Adam אדם הראשון

Adam is created last on the sixth day, formed from the dust of the earth and filled with the breath of life. The sages stress that humanity began with a single person so that no one could claim a nobler ancestry, and so that each person would know the world was worth creating for his sake alone. His first act is not rule but speech: he names every animal, understanding the world by naming it.

Placed in Eden to work and guard it, he is given one prohibition—and breaks it that same day. Asked "where are you?", he answers by blaming his wife. Exile, hard labour and mortality follow.

He fathers Kayin and Hevel, lives through the world's first murder, and at 130 fathers Shet, through whom the line runs to Noach and Avraham. Adam dies in the year 930. Tradition says he gave seventy of his years to King David, which is why he fell short of a thousand.

On counting the years. The year of Creation is the world's first year: there is no year zero. Adam's first year of life is therefore year 1, and his nine hundred and thirtieth is year 930 from Creation, exactly as the Torah says. The difference between 930 and 1 falls one short of his lifespan for that reason, not through an error.