The Kabbalists — the sages of truth, as the tradition calls them — noticed something about the Hebrew letters of Adam.
The word אדם spells three names. Aleph for Adam. Dalet for David. Mem for Mashiach — the Messiah. The letters of the first human contained, in miniature, the arc of every human soul.
The Nishmat Chaim of Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel (first published 1652 CE in Amsterdam) explains the legend behind the letters. When Adam sinned in Eden, his soul did not vanish. It was passed on. It entered David, who was born to bear it forward. David himself sinned — with Bathsheba, with the census — and the soul that had failed in Eden failed again in Jerusalem. So it was sent forward once more, to the Messiah, who would redeem what the first two could not complete.
The Kabbalists pointed to the prophets for confirmation. Jeremiah writes: they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them (Jeremiah 30:9). Ezekiel repeats: my servant David shall be their king for ever (Ezekiel 37:25). Hosea adds: they shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king (Hosea 3:5).
The prophets keep promising a David who is also still coming. The Kabbalists read these verses not as doublets but as a single soul making its third attempt.
Adam's fall. David's fall. The Messiah's rise. Three lives, one unbroken thread of repair.