Eve חוה
the first woman, «mother of all living»
«It is not good for man to be alone» is the only «not good» in the creation story. Chava is built not from earth but from Adam himself, which the sages read as a statement of equal origin. Adam's words about her — «bone of my bones» — are the first words of love in the Torah.
The serpent speaks to her, and she is the first to see that the tree is «good for food and pleasing to the eyes». Her punishment touches childbirth and married life; yet immediately after the verdict Adam names her Chava, «mother of all living» — answering a sentence of death with a wager on life.
She bears Kayin, Hevel and then Shet. Tradition treats her failure as haste rather than malice: she added a fence of her own to the prohibition, and that extra stringency gave the serpent its opening.