p.s. you'll find lots of explanations of the Hebrew if you do a search, here's one: http://www.imninalu.net/Women.htm
"Elohim said, «Let us make Adam in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth». Elohim created Adam in His own image. In Elohim's image He created him; male and female He created them.
In the day that Elohim created Adam, He made him in Elohim's likeness. He created them male and female, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
(Genesis 1:26,27; 5:1,2)
This is a literal rendition from the original Hebrew text. Unfortunately, English language has not a proper translation for the Hebrew word “adam”, and in most versions it is rendered as “man”, the same word that in English indicates a person of male gender. Indeed, the equivalent of adam is “human being”, “person”, rather than man. The Hebrew word for man – a male person – is “ish” (Genesis 2:23).
Then, let us notice the apparent grammatical incongruence: first the text refers to Adam in plural (let them have dominion), then in singular (He created him), and then again in plural (He created them) – Also Elohim is plural, and is One, and indeed the pronoun for Elohim is He, that is singular.
Yet, replacing the pronouns by the nouns, it is explicit that “Elohim created Adam; male and female Elohim created Adam”. Then, the pronoun for Adam is plural: “Elohim created them male and female, and blessed them and called their name Adam”. It is clear enough: Elohim called the name of both, male and female, Adam. It was the man who later renamed his wife Havah, but her name, which was given her by the Creator in the day when she was created, was Adam. Now we have recognized that biblically the first woman was called Adam, and then she was renamed Havah.
So, the first human creature, who was made according to the image and likeness of the Creator, was not the man alone, but male and female in one single body. Yes, the original Adam was androgynous. This is clearly understood from the Scriptures, and is also the Jewish explanation according to the Hebrew text, which leaves no room to doubts or alternative interpretation.
There is a second account of the formation (not creation) of the woman, from which the male-centered misconceptions arise, mainly owing to a mistranslation by which the lower status of the woman has been promoted as a biblical truth.
Let us consider the parallel account of the specific formation of the woman, according to the Hebrew Scriptures:
“So HaShem Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his sides and closed up the flesh in its place. He made the side, which HaShem Elohim had taken from Adam, into a woman, and brought her to the man”.
(Genesis 2:21-22)
Let us notice that Elohim did not create the woman, she was already created. Elohim has simply separated the original Adam into two beings, one of each gender. However, the most common translations speak of a “rib”, term that is not used in the original Hebrew text. The term at issue is “tzela”, which does not convey the meaning of rib in biblical language. The correct translation is side, or side-wall, the whole side of Adam, not just a single bone. The term tzela implies an equality with the whole, a bearing wall. To one tzela corresponds another equal tzela, in the same way as in a building to each bearing wall corresponds another equally important bearing wall, on the opposite side. Certainly a man can live without one or two ribs, but not without half of his body… The Creator did not intend that the man would be however independent from his “rib”, but that he would be incomplete without her, and she without him, as one is the missing half of the other.
This second account is a detailed explanation of how the Creator separated the androgynous Adam into male and female entities. It was in His design. Nevertheless, the first human being was one and unique for a short period of time:
And HaShem Elohim said: «It is not good that Adam should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him».
(Genesis 2:18)
The terms that here have been rendered as “helper” and “suitable” are in the Hebrew text the words “ezer k’negdo”, which convey a meaning of equality and not subordination. The term “ezer”, that is usually translated as “helper”, is applied to Elohim more than once, for example:
“Hear, Adonay, and have mercy on me. Adonay, be my helper”. (Psalm 30:10)
“Behold, Elohim is my helper. Adonay is the one Who sustains my soul”. (Psalm 54:4)
“HaShem is for me as my helper”. (Psalm 118:7)
There are several other verses in which this term is applied to the Creator, therefore, it cannot imply any subordinate status as a “helper” of someone who is the protagonist.
The second term, “k’negdo”, is also deeply meaningful: it is composed by the abbreviated adverb “k’”, that means “as”, “like”, and the term “negdo”, that means “corresponding”, “equal”, “suitable”, but conveying the meaning of “opposite”.
Therefore, an “ezer k’negdo” is literally a helper like him, equal to him, and opposite to him, and we can make the rendition of the verse in a more explicit way without altering the original meaning as follows:
And HaShem Elohim said: «It is not good that Adam should be alone; I will make him a helper like him, equal to him, suitable for him, and opposite to him».
What does it mean? That the male Adam had in front of him a perfect complement, somebody who was what he was not, who was different in everything, not only in gender but also in mind, feelings and behavior. In this way, they can love each other, give each other, desire each other. The Creator has done this on purpose, so that both partners are interdependent from each other, one has what the other needs, and both are incomplete by themselves and may be complete only when they become one again.
Back to Genesis 2.22, about the formation of the woman, it says:
“He made the side, which HaShem Elohim had taken from Adam, into a woman, and brought her to the man”.
The original Hebrew text begins with the word “v’yiven”, literally meaning “built”, and the whole verse would be correctly rendered as follows:
“HaShem Elohim built the side, which He had taken from Adam, into a woman, and brought her to the man”.
This verb is not used anywhere else in the account of the Creation. Why is this used properly for the formation of the woman? Because it is related by the root with the term “binah”, that means “inner understanding”, “insight”, that specifically refers to the female wisdom, what we may commonly define as the female sixth sense – although it is much more than that. Binah is the ruler of the left column of the Tree of Life.
And the Adam said: «This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man».
(Genesis 2:23)
When the male Adam saw her, he recognized that she was part of his own body, composed with his bones and flesh. That is what the expression means in Hebrew. Then he called her “ishah”, because she was taken out of himself, who since that moment was the “ish”. They were the same person, now distinguished in male and female."
