Comentario citado sobre Génesis 25:12

ספר תולדות אדם, “the book relating the descendants of man.” According to Nachmanides this is an allusion to the entire Torah which is perceived as the ספר תולדות אדם. If it were not so, the Torah should not have used the expression ספר, “book,” but should simply have written אלה תולדות אדם, just as we find in Genesis 25,12 when the descendants of Ishmael are enumerated, or in Genesis 25,19 where the descendants of Yitzchak are listed.
Maybe the meaning of the word ספר in this instance is חכמה, “wisdom,” just as we find it in the ספר יצירה where the expression is ספר וספור as we already mentioned on a previous occasion. The “wisdom” referred to is not ordinary human wisdom but celestial wisdom, a wisdom which would have been man’s had he not sinned. The thrust of our verse then would be: “this book contains the wisdom which should have been an integral part of every human being.” The true descendants of man are not his biological children but his accomplishments in the field of Torah knowledge. The tasks that need to be performed on earth which require a human population could be carried out by someone other than man if need be. This is what Ben Azzai had in mind when he explained that he would not preoccupy himself with marrying and begetting children as his longing was concentrated solely on Torah (Yevamot 63). The complete verse therefore means: “for this book which represents the celestial wisdom, something that ought to belong to every human being seeing he had been created בדמות אלוקים עשה אותו, in the likeness of G’d He made him on the very day that G’d created man.” You will now understand why the Torah saw fit to mention the word אדם twice in this verse.

THIS IS THE BOOK OF THE GENERATIONS OF ADAM. These are the children He will mention in the chapter.⁴⁷³So Rashi and Ibn Ezra. In my opinion, this alludes to the entire Torah, for the entire Torah is the book of the generations of Adam. Therefore, He says here “book” and does not say, “And these are the generations of Adam,” as He says in other places, e.g. And these are the generations of Ishmael;⁴⁷⁴Genesis 25:12. And these are the generations of Isaac,⁴⁷⁵Ibid., Verse 19. and so in all such cases.

THESE ARE ‘TOLDOTH’ NOAH. Commentators¹Ibn Ezra and R’dak. These commentators felt the difficulty in explaining toldoth to mean “progeny” or “generations” since it further states, And Noah begot three sons. have explained the word toldoth to mean “his experiences” [or “his events”] much the same as the sense of: what a day ‘yeiled’ (may bring forth).²Proverbs 27:1.
In this way the word toldoth refers to the entire section [since all the events of the flood are occurrences in the life of Noah]. But this does not appear to me to be correct since the external events in the life of a person, [over which he has no control], are not his toldoth.
The correct interpretation is that the word toldoth here retains its literal meaning of “progeny,” just as, These are ‘toldoth’ (the progeny of) the sons of Noah;³Genesis 10:1. And these are ‘toldoth’ (the progeny of) Ishmael.⁴Ibid., 25:12. Thus Scripture is saying, “These are the progeny of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
Scripture however repeats, And Noah begot three sons,⁵Verse 10. because [at the end of the first verse] it interrupted by saying, Noah was a righteous man, and whole-hearted, in order to inform us why He commanded him concerning the ark. And even though Scripture has already stated above, And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth,⁶Above, 5:32. it returns to mention them a second time in order to relate that Noah was unlike all his ancestors who begot daughters and sons. This is the meaning of the words, three sons;⁵Verse 10. Scripture mentions their number in order to say that these three alone were his progeny, and they were saved by his merit, and by them was the whole earth overspread.⁷Genesis 9:19.