ADAM KADMON’S RIB – ADAN AND EVE, FRAGMENTS OF THE PRIMAL HERMAPHRODITE

Eve was not formed out of Adam’s rib; this belief originated in a false interpretation of the Book of Genesis. Both, Adam and Eve, who are prototypes of the feminine and masculine human creation coexisted in Adam Kadmon, the hermaphrodite primal human being, long before the duality of the sexes was created. Let’s review the creation process of humankind from the perspective of the Jewish mysticism and based on the literal interpretation of Genesis text.

On the sixth day of Creation (each celestial day of creation is equivalent to millions of terrestrial years) the deity said: Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (1). The man mentioned here is Adam Kadmon, hermaphrodite that unites in his individuality that which is feminine as well as that which is masculine. Adam Kadmon contains the unitary plan of creation and manifests the characteristics of the Creator.

I agree with cabbalist Mario Javier Saban’s explanation regarding Adam Kadmon: The Ein Sof conceived the general plan of Creation (Adam Kadmon). This general plan contains all the details that had happened in the past, the details happening in the present, and those which will happen in the future. Here time is not a factor. The Adam Kadmon or Primal Man is the general plan of the universe symbolized by the Tree of Life. All universes, from the upper to the lower, are within this general plan. The Keter of Adam Kadmon is the plan itself; the Chokhmah of Adam Kadmon is the universe of Atziluth (Emanation); the Binah of Adam Kadmon is the universe of Briah, (Creation); the six lower dimensions of Adam Kadmon are the universe of Yetzirah (Formation) and Malkuth of Adam Kadmon is the universe of Assiah (Action or Materialization)(2).

Adam Kadmon contains all the information that the Ein Sof or Infinite progressively manifests over time. Adam Kadmon is the image and likeness of God, manifestation of the Infinite. Adam and Eve were separated from the body of Adam Kadmon in order to exist in Asiyah, the universe of dense matter, action and form. Creation unfolds its manifestation from the subtler universe, Atziluth, to the densest one, Assiah, where we exist. According to the Jewish tradition, these worlds are Atziluth, the world of emanations and causations; Briah, the world of creation; Yetzirah, the world of formation, and finally Assiah, the dense universe of matter and forms where we exist. From Atziluth to Assiah, the master plan of the Ein Sof progressively manifests itself. All manifestations of Ein Sof up to its last one cannot be understood as physical entities. Instead, they are energies which can be visualized from inside our last and denser manifestation of matter (3).

Although it seems that Adam Kadmon (feminine- masculine) is a separate entity from the Creator, the Creator contains Adam in itself, it is himself and it is also separate from him … Adam Kadmon is the universe made in Elohim’s image… The two words that form the name Adam Kadmon allude to the paradoxical nature of its being, on one side is a created entity —Adam— while on the other side it is the primordial manifestation of the divine —Kadmon—. We are Adam (Kadmon) in miniature, we in ourselves contain the pattern and characteristics of creation as well as the attributes of the Creator (4).

Let’s continue decoding the plot of human creation by means of the Jewish mystical wisdom: And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (5).In this verse Adam is not Eve’s partner, since at this stage of creation neither Adam nor Eve exist yet as dual entities. Both remain integrated within the hermaphrodite being called Adam Kadmon, whom at this point of creation is formed of dense matter ‘adāmah, Hebrew word that means earth or red clay. The human being created hermaphrodite (Adam Kadmon) in the world of Bet (world of duality, fragmentation; temporary world derived from the world of Aleph) could not exist in the dual world, being itself an Aleph type of structure (world of unity, only real world) (6).

After being formed with ‘adāmah, the human Adam Kadmon received the breath of life which turned him into Nefesh, a living soul. According to Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Ari, there are five levels of souls corresponding to the five universes of manifestation: Yechidah, unique essence of the first human Adam Kadmon; Chayah, living essence of the universe of Atziluth (closeness); Neshamah, pneuma, universe of Briah (creation); Ruach, spirit, universe of Yetzirah (formation) and Nefesh, soul, universe of Assiah (action), our universe (7).

So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him (8).

Thus, God divided the human being (Adam) and turned him into male and female, taking him from an Aleph structure (unity) to a Bet structure (fragmentation) (9). As a result of the fragmentation of Adam Kadmon, its feminine part and its masculine part now called Eve and Adam, could find a helper in each other. By virtue of this fragmentation Adam and Eve awoke to the consciousness of duality characteristic of the Bet world; and by seeing each other as he/she, they found help from their own kind.

Now we reach the verse that generates the greatest controversy between the interpretation arising from one pervading androcentric ideology and the interpretation from the Jewish mysticism: And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place (10).The profound sleep means that the level of consciousness of Adam Kadmon diminished. He fell asleep as a hermaphrodite unit and woke up as a duality; a man and woman in a lower level of consciousness, the level of consciousness that characterizes humankind. From this level of consciousness we start the journey back towards the unified consciousness.

Now we reach the verse that generates the greatest controversy between the interpretation from one pervading androcentric ideology and the interpretation from the Jewish mysticism: And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place (10). Profound sleep means that the level of conscience of Adam Kadmon diminished. He fell asleep as a hermaphrodite unit and woke up as a dual being; a man and woman in a lower level of conscience, the level of conscience that characterizes humankind and from which we start the journey back towards the unified consciousness.

The most widespread versions of the Bible in the West use the word rib to translate verse 2,21 of Genesis. This tends to legitimize the false belief that the woman is second to the man because she would have been taken out of his rib, whereas he would have been created directly by God. However, the Hebrew word tsela, which these versions translate as rib, also means the side of a person, among other interpretations (11). The direct Hebrew-Spanish translation offered by Rashi’s comment of Genesis (Bereshit) states: Then the Eternal God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man and he fell asleep. And He took one of his sides and closed the flesh in its place (12). According to this translation the separation of man and woman united in Adam Kadmon was performed through one of its sides; the operation separated Eve, the feminine, from Adam, the masculine.

The following verse from Genesis expresses the central idea developed in this article: In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created (13). The translation is similar in all Bibles and in the Hebrew Torah.

In Hebrew the words male ish and female ishshah are symmetrical and probably evoke this common origin of both sexes separated from the primal Adam Kadmon. In conclusion: the woman does not originate from the rib nor from the side of the man. Instead, both humans arise from the hermaphrodite unit called Adam Kadmon.

1) Book of Genesis 1,26-27 New King James Version (NKJV)
(2)Mario Javier Saban El misterio de la creación y el árbol de la vida en la mística judía: una interpretación del Maasé Bereshit, tesis doctoral pdf p 197
(3) Mario Javier Saban op cit., p 77
(4) Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh in Rabbi Yakob ben Israel, Eytz HaChaim (The Tree of Life) and Adam Kadmon pdf
(5) Genesis 2,7 NKJV
(6) Mario Javier Saban, op cit., p 82
(7) Aryeh Kaplan Meditación y Cábala, p 255. Editorial Humanitas, S.L. Barcelona 2002
(8) Genesis 2,20 NKJV
(9) Mario Javier Saban, ibid p 82
(10) Genesis 2:21 NKJV
(11) James Strong, Nueva concordancia exhaustiva de la Biblia Editorial Caribe, Nashville TN-Miami Fl 2002. Tsela, 6763.
(12) El Pentateuco con el comentario de Rashi, Editorial Jerusalén de México, CdMx 2001; Bereshit 2,21 (13) Genesis 5,1 NKJV

Acerca de la autora

Aída Reboredo Arroyo

Es autora de libros y artículos; cofundadora del primer centro de estudios de la mujer en México. Es Psicóloga Clínica con estudios de maestría y doctorado realizados en Francia y Brasil. Fue profesora universitaria en diversas instituciones académicas de la Ciudad de México y de Veracruz, así como cofundadora de las Agencias Especializadas en Delitos Sexuales.