6050 - Clarifying Adam’s Consent in Naming Through the Zohar

Holy letters of the Rebbe, a letter in Volume 16, Letter 6050. One of the things you have when you learn the Rebbe’s letters, you get the geography, you get the travel from Argentina to Omaha, Nebraska, to Brazil, to Toronto, to Israel, all over the world. In just one letter away, you go to another area of the world and other people and other—not only other areas, but also to people that are far away from Chabad to people that know very little about Yiddishkeit, etc., etc. 

 

Anyways, the Rebbe is addressing this: "To the Hasid and God-fearing Rabbi Nosson Dovid Rosenblum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Shalom u-Bracha." 

 

The Rebbe says, "I want to confirm receiving your letter from Sunday. And at an auspicious time, I will mention you and your wife (may she live) on the Holy Tzion of the Baal Ha-Hillula Yahrtzeit of my father-in-law, the Rebbe (with all the titles for the Rebbe)." 

 

We had just now left—which means this letter is written on the 13th of Shevat—we've just come away from the 10th of Shevat, which is the day of the Yahrtzeit. "I will mention you on the Tzion, on his Holy Tzion, as you requested." 

 

And the Rebbe says, there's a question in the Tikunei Zohar. In Tikunei Zohar, in Tikun 69, over there it says that "V’ha-Adam yada." It says the man was intimate with Chava, that’s his wife. And then it says "Taman amar," so then he said, "Kaniti ish." He said, "I have acquired a man." 

 

The Zohar seems to say, the Tikunei Zohar, that who was the one that said "Kaniti ish et Hashem"? The first verse, the full verse reads, "V’ha-Adam yada et Chava ishto"—he was with Chava, his wife—"v’tahar v’teled et Kayin"—and she got pregnant and they gave birth to Cain. Then it says "V’tomer"—she said, who is she? Chava, the wife—"Kaniti ish et Hashem," I have acquired a man together with Hashem (basically as Hashem is also a partner, Hashem gave him and she gave birth to Kayin). 

 

So it says very clearly in the Pasuk that this was said by Chava, "V’tomer" (she said). But in the Tikunei Zohar it says, "Taman amar kaniti ish," that was said by Adam. So the question he's asking: it says in the Torah that Chava said it. 

 

So the Rebbe says, the Gra (the Vilna Gaon), he fixes it and he says, "Taman amra," she said "kaniti ish." Instead of "amar" it should say "amra," she said. 

 

But the Rebbe says this correction is very difficult. Because the entire flow in the Tikunei Zohar talks about the man, talks about Adam. All of a sudden he’s talking about her? And look what it says over there: "V’ha-Adam yada, yada chova dileih, yada zuhama," which is talking about he knew his guilt, he knew the filth, "chama gilgula," etc. It’s all said in Lashon Zachar (in masculine). We’re talking about the man over here, not talking about the woman. 

 

And all of a sudden, it’s very surprising, the Rebbe says, how could we change? Now, what are you going to say? Oh, all of these have to be changed to feminine. But the Rebbe says it's very difficult to say that all these names are feminine. 

 

So this is a very difficult correction, to correct all of this and change them to feminine from the masculine. But the Rebbe says, "For me, I can answer it without it." 

 

And the Rebbe says like this: Even though in the beginning it was "V’tomer kaniti ish," V’tomer Chava—Chava is actually said it first—but then this name was set. What do we call him? The name was set, that they called him Kayin because she bore [him], right? And you can’t set a name without the first man agreeing on the name. Because he is the main, he was the first man. He had to agree to call him Kayin. 

 

So therefore the Tikunei Zohar explains why did he agree to this name? So he says, that's why the Zohar explains why he agreed to the name. Even though he didn't say the name, but he agreed to the name. So that's why the Zohar explains it as if he also called him "Kaniti ish et Hashem." 

 

And the Rebbe says, also I want to point out there's an interpretation of the Daat Zekenim Ba'alei HaTosafot in Bereishit on 38:5. And it says over there that "I heard from my teacher" (quoting here), that this was the custom: that he would call, the man would call the name to the first son, and she, the wife, would call the name to the second son. 

 

So in the next Pasuk it says that she gave another son, and they called him Hevel. It doesn't say who called him, but it says they called him Hevel. But according to this, the custom was: so who is entitled to the first name? Adam. So even though the Pasuk says that it was Chava who called him, but it’s really Adam because he had to agree or he had to call him; it was his entitlement. 

 

And the Rebbe says the Ramban disagrees over there, but that is still that. It's an amazing, amazing—you know, the Gra is beyond reproach—and it's amazing how the Rebbe explains it so simply. It almost seems that there is a mistake because the Pasuk says she called him and in the Tikunei Zohar it says that he called him, Adam called him. And the Rebbe explains it's really Adam; she may have called him first, but he had to agree to it. 

 

Or furthermore, even though in the Torah it says that she called him, he is the one that really called him. And the Rebbe says if you're going to have to correct it, you're going to have to correct everything in the whole passage; everything changed from masculine to feminine. So this should stay as the Tikunei Zohar, and he called him also because he agreed to it and that was his name, and that's the name that was established, Kayin. So therefore, it’s amazing, amazing how the Rebbe answers a difficult passage very simply and we don't need to come onto the correction of the Gra. Amazing.