The Torah tells us about the first woman in a remarkably strange way. Let’s explore the structure and sequence of the story to see what we can learn from it. Let’s start with:

וַּ֙יֹאמר ה' אֹלקים ֹלא טֹוב ה֥יֹות הָאָ֖דם לבּ֑דֹו אֱעשה לֹו עזר כנֶגדֹו

And we’d expect the next step is to have G-d create woman, much like he created everything else. Instead

וַּ֩יִצר ה' אֹלִ֜קים מן האָדמה כל חַּ֤ית השֶדה וְאת כל עֹוף השמיִם וַּיָבא אל הָאדם לראֹות מה יקָרא־֑לֹו וְכֹל אשר

יִקָרא לֹו הָאָ֛דם נפׁש חָּ֖יה הּוא שמֹו וַּיִקָ֨רא הָאָ֜דם ש֗מֹות כל הבהמה ולעֹוף השמיִם ול֖כֹל חַּ֣ית השֶ֑דה ולָאָ֕דםֹֽ לא מָ֥צא עזר כנֶגדֹו׃

First, G-d has the human name all the animals and then to observe that he has no female counterpart/companion. It appears that simply creating a woman for him would have been insufficient. The man needed to understand something about her that he would not have understood initially. Perhaps he would have taken her for granted, as simply another living creature of the world.

G-d puts the man to sleep, fashions a woman from his side, and presents her to him. The man reacts:

וַּ֘יֹאמר הָאָד֒ם זֹאת הַּ֗פעם עצם מֲעצמי ובשר מבשִ֑רי לזֹא ֙ת יִקֵ֣רא אשה כי מאיׁשֻל קחה זֹאת׃

He calls her אשה .The commentaries who focus on direct meaning explain that he realizes that she is the only woman who would come from a man’s body, and thus אשה is not her personal name, but the categorical word for women. Her personal name is חוה.

וַּיִקָ֧רא הָאָ֛דם שם אשּ֖תֹו חָּ֑וה כי הוא היְתה אם כל חי׃

But lots of things happen before we find this out. We have a whole story about a forbidden fruit. We only learn of the name חוה after the punishment. In fact it’s the first thing the man says after being punished.

What’s the difference between אשה and חוה and why do we have a story in between?

Perhaps even the act of defiance provides us with an educational moment and growth opportunity. The fruit is from the tree of knowledge—of both good and evil. Maybe the story tells us that the man learned something good too.

The word אשה defines the woman as being from the man. By naming her this, the man is saying that she is who she is because of him. So far that has been his reality. He is charged with running the world, and is offered a helper. So his view of the world and of her is egocentric. After he eats from the tree of knowledge he understands his mortality. His “immortality” will now be his children, and she will be their mother. Moreover he sees the woman is an individual, not his appendage. She will be the mother of all. His new name חוה reflects that she is who she is because of her, not him. He realizes now.