Bereshit

God said, “It is not at all good that man should be alone; I will make a helpmeet for him.”

2:18

The word “Lo” (not at all) has great force. It means that this thing is the opposite of good.

Cassutto (20^th Century)

The story of Creation is a deep secret not to be understood from the biblical verses. And it cannot be thoroughly known except by means of the tradition going back to Moshe, our teacher, as received from the mouth of God, and those who know (this secret) are obligated to conceal it.

Ramban (13^th Century)

The literal meaning of this verse is “This is not good, seeing that Man is alone.” Everything cannot be “good” as long as man is alone…And so, in order to effect the full accomplishment of man’s purpose, God created woman for the man…This does not imply that woman is to be subordinate to man; actually, it connotes complete equality between man and woman, on a footing of independent parity.

Samson Raphael Hirsch (19^th Century)

The powerful implication here is that God’s original intention can be consummated only by Adam’s free perception and desire. Only when Adam comes to feel the solitude of the angelic, unitary existence is he split into two separate beings. He must, in a sense, diminish himself, come to know the rightness of a more complex form of unity…

Aviva Zornberg (Contemporary)

God’s wisdom ensured that the mating of man and woman should not be…on a par with the beasts. God introduced a special relationship strengthening their love and social bonds, to help one another in all their affairs with a complete and perfect helpfulness, as is meet for them…

Akedat Yitzchak (15^th Century)

The message of the creation narrative is that in unity there is no existence; the condition of creation is the existence of duality. Only as something stands separate from something else, something against which it can be contrasted and compared, can it truly come into existence. And because the creation narrative is the stage for the human drama that follows, the world in which that drama takes place will be characterized not by oneness but by “two-ness”…Only one element in the creation narrative emerges undivided; only one actor in the drama is truly unified and a unity. It is God.

Richard Hirsch (Contemporary)