Genesis2chapter 2

The portion that opens the annual cycle runs from the first verse of Genesis into Genesis 6, and a congregation hears the whole of it in one sitting (src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts). This chapter is therefore heard on the same Sabbath as the creation account, as the second half of one reading. The card above carries the portion and the prophetic reading set beside it.

The corpus holds twenty four comments on this chapter and the text of none of them, because the licence Sefaria reports for the English versions keeps them out. Every reference below is cited and linked, and the comment itself is read at the source.

Rashi comments on twenty of the twenty five verses, from the rest of the seventh day to the man leaving his father and his mother. The corpus prints them as Rashi on Genesis 2:2:1 through Rashi on Genesis 2:24:1, one for each verse from 2 to 9, from 11 to 15 and from 18 to 24. Ibn Ezra comments on five, at Ibn Ezra on Genesis 2:1:1, 2:10:1, 2:12:1, 2:16:1 and 2:17:1. Those five verses are the heavens finished, the river of Eden, the gold of Havilah, the leave to eat and the one tree withheld.

The weight of the classical comment on this chapter falls on the garden and its rivers, on the making of the woman, and on the word about the two becoming one flesh. This site names the comments and links them, and it states plainly that it holds no English text of them to quote.

The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud cite this chapter, twenty one under Midrash and nineteen under Talmud. It carries the locator for each one with no text, so the references stand here and the sayings are read at the source.

Bereshit Rabbah reads the fifth verse at 13:1 and 13:10, the eighth at 15:1 and 15:3, the eleventh at 16:2, the thirteenth at 16:3, the twenty third at 31:8 and the twenty fifth at 18:6. Bamidbar Rabbah reads the first verse at 10:1 and 12:13, the third at 3:8, the sixth at 9:24, the tenth at 21:18 and the twelfth at 12:4. Aggadat Bereshit reads the eighteenth verse at 62:2 and the twentieth at 79:1, and Midrash Lekach Tov reads the thirteenth at Genesis 2:13:1.

The Talmud is cited at Berakhot 61a:3 on the forming of the man, at Berakhot 34b:26 on the river, and at Berakhot 61a:15 on the deep sleep and the making of the woman. It is cited at Bekhorot 55a:22 on the four rivers and at Bekhorot 55b:2 on the Euphrates. The word about a man leaving his father and his mother is cited at Bava Batra 113a:4.

Avot DeRabbi Natan carries twelve of the nineteen Talmud locators on this chapter, more than on any other chapter of the first twenty five. The rest of the seventh day is cited in its second recension at 21:2 and 21:10, and the generations of the heavens at 31:3 and 37:11. The tree of life is cited at 34:11 and 43:24, the man set in the garden at 11:1 and the leave to eat at 1:5. The one tree withheld is cited at 1:13 and the woman built from the rib at 4:3.