Chumash Midterm; The everything

(1) בראשית IN THE BEGINNING — Rabbi Isaac said: The Torah which is the Law book of Israel should have commenced with the verse (Exodus 12:1) “This month shall be unto you the first of the months” which is the first commandment given to Israel. What is the reason, then, that it commences with the account of the Creation? Because of the thought expressed in the text (Psalms 111:6) “He declared to His people the strength of His works (i.e. He gave an account of the work of Creation), in order that He might give them the heritage of the nations.” For should the peoples of the world say to Israel, “You are robbers, because you took by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan”, Israel may reply to them, “All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whom He pleased. When He willed He gave it to them, and when He willed He took it from them and gave it to us” (Yalkut Shimoni Exodus 12:2).

(1) In the beginning, God created: (quotes rashi)Rabbi Yitshak said: "The Torah should not have been begun except from 'This month is for you,' (Exodus 12:2) which is the first commandment that Israel was commanded. And what is the reason that it opened with 'In the beginning?' So that if the nations of the world would say: 'you are thieves, since you conquered for yourselves the lands of the seven nations,' they would respond to them, 'all the earth is the Holy One's, blessed be He and He gave it to whomever it was fit in his eyes; and by His will He gave it to them and by His will, He took it from them and gave it to us.'" (Ends quoting Rashi)

And this is a tale in the words that our Rabbi Shlomo (Rashi) wrote in his commentaries.

And one can question it, because there is great need to begin the Torah with "In the beginning God created" for it is the root of faith; and one who doesn't believe this and believes that the world is primordial is an apostate and has no Torah whatsoever.

And the answer, it is because the work of creation - it is a deep secret - is not intelligible from the verses, and will not be understood by its students except through the received tradition up until Moses our Master from the mouth of God [lit. "The Strength"], and those who know it are required to hide it. (That Bereishis does not help a non believer believe, it only helps already believers understand)

Therefore Rabbi Isaac said that beginning of the Torah doesn't require "In the beginning God created" and the story of what was created on the first day, and what was done on the second day and the remaining days, and the lengthy telling of the creation of Adam and Eve, and their sin and punishment, and the story of the Garden of Eden and Adam's exile from it, for all this cannot be understood with full understanding from the texts. And all the more so the story of the generation of the Deluge and the Division, for there is not great need of them. (It could have just said, expanding on Rashi's question) And it would be sufficient for the people of the Torah without these texts, and they would believe in the general information that was mentioned to them in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:10): "For in six days God created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all they contain, and He rested on the seventh day", and the knowledge would remain to the few individuals among them, as 'a law given to Moses from Sinai" (halacha leMoshe miSinai), along with the Oral Law.

(So Ramban just agreed with Rashi's question and is about to agree with his answer) And Rabbi Isaac gave a reason for this, that the Torah began with "In the beginning God created" and the story of the whole topic of creation until the creation of Adam, and that He made him ruler over the work of His hands and all that was given over beneath his feet, and the Garden of Eden - which is the best of all the places created in this world - became established for his dwelling, until his sin drove him from there. And the people of the generation of the Deluge, by their sin were driven from the entire world, and the righteous one among them alone was spared, him and his sons. And their descendants, their sin caused them to be scattered in places and planted in lands, and they captured for themselves the places according to their families among their peoples, as the opportunities arose to them. If so, it is appropriate that when a people continues to sin, it will be destroyed from its place and another people will inherit his land, for this is the law of God in the world from always. And all the more so with what is told in the text that Canaan is cursed and was sold as an eternal slave, and it is not appropriate that he inherits the choicest places of settlement, but it will be inherited by the slaves of God, the seed of he who loved Him, like the matter which is written (Psalms 105:44), "And He gave them the lands of nations and the labor of peoples they shall inherit so that they shall keep His laws and guard His instructions." That is to say, He chased out those who rebelled against Him, and settled in His servants, so that they would know that by serving Him they possess it - and if they sin against Him, the land will vomit them up as it vomited up the nation before them. (and they can get it back) And in order to elucidate the commentary that I have written [above, here] is the [Sages'] language in Bereishit Rabbah 1:3, who stated it in the following language: "Rabbi Yehoshua of Sakhnin opened in the name of Rabbi Levi, '"The strength of his actions He told His people" (Psalms 111:6); what is the reason that the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed to Israel, what He created on the first day and what He created on the second day? Because of the seven [Canaanite] nations, so that they should not designate Israel and say to them, "Are you not a nation of looting?" and Israel will respond to them, "And you, is [the land] not looted in your hands, is it not [written] (Deuteronomy 2:23), 'the Kaftorim that came out of Kaftor destroyed them and dwelt in their place.' The world and its fullness [belong to] the Holy One, blessed be He: when He wanted, He gave it to you; when He wanted, He took it from you and gave it to us. That is what is written (Psalms 111:6), 'to give them the inheritance of the peoples,' [and so, it is stated in the first part of the verse,] 'The strength of his actions He told His people.'" [This means that, in order to give them the inheritance of the nations, He told them [about the] beginning. And the matter that I mentioned has already come from another source: about the hidden matters of the story of creation, our Rabbis, of blessed memory, have said (Psalms 111:6), "'The strength of his actions He told His people;' to tell the strength of the story of creation to flesh and blood is impossible. Therefore, the verse is sealed to you [and only states], 'In the beginning, God created." If so, what we said about this is elucidated.

(2) בראשית ברא IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED — There is no way to read this besides explanation in the manner that our Rabbis explained it:

(1) God created the world for the sake of the Torah which is called (Proverbs 8:22) “The beginning (ראשית) of His (God’s) way”,

(2) and for the sake of Israel who are called (Jeremiah 2:3) “The beginning (ראשית) of His (God’s) increase’’.

If, however, you wish to explain it in its plain sense, explain it thus: At the beginning of the Creation of heaven and earth when the earth was without form and void and there was darkness, God said, “Let there be light”. The text does not intend to point out the order of the acts of Creation — to state that these (heaven and earth) were created first; for if it intended to point this out, it should have written 'בראשונה ברא את השמים וגו “At first God created etc.” And for this reason: Because, wherever the word ראשית occurs in Scripture, it is in the construct state. E. g., (Jeremiah 26:1) “In the beginning of (בראשית) the reign of Jehoiakim”; (Genesis 10:10) “The beginning of (ראשית) his kingdom”; (Deuteronomy 18:4) “The first fruit of (ראשית) thy corn.” Similarly here you must translate בראשית ברא אלהים as though it read בראשית ברוא, at the beginning of God’s creating. A similar grammatical construction (of a noun in construct followed by a verb) is: (Hosea 1:2) תחלת דבר ה' בהושע, which is as much as to say, “At the beginning of God’s speaking through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea.” Should you, however, insist that it does actually intend to point out that these (heaven and earth) were created first, and that the meaning is, “At the beginning of everything He created these, admitting therefore that the word בראשית is in the construct state and explaining the omission of a word signifying “everything” by saying that you have texts which are elliptical, omitting a word, as for example (Job 3:10) “Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb” where it does not explicitly explain who it was that closed the womb; and (Isaiah 8:4) “He shall take away the spoil of Samaria” without explaining who shall take it away; and (Amos 6:12) “Doth he plough with oxen," and it does not explicitly state, “Doth a man plough with oxen”; (Isaiah 46:10) “Declaring from the beginning the end,” and it does not explicitly state, “Declaring from the beginning of a thing the end of a thing’ — if it is so (that you assert that this verse intends to point out that heaven and earth were created first), you should be astonished at yourself, because as a matter of fact the waters were created before heaven and earth, for, lo, it is written, (v. 2) “The Spirit of God was hovering on the face of the waters,” and Scripture had not yet disclosed when the creation of the waters took place — consequently you must learn from this that the creation of the waters preceded that of the earth. And a further proof that the heavens and earth were not the first thing created is that the heavens were created from fire (אש) and water (מים), from which it follows that fire and water were in existence before the heavens. Therefore you must needs admit that the text teaches nothing about the earlier or later sequence of the acts of Creation.

(3) In the beginning:

...And now, listen to a correct and clear explanation of the text according to its simple understanding (peshuto). The Holy One, blessed be He, created all of the creations from absolute nothingness. And we have no other expression in the Holy Tongue for bringing out something from nothing than "bara" (which is found almost exclusively in this verse). And none of all that which was made - 'under the sun' or above - existed [directly] from nothing. Rather, He brought out a very fine element from complete nothingness; it has no substance, but it is the energy that can create, that is able to accept a form and to go from the potential to the actual. And this is the first material [and] is called hyle by the Greeks. And after hyle, He didn't create anything, but [rather] formed and made [the creations]; since it is from it that He brought everything forth and clothed the forms and refined them.

And know that the heavens and all that is in them are one material, and the earth and all that is within it is [another] material; and the Holy One, blessed be He, created both of them from nothing - and the two of them alone were created, and everything was made from them.

And this material that they called hyle is called tohu (chaos) in the Holy Tongue. And the word['s definition is understood by looking at] the language of [the Sages] (Kiddushin 40b), "with one that is toha (wonders) about the earlier ones." Since were a person to define a name for it, he would wonder and deliberate to give it another name, since it has not taken a form, such that a name would fit it at all. And the form that fashions this material is called bohu (void) in the Holy Tongue. And this word is [a] compound [that is made up of two words, bo (within it) and hu (it)], meaning within it, is it. [And even though it is missing the letter vav in the first part of the compound,] it is like the word, [osehu (to do it), in the phrase] (Exodus 18:18) "you are not able to do it," which is missing a vav and an alef, [and fully spelled out would be the two words,] oseh (to do) and hu (it).

And this is what the verse is stating (Isaiah 34:11), "and He shall stretch upon it the line of tohu and the stones of bohu;" since [this] is the line (kav) with which the craftsman will seal the plans of his building and that which he hopes (yikveh) to do - [and that word's] definition [is understood] from [the phrase], (Psalms 27:14) "Hope (kaveh) to the Lord." And the stones are the forms of the building. And so it is written (Isaiah 40:17), "less than nothing and tohu are they considered to Him;" [such] that tohu is after nothing and [is also] not a thing. And this is what they stated in Sefer Yetzirah, "He created substance from tohu and made 'it is not' [into] 'it is.'" And they also said in the midrash of Rabbi Nechunia ben Hakaneh (Sefer HaBahir), "Rabbi Berachia said, 'that which is written, "and the earth was tohu and bohu," what is meant [by] "was?" That it already was tohu. And [if so,] what is bohu? Rather, it was tohu - and what is tohu? Something that makes people wonder - and it went back to being bohu - and what is bohu? Something that has substance to it, as it is written, "in it is it (bo hu)."'"....

[And Shamaim= spiritual

and Ha-eretz= physical

and Pasuk bet starts with "Vhaaretz" to tell us we should not think about or wonder about the spiritual aspect because it is beyond us]

....... And the explanation is that in this form is the form of the four elements, which are fire, water, dirt and air; and the word, "the earth," includes these four.

And fire is called, "darkness," as elemental fire is dark; and if it were red, it would redden the night for us. (energy)

And the water, with which the dirt was kneaded, is called "the deep." Therefore, the waters of the seas are the depths, as it is written (Exodus 15:5); "The depths covered them;" (Ibid., 15:8) "the depths congealed;" (Jonah 2:6) "the deep surrounded me" - and the floor of the sea is called 'deep;' (Psalms 106:9) "And He rebuked the Reed Sea and it dried up and they walked in the depths like in a wilderness;" (Isaiah 63:13) "He led them through the depths like a horse in the wilderness."

And the air is called "spirit."

And it is already know that the four elements are one [construct] and their axle is the planet Earth. And the waters encircle the earth, and the air encircles the waters and the fire encircles the air. And the verse states, that the earth took on a form, and the fire encircled above over the water and dirt - that were mixed - and the wind blew and entered the darkness (the fire) and hovered over the waters. And it appears to me that this dot - that with the fashioning of its form became bohu - is what the Sages called 'the Foundation Stone' (Yoma 54b), from which the world was set.

(1) ברא אלהים GOD [AS JUDGE] CREATED — It does not state 'ברא ה “The Lord (the Merciful One) created, because at first God intended to create it (the world) to be placed under the attribute (rule) of strict justice, but He realised that the world could not thus endure and therefore gave precedence to Divine Mercy allying it with Divine Justice. It is to this that what is written in (Genesis 2:4) alludes — “In the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven”.

(1) בראשית ברא IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED — This verse calls aloud for explanation in the manner that our Rabbis explained it: God created the world for the sake of the Torah which is called (Proverbs 8:22) “The beginning (ראשית) of His (God’s) way”, and for the sake of Israel who are called (Jeremiah 2:3) “The beginning (ראשית) of His (God’s) increase’’. If, however, you wish to explain it in its plain sense, explain it thus: At the beginning of the Creation of heaven and earth when the earth was without form and void and there was darkness, God said, “Let there be light”. The text does not intend to point out the order of the acts of Creation — to state that these (heaven and earth) were created first; for if it intended to point this out, it should have written 'בראשונה ברא את השמים וגו “At first God created etc.” And for this reason: Because, wherever the word ראשית occurs in Scripture, it is in the construct state. E. g., (Jeremiah 26:1) “In the beginning of (בראשית) the reign of Jehoiakim”; (Genesis 10:10) “The beginning of (ראשית) his kingdom”; (Deuteronomy 18:4) “The first fruit of (ראשית) thy corn.” Similarly here you must translate בראשית ברא אלהים as though it read בראשית ברוא, at the beginning of God’s creating. A similar grammatical construction (of a noun in construct followed by a verb) is: (Hosea 1:2) תחלת דבר ה' בהושע, which is as much as to say, “At the beginning of God’s speaking through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea.” Should you, however, insist that it does actually intend to point out that these (heaven and earth) were created first, and that the meaning is, “At the beginning of everything He created these, admitting therefore that the word בראשית is in the construct state and explaining the omission of a word signifying “everything” by saying that you have texts which are elliptical, omitting a word, as for example (Job 3:10) “Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb” where it does not explicitly explain who it was that closed the womb; and (Isaiah 8:4) “He shall take away the spoil of Samaria” without explaining who shall take it away; and (Amos 6:12) “Doth he plough with oxen," and it does not explicitly state, “Doth a man plough with oxen”; (Isaiah 46:10) “Declaring from the beginning the end,” and it does not explicitly state, “Declaring from the beginning of a thing the end of a thing’ — if it is so (that you assert that this verse intends to point out that heaven and earth were created first), you should be astonished at yourself, because as a matter of fact the waters were created before heaven and earth, for, lo, it is written, (v. 2) “The Spirit of God was hovering on the face of the waters,” and Scripture had not yet disclosed when the creation of the waters took place — consequently you must learn from this that the creation of the waters preceded that of the earth. And a further proof that the heavens and earth were not the first thing created is that the heavens were created from fire (אש) and water (מים), from which it follows that fire and water were in existence before the heavens. Therefore you must needs admit that the text teaches nothing about the earlier or later sequence of the acts of Creation.