פירוש על ברכות 121:2

In Hebrew Jeser, the initial letter being yod.

Instead there is asah "he made," Gen. i. 25.

If I follow my evil impulse.

Which excites evil desires that must be suppressed.

One in front and one behind (cf. the Latin Janus), so that he was split in two when Eve was created from him.

Sartani "Thou hast hemmed me in" is connected here with surah "an image."

I.e. a rib protruding from the body like a tail.

With two faces, as explained above.

"Behind" also means "last," i.e. the last to be created, after the animals.

"Before" can also mean "first," i.e. the first to be punished, before the animals.

Since Adam was punished last, the interpretation of Ps. cxxxix. 5 by R. Ammi cannot apply to the serpent-incident.

Here "man" is mentioned before "cattle."

I.e. with a male and female countenance.

Where the tail-like rib was removed, flesh had to be substituted.

It would be more natural to say "He built" a rib, than a face, into a woman.

See p. 32 n. 8.

The point of the explanation is that the word for "plaits" also means "tents, dwelling-places"; cf. T. A. I. p. 278 n. 87.

M. omits the name.

The masculine and feminine countenance.

In the Orient, wives always walk behind as a mark of inferiority ; but here the reason is rather that the man's passion should not be inflamed.

M.: not escape the punishment of Gehinnom.

R.V. "Though hand join to hand"; R.V. marg. "My hand upon it."

M. omits: Nahman b.

The text inserts here: "Elkanah, for it is written, 'And Elkanah went after his wife'; and of." There is no such verse in the Bible; nor is Elkanah mentioned in the subsequent discussion.

M.: Rab Nahman said (another version: R. Johanan; and some say it was taught in a Baraita).

See fol. 8b, p. 48.

Schechter suggests that this latter interpretation is probably connected with the legend that the tree of knowledge grew wheat (above fol. 40 a, p. 265). Cf. Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 256 n.

"The Talmudic idea is based on the curious physiological notion that the food passed from the oesophagus first into the large intestine where the food was supposed to be crushed as in a mill, and thence only, through various organs, into the stomach proper"; Edersbeim, Life and Times, II. p. 23 n.