פרשת בראשית תשי"ב - בהשוואת פרק א' ופרק ב'

No shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground;

טרם יהיה בארץ WAS NOT YET IN THE EARTH — Wherever טרם occurs in the Scriptures it means “not yet” and does not mean “before”. It cannot be made into a verbal form, saying הטרים as one says הקדים (verbal form of קדם) and this passage proves that this is the meaning and not "before" as well as another (Exodus 9:30), כי טרם תראון “that ye do not yet fear the Lord”. Therefore you must explain this verse also thus: “No plant of the field was yet in the earth” at the time when the creation of the world was completed on the sixth day before man was created, and וכל עשב השדה טרם יצמח means “and every herb of the field had not yet grown”. But as regards the third day of creation about which it is written “The earth brought forth etc.” this does not signify that they came forth above the ground but that they remained at the opening of the ground (i. e. just below the surface) until the sixth day (Chullin 60a). כי לא המטיר BECAUSE GOD HAD NOT CAUSED IT TO RAIN — And what is the reason that God had not caused it to rain? כי אדם אין לעבוד את האדמה BECAUSE THERE WAS NO MAN TO TILL THE GROUND, and there was, therefore, no one to recognize the utility of rain. When Adam came (was created), however, and he realised that it was necessary for the world, he prayed for it and it fell, so that trees and verdure sprang forth.

No shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground;

And the LORD God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.

מקדם EASTWARD — In the east of Eden He planted the garden. Should you say, however, it is already written, (1:27) “and He created the man etc.”, then I say that I have seen the Baraitha of R. Eliezer the son of R. José the Galilean, dealing with the thirty two rules of interpretation according to which the Torah (Agada) can be interpreted, and the following is one of them: when a general statement of an action is followed by a detailed account of it, the latter is a particularisation of the former: — “And He created the man” is a general statement, but it does not explicitly state whence he was created and what God did unto him. Now it repeats it and explains these things: “And the Lord God formed man”, “and He made to grow for him the garden of Eden”, and He caused a deep sleep to fall upon him.” He who hears this might think that it is a different account entirely, whereas it is nothing else but the details of the former general statement. Similarly with reference to the cattle the creation of which has been mentioned above (1:27). it resumes and writes, (2:19) “and out of the ground the Lord [God] formed every beast of the field etc.”, for the purpose of explaining “and He brought them unto the man to give them names”, and also to state that the fowls were created from the swamps.

And the LORD God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

ויצא יעקב AND JACOB WENT OUT— Owing to the fact that it was because the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Isaac, his father, that Esau went to Ishmael, Scripture broke off the narrative contained, in the section dealing with Jacob, and wrote (verse 6 till verse 9), “Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed [Jacob] etc., that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Isaac and so he went to Ishmael” and when it finished this (the account of Esau’s further marriage) it resumes the previous subject.

ויאמר משה לפני ה׳ AND MOSES SAID BEFORE THE LORD — This is the statement which he made above, (v. 12), “Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me”. Scripture repeats it here, because it broke off the narrative for the reason already given. So is the method of the historian — just as a person who says, “let us return to the previous subject”.

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

ולשמרה, “and to protect it against animals that would trample it.” The Torah speaks of a period prior to when the angels with drawn swords would prevent entry into Gan Eden. An alternate exegesis of these two words: the word לעבדה, is to be understood as in Exodus 20,8, i.e. ששת ימים תעבוד, “during the six days you are to work, etc;” and the word: לשמרה, is to be understood as in Deuteronomy 5,12: שמור את יום השבת, “observe the Sabbath,” in other words, G-d commanded Adam already at that time to observe the seventh day of the week as we observe the Sabbath after the Torah had been given, by not performing work on it.

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.