The Duality of Man
Traces how the Talmud and Midrash resolve the apparent conflicts among three creation verses in Genesis by reading them allegorically, so that the two countenances of the first human, the disputed rib, and the phrase behind and before in Psalm 139 together express one doctrine of human duality: creature and image of God, passive and active, mortal yet accountable for the world.
Kahn treats rabbinic allegory as a neglected interpretive method and illustrates it through the sages’ handling of Genesis 1:27, 2:7 and 2:21-22, verses that appear to describe the making of humanity in incompatible ways. Reading them against Psalm 139:5, the Talmud in Berakhot pictures the first human as double-faced, and the Midrash extends the image to first and last, celestial and terrestrial, animal and angelic. Drawing on Soloveitchik, Kahn argues that the male-and-female language points to receptivity and creativity rather than physiology, and that this doubleness is what makes human beings uniquely responsible for the world.
Pinchas Kahn, PhD, studied at Yeshiva University and received his doctorate in psychology in 1961. He supervised psychologists for the New York City Board of Education and maintained a private clinical practice. Ordained by the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1956, he served as rabbi of Young Israel of Mapleton Park, Brooklyn. He settled in Jerusalem in 1993, where he learns and teaches in retirement.
Cite this article
Pinchas Kahn. "The Duality of Man." Jewish Bible Quarterly 36, no. 2 (April – June 2008): 102–107.
Pinchas Kahn. "The Duality of Man." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 2, 2008, pp. 102–107.