Genesis 2:8

אשר יצר, after G’d had created man in a manner appropriate to his superior status on earth, He placed him in Gan Eden, a location which was suitable to equip him with the צלם אלוקים, the divine image, enabling him to also fulfill the intellectual tasks involving the air and food in the garden.

ויטע, the planting of Gan Eden is reported with the same verb ויטע as has been used by David in Psalms 104,16 for describing G’d as planting the cedar trees in Lebanon. At that point David described what G’d had done on the third day of creation; here too the Torah describes a garden whose origin G’d had planted already on the third day of creation. The distinction of Gan Eden is clear from the fact that no other region on earth was deemed worthy of being singled out as warranting G’d’s personal involvement.

בעדן, a location so named because it was extremely fertile, its vegetation affording man’s body extreme pleasure when merely contemplating its beauty with his eyes, and even his invisible soul enjoyed its hidden beauty.

מקדם, in an easterly direction. Our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 15,3) understand the word מקדם as describing a time frame preceding the creation of man, i.e. whereas man was created on the sixth “day,” the garden was created on the third “day.” Other scholars quoted in Bereshit Rabbah there believe that the word מקדם is a reference to a “date” prior to the creation of the universe. This explanation is based on the Kabbalah. The great scholar Avraham Ibn Ezra (verse 11) writes: “we know that the location of Gan Eden was on the equator, a region in which day and night are of equal duration all year round.

וישם שם את האדם אשר יצר, Now that the Torah told us this we know that originally, man had not been created in Gan Eden. Perhaps he had been created in a region nearby, and G’d told Adam to take up residence in Gan Eden. Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 14,8 state that man had been formed from the earth on Mount Moriah, and that from there G’d had transplanted him to Gan Eden. In Pirkey de Rabbi Eliezer chapter 31 we are told that Adam offered a sacrifice to G’d on Mount Moriah already. Also Adam’s sons, as well as Noach sacrificed to G’d on that mountain. The reason why when the Torah tells us about Avraham building המזבח “the” altar instead of simply ויבן אברהם מזבח, “Avraham built an altar,” is that this altar had already existed, had been known since Noach’s sacrifice. Adam had prophetic inspiration telling him of the significance of that location for offering a sacrifice. Still, G’d brought Adam to Gan Eden in order for him to appreciate the excellence of its fruit and eating of it without having to toil, deriving great satisfaction both for his body and his soul.