Family: Between divine loneliness and human connection

Source: In the image of God: The shared creation of male and female

And God said: "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the beasts and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." And God created man in his image – in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that creeps upon the earth."

(Genesis 1:26–28)

Explanation: From loneliness to partnership: The creation story in two chapters

Chapter 1 of Genesis describes the creation of male and female, while Chapter 2 elaborates on the manner of creation. First the man was created, and when God saw that he was lonely, He created a woman for him as well—a woman to dispel his loneliness and bear his children. In addition, God blessed the man and woman to take dominion over the world.

Perspective: The lonely God: When the Shechinah depends on human connection

We must admit that God is the loneliest of all. God's infinity, perfection, and power make Him one who has no needs, self-sufficient—and God is lonely. Man was created in the image of God, and immediately a sense of loneliness arises in him, as the verses attest, and God creates woman. Now, once fellowship and partnership exist in the world, God is no longer lonely either, as the Sages teach: "If they merit it, the Shechinah [the divine presence] dwells between them" (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 17a). That is, if a man and woman live in harmony, God is there with them too. And when humanity is lonely, God is lonely too.

Going Deeper: Why not right away? Choice as a condition for responsibility

In Genesis Rabbah (17:4), it is explained that God did not create woman alongside man right away—even though He knew he would be lonely—so that man would seek out and choose a wife, rather than receive her ready-made. Later, the Midrash notes, when the man and woman eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the man justifies himself and blames the woman and God who gave her to him: "The woman whom you gave to be with me." To leave man with no excuse, the Holy One arranged things so that the man would choose the woman, rather than God choosing for him.

Culture: Nathan Zach: The unresolved loneliness

Nathan Zach, 1978

It is not good for man to be alone

Yet he is alone either way.

And he waits and he is alone

And he tarries and he is alone.

And he alone knows

That even if it tarries

Come it will, he will come

The poet Nathan Zach confronts God and argues that the solution God offered did not solve loneliness. We are lonely even in company, trapped inside ourselves, abandoned in a world devoid of meaning. "And he alone knows"—"that he will come"—who is the lonely one, who is tarrying, and who is it that will come?