The first Rashi in the Torah asks: Why did the Torah start with the story of Bereishit (accounting of the creation of the world)? It would make more sense if the Torah began with the first Mitzvah of "Hachodesh", the laws of sanctifying the new month.
The simple explanation is that in case that the nations of the world should say to Israel: "You are robbers, for you seized by force the lands of the seven nations [of Kena?an]", they [Israel] could say to them, "the entire world belongs to G-d (lit. the whole land), He created it and gave it to whoever was right in his eyes. Of His own will He gave it to them and of His own will He took it from them and gave it to us."
THE QUESTIONS
1) The Ramban asks: What is wrong with telling us about the creation. Isn?t belief in G-d also a Mitzvah, the foundation of everything?
2) What about the stories in the Torah which are after ?Hachodesh?? They are not Mitzvot, yet Rashi does not seem to have a problem with them.
3) How can Rashi say that up until ?Hachodesh? the Torah only teaches us history? What about all the other Mitzvot written there, the commandments involving having children, Brit Milah and Gid Hanashe?
4) The entire world belongs to G-d". This is understood from the first verse in the Torah. What then do the stories of Noach, Avraham etc. add to that information?
5) "You stole the land from the 7 nations". Noach gave the land of Israel to his son Shem (from whom the Jewish people are directly descended). Kena'an later took it away from Shem. What then is their claim on the land? If anything WE should have a claim against THEM?
6) How can it be said that conquering land is considered theft? Even according to the Noachide laws, (which includes theft) there still has not been a nation that considered conquering land to be stealing.
7) "The entire world belongs to G-d". How does this help argue that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people? Would it not be enough to say, "Israel (and only Israel) belongs to G-d"? . What idea does mentioning Hashem?s possession of the "rest of the world" bring to light?
8) "The entire world belongs to G-d". Shouldn?t this fact be mentioned first? "He gave it to whoever was right in his eyes. Of His own will He gave it to them and of His own will He took it from them and gave it to us".
9) Why is the term "WHOMEVER" (was right in his eyes) general, yet "He took it from THEM and gave it to US", specific?
10) "Of His own will He gave it to them". Why is this part of the answer? Why do we have to know He gave it to them? Isn?t the point that it was given to US!?
11) "Of His own will He gave it to them". Where in the Torah do we find that He actually gave it to them willingly?
THE EXPLANATION
"Hachodesh" was the first Mitzvah given to us as a Jewish nation after leaving Egypt. Any Mitzvot mentioned earlier, (like Brit Milah), though it made us different from the other nations, it did not make us "The Chosen Nation". (The Torah teaches us that not all gentile nations are to be treated equally. There are laws that tell us the different ways to deal with specific nations, Edom and Amon for instance.) Before ?Hachodesh,? the Jewish people had been DIFFERENT but not given the title of ?G-d?s chosen nation?. Therefore, Mitzvot given prior to ?Hachodesh? would not be needed to be written in the Torah. They could have been written in a separate book or transmitted from father to son, just as the other nations in the world went about teaching their children the 7 Noachide laws. (3)
When we conquered the land we caused an essential change in the land itself. It became the HOLY LAND. This is not like regular physical war. We STOLE it because unlike other seized (!) lands this one could never again become a regular country. (5,6)
This is why we say the WHOLE land (world) belongs to him. It wasn?t only territory that was conquered; it was the inner, deeper dimension that was taken with it.How was that made possible? Because "HE created it". This line is not coming to tell us who OWNS it, rather it telling us that it was created by G-d with a deeper dimension as well. (7,8)
This, however, is not a satisfactory answer for the nations. They can still claim that it is not fair to take away the opportunity from any nation in the world to take the land back from the Jewish people. Before it became the Holy Land, it was like any regular country where the strongest nation could and would own it. By making it holy the entire world was robbed of the possibility to seize it.To that we answer: "He created it and gave it" ?in His mind already then, at the time of creation, ?to whoever was right in his eyes? i.e. the Jewish people. (9)
Now we have reason to complain! If the land always belonged to us, why then did Hashem ?steal? it from US for so long? If in His mind it belonged to us already since creation, why did it have to pass through other hands first?"Of His own will He gave it to them and of His own will He took it from them and gave it to us ". The same will that decided to give it to us gave it to them for so long. Hashem wanted us to get the land by conquering it from the nations. A Jew always has to transform worldly matters (land that belongs to gentile nations) and make them holy. We have to read it as follows: "The divine will that decided right from the beginning that this land would belong to the chosen nation, wanted that it should first belong to other nations in order that the Jews would have to conquer it from them. (10,11)
Now we can understand why all the stories are included in the Torah. First we learn that the land goes to Shem. As soon as Kena?an takes it away (G-d?s intention being that it should belong to gentiles), Hashem tells Avraham that the land actually belongs to his descendants but they would first have to go through Egypt in order to ?work? for it. Following Yetziat Mitzraim is the account of all that transpired until we actually ended up in the Promised Land. All the stories in the Torah deal with the journey to the final destination. (1,2)
Torah means teachings. Aside for this being an argument against any gentile claims on the land, what lesson does all this come to teach us in our personal lives?
Before we reach the level of being the "chosen nation", living higher than the world, we have to deal with the gentiles, our inner ?gentile?, the stranger in us who doesn?t recognize Hashem.
May we merit to see the time when all the nations of the world will know that He created the world and made us His chosen nation and gave us our Holy Land with the coming of Moshiach NOW!
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TorahThoughts@walla.co.il
The simple explanation is that in case that the nations of the world should say to Israel: "You are robbers, for you seized by force the lands of the seven nations [of Kena?an]", they [Israel] could say to them, "the entire world belongs to G-d (lit. the whole land), He created it and gave it to whoever was right in his eyes. Of His own will He gave it to them and of His own will He took it from them and gave it to us."
THE QUESTIONS
1) The Ramban asks: What is wrong with telling us about the creation. Isn?t belief in G-d also a Mitzvah, the foundation of everything?
2) What about the stories in the Torah which are after ?Hachodesh?? They are not Mitzvot, yet Rashi does not seem to have a problem with them.
3) How can Rashi say that up until ?Hachodesh? the Torah only teaches us history? What about all the other Mitzvot written there, the commandments involving having children, Brit Milah and Gid Hanashe?
4) The entire world belongs to G-d". This is understood from the first verse in the Torah. What then do the stories of Noach, Avraham etc. add to that information?
5) "You stole the land from the 7 nations". Noach gave the land of Israel to his son Shem (from whom the Jewish people are directly descended). Kena'an later took it away from Shem. What then is their claim on the land? If anything WE should have a claim against THEM?
6) How can it be said that conquering land is considered theft? Even according to the Noachide laws, (which includes theft) there still has not been a nation that considered conquering land to be stealing.
7) "The entire world belongs to G-d". How does this help argue that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people? Would it not be enough to say, "Israel (and only Israel) belongs to G-d"? . What idea does mentioning Hashem?s possession of the "rest of the world" bring to light?
8) "The entire world belongs to G-d". Shouldn?t this fact be mentioned first? "He gave it to whoever was right in his eyes. Of His own will He gave it to them and of His own will He took it from them and gave it to us".
9) Why is the term "WHOMEVER" (was right in his eyes) general, yet "He took it from THEM and gave it to US", specific?
10) "Of His own will He gave it to them". Why is this part of the answer? Why do we have to know He gave it to them? Isn?t the point that it was given to US!?
11) "Of His own will He gave it to them". Where in the Torah do we find that He actually gave it to them willingly?
THE EXPLANATION
"Hachodesh" was the first Mitzvah given to us as a Jewish nation after leaving Egypt. Any Mitzvot mentioned earlier, (like Brit Milah), though it made us different from the other nations, it did not make us "The Chosen Nation". (The Torah teaches us that not all gentile nations are to be treated equally. There are laws that tell us the different ways to deal with specific nations, Edom and Amon for instance.) Before ?Hachodesh,? the Jewish people had been DIFFERENT but not given the title of ?G-d?s chosen nation?. Therefore, Mitzvot given prior to ?Hachodesh? would not be needed to be written in the Torah. They could have been written in a separate book or transmitted from father to son, just as the other nations in the world went about teaching their children the 7 Noachide laws. (3)
When we conquered the land we caused an essential change in the land itself. It became the HOLY LAND. This is not like regular physical war. We STOLE it because unlike other seized (!) lands this one could never again become a regular country. (5,6)
This is why we say the WHOLE land (world) belongs to him. It wasn?t only territory that was conquered; it was the inner, deeper dimension that was taken with it.How was that made possible? Because "HE created it". This line is not coming to tell us who OWNS it, rather it telling us that it was created by G-d with a deeper dimension as well. (7,8)
This, however, is not a satisfactory answer for the nations. They can still claim that it is not fair to take away the opportunity from any nation in the world to take the land back from the Jewish people. Before it became the Holy Land, it was like any regular country where the strongest nation could and would own it. By making it holy the entire world was robbed of the possibility to seize it.To that we answer: "He created it and gave it" ?in His mind already then, at the time of creation, ?to whoever was right in his eyes? i.e. the Jewish people. (9)
Now we have reason to complain! If the land always belonged to us, why then did Hashem ?steal? it from US for so long? If in His mind it belonged to us already since creation, why did it have to pass through other hands first?"Of His own will He gave it to them and of His own will He took it from them and gave it to us ". The same will that decided to give it to us gave it to them for so long. Hashem wanted us to get the land by conquering it from the nations. A Jew always has to transform worldly matters (land that belongs to gentile nations) and make them holy. We have to read it as follows: "The divine will that decided right from the beginning that this land would belong to the chosen nation, wanted that it should first belong to other nations in order that the Jews would have to conquer it from them. (10,11)
Now we can understand why all the stories are included in the Torah. First we learn that the land goes to Shem. As soon as Kena?an takes it away (G-d?s intention being that it should belong to gentiles), Hashem tells Avraham that the land actually belongs to his descendants but they would first have to go through Egypt in order to ?work? for it. Following Yetziat Mitzraim is the account of all that transpired until we actually ended up in the Promised Land. All the stories in the Torah deal with the journey to the final destination. (1,2)
Torah means teachings. Aside for this being an argument against any gentile claims on the land, what lesson does all this come to teach us in our personal lives?
Before we reach the level of being the "chosen nation", living higher than the world, we have to deal with the gentiles, our inner ?gentile?, the stranger in us who doesn?t recognize Hashem.
May we merit to see the time when all the nations of the world will know that He created the world and made us His chosen nation and gave us our Holy Land with the coming of Moshiach NOW!
--------------------------------------
TorahThoughts@walla.co.il