Why God Formed Adam From Both the Upper and Lower Worlds

Rabbi Yehudah says: a hundred cubits. Rabbi Nechemyah says: two hundred cubits. Rabbi Eliezer says: three hundred cubits, "arise" [kum] a hundred, "upright" [miyut] two hundred. Rabbi Abbahu says: nine hundred cubits. This sycamore produces in the earth for six hundred years, and the offspring comes out like a cubit, stunted, from its mother's womb; go out and reckon a cubit and a half each year, and you have nine hundred. The fruit of the earth: "the vine shall give its fruit" (Zechariah 8:12). The luminaries: "and the light of the moon shall be like the light of the sun" (Isaiah 30:26). Everything has generations. Heaven and earth have generations, as it is said, "these are the generations of the heaven." Rain has generations, as it is said, "has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew?" (Job 38:28). It was taught: whoever has generations dies and perishes, is created and does not create; and whoever has no generations does not die and does not perish, creates and is not created. These words are spoken regarding the One above. And everything you see is the generations of heaven and earth. On the first He created heaven and earth; on the second He created the firmament from the upper [waters]; on the third, from the lower, "let the earth sprout"; on the fourth, from the upper, "let there be luminaries"; on the fifth, from the lower, "let the waters swarm"; on the sixth He came to create the human being. He said: if I create him from the upper [worlds], the upper beings will outnumber the lower by one creation and there will be no peace between them and no peace in My world; if from the lower, the lower will outnumber the upper by one creation and there will be no peace in My world. Rather, behold, I will create him from the upper and from the lower. This is what is written: "and the LORD God formed the human, dust from the ground" (Genesis 2:7), from the lower; "and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," from the upper. "When they were created" [be-hibaram]: [read as] "by Abraham" [be-Avraham], by the merit of Abraham. This is what is written: "You made the heaven and the earth" (Nehemiah 9:6). This whole flourish, for what? For "You are the LORD God who chose Abram" (Nehemiah 9:7). "When they were created": with the letter heh He created them. Just as this heh does not grip the tongue [it is sounded effortlessly], so the Holy One, blessed be He, created His world with neither toil nor labor, but rather "by the word of the LORD the heavens were made" (Psalms 33:6); and so it says, "for in the LORD [Yah] is an everlasting rock" (Isaiah 26:4).