘Anthropa.’]
“Gavra / Gavreta? - [Aramaic, a ubiquitous language in the ancient world also didn’t possess parallel words for man and woman. ‘Gavra,’ the Aramaic word for “man” does not have a female counterpart ‘Gaverta.’]
In contrast, [in Hebrew] Ish-איש (man) and Isha-אשה (woman) — one [word’s] form corresponds to the other word’s form.”
You may have noticed that I’ve purposely avoided the elephant in the room:
How exactly does the word “Isha-אשה” convey that she was the part of “Ish-איש” that he is missing?
For this you must wait eagerly for our next post…
It’s clear from the Torah’s description that the capacity for language was preloaded into our cognitive hardware. This is reminiscent of Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar that he claims is behind all human beings’ innate ability to speak, and accounts for fundamental similarities across all global languages.
As we’ve started to see, the Torah serves as the clearest and most convincing evidence for the meaning of Hebrew words and phrases. Elsewhere, the Torah uses the word “Tsela–צלע” to refer not to a tiny piece, but to a whole side of the portable Temple that was used while the Jews were in the desert, known as the Mishkan-משכן.
This split from a non-binary Adam into male and female is virtually explicit in an earlier verse in the Torah:
ּBereishit 1:27
וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹקים אֶת־הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹקים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָם׃
God created the primordial human being in his [unique] image — in the Image of God He created him — male and female He created them.
According to the Torah, all men have essentially been given a partial lobotomy. Our feminine sides have been nearly entirely removed. This explains a lot of the problems men and women have understanding eachother.
The Sages the associate women’s insight/intuition (Bina-בינה) with the original woman’s creation through her process of building (Bnia-בניה). Insight and intuition connect ideas with related ideas, which is an intellectual process of construction — yet another illustration of how Hebrew works.
This is the reason why the third and fourth blessings at a chuppah (wedding canopy) are about the “creation of Adam,” which would otherwise be a complete non-sequitur. A wedding celebrates the reconstitution of the original human form by bringing back together the male and female sides of a human being.
In Spanish, it makes even less sense: “Esta será llamada 'mujer' porque del hombre fue tomada.”
If you find another modern language in which this play on words isn’t lost, please share it with me!
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