Rashi asks if the Torah is a "book of laws" a Sefer of Halachos, on how a Jew must behave, then why did the Torah start with the narrative of how the world was created? After all, the Torah isn't a book of stories. The Torah should have started with the very first mitzvah, which is "Kiddush Ha'Choidesh" "Sanctifying the New Month" ....
Rashi answers that Hashem is teaching us a fundamental lesson.
The Torah wants you to know , that their will come a time when the "nations of the world will yell at you and scream "You are bandits, for conquering the Land of Canaan" so it's important for you to know the answer:
"Hashem is the One Who created the world, and therefore the entire world is His and He is the one Who decided to take Eretz Yisrael from the Canaanites and give it to us, the Jewish people. " Period!
This Rashi is very straight forward, and the "Sifsei Chachamim" who explains Rashi understood it this way, and the Ramban also understood it this way. I have not seen anyone explain this Rashi any other way. In fact this is not Rashi's original words, Rashi is simply quoting the Midrash Rabba .
Comes along Rav Shmuel Bloom, in the year 2021, 960 years after everyone understood the Rashi the way we just learnt it and quotes in the Flatbush Jewish Journal no less, R' Yaakov Reisman, who quotes his father-in-law, R' Gifter. and says that that is NOT what Rashi means to say.
"Could Rashi really have meant that when the Arabs throw us out of Eretz Yisrael, we should simply open a chumash and with that we'll win the argument and they'll desist?"
Before we see how they learn this Rashi...
I want to ask
Why didn't Yehoshua when he conquered Eretz Yisrael tell the Canaanites that
"Hashem created the world, he wants you guys out and wants us in?"
It's quite obvious that this argument that originated in the Medrish and quoted by Rashi is not meant for the Canaanites, and certainly not for the Arabs.... No one is foolish enough to think that by showing Abbas this Rashi, he will say "Gut Ge'zugt" you are right! There isn't a single soul in the entire world that thinks that by showing any goy this Rashi that he will "desist," otherwise the very first conquerer, Yehoshua, would have simply shown this Medrish to the Canaanites, instead he gathered an army (Shhhhhhh, don't tell anyone) and fought the Canaanites until his demise and never actually finished the job.
The understanding of why the Torah starts with Creation and not with the first Halacha, was meant solely for Jews, who believe that G-d Created the world and that He decided to give Eretz Yisrael to us...
This lesson that Hashem is teaching us by opening the Torah with the story of Creation is for those of us who live in Chutz Le'aarez who are not sure that this is what Hashem wants... so Hashem turned over the Torah on its head, so to speak, and gave us first, the narrative of Creation, to tell us "Come Home" and should the Goyim tell you "You are thieves" know that I Created the world and I'm giving it to you....Before you learn any halachos about how to be a Jew, before I teach you "Kiddush Ha'Choidesh" know that Eretz Yisrael belongs to you ..
The message is for the Jews, it's not for the Arafats and Abbas' of the world ....
Rashi actually says that:
כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו
"The power of His acts He told His people"
We have in the same Torah a narrative of how Avraham bought and paid good money for the Mearas Ha'machpeilah, we have a narrative how Yaakov bought Kever Rachel and Shchem, we have the narrative how Dovid Ha'melech bought the Har Ha'Bayis ... and interestingly enough it's those very properties that the UN says doesn't belong to us .... so there isn't any Jew who thinks ..."Oh I'll open the Chumash and show it to the Arabs and they will "desist" ...
It's for us ..... Helllllo??? Is anyone home?
It's for us, to give us the courage, the tenacity to fight for what belongs to us...not to give up .... Yes! Eretz Yisrael comes with struggles, comes with pain, but for those who live there, there is blessings promised by none other than our Creator.
R' Bloom quotes, R' Reisman who quotes R' Gifter who asks a question that no one asks, because it's obvious .....
" "Could Rashi really have meant that when the Arabs throw us out of Eretz Yisrael, we should simply open a chumash and with that we'll win the argument and they'll desist?"
The truth is that R' Bloom is not asking this question either ...he just wants his readers to see the answer...which is
"What Rashi is telling us that if they are trying to take Eretz Yisrael from us, it is because Hakodosh Boruch Hu, Who Created the world and runs the world, feels that we don't deserve it, Rashi is talking to us and saying that we have to realize that everything we have is because Hakodosh Boruch Hu has given it to us"
Really?
Yes it's a nice pshat and who am I to disagree with R' Bloom who quotes R' Reisman who quotes R' Gifter .....and I agree 100% with the premise and what he said and it's something to keep in mind.. it's also a great Shalosh Seuda "toirele" for R' Reisman to tell the "fat cats" that daven in his shul, who are waiting for something to come down from heaven and miraculously take them to EY, something the Rambam says will never ever happen!
But that is NOT what Rashi and the Midrash Rabba say on this pasuk ....and it is absolutely NOT what Rashi or for that matter the Midrash say on why the Torah started with the narrative of Creation!
What we all agree on is that Hashem is talking to us....and the message here is very apparent to anyone even a child. And with all due respect to R' Gifter, ..........
Rashi and the Midrash could have easily written what R' Gifter said Rashi meant ...
but Rashi and the Midrash chose not to write that.....
So why take a shoehorn to squeeze words into Rashi that he never said or meant?
To give them a license to stay put in Chutz Le'arretz ...as R' Gifter was no fan of the State of Israel
Question: What happened to Telz in Europe? What happened to Telz in Cleveland?
If they would have learnt pshat in Rashi like a 5 year-old child does, and not use the fat thumb to twist and turn a simple straight forward understanding of Rashi, they would have gotten the message to come home!
12 comments:
Classis DIN - wrong R' Reisman
See rambn
Rabbi Yisroel Reisman of Ave S Agudah is NOT Rav Gifter's eidim.
Rav Gifter's eidim is Rabbi Yankel Reisman who Shmuel "Boom Boom" Bloom shtupped into the shteller at Far Rockaway's Agudah of Long Island.
But Bloom's shilling for RYK was another farce, like when he told the national Agudah Fressers that he was going to bring them all the big money from Lawrence. The makka bepatish for Bloom was the PR disaster he created with his fanatic defense of child molesters, so shortly after national Agudah pushed him out, the shul got rid of RYK too.
From the introduction to the great book TO DWELL IN THE PALACE ( Tzvia-Ehrich Klein) by Rav Zev Leff .. "Where is the religious Aliya from the West?"
(Re: Quote by 1st Rashi in Chumash)...
.... This answer is NOT for the nations; obviously, they do not accept it.
Rather is WE who are supposed to see clearly that Eretz Yisroel is legitimately ours, given to us by Hashem....
He also quotes Rav Sonnenfeld ( no Zionist ) :
... Many times have I directed that the religious Jews in the diaspora be instructed that anyone who has the ability to come to Eretz Yisroel and doesn't , will have to account for his failure in the future world. ( Ha'ish Al Hachochma, vol 11, p. 49)
The warning that Hashem will chase us out , (and did chased us out of EY several times) due to our sins is recorded many times in these running parshiot and doesn't need pilpul.
I'll add that it's a fact that HE also chased us out of galut countries via pogroms and worse.
The Return to Zion has begun with the Remo Conference, League of Nations, Balfour,,,etc. The going is sometimes tough because we need tshuvah evidently... so it yo-yo's ... A couple of giant steps forward , then some back , the forward again.
Rather that rabbonim should be talking about that , than offer pshatim and chiddushim while in Lakewood, Brooklyn, Tchikaago, Mexico City , or elsewhere.
One thing's for sure... Hashem is coming after Uncle Sam now.... big time.. Going & gone..
IDK why we have to dig pshatim that HE can take it from us and be negative about it. We know that already.
That Rashi is for us.. Biden, Obama & Giggling Kamala don't read Rashiis.
Der Groisser Tzileiger
***...R' Bloom quotes, R' Reisman who quotes R' Gifter who asks a question that no one asks, because it's obvious ...
Comes along Rav Shmuel Bloom, in the year 2021, 960 years after everyone understood the Rashi the way we just learnt it and quotes in the Flatbush Jewish Journal no less, R' Yisrael Reisman, who quotes his father-in-law, R' Gifter. and says that that is NOT what Rashi means to say...***
He concocts a pshat out of thin air. What’s the problem with that? What are you complaining about? Chazal and the Gedolim have been fabricating these tall-tale interpretations from time of immemorial. You just don’t like the message that R’ Bloom is communicating.
It’s similar to what their “pshat” has done to the plain and obvious meaning of Shir Hashirim. It’s an erotic live poem, not some elaborate metaphor of Hashem’s amorous feeling for his Klal Yisroel. Just more of the same manipulative gobbledygook.
As was made clear by Lewis Carroll:
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
A couple of years ago before Covid , some of you will remember the advertised hooplah about establishing a "growing frum " community in Rochester, N.Y.
Ads and ads advertising shul, mikvah , yeshivot, suburban life , blah, blah.
Well, they got a pretty famous rav speaker,Torah tapes darshan and so on, to appear in their ads promoting this new "Jerusalem."
Recall, that riots by BLM and other goons tore the city apart , and I've not seen or heard anymore about this lovely Galut city.
Have you ?
Let this be an example.
Hey, you fat cats in Mexico City , promoting yeshiva, kollel , affordable housing and hot fajitas and flaming salsa served along with tacos are playing a losing game. I read that prominent famous singers flew in for the event to push & promote with dance and song.. Moshiach ...!!!! Yeah..!!
Gevald... Mexico City...! Unbelievable !
People worried about EW being taken away while wearing straw sombreros and /or chowing down in YomTov getaways in Croatia tours ... You know, pointing out the old BAVISTE places of once Jewish life.. A lone synagogue, cemeteries, and pictures... Always pictures and selfies.
the Derby ...listening to La Bamba .
I don't understand why you are making light of the difficulty with that Rashi. And you "pshat" is nice, but it is also somewhat forced be Rashi EXPLICITLY says שאם יאמרו אומות העולם וכ'ו הם אומרים להם...פפ which is clearly "mashmah" that we do in fact tell THEM!!
Rav Gifter's pshat, I agree, is even more forced.
Maybe we can explain Rashi as follows: Rashi is not discussing a conversation that we had with "Abbas" or anyone from the "7 Umos" that we were to completely conquer. And to them there is clearly no talking or conversation.
This is only an answer to the UN types, the אומות העולם, that accuse us for just being indiscriminate ליסטים with no real claim to the land (colonialists etc..) to that we say and explain TO THEM that we are working under a very specific law and system.
Classic DIN - thinks he understands Rashi and Hashkafas Yisroel better thN R' Gifter ZT"L
Hashem swore this land to our avos and offspring forever. Temporarily he removed us but in the long run he will , and IS, returning it to us.
Hard to accept that Rashi's opening commentary on chumash will deal with a negative. Right away he writes that Hashem can send us out ?? How about HE can send us out of Der Alter Heim ..And did.. And it wouldn't hurt for Israel to proclaim once and for all to the entire world bekol ram that EY belongs to us.
Inmitten Derrinen
5:38
I don't know if R' Gifter actually said that ..it could be that "Fruit of the Bloom" made it up...
But if R' Gifter said it then as Din put it ... it was not the question that R' Gifter asked but it was about the answer...
and R' Gifter was putting words into the mouth of Rashi...
Rashi was talking about G-d TAKING Eretz Yisrael FROM the goyim...
and R' Gifter is talking about G-d taking the land from the JEWS...
As DIN pointed out ...that was not what Rashi had in mind ..
5:38
With this particular Rashi it seems that not only DIN but a 6 year-old child understands the Rashi better than R' Gifter.... R' Gifter said something that Rashi didn't say, and as DIN said "Rashi could have easily written what R' Gifter said but chose not to"
The spell check managed to switch the RYR in my earlier post to RYK.
Shmuel "Boom Boom" Bloom was the one who pushed for Yankel Reisman to be rov of his Agudah shul.
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