Adam in Rabbinic Literature - in Rabbinic Literature

In Rabbinic Literature

While the generic character that the name of Adam has in the older parts of Scripture, where it appears with the article ("the man"), was gradually lost sight of, his typical character as the representative of the unity of mankind was constantly emphasized (compare Talmud tractat Sanhedrin iv. 5; the correct reading in Tosef., Talmud tractate Sanhedrin viii. 4-9):

"Why was only a single specimen of man created first? To teach us that he who destroys a single soul destroys a whole world and that he who saves a single soul saves a whole world; furthermore, so no race or class may claim a nobler ancestry, saying, 'Our father was born first'; and, finally, to give testimony to the greatness of the Lord, who caused the wonderful diversity of mankind to emanate from one type. And why was Adam created last of all beings? To teach him humility; for if he be overbearing, let him remember that the little fly preceded him in the order of creation."

In a dispute, therefore, as to which Biblical verse expresses the fundamental principle of the Law, Simon ben 'Azkai maintained against Rabbi Akiba who, following Hillel the Elder, had singled out the Golden Rule (Leviticus 19:18)—that the principle of love must have as its basis Gen. v. 1, which teaches that all men are the offspring of him who was made in the image of God (Sifra, Ḳedoshim, iv.; Yer. Ned. ix. 41c; Genesis Rabba 24).

According to Targum Yer. to Genesis ii. 7, God took dust from the holy place (as "the center of the earth"; compare Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer xi., xx.) and the four parts of the world, mingling it with the water of all the seas, and made him red, black, and white (probably more correctly Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer xi. and Chronicles of Jerahmeel, vi. 7: "White, black, red, and green—bones and sinews white; intestines black; blood red; skin of body or liver green").

Rabbi Johanan interprets Adam's name as being an acrostic of (ashes), (blood), and (gall; see Soṭah, 5a). Rabbi Meir (2nd century) has the tradition that God made Adam of the dust gathered from the whole world; and Rab of the 3rd century says: "His head was made of earth from the Holy Land; his main body, from Babylonia; and the various members from different lands" (Talmud tractate Sanhedrin 38a et seq.; compare Genesis Rabba viii.; Midrash Tehilim cxxxix. 5; and Tan., Peḳude, 3, end).