Chava (חַוָּה) is formed from Adam's rib — or side, as some render tzela — as his corresponding partner. Adam names her Chava because "she is the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20). She is the first woman in the Hebrew scriptures and the matriarch of the entire human race.
In the Garden of Eden, Chava is the first to encounter the serpent's speech and the first to eat from the forbidden fruit. When confronted by God, she says plainly: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." The consequences — pain in childbirth, the ongoing tension between desire and authority — follow her out of Eden. Yet God himself makes garments of skin to clothe them before the exile.
Chava names her sons with theological precision: Kayin — "I have acquired a man with God" — and after Abel's death, Shet — "God has appointed another seed in place of Abel, whom Kayin slew" (Genesis 4:25). Every Israelite, every nation of the Table of Nations, and every royal lineage runs through her. She is the mother of all the living.
