Rav Ḥisda said: He built her to be more suitable to storage than a man, broad below and narrow above, so that she should be able to retain fetuses. “And brought her to the man” – Rabbi Avin said: How fortunate is the villager for whom the king acts as groomsman.
“The man said: This time, it is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, because this one was taken from Man” (Genesis 2:23). “The man said: This time [hapaam]” – Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi said: At first He created her for him, but he saw her full of viscera and blood,18Having just been taken from his body. so He distanced her from him, and then fashioned her for him a second time. That is what is written: “This time” – this is the [same] one from that time. [Another interpretation:] This is the one who is destined to bang on me as [an anvil on] a bell.19That is, she will complain bitterly about me. See Bereshit Rabba 19:5. That is what it says: “A golden bell [paamon] and a pomegranate” (Exodus 28:34). This is the one who would excite me [mefaamtani] the entire night.20By inducing in me erotic thoughts. They asked before Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish: Why is it that all dreams do not exhaust a person, but this one21A dream involving a nocturnal emission. exhausts a person? It is because from the beginning of her [woman’s] creation it was only in a dream,22Eve was created while Adam was sleeping (Genesis 2:21). as it is stated: [“The Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man” (Genesis 2:21).] “Bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh” – Rabbi Tanḥuma said: If a person marries one of his relatives, in his regard it was said: “Bone from my bones.” “This one shall be called Woman [isha], because this one was taken from Man [ish]” – from here we learn that the Torah was given in the sacred tongue [Hebrew]. Rabbi Pinḥas and Rabbi Ḥilkiya say in the name of Rabbi Simon: Just as the Torah was given in the sacred tongue, so, the world was created in the sacred tongue. Have you ever heard anyone saying: Gyne,23“Woman” in Greek. gynea;24This would be the masculine form of gyne, but it is not the Greek word for “man,” which is anthropos. anthropos,25Man in Greek. anthropa;26This would be the feminine form of anthropos, but it is not the Greek word for “woman,” which is gyne. gavra,27Man in Aramaic. gavreta?28This would be the feminine form of gavra, but it is not the Aramaic word for “woman,” which is itta. There are completely different words for man and woman in Greek and Aramaic. But ish and isha – one form corresponds to the other.29Hebrew is the only language in which it makes sense to say, “This one shall be called Woman [isha], because this was taken from Man [ish],” as isha is the feminine form of ish.