Commentaire de citation sur La Genèse 2:5

This explains I cannot any longer, etc. It is as if he said, Because Hashem has said to me, ‘You will not cross over [the Yardein], etc. Yehoshua will cross.’ But it is not because his strength had weakened, for it is written, His appearance was not dulled and his freshness did not fade [Devarim 34:7]. For one cannot say, for Hashem is [a phrase] on its own, as if it had said, I am no longer able, and furthermore, for Hashem said to me, because the meaning of I am no longer able is I have no permission, if so that is the meaning of that the Holy One, Blessed Is He said to me do not cross. Therefore [Rashi] explains that for Hashem said is an explanation. As if to say, I am no longer able because Hashem said, etc. The [letter] vav [meaning and] of And Hashem means because, as in [the verse] And there was no man (Bereishis 2:5) which means Because there was no man.

[Shmuel] had not yet known Adonoy. He had not yet recognized the nature of the prophetic voice.⁷He was thus unfamiliar with the ways ‘ה calls man, and he therefore thought that the voice was Eili’s. Every time the word 'טֶרֶם' appears in Scripture, it means 'not yet,' as rendered by the Targum 'עַד לָא' [not yet]. It does not mean 'before.' This verse proves it. And another [proof of this] is the verse כִּי טֶרֶם תִּירְאוּן which is rendered as "that you do not yet fear,"⁸Shemos 9:30. is a more explicit verse proving this. Also, וְכֹל שִֹיחַ הַשָֹּדֶה טֶרֶם יִהְיֶה בָאָרֶץ ["all plants of the field were not yet on the earth"].⁹Bereishis 2:5.

Did you as yet not realize. Rashi’s view is that טרם means “not yet,” as he explained the verse in Parshas Bereishis (2:5), “The vegetation of the fields had not yet sprouted,” and in Parshas Va’era (Shemos 9:30), “You are not yet in fear.” Thus, טרם should not be explained as “before.” Accordingly, תדע really denotes past tense although it is written in the form of future tense.

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.

טרם תראון means YE DO NOT YET FEAR. Wherever occurs in Scripture it signifies ״not yet”, and does not mean “before”. For example: (Genesis 19:4) טרם ישכבו, which the Targum renders by “whilst yet they had not lain down”; (Genesis 2:5) טרם יצמח which the Targum renders by “not yet sprung forth”. This, too, has the same meaning: I know that ye do not yet fear the Lord, and that as soon as there will be respite you will continue in your moral corruption.