The Forming of Adam as the Challah of the World

"And the LORD God formed the man" (Genesis 2:7). Rabbi Yose ben Ketzarta said: like a woman who beats her dough with water and then lifts her challah-offering from within it - so at first "a mist went up from the earth," and afterward "He formed the man." And so it says, "a man of offerings overthrows it" (Proverbs 29:4): this is the first man, who is the completion of the challah of the world; and the offering is called challah, as it is said, "of the first of your dough you shall set apart an offering" (Numbers 15:20). "And He formed" - two formings: a forming for man and a forming for woman. A forming for seven and a forming for nine [months]. One formed for seven or for nine lives; one for eight does not live. One formed for nine but born at seven does not live - how much more so one at eight. They asked before Rabbi Abbahu: from where do we know that one formed for seven lives? He said to them: from your own [Greek] I bring you proof - zeta, epta, eta, ogdoa [the letters whose numerical order shows the seventh stands as living]. "And He formed" - two formings: from the upper beings and from the lower. He eats and drinks like a beast, and so on, as above. "And He formed" - two inclinations: a good inclination and an evil inclination. For if a beast had two inclinations, then when it saw a knife in a man's hand to slaughter it, it would tremble and die. But man has two inclinations, as it is written, "and forms the spirit of man within him" (Zechariah 12:1) - the soul of man is bound up within him, for were it not so, when trouble came he would tear it out and cast it away. "And He formed" - two formings: for this world and for the world to come.