God’s restoration of the man’s Rib—now turned into a woman---is perhaps best reflected each time the marital act is consummated. Parts of a woman's body (her legs and thighs) are on either side of her husband's Rib cage, and the rest of her body is over the cavity where the once-"missing" Rib would otherwise be located.

A woman thus becomes a man’s "tabernacle" and shelter, thus suggesting the basis for this Talmudic saying:

New life can thus be conceived, as provided for by the laws of nature, whose Author is God. What is interesting is that the Hebrew word used for "Rib"

The Hebrew word for "husband" is

The Hebrew word for "wife" is

What is interesting is that both these words have in common the letters for the word "fire":

The Talmud (Sotah 17a) thus states: "When husband and wife are worthy the Shechinah (ie, God) is with them; when they are not worthy fire consumes them." Another way of looking at this is that, unless God is invited into their bedroom and their marriage in general, their sexual relationship will ultimately be consumed by the fire of unmitigated lust. Perhaps this is part of the basis for 1 Corinthians 7:5

This is perhaps the best Biblical basis there is for what is necessary if Natural Family Planning is to be used properly and with the correct motives. That, as well as all aspects of marriage and family life, is truly a team effort involving the husband, the wife, and God [and later the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ (cf Genesis 18:10; Matthew 18:5) in their midst—ie, the kids.]

This is the basis for the following verse from the Talmud:

If your wife is short, bend down and whisper to her (Baba Metzia 59a)

In a similar way, God the Father trusts in the "good counsel" of His Mercy (a feminine "characteristic---see NOTE below), as was demonstrated, perhaps most indelibly, by the Flood (cf Genesis 6:8-18). His Justice demanded that he destroy everything (Genesis 6:7). The "good counsel" of His Mercy instead preserved a remnant from a cleansing (with water). In this manner, Mercy and Justice are "wed" to one another (cf Psalm 85:11), and God’s Mercy, which endures forever (Psalm 136) and transcends both space and time, surrounds God as His Glory in the same basic way that:

• A woman surrounds (ie, encompasses) a man (cf Jeremiah 31:22) as the glory of all mankind; and,



• Mankind, as represented by His Church, is likewise His Glory (1 Corinthians 11:7).