Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable* to him.”“
Genesis 2:18
^{{* or, suitable for, or appropriate for}}

This is GOD’s idea, not humanity’s – and not a NEW idea, but part of the DESIGN of humanity. God created humans as a single, dual creature in the same general likeness as God who is a triune being (Genesis 5:2). But as God fellowships with Himself (2 Corinthians 13:14; John 15:26; John 10:30), He wanted US to fellowship with ourselves – except we don’t have a divine ability to be more than a single entity (even if we once had dual sides in the same sense the Living Creatures under the throne have quartet sides – Ezekiel 1:5-14; Revelation 4:2-8). When God split us into two halves, He created a social creature. He also created a creature who NEEDS their other half. Humanity was once complete in entirety within itself. Once God made this decision, neither the male or the female is complete without the other. They will ALWAYS be missing total completeness without their opposite half – apart we miss out on the strengths of the other. It doesn’t mean we CAN’T function alone or that we SHOULDN’T, only that we will never be complete outside a dichotomy of a male-female partnership. Only in the male-female (one ONLY of EACH) partnership can we be the original person we were meant to be. This is a DUAL need. A man needs a woman. A woman needs a man. EQUAL need to be complete, NOT domination of one over the other.

It was not good for ADAM: the dual male-female entity. Not for the MAN and not for the WOMAN, but for BOTH of them. This is borne out elsewhere in scripture, particularly in Ecclesiastes 4:9 “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.” It was not good for EITHER PART to be alone. They BOTH needed the social interaction and mutual reliance on one another that is ONLY possible between two separate units/halves of a whole.

The sage Ramban teaches that God created them as one unit and then separated them so that the halves would always seek to be re-united and therefore have a need and longing to join and thereby create the seed or offspring that would enable them to multiply according to God’s command. So from the beginning God meant them to be one and then two, instead of God making one and then changing His mind because His design wasn’t good – something incompatible with the nature and moral character of God.

The sage Sforno points out that in order to reflect the divine image, humanity could not carry out all the menial tasks of daily life by being solitary. Humanity needed a helper in order to perform in the divine image (John 14:16). Sforno also points out that a helpmate who will be equal to him, is also essential for reflecting the divine image. It’s essential because only by having known the other half intimately are they to know what precisely the other’s needs are and so that they can meet them in time. Having been one, but also two (Matthew 19:5; Mark 10:8; Ephesians 5:31), they knew each other perfectly and could anticipate each other’s needs, thereby complimenting each other absolutely.

It is important to note that here is PERFECT communion between the male and the female (there are no other options). No one is submitted to any other. No one is called to submit. They are PERFECT compliments to each other. It is ONLY after Sin enters creation that there is ANY question in ANY way of ANY submission. Here in Genesis 2 we see the PERFECT picture: absolute companionship, absolute partnership, and absolute equality in EVERY way – not the SAME, but EQUAL. No one prevails and no one loses.

I like what the sage Or HaChaim said about it: ‘Perhaps the objective reason G’d had created the human species as a pair in a single body was to distinguish between the functions of the bodies of the animals and the functions of the human body. Animals mate indiscriminately, i.e. a male will mate with any female available to him, the act of mating being merely a response to biological urges… This is not the way G’d wanted man to relate to the subject of mating. It would have been impossible for Adam to describe his wife as בשר מבשרי, flesh of my own, were it not for the fact that Eve had been part of his own body previously. The whole idea that man’s זווג is arranged in heaven would have been impossible to understand but for the fact that the female of the species is considered man’s “other half.” This consideration may also be the reason that when the Torah legislated forbidden sexual relations (Leviticus 18) the subject is always the male. It is forbidden to engage in sexual intercourse with certain women as they could not possibly be your missing “half.”‘