DIN Musings ....Bereishis

 

R' Moshe Chayim Luzzato in his hakdama to his famous mussar sefer "Mesilas Yesharim, writes:

הַחִבּוּר הַזֶּה לֹא חִבַּרְתִּיו לְלַמֵּד לִבְנֵי הָאָדָם אֶת אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדְעוּ, אֶלָּא לְהַזְכִּירָם אֶת הַיָּדוּעַ לָהֶם כְּבָר

“I did not write this composition in order to teach people what they do not know, but rather to remind them of what they already know.”

There are dozens of midrashim on the very first verse in Sefer Bereishis, yet Rashi chose a specific Midrash to open his famous commentary on the Torah.

אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק לֹֹֹֹֹא הָיָה צָרִיךְ לְהַתְחִיל אֶת הַתּוֹרָה אֶלָּא מֵהַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם, שֶׁהִיא מִצְוָה רִאשׁוֹנָה שֶׁנִּצְטַוּוּ בָּהּ יִשׂרָאֵל, וּמַה טַּעַם פָּתַח בִּבְרֵאשִׁית? מִשׁוּם כֹּחַ מַעֲשָׂיו הִגִּיד לְעַמּוֹ לָתֵת לָהֶם נַחֲלַת גּוֹיִם (תהילים קי"א), שֶׁאִם יֹאמְרוּ אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם לְיִשְׁרָאֵל לִסְטִים אַתֶּם, שֶׁכְּבַשְׁתֶּם אַרְצוֹת שִׁבְעָה גוֹיִם, הֵם אוֹמְרִים לָהֶם כָּל הָאָרֶץ שֶׁל הַקָּבָּ"ה הִיא, הוּא בְרָאָהּ וּנְתָנָהּ לַאֲשֶׁר יָשַׁר בְּעֵינָיו, בִּרְצוֹנוֹ נְתָנָהּ לָהֶם, וּבִרְצוֹנוֹ נְטָלָהּ מֵהֶם וּנְתָנָהּ לָנוּ:

   Rabbi Yitzchak said: The Torah did not need to begin anywhere except from “This month shall be for you…” (Exodus 12:2), because that is the first commandment with which Israel was commanded. So why does it begin with “In the beginning”? It is because: “He declared the power of His works to His people, to give them the inheritance of nations” (Psalms 111). For if the nations of the world say to Israel: “You are thieves, for you conquered the lands of the seven nations,” they can reply: “The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He. He created it and gave it to whomever was right in His eyes. It was His will to give it to them, and His will to take it from them and give it to us.”

Rashi asks: Why start the Torah with Creation when the Torah is fundamentally a book of mitzvos? Shouldn’t it begin with the first commandment—Rosh Chodesh?

His answer seems directed at the nations of the world: there will come a time that the nations of the world will claim that the Jews “stole” Eretz Yisrael. 

The Torah therefore begins by establishing that G-D created the world, and He alone assigns its lands.

Jews can then answer, "God created world and everything is His, and he decided to take it from the nations and give it to the Jewish children" 

My question is, Would any non‑Jewish nation actually be convinced by this argument?

So why does Rashi open his commentary with a statement that seems irrelevant—if not absurd—on the world stage?

The answer is simple and profound:The statement that

“The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He. He created it and gave it to whomever was right in His eyes. It was His will to give it to them, and His will to take it from them and give it to us.”

is not for goyim at all, it's for the Jews themselves!

To understand this, one must first know in what historical context Rashi wrote this.

Rashi wrote his commentary a thousand years ago, when a major catastrophe struck the Jews which was the massacres of the First Crusade in 1096.

During the Crusade, mobs of peasants and minor knights swept through the Rhineland on their way to the Holy Land. Instead of fighting Muslims, they turned violently on Jewish communities in: Worms, Mainz ,Cologne, and Lorraine

These attacks resulted in the murder of thousands of Jews, with estimates around 12,000 killed. Entire communities were wiped out, and many Jews chose mass suicide rather than forced conversion.

Rashi was 55 years old at the time. Although his hometown Troyes was spared, the centers where he studied—Mainz and Worms—were devastated. Three sons of Rashi’s teacher, Rabbi Isaac ben Eliezer Halevi, were murdered. Rashi lost friends, relatives, and colleagues to the massacres.

And in that world, the idea of Jews returning to Eretz Yisrael was not merely unrealistic—it was unimaginable.

So imagine telling the Crusaders:

“God created the world and gave Eretz Yisrael to the Jews.”

It would have been a tragic joke.

Yet Rashi chooses this Midrash as the very first words of his commentary.

Why?

Because Rashi is addressing us—the Jews who open a Chumash, who learn Torah, who care about Rashi’s words.

כֹּחַ מַעֲשָׂיו הִגִּיד לְעַמּוֹ ........“He declared the power of His works to His people,"

notice it doesn't say לעמים it states לְעַמּוֹ

The RBS"O is addressing US, his people, not the nations!

Rashi is also NOT addressing his commentary to Reform Progressive Jews who neither learn Torah nor do they study Rashi, and who deny the Torah’s authority. 

Rashi is addressing Jews that are frum, that are Charedim who say like the "Dangerous Bubby from Hell" in my sidebar, that "Eretz Yisrael now belongs to the Palestinians."

 Rashi is addressing the Torah Leaders who do not recognize the State of Israel and as one just said last week that he would "rather live in Israel under Arab rule"  

These Torah leaders, echo the very words Rashi predicted and say time and again:

"“You (Zionists) are thieves, for you conquered the lands"

Rashi writes, respond to them 

"The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He. He created it and gave it to whomever was right in His eyes. It was His will to give it to them" 

This is not a message for the nations. It is a message for Jews who have forgotten what they already know.

Just as the Ramchal wrote: “I did not write to teach what is unknown, but to remind you of what you already know.”

Rashi opens the Torah by reminding us—before anything else—of the most basic truth:

Eretz Yisrael is ours because HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave it to us.

Not because of politics. Not because of Zionists, Not because of Charedim, Not because of armies. Not because of nations. But because the Creator of the universe willed it so.

And that reminder was necessary a thousand years ago. It is no less necessary today.