“It is not good for man to be alone” (2:18)
The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh asks why HaShem originally created Odom and Chava as one being and later separated them into a male and female, unlike the animals, which were created male and female, separate from the outset? Why was mankind not created as two humans, male and female?
He answers that the Torah is defining the difference between human relationships and animal relationships. Animals have many mates; generally, any male and female animals have offspring, and the idea of a loyal marriage is unique to mankind. Only among humans do we find that males and females marry, have families and acquire their spouses as their mates for life. Such a concept is foreign to animals, which mate and bear offspring from many partners, with no unique relationship.
But the unique relationship of marriage, of man and wife, is a human one, which HaShem created for Odom and Chava by initially forming them from one body and only then cutting them in half, separating them so that they would have to rejoin as one flesh. This quest to rejoin is why HaShem initially created them as one. May HaShem bless our families with sholom and ahava, that we each cling to our sole mates and soulmates and build happy families in Klal Yisrael.
