The Midrash relates that when the Holy One, blessed be He, came to create man, He consulted with the ministering angels. When they asked Him, “What is his nature?” He replied: “His wisdom is greater than yours.”
To demonstrate this to them, G-d brought before the angels the animals and beasts and asked them their names, but they could not answer. Then, when He brought the animals and beasts before Adam, Adam said: “This is an ox, this is a donkey.”
Adam’s ability to assign names to the animals and beasts came from his unique wisdom, which enabled him to perceive the spiritual root of each creature, and according to that he gave it its name. For the name of a thing expresses its root and source as it exists in the higher worlds.
Why the Angels Did not Know
This requires explanation: After all, the angels themselves exist in the higher worlds—so why did they not grasp the spiritual source of the animals and beasts, while man, who dwells in this lower world, did?
Moreover, it is known that the angels themselves are the source and root of the animals (which is why angels are called “chayot” and “behemot”). How then is it possible that they did not recognize the source and root of the animals and beasts, yet man did?
Part of Adam’s Mission
Adam’s act took place immediately upon his creation, before the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, while he was still in the Garden of Eden. The mission entrusted to him by G-d was “to work it and to guard it”—to reveal in the Garden of Eden a higher sanctity, beyond its inherent holiness. We must therefore say that naming the animals was itself part of fulfilling this mission.
The inner meaning of naming is to connect the creatures of this lower world with their higher spiritual root. Indeed, all beings have a source and root in the higher worlds, but the vast gap between this physical world and the higher worlds creates a seeming disconnect. Adam’s task was to bridge that gap, uniting beings of this physical world with their lofty spiritual source.
The Wisdom of Man
Now we can understand why the angels could not accomplish this. True, the angels knew that the physical ox, for example, originates from the “Face of the Ox” in the supernal Chariot. But they lacked the power to connect the physical ox with the “Face of the Ox” in the higher worlds. The physical world contradicts the framework of an angel’s existence; thus we see in the Torah portion that when angels descend into this world, they undergo great spiritual descent.
Here lies the expression of man’s “wisdom”—his ability to unite the higher worlds with this lower world. Specifically man, whose very name Adam testifies to his essence, “edameh le’elyon” (“I will resemble the Most High—אֶדַּמֶה לְעֶלְיוֹן”), being composed of both higher and lower elements, has the capacity to connect the beings of this physical world with their higher spiritual source.
This is man’s wisdom, as expressed in the teaching of our Sages: “Who is wise? He who sees what is born.” That is, he perceives the origin and root of each thing as it exists Above, and therefore has the power to connect it with the creature found here below.
(the Rebbe, Likkutei Sichot, vol. 15)
