Genesis 5:2: “He created them male and female, and blessed them, and called their name Adam in the day they were created.”
“A human being is only called Adam when male and female are as one.” Zohar 1:55b.
It is very interesting to note that in his original state, man was made of adamah ie. earth and air; breath is what characterizes living beings. The name Adam is derived from dam (blood) which is an element of water. Remember what Jesus told Nichodemus? A man must be born of water and the Spirit? Jesus spoke to Nichodemus in the Northern dialect of Aramaic. If He were to have said the Aramaic word damn (blood) Nichodemus, being an orthodox Jew, would have found this word used in this particular context offensive just as we find this word offensive. This may be why Jesus used the word maya (water) rather than damn (blood). By using the word maya Jesus was able to differentiate to Nichodemus that He was referring to an atoning blood and not just the flesh. Water is often used to express the concept of atoning blood. We do the same ourselves when we speak of the cleansing waters or the cleansing blood.
The Talmud points out that adamah (earth) also spell adameh (I resemble). This resemblance is to God. This is the word used in Isaiah 14:14: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like adameh (I will resemble) the Most High.” When I was a student at Moody I was taught that this verse was taken out of context when used as a reference to satan, as it was really a reference to the King of Babylon. However, in using the word adameh the writer is giving a hint or clue that this also had another reference. The King of Babylon as a human, was already an adamah (earthly man) and thus would also be an adameh (resembles God). Satan, however, is not an adamah (earthly man) nor is he an adameh ( one who resembles God). Satan was not given the breath of God, he is a spirit, he was not made in the image of God. The word skin in Hebrew is ohr and the word light in Hebrew is also pronounced ohr. The only difference is that the first silent letter in light is an Aleph and the first silent letter in skin is an Ayin. Remember satan was the light bearing, suddenly man took that from him. Jealousy maybe?
But back to the mystery of male and female being called Adam. Up to the point where the woman was yet to be created, man was made up of three elements earth, air and water (blood). Then God decided that it was not good (tov – not in harmony with God) when he was alone, so he created woman from the rib (side) of man. Jewish literature teaches Adam was a sort of a Siamese twin who was surgically separated into two separate beings, male and female, and thus you have the reason why Genesis 5:2 calls them both Adam. (You following this? I bet you think I am just making this up. Well, I’m not, this teaching is over 4,000 years old).
It was at this point that the words changed. Instead of adam, since he separated Adam into two separate beings, the Hebrew words ish (man) (Aleph, Yod, Shin) and ishah (woman) (Aleph, Shin, Hei) are used for the first time. The sages teach that this means that when Adam (fleshly man) was separated into man and woman the element of fire was added to their beings. By itself the Aleph, Shin spells aish (fire). Ironically the separation of gender is actually a completion of creation, for now humans are made up of all four elements.
Thus when the Yod is inserted into aish (fire) (Aleph, Yod, Shin), the result is ish (man) and when the Hei is added you get ishah (woman) (Aleph, Shin, Hei). When the man and woman are brought together, the man brings the fire of the Yod and the woman brings the fire of the Hei. Ok here it comes, drum roll please, together the Yod and Hei spell YAH which we all know to be the name of God. Both man and woman are necessary to produce the image of God. Jewish literature teaches that in their sexual togetherness man and woman approach the image of God and mirrors God’s original and desired relationship with man.
Is it any wonder why the enemy fills our society with pornography, sexual perversion, homosexuality, and cheapens the union between a man and woman.
But soft, there is more. The numerical value of love (Ahava, love between a man and woman) is 13. That happens to be the numerical value of echad (one). Echad is a collective one or a one in unity like a baseball team is made of many members but is one, echad equals a team. Thus when a man and woman come together to form one flesh, the numerical value is 26 (13+13) and by some coincidence the numerical value of YHVH is 26? Oh, but there is more to this name YHVH. The first two letters are masculine and the last two are feminine.
This all creates the mystery of Genesis 26:2. Man was created in the image of God, both male and female as God was both male and female. But he separated man into two separate beings, male and female and when both come together, skin to skin, hand in hand, lips to lips etc., they become one again as God is one, to worship God as he original created Adam to worship. Any wonder why adultery was a capital crime under Hebrew law? Any wonder why the enemy is aggressively attacking the sexual union between a man and woman? Any wonder why the enemy causes some cultures to make a woman a second rate citizen or almost a non-human?
Jewish literature teaches that sex between a husband and wife, can be both a way to approach God and a way to bring God into the world. That is why it must be handled as something sacred and not made into a fetish, a business, a form of entertainment or perverted. In that case it then becomes a form of idolatry and vanity.
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