The Heavenly Man

"And God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). Rabbi Yohanan opened: "Behind and before You have formed me" and so forth (Psalms 139:5). Rabbi Yohanan said: If a person merits, he consumes two worlds, as it is stated: "Behind and before You have formed me"; and if not, he comes to give a judgment and an accounting, as it is stated: "And You have laid Your hand upon me" (Psalms 139:5). Rabbi Yirmeyah ben Elazar said: When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the first man, He created him as an androgyne, this is what is written: "male and female He created them" (Genesis 5:2). Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahman said: When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the first man, He created him with two faces, and He sawed him apart and made him with two backs, a back on this side and a back on that side. They objected to him: But is it not written, "And He took one of his ribs" (Genesis 2:21)? He said to them: It means one of his sides, just as you say: "And for the side of the Tabernacle" (Exodus 26:20), which we translate, And for the side of the Tabernacle, and so forth. Rabbi Tanhuma in the name of Rabbi Banayah, and Rabbi Berekhyah in the name of Rabbi Elazar said: When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the first man, He created him as a formless mass, and he lay stretched from one end of the world to the other, this is what is written: "Your eyes saw my unformed substance" and so forth (Psalms 139:16). Rabbi Yehoshua bar Nehemyah and Rabbi Yehudah bar Simon in the name of Rabbi Elazar said: He created him filling the whole world. From the east to the west, from where? As it is stated: "Behind and before You have formed me" and so forth (Psalms 139:5). From north to south, from where? As it is stated: "and from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens" (Deuteronomy 4:32). And from where do we know that he filled even the empty space of the world? As it is stated: "And You have laid Your hand upon me," just as you say: "Remove Your hand far from me" (Job 13:21). Rabbi Elazar said: "Behind" refers to the work of the first day, and "before" to the work of the last day. This accords with the opinion of Rabbi Elazar, for Rabbi Elazar said: "Let the earth bring forth a living soul after its kind" (Genesis 1:24), this is the spirit of the first man. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: "Behind" refers to the work of the last day, and "before" to the work of the first day. This accords with the opinion of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, for Resh Lakish said: "And the spirit of God hovered upon the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2), this is the spirit of the King Messiah, just as you say: "And the spirit of the LORD will rest upon him" (Isaiah 11:2). If a person merits, they say to him: You preceded the ministering angels. And if not, they say to him: A fly preceded you, a gnat preceded you, this worm preceded you.