Why did Hashem create Chava? What is her purpose? And why was she created from Adam's rib or side? (All joking aside, please.)
And what does it teach us as far as applying this in our lives today?
YWN Coffee Room » Inspiration / Mussar
Why Was Woman Created?
(30 posts)-
Posted 11 months ago #
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The GEMARA says:
On TU BA'AV
(coming up shortly)
ALL THE SINGLE LADIES
dance in the field
the BEAUTIFUL ones say
"women were created for beauty"
the ones with DAT YICHUS say
"women were made to
have (choshuv) children"
the ugly ones would say
"marry me despite my dress size,
but still gives me DEM NICE CLOTHES"
The parallel for today?
UNFORTUNATELY
no more dancing : (
("WE'RE NOT ON THE MEDREIGA!!")
but they're still using
the same lines...
Posted 11 months ago # -
Unfortunately for the Yetzer Hara is what you mean, right?
Posted 11 months ago # -
Englishman - Hashem created Chava because Adam asked Him to!!
And why from the rib - I remember hearing a very good explanation to that once but I dont really remember it...
And it teaches us...
Be careful what you wish for :)Posted 11 months ago # -
Bochur sog - Lo tov he'yis ha'adam le'vado - it's not good, but it's not bad
Posted 11 months ago # -
To serve man.
Posted 11 months ago # -
There are a few גמראs about the purpose of women. Definitely not for power [see גמרא מגילה about why women are not for power and lessons from דבורה and חולדה]. One גמרא says אין אשה אלא ליופי - for ornamental purposes. Another גמרא says איו אשה אלא לבנים - to have kids. There is also a gemoro quoted a lot in the אחרונים - i think the לשון is אין אשה אלא לפלחיה - it means a woman is for her sewing. In short: In order so that the man can live an easy life!!!
Posted 11 months ago # -
Englishman: The Gemara in Brachos (I believe) gives several opinions. One is that they were like twins conjoined at the back. Another is that Adam had a tail which became Chava. I don't remember if there were any others.
Kozov: Really? You have the arrogance to think that what we do is on a higher level than what was an accepted and joyous practice during the time of the Tannaim (and maybe even before)? No, it's unfortunately for us that we cannot control our Yetzer Harah to that extent.
Posted 11 months ago # -
i think i heard in the name of rabbi miller that women were created to look nice and be quiet
Posted 11 months ago # -
Yekke: That Gemara is in Yoma 67b, I believe, and is quite taken out of context by many.
Posted 11 months ago # -
אין אשה אלא לנוי because אין אשה אלא לבנים.
כי הוא אמר ויהי זו אשה, הוא צוה ויעמוד אלו הבנים.Ksuvos 9b: תני ר' חייא אין אשה אלא ליופי אין אשה אלא לבנים ותני ר' חייא אין אשה אלא לתכשיטי אשה
R' Chiya taught: "A woman exists only for beauty, a woman exists only for sons/children" and R' Chiya taught: "A woman exists only for jewelery".
Tanah Dvei Eliyau Rabbah 9: אין לך אשה כשרה בנשים אלא אשה שהיא עושה רצון בעלה
"There is no kosher woman except one who does the will of her husband".
Gemara - Shabbos 152a: אשה חמת מלא צואה ופיה מלא דם והכל רצין אחריה
"A woman is an urn filled with excrement, and her "mouth" filed with blood, and everyone runs after her".
Gemara - Bava Metzia 59a: אמר רב כל ההולך בעצת אשתו נופל בגיהנם
"Any (man) who follows his wife's advice falls into Gehinnom".
Posted 11 months ago # -
Brony,
I know that i am off topic, however can you post with out the spaces between each line? I get dizzy trying to read what you write!
Posted 11 months ago # -
pcoz: LOL
ohr chodesh: You mean like the Damon Knight story?
Posted 11 months ago # -
TO BRING SHLEIMUS TO THE WORLD!!
Posted 11 months ago # -
Look at the book The Merit of the Righteous Woman by the Biale Rebbe. You can read much of it for free on books dot google dot com, if you just search for the name of the book. It looks really fascinating.
Every person, male or female, was created to serve Hashem in his or her own particular way, through prayer, Torah study, mitzvos and other ma'asim tovim, and thereby achieve their particular soul correction (tikkun). Women, who are less violent and arrogant and more nurturing and compassionate than men, are created closer to Hashem's ideal, so they don't need the time-bound mitzvos and public davening to purify their souls and middos and keep them from sin. Women receive merit from the Torah and mitzvos of their husbands and children, but also from their own. Through childrearing, hospitality and chessed activities women often have more opportunities than men for gemilus chasadism, which is one of the foundations of the world (not to mention one of the mitzvos that has no measure, and which has rewards in this world but the principal reward in the world to come.)
Rav Shalom Arush, in his bestseller Garden of Peace, teaches that men cannot achieve their soul correction in this world without being married, because it is only through the process of achieving true and complete shalom bayis that his middos can be refined and his emunah/bitachon perfected. So that is one reason women were created -- men cannot achieve their spiritual purpose without making them happy. :)
Posted 11 months ago # -
According to Chazal, the original human was both male and female.
Vayikra Rabba 14:1 et al:
אמר ר' שמואל בר נחמן: בשעה שברא הקדוש ברוך הוא אדם הראשון אנדרוגינוס בראו. אמר ריש לקיש: בשעה שנברא דו פרצופין נברא ונסרו ונעשה שנים גבים גב לזכר גב לנקבה. איתיבין ליה: ויקח אחת מצלעותיו! אמר להן: מסטרוהי, כדכתיב: ולצלע המשכן.
R. Shmuel bar Nachman said: When God created Adam, he created him androgynous. Reish Lakish elaborated: At the time [Adam] was created, two faces were created. Then they were split and two backs were made; a back for the male and a back for the female.
They countered: “And he took one of his ribs (tzal’os)”! [The verse itself says that Chava was fashioned from one of Adam’s ribs, not like the Midrash said.]
He answered: [Tzal’os does not mean ribs; rather it means] sides. As it says, “And to the side (tzela) of the Mishkan…” [Therefore what the Midrash said stands, because she was originally one side of the entire human; Hashem simply cut her side off and made them two separate persons.]
Accordingly, answers like 'to help man' only explain why the woman was split from the man (and that is where the Torah says it). They do not explain the purpose of her essence, which was created together with the man's.
Posted 11 months ago # -
to make sandwiches
Posted 11 months ago # -
Every creature was endowed with whatever it needs to fulfill its purpose. So if woman's purpose is to be an ornament, to have children, and to sew, why was she endowed ("Vayiven ess hatzelah"), from the moment of her creation, with bina yiseirah?
Posted 11 months ago # -
Chava was made (at Adam Harishon's request for a mate like all the other creatures had)from his rib, because it was under and close to his heart, and so that she would always be by his side and his eizer k'negdo.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Awake My Glory (by Rav A. Miller):
1095. There cannot be two kings. The marriage relationship is twofold. 1) The wife is submissive. This is not only Jewish but natural. There can be no harmony when there are two commanders. Without this indispensable condition, the home is disordered. "Arrogance is unbecoming a woman" - Megillah 14B. For a man it is not an ornament, but for a woman it is as if she wore a mustache. 2) The second, but equally essential foundation: a man must always demonstrate respect for his wife. This is "the way of Jewish men that... honor and support their wives in truth" as stated in the Jewish marriage contract. "He honors her more than his own body" - Yevamos 62B, Bava Metzia 59A. He is the captain, but she is the First Mate whose counsel is respected. She cannot be made a doormat, she need not beg for money, she deserves some assistance in the house chores, and the husband sides with her against his kin. He must express frequent appreciation and give words of encouragement, and he should remember his wife from time to time with gifts, big or little. Husband and wife should always say "Please" and "Thank You" and never forget to be always polite to each other.
1105. Before marriage it is imperative to ascertain the young woman's attitude toward feminism and "women's rights" and careerism. It is out of the question to build a Jewish home, or any home whatsoever, if the prospective wife has been tainted with these anti-natural and anti-social preachings. The woman's career and happiness are in her home: absolutely and entirely. Her husband, her children and her home are the expressions of her personality and her Free Will, and they are her chief forms of serving G-d. The modern orthodox "Rebbetzin" with a college degree and a job in secular professions is a misfit even in a non-Jewish home. The ideas of revolt against a husband's authority and the unrealistic dream of equal leadership in the family, lead only to unhappiness and failure, and very frequently to divorce. A Beth Jacob girl should be wed soon after or before graduation. Every day after she leaves the Beth Jacob marks another step away from idealism, for the street and the office and the secular school have an unfailing effect which increases from day to day. It is never a simple matter to achieve harmony in the home; effort and wisdom and fear of G-d are required. But with the additional burden of feminism, all problems become aggravated; and like all the unnatural and anti-social affectations of the libertarians this leads only to failure and unhappiness.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Without a woman, a man will never realize his shortcomings in life.
The wife helps the man achieve his mission in life by mirroring his faults on a magnified level (that's eizer kenegdo, the help is that it's sometimes against him).Behind every great man, there is a greater woman!
Posted 11 months ago # -
To complain about men.
Posted 11 months ago # -
You know it is said that until a man is married he is not complete. After marriage, he's finished!
Posted 11 months ago # -
The Torah says it is because לא טוב היות האדם לבדו. But, it doesn't say what part of it is לא טוב, and how that is remedied.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Shlshi, did your wife give you permission to write your post?
Posted 11 months ago # -
Sam that's also true but its not a contradiction to what I said. Did you see the quote "WERE NOT ON THAT MADREIGA!" in the post to which i was responding? But it seemed to me that the writer had in mind what i was addressing.
Posted 11 months ago # -
To make a man feel important.
To keep a man humble.
To serve man? Check out Twilight Zone, "To Serve Man"Posted 11 months ago # -
To Serve Man
"IT'S A COOKBOOK!!!"
LOL
Posted 11 months ago # -
to be as a "kenegdo" for adam. Men can't live without women. Hashem created chava as an "aizer" an assisting helper to adam. Men and women have opposite cochos on purpose, its to help eachother.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Brony: Don't stomp on my punchlines!
pba: All is solved with a well placed comma.
Posted 11 months ago #
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