In chapter 2 of the book of Genesis, God is sorry for Adam’s loneliness and works to provide him with a companion (2:18). In the next scene (2:19), we see God bringing the animals to Adam ‘to see what he would name them’, ‘But for Adam no suitable helper was found’. Only then does God create Eve from the man’s rib, who then exclaims, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh’ (2:23), zot hapa’am. Some biblical exegetes have wondered how to interpret this exclamation, which is, incidentally, the first speech of any human directly quoted in the biblical text. It seems to mean ‘this time, she is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh’, which implies a comparison with the creatures that came before.

Yevamot (the plural of the word used to refer to the childless widow of one’s brother) is the first treatise of Seder Nashim (‘Order of Women’). It is one of the treatises of the Talmud and deals with the law of levirate marriage (Yibbum) and the conditions for conversion to Judaism. The Babylonian Talmud was composed approximately between 450 and 550 CE.