Parashas Bereishis: From Adamah to Adam — The Greatness and Task of Man

Topics

• Adam as the Purpose of Creation
• Adam and Ha-Adam
• The Language of Bereishis
• One Adam
• From Adamah to Adam
• The Torah's Changing Names for Man
• Why Is Man's Creation Described Again?
• B'Tzalmeinu Kidmuseinu
• Adam as an Olam Katan
• Harnessing the Forces Within Man
• Three Stages in the Creation of Adam
• From the Creature to the Person
• Ha-Adam as Species; Adam as Chashivus
• When the Higher Faculties Become the Mahus
• Bechirah Creates the Adam
• The Farmer Mashal
• The Task of Adam

Transcript

## Adam as the Purpose of Creation

Parashas Bereishis contains two great creations: the creation of the world and the creation of man. But the entire briah was made for Adam. The sefarim and the Rishonim repeatedly teach that the *tachlis habriah* is the human being. If the whole world was created for Adam, then we have to understand what the greatness of Adam is and what his *tafkid* is.

Chazal make a striking statement: **“Atem keruyim Adam”**—Klal Yisrael are called *Adam* (Yevamos 61a). This has an actual halachic consequence in the sugya of *tumas ohel*: the Torah says, “Adam ki yamus b’ohel” (Bamidbar 19:14), and Chazal derive from the word *Adam* a distinction regarding a non-Jewish corpse under an ohel.

The Gemara challenges this from other pesukim that use the word *adam* more broadly. The answer is that when the Torah must distinguish human beings from animals, the language can include mankind generally. But when the Torah uses *Adam* as a title in its own right, Chazal treat that word differently.

This cannot be dismissed as a mere derashah. It enters practical halachah. That itself tells us that the name *Adam* expresses something essential. We therefore have to ask: **What is so special about the title Adam?**

## Adam and Ha-Adam

There is another Gemara that appears difficult. Chazal say that even a non-Jew who studies the Torah relevant to him can be compared to a Kohen Gadol (Sanhedrin 59a; Avodah Zarah 3a). The pasuk there uses the expression *ha-adam*. Tosafos therefore distinguishes between **Adam** and **ha-adam**: *Adam* has the narrower meaning, while *ha-adam* can refer to mankind generally.

But that distinction itself requires explanation.

Ordinarily, the *hei hayediah* makes a noun more specific: not “a man,” but “the man.” Here, however, it seems to work in the opposite direction. *Ha-adam* becomes the broader category of mankind, whereas *Adam* becomes the more particular title.

So the question is not merely linguistic. If *ha-adam* means the human species generally, while *Adam* denotes something more elevated and specific, we need to know what that added meaning is.

This becomes even more puzzling when we turn to Parashas Bereishis itself. Hashem first says, **“Naaseh Adam b’tzalmeinu kidmuseinu”**—“Let us make Adam in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Bereishis 1:26). Yet later the Torah repeatedly speaks of **ha-adam**. Why does the terminology change?

## The Language of Bereishis

If *ha-adam* simply means mankind, we would have expected the Torah to say **“Naaseh ha-adam”** when introducing the human species. Instead it says, “Naaseh Adam.”

Then, once the individual person has been created, the Torah repeatedly calls him **ha-adam**. Hashem places *ha-adam* in Gan Eden, commands *ha-adam*, and the Torah continues with this formulation.

That seems backwards. At the beginning, when Hashem is speaking about creating humanity, the Torah should seemingly use the general term *ha-adam*. Later, when speaking about the particular person Adam, one would expect simply *Adam*. Yet the pesukim do the opposite.

This shows that the distinction cannot be reduced to ordinary grammar. The Torah is teaching us something about the development of the human being itself.

We therefore have three questions before us: What is the difference between *Adam* and *ha-adam*? Why is the title *Adam* treated by Chazal as uniquely significant? And why does the Torah begin with “Naaseh Adam” but afterward so often refer to *ha-adam*?

## One Adam

There is a famous story told about a European attempt to use passages of Shas against the Jewish people. One of the passages raised was **“Atem keruyim Adam.”** The question was obvious: does this mean that everyone else is being called an animal?

The answer attributed in that story is that the word *Adam* can describe an organic unity. If one person's foot hurts, his hand does not say, “That is only the foot's problem.” It is one person. In the same way, Klal Yisrael are capable of relating to one another as limbs of a single body. **“Atem keruyim Adam”** can therefore mean: Klal Yisrael form one Adam.

That is a powerful explanation, but another question remains. What is the greatness of the word *Adam* itself?

The Rambam explains that the name *Adam* is connected to **adamah**, because man was formed from the earth (Moreh Nevuchim I:14). If so, why should *Adam* be such an elevated title? If the word merely means “one formed from the ground,” why should Chazal reserve it in a special way?

This brings us back to the deeper question: the greatness of Adam must lie not in the earth from which he was taken, but in what he is capable of making from that earth.

## From Adamah to Adam

The Rambam explicitly connects the name *Adam* with *adamah*: the human being is fashioned from the ground. But that makes the question stronger. What distinction is there in being called *Adam* if all the title tells us is where the body came from?

At the same time, the terminology in the parashah continues to trouble us. The Torah begins, **“Naaseh Adam”** (Bereishis 1:26). Afterward, however, the Torah repeatedly speaks about **ha-adam**—Hashem creates *ha-adam*, places *ha-adam* in Gan Eden, and commands *ha-adam*.

Why?

The shift must reflect two stages. There is first the raw material called *Adam*—the creature formed from *adamah*. Then there is what Hashem adds to that creature: *tzelem Elokim*, intelligence, spiritual capacity, and bechirah.

The question is therefore becoming more precise. What exactly transforms the earthly creature into the human being the Torah wants? And why does that transformation explain the unique dignity of the title *Adam*?

## The Torah's Changing Names for Man

The Torah's language is extremely exact. Throughout the story, it moves among expressions such as *ha-adam*, *Adam*, *ish*, and *ha-ish*. These are not casual variations.

For example, the Torah says, **“Vayomer ha-adam”** (Bereishis 2:23), and immediately afterward, **“Al kein yaazov ish es aviv v'es imo”** (2:24). Later, after the chet, Hashem addresses him with a different formulation again.

Why does the Torah sometimes call him *ha-adam* and sometimes *ish*?

The point is that man contains more than one dimension. There is the earthly being, the biological human creature, and there is the person who has transformed that material through daas, bechirah, and spiritual purpose.

The words themselves may be pointing to those layers.

This is not simply a linguistic curiosity. Chazal use the term *Adam* in halachic contexts, including *tumas ohel*. The distinctions in the pesukim therefore demand a real definition: what aspect of man is called *Adam*, and what aspect is being emphasized when the Torah says *ha-adam* or *ish*?

## Why Is Man's Creation Described Again?

The Rambam raises another important question. The Torah completes the six days of creation, including the creation of man, and then in the next section it appears to describe man's formation again: **“Vayitzer Hashem Elokim es ha-adam afar min ha-adamah”** (Bereishis 2:7).

Why the repetition?

This strengthens our suggestion that the Torah is describing more than one aspect of the same creation. There is the creation of the human creature as part of the natural world, and there is the further formation of the being who carries a uniquely spiritual role.

The Torah first places man within the order of the briah. Then it returns to describe what makes this creature different: he is formed from earth, and Hashem breathes into him *nishmas chayim*.

That distinction allows us to understand the changing terminology. The Torah is not merely repeating the same event. It is teaching us how the being called *Adam* is built: earthly material is given a higher capacity, and that higher capacity creates the possibility of an entirely different kind of life.

## B'Tzalmeinu Kidmuseinu

Hashem says, **“Naaseh Adam b'tzalmeinu kidmuseinu”** (Bereishis 1:26). What do *tzelem* and *demus* mean?

Rashi explains *b'tzalmeinu* as “in Our form,” and *kidmuseinu* as the ability **“lehavin u'lehaskil”**—to understand and exercise intelligence. The Rashbam likewise emphasizes the higher intellectual element of man.

The Ramban develops another dimension. Man resembles the lower world through his body, which is taken from the earth, while through his spirit he resembles the higher beings. Adam therefore stands at the meeting point of the two worlds.

This is the key. Man is not simply another creature with an additional talent. He is a composite being. His body belongs to the earth, yet within that body is a capacity that reaches upward.

That is why the name *Adam* is so charged. The question is never only where man came from. The question is what he will do with what came from the *adamah*.

## Adam as an Olam Katan

“Naaseh Adam” can be understood as though the entire creation participates in the making of man. Adam contains something from the lower world and something from the upper world. He contains not only physical elements, but the *techunos*—the traits and forces—found throughout the briah.

This is the idea of **Adam as an olam katan**, a miniature world.

The meaning is deeper than saying that the body contains earth, water, and the other physical elements. Human nature contains the capacities reflected throughout creation: strength, desire, aggression, gentleness, intelligence, speech, and spiritual awareness.

That gives man enormous potential, but it also creates enormous danger. If all those forces are present within him, they must be directed.

This also gives depth to Chazal's teaching that saving one Jewish life is like sustaining an entire world (Sanhedrin 37a). A human being is not one small detail within the world. In a profound sense, an entire world has been gathered into him.

The greatness of Adam therefore depends upon which forces he allows to govern him.

## Harnessing the Forces Within Man

If Adam contains the forces of the entire creation, then he also contains powerful animal drives. Strength is not automatically holiness. Intelligence is not automatically holiness. Speech is not automatically holiness.

The greatness of man is his ability to govern those forces.

This is where **yiras Shamayim** enters. An animal is controlled from the outside by a rein or a chain. A human being must develop an inner rein. The greater the yiras Shamayim, the more the lower forces are placed under direction rather than allowed to rule.

The Rambam explains *tzelem Elokim* in terms of the uniquely human intellectual faculty, not the external shape of the body. Man's greatness lies in daas and machshavah—in the capacity to understand, choose, and direct himself.

But precisely because man possesses both sides, the stakes are higher. If the higher faculties rule, the earthly material becomes elevated. If they serve the lower drives, intelligence and speech can make those drives more destructive.

The task of Adam is therefore not to deny the earthly side. It is to rule it.

## Three Stages in the Creation of Adam

The Sforno gives us a remarkably clear structure in **“Naaseh Adam b'tzalmeinu kidmuseinu”** (Bereishis 1:26).

First there is **Adam**: a living creature, a *nefesh chayah*. Then comes **b'tzalmeinu**: Hashem gives man the intellectual, enduring faculty that raises him above ordinary animal life. Finally comes **kidmuseinu**: the power of **bechirah**, free choice.

In this reading, the pasuk itself describes stages.

The physical creature alone is not yet the complete greatness of man. What makes Adam uniquely human is that the creature receives seichel and then receives the ability to choose what to do with that seichel.

That is the essential point. Man is not great merely because he can think. He is great because he can use thought to choose.

The lower world supplies the material. Hashem supplies the higher capacity. The human being must decide which side will define him.

## From the Creature to the Person

This allows us to return to the wording of the parashah.

Hashem begins with the creature rooted in the *adamah*. Then the Torah says, **“Vayipach b'apav nishmas chayim”**—Hashem breathes into him a living soul (Bereishis 2:7). Something new has entered the earthly being.

The creature has not ceased to be physical. He still contains the drives and characteristics of the lower world. But now he possesses nishmah, daas, speech, and bechirah. He can transform what he was given.

That is the transition Rabbi Walkin sees in the language of *Adam* and *ha-adam*. One expression can emphasize the human creature as part of the created order; the other can point toward the person who has received and must exercise the higher human calling.

After the chet, Hashem addresses Adam precisely at the point of responsibility. The issue is not that he possessed earthly drives. The issue is what he did with them.

This is the entire drama of man: taking what came from the ground and deciding whether it will remain low or become elevated.

## Ha-Adam as Species; Adam as Chashivus

We can now formulate the distinction more clearly.

**Ha-adam** can describe mankind as a category—the human species, distinguished from the other creatures. In that sense, the term can include anyone who possesses the ordinary human faculties of thought and speech.

But **Adam**, in the special sense Chazal assign to the word, expresses something more. It describes the earthly human material after it has been elevated into a higher identity.

That is the *chashivus* of the title.

Rabbi Walkin uses this to return to the sugya of *tumas ohel*. The Torah's use of *Adam* is not simply identifying the biological species. It is invoking a particular spiritual status.

The distinction is therefore between possessing human faculties and making those faculties one's *mahus*. Thought, speech, and choice may exist as abilities. The avodah of Adam is to make them define the person.

That is why the word *Adam* can become a title rather than merely a classification.

## When the Higher Faculties Become the Mahus

There is a crucial difference between **having** a human faculty and **being defined** by it.

A person may possess intelligence and speech, yet use both only in the service of lower drives. In that case, the higher abilities have not transformed the underlying person. They are merely tools.

The Torah's ideal of *Adam* is different. The higher faculties—daas, speech, bechirah, Torah, and mitzvos—must become the person's *mahus*.

Rabbi Walkin expresses this with very sharp imagery: if the lower drives remain in control, greater intelligence can simply give those drives more sophisticated instruments. Human greatness begins only when the higher element governs the lower.

That is the special meaning he finds in **“Atem keruyim Adam.”** It is not enough to belong biologically to mankind. The calling of Klal Yisrael is to turn the raw human creature into an *Adam* whose essential identity is shaped by the Ribbono Shel Olam.

The question is not: Can he think? Can he speak? The question is: **What has thought and speech made of him?**

## Bechirah Creates the Adam

The power that makes this transformation possible is **bechirah**.

Man begins with *adamah*. He carries all the drives and forces of the lower world. But he is given *tzelem Elokim*, daas, and the ability to choose.

With the correct bechirah, the person takes the earthly Adam and turns it into something elevated.

That is the deeper dignity of the name *Adam*. The same word can recall man's lowly origin and, at the same time, proclaim his achievement. He came from the ground—but look what he made from the ground.

Rabbi Walkin suggests that this may also illuminate the Torah's use of *ish* as a term of importance. The human being contains multiple dimensions, and the Torah's changing names may reflect which dimension is being emphasized.

The central point, however, is clear: **human greatness is not the raw material. It is the result of bechirah.**

The Ribbono Shel Olam gives the capacities. Adam must form the person.

## The Farmer Mashal

Here is the mashal that brings the entire idea together.

If I call someone a **farmer**, is that praise or criticism? It depends.

One person takes the earth, works it, cultivates it, and produces beautiful fruit. Calling him a farmer is a praise. Another person remains completely bound to the earth and never develops beyond it. The same word can then describe limitation rather than accomplishment.

So too with **Adam**.

The name comes from *adamah*, but that is not automatically a lowly name. The question is: **What did you do with the adamah?**

If a person takes the earthly material and elevates it through seichel, bechirah, Torah, mitzvos, and avodas Hashem, then *Adam* becomes a title of greatness. He took earth and made a human being from it.

If he never elevates the material, then the name merely describes his origin.

This is why the same root can carry both humility and dignity. Man must always remember where he came from—but his purpose is to show what the Ribbono Shel Olam enabled him to become.

## The Task of Adam

This is the *tafkid* of man.

Hashem takes the creature formed from *adamah* and gives him nishmah, daas, speech, and bechirah. Those gifts do not eliminate the lower side. They give him the power to elevate it.

The title **Adam** therefore describes a process.

A person begins with the material of this world. Through Torah, mitzvos, yiras Shamayim, and correct bechirah, he makes that material serve something higher. The earthly forces become part of avodas Hashem.

That is the greatness of Adam and, at the same time, his responsibility.

The whole world was created for man because man is the creature capable of gathering the entire briah into himself and directing it upward. But that greatness is not automatic. It must be created through choice.

That is the message of **“Naaseh Adam b'tzalmeinu kidmuseinu”**: Hashem supplies the *tzelem* and the power of bechirah. The person must use them to become the Adam he was created to be.