Breishis 2025

 1. Oddly, the family name Ashkenazi is generally found among Sefardic families, given to families with Ashkenazic roots that lived in Sefardic lands. How does this explain Adam's name?

 - You don't name a Hungarian "Hungarischer." You only give a name for a distinguishing characteristic. Every living creature on the land was created from earth. But Adam had a חלק אלוה ממעל, so the fact that he, too, was created from earth was remarkable.  

2. Who named Sheis?

 - 4:25, וַיֵּדַע אָדָם עוֹד אֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ וַתֵּלֶד בֵּן וַתִּקְרָא אֶת שְׁמוֹ שֵׁת

5:3, ויחי אדם שלשים ומאת שנה ויולד בדמותו כצלמו ויקרא את שמו שת

Chizkuni - 

ותקרא את שמו שת. אבל למטה הואיל ובא לו הכתוב לסדר סדר תולדות הדורות נכון לכתוב קריאת השם על אדם.

If the Chizkuni doesn't appeal to you, perhaps you can say that it was al pi nevuah.

3. A contranym, a word in the Parsha that has two opposite meanings. 

 - ערום. Either secretive and hidden or exposed. This is mentioned by the Rambam in the Moreh (and להבדיל, implicitly by Freud in "Über den Gegensinn der Urworte."  See Lacann at https://www.lacan.com/symptom12/a-lie.html )

4.  Regarding the term "Yam," ים. If it has no water in it, is it still called a yam?

 - Yes. See Rabbeinu Bachaya 1:10
ולמקוה המים קרא ימים. אין שם הים נקרא על המים כי אם על החפירה, וזהו שתרגם אונקלוס ולבית כנישות מיא, כלומר החפירה שהוא בית המקוה שהמים נקוים שם, וכן אמר הכתוב (ישעיה י״א ט') כמים לים מכסים כי המים מכסים את החפירה הנקרא ים, וכן בברכת הדגים או התנינים ביום חמישי אמר ומלאו את המים בימים, באר כי המים עומדים בימים, וראיה עוד הים שעשה שלמה הוא שכתוב (מ״ב י׳) ואת הים הוריד מעל הבקר, ואמר קרא ימים ולא ים לפי שהם רבים, ודרשו רז״ל שבעה ימים הם:

This shouldn't be too surprising. In English, too, the oceans are called basins - the Atlantic Basin, the Pacific Basin -  just like the Yam shel Shlomo. It's a basin with or without water.

5. Where do you see in the Parsha that people who tour Poland and Lithuania are spiritually deaf.

 - 4:10 וַיֹּאמֶר מֶה עָשִׂיתָ קוֹל דְּמֵי אָחִיךָ צֹעֲקִים אֵלַי מִן הָאֲדָמָה.
The blood is still screaming, the ashes of the people burned alive is still screaming. Don't you hear it? How can you eat? How can you sleep? How can you breath? Are you stone deaf?

6.  Four women named in the Parsha

חוה, עדה, צלה, נעמה. 

7. Did Chava have a mitzva of Piryah v'Rivyah?

See Reb Meir Simcha in Noach 9:7, who says that only after childbirth because dangerous was women excluded from the mitzva. So when Hashem said Peru u"revu, lashon rabbim, it did apply to both Adam and Chava.

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