The Creation of Adam and Chava

The human being is created last and described twice. In chapter one he appears at once as male and female, «in the image of God», and is given charge of the earth. Chapter two comes closer: God forms him from dust, breathes life into his nostrils, places him in the garden «to work it and to guard it». Adam names the animals and, in naming them, discovers that none is a match for him; a deep sleep falls on him and the woman is built from his own body. He greets her: «This time — bone of my bones». The Torah immediately draws its law: a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife.

That day, 1 Tishrei, is the birthday of humanity — which is why Rosh Hashanah judges the whole world, and why the Jewish era counts from Adam. The double description, image and dust, frames everything the tradition later says about human beings.