This is the primordial fracture that directly resulted in mankind's fall into time and duality. Before the fall, all human souls existed as a single, unified structure within Adam HaRishon (the First Man), where every male and female pairing (zivug) existed in supernal harmony. When that collective soul shattered, its divine sparks descended into the realm of time and physicality, tearing the original male and female halves apart and scattering them across generations of reincarnations (gilgulim). Because the soul became laden with spiritual flaws and debts during the fall, the original halves cannot easily unite in an unrectified world. This is where secondary (zivug sheini) or karmic pairings fulfill their purpose: they serve as spiritual crucibles, refining individual soul-sparks and paying off spiritual debts through necessary growth and hardship. Ultimately, the unification of the zivug rishon over time—across incarnations, and through the incremental repair achieved in secondary pairings—is precisely what repairs the original breach in Eden. Each individual tikkun reunites a scattered spark, gradually undoing the cosmic division of the world and restoring creation to its primal unity. ​"When Adam sinned, his soul—which contained all the souls of mankind—was shattered into countless sparks, separating the male and female elements. All of history, through all generations and reincarnations, is nothing other than the labor of gathering those scattered sparks and rejoining the male and female halves, thereby undoing the breach of the primordial serpent and restoring the upper unity." — Rabbi Isaac Luria (The Ari), Sefer HaLikkutim