Then the Human said,
“This one at last
Is bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh.
This one shall be called Woman,
For from a Human was she taken.”
לזאת יקרא אשה כי מאיש וגו THIS SHALL BE CALLED WOMAN, BECAUSE THIS WAS TAKEN OUT OF MAN — Here we have a kind of play upon words (the words אשה and איש sounding similar): hence we may learn that the language used at the time of the Creation was the Holy Tongue (Hebrew) (Genesis Rabbah 18:4).
“The man said: This time, it is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, because this one was taken from Man” (Genesis 2:23).
“The man said: This time [hapaam]” – Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi said: At first He created her for him, but he saw her full of viscera and blood, so He distanced her from him, and then fashioned her for him a second time. That is what is written: “This time” – this is the [same] one from that time.
[Another interpretation:] This is the one who is destined to bang on me as [an anvil on] a bell. That is what it says: “A golden bell [paamon] and a pomegranate” (Exodus 28:34).
This is the one who would excite me [mefaamtani] the entire night. They asked before Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish: Why is it that all dreams do not exhaust a person, but this one exhausts a person? It is because from the beginning of her [woman’s] creation it was only in a dream, as it is stated: [“The Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man” (Genesis 2:21).]
“Bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh” – Rabbi Tanḥuma said: If a person marries one of his relatives, in his regard it was said: “Bone from my bones.”
“This one shall be called Woman [isha], because this one was taken from Man [ish]” – from here we learn that the Torah was given in the sacred tongue [Hebrew]. Rabbi Pinḥas and Rabbi Ḥilkiya say in the name of Rabbi Simon: Just as the Torah was given in the sacred tongue, so, the world was created in the sacred tongue. Have you ever heard anyone saying: Gyne, gynea; anthropos, anthropa; gavra, gavreta? But ish and isha – one form corresponds to the other.
HALAKHAH: It is written all Earth was one tongue and unified words. Rebbi Eleazar and Rebbi Joḥanan. One said, they were speaking seventy languages. But the other said, they were speaking in the language of the Unique of the World, the holy language. Bar Qappara stated, may God embellish Japhet and dwell in the tents of Shem, that one should speak Japhet’s language in Shem’s tents. The sons of Japhet: Gomer and Magog, and Yawan, and Tubal, and Meshekh, and Tiras. Gomer, Germamia. Magog, Gothica. Madai, as it is understood. Yawan, Ephesus. Tuval, Bythinia. Meshekh, Moesia. Tiras, Rebbi Simon said Persia, but the rabbis said Thrace. The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, and Riphat, and Togarma. Asia, and Adiabene, and Germanicia. The sons of Yawan: Elisha, and Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim. Elis, Tarsos, Euboea, and Dardania. The Arwadite, Rhodos. The Ṣamarite, Ḥoms. The Ḥamatite, Ḥama. Up to Lasha`. Rebbi Eleazar said, to Kallirrhoe. Rebbi Yudan bar Shalom said, from here about the Targum.
68. The Rabbi: It shared the fate of its bearers, degenerating and dwindling with them. Considered historically and logically, its original form is the noblest. According to tradition it is the language in which God spoke to Adam and Eve, and in which the latter conversed. It is proved by the derivation of Adam from adāmāh, ishshāh from ish; ḥayyāh from ḥayy; Cain from qānīthī; Shēth from shāth, and Noah from yenaḥ, mēnū. This is supported by the evidence of the Tōrāh. The whole is traced back to Eber, Noah and Adam. It is the language of Eber after whom it was called Hebrew, because after the confusion of tongues it was he who retained it. Abraham was an Aramaean of Ur Kasdim, because the language of the Chaldaeans was Aramaic. He employed Hebrew as a specially holy language and Aramaic for everyday use. For this reason Ishmael brought it to the Arabic speaking nations, and the consequence was that Aramaic, Arabic and Hebrew are similar to each other in their vocabulary, grammatical rules, and formations. The superiority of Hebrew is manifest from the logical point of view if we consider the people who employed it for discourses, particularly at the time when prophecy was rife among them, also for preaching, songs and psalmody. It is conceivable that their rulers such as for instance, Moses, Joshua, David, and Solomon lacked the words to express what they wished, as it is the case with us to-day, because it is lost to us? Dost thou not see how the Tōrāh, when describing the Tabernacle, Ephōd and breastplate and other objects, always finds the most suitable word for all these strange matters? How beautifully is this description composed? It is just the same with the names of people, species of birds and stones, the diction of David's Psalms, the lamentations of Job, and his dispute with his friends, the addresses of Isaiah, etc.
And Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: Adam the first man spoke in the language of Aramaic, as it is stated in the chapter of Psalms speaking in the voice of Adam: “How weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God” (Psalms 139:17).
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