Adam & Eve
Adam's Multiple Wives
Topics covered in this document:
Introduction
When all of the animals came to Adam to be named, they came in pairs.
Seeing that they all had mates, Adam decided that it was only proper that
he should have a mate as well.
Adam's First Wife (Lilith)
To help soothe his loneliness, God created Lilith (Adam's first wife).
Unfortunately, God made her out of the same clay he had used to create
Adam (that is, out of Adamah).
First Feminist
Lilith stayed with Adam only a short time, insisting on full equality
with him. She was, I guess, the world's first feminist.
Lilith's Preference
Why should she be subservient to him, she wondered, when she had been
created in exactly the same way as he had?
As just one example, one day she refused to lie beneath him when they
had sex, preferring instead to be on top once in a while. Adam was furious
at her presumption of equality.
First Divorce
Fed up with his ego, Lilith uttered God's Ineffable Name and vanished
into thin air (see the Yahweh parchment
for details about the Ineffable Name).
Mother of Demons
She chose to become the mother of demons rather than to spend another
night with the chauvinistic Adam.
Cause of Crib Deaths
Later Jewish folktales make Lilith responsible for crib deaths among
infants. The stories tell how, if the parents ever let down their guard,
Lilith will sneak into a child's bedroom by night and smother the poor
baby.
Adam's Second Wife
On his second attempt to create a helpmate for Adam, God forgot to put
Adam to sleep. And since Adam knew how wife number 2 (we're not told her
name) had been made, he wasn't able to look her in the eye.
Adam's Weak Stomach
I guess Adam had a queasy stomach, and couldn't stand the sight of
blood ... especially from the woman with whom he was supposed to be in
love.
Trouble Finding Suitable Mate
It didn't look like it was going to be easy to find a suitable woman for
Adam.
Adam's Final Wife (Eve)
Finally God decided to take a different approach. Some sources say Eve
was Adam's eighth wife.
Why a Rib
God didn't want to make Eve out of Adamah (earthen clay). And He didn't
want Adam to get all queasy again. So God caused a deep sleep to fall upon
Adam and He took one of Adam's ribs, from which He fashioned Eve (which is
the familiar story from Genesis).
A Hasty Wedding
When Adam awoke, he thought Eve was the most beautiful woman he'd ever
seen. And God realized he had finally succeeded in giving Adam a woman he
could live with.
So God quickly performed the wedding ceremony, personally pronouncing
them husband and wife. I imagine there must have been a very big, god-like
sigh of relief. Phew!
Gender Differences
Now that both male and female had been created, many Jewish rabbis felt
compelled to say something about the differences between the sexes.
The Jews explained many of the differences based on the fact that
Adam was formed from soft clay and Eve from flesh and bone. I'm not
kidding ... the following are actually things they used to believe.
- Women need perfumes while men don't -- dust and clay remain the same
no matter how long they're stored, but flesh and bones require salt to
keep them fresh.
- A woman's voice is shrill, but not the man's [that must have been
before the pop singer, Prince, had been created] -- when soft food
(representing the soft dust) is placed in a pot, it doesn't make much
noise, but bones (representing the rib) tend to crackle when put in a
boiling pot.
- A man is easily satisfied, but not a woman -- a few drops of water
softens a clod of dirt, but a rib stays firm no matter how long it
soaks in water. Hey, wait a minute, is that a slur against us men,
calling us clods of dirt?
- The man must ask for a woman's hand in marriage, not the other way
around (not a very modern way of thinking) -- that's because the man
is constantly looking to make good his loss of a rib. Until he finds
his wife (his missing "rib"), he's not completely whole.
Ish and Ishah
After Eve had been created, Adam changed his name to Ish, and he
called his wife Ishah. This was to honor God.
The I (Yod) and the H (He) from
God's Ineffable Name acted as a shield against all harm as long as Ish
and Ishah walked in the ways of God.
I'll continue to call them Adam and Eve, however, since those names
are far better known than Ish and Ishah.
Meat and Vegetables
Although Adam and Eve were forbidden to slaughter any animals and use
them as food, they weren't vegetarians.
You see, God had earlier asked the angels to bring them meat, though
it's not clear just where or how the angels acquired the meat in the
first place.
It wasn't until Noah's time that man was allowed to slaughter animals
for his own food.
What Next?
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