Tafsiran Kejadian 1:12: Rashi, Chizkuni, Da'at Zekenim & Shadal

ותוצא הארץ וגו AND THE EARTH BROUGHT FORTH etc. — Although the expression למינהו according to its kind, was not used when the various kinds of herbage were bidden to come forth, they heard that the trees were so commanded and they applied to themselves the argument à fortiore (ק"ו), as it is explained in an Aggadic passage in (Chullin 60a).

ועץ עושה פרי, “and fruit bearing trees.” If you were to argue that there are many trees that do not bear fruit, the answer is that what the Torah really meant was that the fruit that the trees mentioned, were to be fruit matching its species, i.e. למינהו. Seeing that this definition would not apply to non fruit bearing trees, it is clear that the Torah did not mean that aj] trees were to be of the fruitbearing kind.

And the earth brought forth grass, etc. according to its species: In Tractate Chullin 60a, it interprets midrashically, "that the grasses raised an a fortiori argument (kal ve'chomer) about themselves, etc., [and] the minister of the world opened and said, 'may the honor of God be forever.'" And it is difficult according to the opinion that holds that Chanoch is [the same as] Metatron and that Metatron is [the same as] the minister of the world, since behold, at that time, Chanoch had not yet been created. And some explain, that there were [actually] two ministers of the world [and that here it is the other one, not Chanoch]. And we can also answer that [the understanding that the minister of the world reacted to the grasses here] is not like the opinion that holds that Chanoch is Metatron. And nonetheless, even according to [that opinion,] we can say, that it is true that [Chanoch] was not created, but his soul or 'constellation' was nonetheless created, [and] it said [what it did] about this verse; as we find (Avodah Zarah 5a) concerning 'the Book of the Generations (descendants) of man,' that we interpret midrashically, that [the mention of such a book in Genesis 5:1] teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed [Adam] each generation and its wise men - even though those generations were not [yet] created, nonetheless, He showed him their souls and their 'constellations.'