welcome back to me!!!
The female in this weeks parsha has 2 different names, “Isha”- “woman”, and “chava”- “hava”, why 2 names? what wrong with one?
Well you may just answer that nowadays as well, many people have 2 names, so why should the 1st woman be different? (not exactly sure how that would answer the question though), but we have to realise that names aren’t “STAM”, names describe the actual essence of the person, and who better than adam harishon, who gave names to all living organisms (well..at least to all animals, i wonder if he gave names to fruits and veggies too), each name specifically and particularly chosen to specially fit that being. Ans so why did chava have to get 2? coudn’t he encapsulate her essence in 1 word? maybe this means she had 2 essences??? hm……….
To cut a very long story (i actually had a whole story made up) short, the most simple way to answer the aforementioned qustion is………….chava/isha actually had 2 essences. Period. the end. But not only that, i wanna suggest (which prob means i’m wrong), that what we were being taught by the mention of both of chavas names, is that we ALL have 2 essences.
We are all schizophrenics!!!!! and so are we!
The name Isha which was given to chava, has actually become the term for all womankind, and so that name represented chavas outward, public, worldwide essence, whilst the name Chava stayed as her own personal (women may be refereed to as “bney chava”, but we don’t reffer to women in general as “chavas”) name, symbolizing her own inner, personal, intermarriage (i mean between her and her husband, and not what the word actually means, cuz i don’t think it is fair that this Webster guy should have a monopoly on the english language…i’m also entitled to an opinion!!!!).
We are 2 ppl, we have 2 essences, one which covers our goals for our own home, the other which is our job within klal yisrael, someone who is supposed to be dominant in his own home, doesn’t necessarily have to be dominant as far as klal yisroel is considered, the fact that someone is the ruling authority of halacha in his own home, doesn’t garantee that he will become the poseyk hador. Many times we get mixed up between our 2 rolls (yummy), and use the tools which were meant to be used on the outside, inside and vice versa. We MUST understand that we have 2 jobs, we must thrive to figure out (with the help of da’as torah) what those 2 roles are.
This is best seen in Chava/Isha, true she was the mother of all man[and woman]kind alike, she was setting down the foundations for all of us, and yet she was also the wife of Adam, and the mother of kayin, hevel sheys (and their twins) etc. not all of us have such dramatic roles when it comes to the public side of our lives, not all of us are ever intended to have such a strong effect on the world…… yet all of us fit in the big picture somewhere, as well as fitting in our own small picture.
The torah never writes an extra extra (haha) word, yet it went through the trouble of mentioning both of the females names? why? dunno………but till you do figure it out, just make believe it was put there to teach us the lesson i just attempted to teach you.