"Ultimately, these three meanings work together. How does Chavah, the first woman, represent the mother of all life? Through experience as expression and through expression as experience she mothers all life. She shapes and develops formless matter, carrying it within her until it is ready to be born. However, the mothering process does not end with physical birth, for she then continues to nurse this life, feeding and sustaining it physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She continues to nourish it throughout its life, helping to actualize its latent potential and helping this life to develop and experience its utmost expression. And by doing this, she is constantly giving birth to new levels of ability and depth of life experience, both within herself and within all those around her, earning the title “mother of all life.”
Adapted from an article published in Jewish Women Speak About Jewish Matters,
edited by Sarah Tikvah and Doron Kornbluth?"
"In English, we refer to her as Eve. Yet, that is not her Hebrew name and her English translation doesn’t carry with it any of the importance or significance of her real name, Chavah. Furthermore, there are even some links between the word “Eve” and “evil,” blaming her for the evil brought into the world due to the sin of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Yet Chavah, according to the
Torah, is clearly a positive figure, and the sin, while a complicated discussion in itself, is most often explained as a descent for the sake of an ascent.
"
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