Selections from Rashi (vegetarian) Commentary on the Holy Tanakh: Genesis 1:26–2:07, Part 2 of 2

[And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He made. ~ Genesis 2:2, Holy Hebrew Bible (Holy Tanakh)]

[And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made. ~ Genesis 2:3, Holy Hebrew Bible (Holy Tanakh)]

[No shrub of the field was yet in the Earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the Earth, and there was not a man to till the ground; ~ Genesis 2:5, Holy Hebrew Bible (Holy Tanakh)]

[…but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. ~ Genesis 2:6, Holy Hebrew Bible (Holy Tanakh)]

[Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. ~ Genesis 2:7, Holy Hebrew Bible (Holy Tanakh)]

“Rashi on Genesis 2:7 DUST OF THE EARTH — He gathered his dust (i. e. that from which he was made) from the entire Earth — from its four corners — in order that wherever he might die, it should receive him for burial (Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudei 3). Another explanation: He took his dust from that spot on which the Holy Temple with the altar of atonement was in later times to be built of which it is said, (Exodus 20:24) ‘An altar of earth thou shall make for Me’ saying, ‘Would that this sacred earth may be an expiation for him so that he may be able to endure’ (Genesis Rabbah 14:8).

AND BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS — He made him of both, of earthly and of heavenly matter: the body of the earthly, and the soul of the heavenly. […] A LIVING SOUL — Also cattle and creatures are called, but of man is the most highly developed of all of them, because to him was granted understanding and speech.”