Man Created from the Place of His Atonement

And the Lord God formed man of dust from the earth, and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living soul.                       Genesis 2:7

Rabbi Berechya and Rabbi Ḥelbo, quoting Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman, say: “Man was created from the place of his atonement, as Scripture says ‘You shall make an altar of earth for Me,’ [Exodus 20:21] the Holy One, blessed be He said: ‘Behold, I create him from the place of his atonement.’”

                                                  Breishit Rabba 14:8

            Our Sages taught that Adam was created from the site of the altar on Mount Moriah, the place where he brought the first sacrifice offered to the Creator.

            Maimonides considered this point sufficiently important that he cited it at beginning of his description of the Temple altar:

It is a tradition accepted by all that the place where Abraham built the altar upon which he bound Isaac was the same place where Noah built his altar when he left the ark, and this is the altar where Cain and Abel made their offerings. And so Adam the First made his offerings there after he was created. Indeed Adam was created from there, as the Rabbis said: "Adam was created from the place where he made his atonement". [Laws of the Temple 2:2]

            Zohar [2:24b] expands the Midrashic comment and specifies:

Rabbi Shimon (quotes that which) Rabbi Ḥizkiya stated: when the Holy One, blessed be He created Man, He created him from the dust of the earthly Temple, and gave him his soul from the dust of the heavenly Temple.

That is, Man’s body was created of the dust of the earthly Temple, while the source of his soul is the dust of the heavenly Temple.

            Rabbi Moshe Alshikh writes [commentary on Leviticus 1:3] that the altar “Is at the place of the gate of heaven - which is the point of connection between this world and the upper world.” Based upon Zohar’s comment, Man is the creature who combines within itself the heavenly and the earthly, thus it is only natural “that Man connect with the source from which he was detached,” and at this place to regain closeness to his Creator.”

            Alshikh further explains that our Sages chose their words carefully and exactly. They did not say “Man achieves atonement from the place of his creation,” rather “Man was created from the place of his atonement;” indicating that “From the inception, God’s intention was to create Man from earth which is conducive to attachment to the upper sanctity, in order to facilitate his approach to holiness,” and there to achieve atonement after he sinned. “Thus, it will not be foreign to Man to repent his sins, for the earth of which he was created is the point of connection to sanctity, and it is easy to reach holiness there.”

            Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch [commentary on Genesis 12:5] writes that the implication of Man’s creation from the dust of the site of the altar is that the place of Mankind’s birth is the very place where Man is continually renewed spiritually and morally.