More on Equality

We can now understand the second half of G-d's declaration in chapter two: "e' eseh lo eizer kenegdo,"usually translated as "I will make him a help meet [=suitable] for him" or, midrashically, "opposed to him." The form keneged with a kaf is found nowhere else in Scripture, and we must therefore rely on Talmudic parallels. The simplest meaning is undoubtedly "equal to him," as in "talmud Torah keneged kulam," "the study of Torah is equal to them all, and many similar statements.

G-d created woman equal to man in order to assist him in fulfilling the commandment, and the reason is clear: to truly influence man for good or for ill, his helper had to rival him in intellect and comprehension. Thus, in chapter two, "G-d formed ... all the beasts of the field and all the birds of heaven and brought them to man ... and did not find him an eizer kenegdo," because man is not swayed by an inferior being. A horse or a dog can provide companionship, but cannot prevail upon man to observe G-d's Word. Only woman, woven from the same cloth as was man, "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh," was equal to him and equal to the task.

R' Yehuda Herzel Henkin. Equality Lost, p. 15

R' Henkin, a grandson of the Goan R' Eliyahu Henkin, is a Modern Orthodox posek in Israel