Man and Woman איש-ish and אשה-ishah

In the beginning G-d created Adam, the first man from the dust of the earth and breathed His life into him. He then placed Adam in the Garden of Eden where he had an abundance of food to eat. However, there was a problem. Sensing Adam’s loneliness, G-d creates a variety of animals from the dust of the earth. It seems to do the trick for a while as Adam keeps himself busy naming the different wildlife. Nevertheless, there is still something wrong. There is a void in Adam’s heart as none of the wild creatures he finds himself surrounded by will ever prove to be suitable partners for him.

So G-d puts Adam in a deep sleep, takes a rib out of the man and creates a woman. When Adam awakes and encounters this new creature G-d has made for him, he exclaims the following as related in Scripture:

“"This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." 24 For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”-Genesis 2:23

The Hebrew word for man is “ish” and for woman is “ishah”. The “ah” ending of ishah literally means “out of”. Hence, while man was created directly from the dust of the earth, woman was different. She was taken directly from man. While there is nothing wrong with feeling a sense of companionship with animals, which is the reason why people keep pets, it is a far cry from entering into an intimate relationship with a significant other from the opposite sex.

Here we are given the Biblical model of what constitutes a perfect marriage. One man and one woman joined together as one flesh. Another interesting point that needs to be made is that “ishah” is also the same word used for “wife”. In other words, from a Biblical Hebrew perspective, a wife can only be a female! Not a man! Or even a woman that used to be a man (prior to her operation). Furthermore, in spite of the polygamy prevalent throughout scripture, one man marrying many females is also not condoned by G-d. One need go no further than Genesis to find the perfect prescription for a perfect marriage.

“Therefore shall a ish leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his ishah: and they shall be one flesh.” –Genesis 2:24

L-rd, let us not be swayed by the increasing evil ways of this world that would have us believe that pre-marital fornication, multiple divorces or even a marriage between two men is a suitable alternative.

Amen.