We are all aware of the very first Rashi written on Chumash..It's very simple, not complicated at all, for 5 year-olds learn it and understand it.
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!