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כי יהיה ריב IF THERE BE A QUARREL [BETWEEN MEN] they will in the end have to approach the judges (because of a bodily injury inflicted by one on the other, since Scripture goes on to state, “and if the wicked man be worthy of lashes”, a punishment that can only follow, in the case of a quarrel, upon one of the parties receiving a blow). You must thus come to the conclusion that nothing good can come out of a quarrel. Just think: what was it that caused Lot to leave the righteous man (Abraham)? You must admit it was a mere quarrel (cf. Genesis 13:7—11; Sifrei Devarim 286:1).

 בראשית. Rabbi Yitzchok said that G’d had no need to begin the Torah prior to chapter 12,2 in Exodus, until the words החודש הזה וגו', “this month will be the first of the months for you, etc.” Nachmanides, in justifying Rabbi Yitzchok’s comment, writes that the story of creation is of great consequence and provides the root for our faith in G’d, and that anyone who does not believe what is written in that chapter does not believe that this present universe is G’d’s creation but believes that the universe preceded G’d in historical terms. He who does so is an outright heretic and has no share in G’d’s Torah at all. Chapter 12 in Exodus contains the first commandment addressed specifically to the Jewish people as a people. [the commandment of circumcision also applies to those of Avraham’s descendants who would not be Jews. Ed.] Notwithstanding the latter consideration, seeing that the fact that G’d created the universe is not spelled out anywhere else in the five books of the Torah, it was important to record this vital message at the very beginning. Seeing that the story of creation had been handed down verbally by one generation to the next during the 2448 years which preceded the giving to the people of Israel of the written Torah, Rabbi Yitzchok was correct in saying that inasmuch as people had such a tradition already, the written Torah could have commenced only with chapter 12 in Exodus and the legislative part of the Torah would have been unimpaired. G’d considered it imperative to dictate to Moses the sequence of the 6 days (stages) of creation culminating in the creation of man and G’d assigning man to be in charge of the life-supporting part of the universe, i.e. earth. Rabbi Yitzchok’s comment is especially pertinent as the Talmud in Chagigah 11 warns those who have acquired knowledge of how earth came into being to conceal such knowledge from the public at large. We could have questioned then why the Torah at that stage saw fit to reveal to one and all what only a chosen few had been aware of? G’d wanted us to know that He was at home on earth in a place called גן עדן, and that but for man having been expelled from there due to his sin he could have remained in constant direct contact with his Creator without the need for any intermediary. It also was necessary to record that after the total corruption of mankind save for a single family, the Creator saved that family and destroyed the surface of the earth during the deluge. These short paragraphs summarizing over 1600 years of the history of mankind, serve as a warning to later generations of what might happen if they too would become guilty of deliberately flouting the Creator’s design collectively. Seeing that the inhabitants of the land of Canaan behaved in a manner most displeasing to G’d, the Torah by giving us a short history of man, explains that the forced removal of the Canaanites from their land, was no more than what they had brought upon themselves by ignoring history. Still on the quote by Rashi of what Rabbi Yitzchok said, etc. Notwithstanding the fact that mankind as a whole had received 7 other commandments, the commandment to sanctify the new moon was the first commandment addressed to only a single nation, the Jewish nation. Seeing that at that point the Jewish people still constituted an integral part of mankind as a whole, and they were all subject to these 7 universally applicable commandments, it might have been deemed appropriate to commence the Torah, the Book containing legislation addressed exclusively to that nation only, with the point at which the first of such national commandments was introduced. Rashi explains therefore, that by commencing the Torah at Bereshit bara, the Torah wanted to demonstrate not only that G’d was the Creator, but that He is also the sole and undisputed owner of His universe and may decide which nation is entitled to live on which part of the earth. In other words, if the Jewish people supplanted the Canaanites in the land of Canaan and they were helped by numerous supernatural miracles in doing so, it was clear that their success was G’d’s will, that it was not robbery instigated by Moses and Joshua their leaders. There appears to be a contradiction here, seeing that when the Torah describes who lived in the land of Canaan during Avraham’s time, the Torah first refers to the Canaanite living there, (Genesis 13,7) whereas in chapter 14,18 Malki Tzedek, a Semite, is described as King in Jerusalem (שלם). We would have to answer that the only minute part of the land of Canaan not yet taken over by the Canaanites was that city of Jerusalem. Still, seeing that Canaan had been, cursed by his grandfather Noach to be a slave to Noach’s other two sons, how are we to explain the ascendancy of that nation at that time? Moreover, why should the Canaanites have dispossessed the descendants of Shem more than the descendants of Yaphet? The Torah may wish to hint that seeing the Canaanites obtained their homeland by dispossessing the Semites, the people relatively most loyal to G’d already, put a great question mark on their legal and moral right to occupy the choicest land on earth. [the Canaanites, the most morally corrupt nation, took aim at the Semites, the most morally superior. Ed] Rashi explains the word בראשית as being in a construct mode, to the verb ברא, “He created,” i.e. the line is to be understood as: “at the beginning of G’d’s creating heaven and earth, the earth was in a state of chaos.” At that point G’d issued the directive: “let there be light.” Accordingly, the only thing G’d created on the first day was “light.” Nachmanides explains the words בראשית ברא אלוקים את השמים ואת הארץ, as meaning that G’d’s first creative activity consisted of His calling into existence out of total non-existence, heaven and earth. This “earth” however, was something so insubstantial, something referred to as tohu vavohu, matter which was ready to assume definitive form and substance at a subsequent stage. This “matter=tohu vavohu, is equivalent to what the ancient Greeks called ”hiayuli.” The meaning of the word ברא is the creation of something of substance which had never possessed any substance at all, known in philosophy as “ex nihilo.” Subsequent to this act of creating matter out of pure spirit, any other creative activity made use of this basic and original raw material. Such stages of creative activity are described as יצירה, “providing form and substance,” but are never referred to as בריאה, “creation.” The original not quite definitive form and shape of that matter, is referred to in the Torah as בהו, “vohu.” At that stage, heaven and all its components consisted of a single raw material, and earth and all it is comprised of consisted of another single raw material. According to Rashi on Kohelet 7,19, the word describes the super terrestrial wisdom with which G’d created the universe, a wisdom that leaves even the wisest of men in utter amazement, תוהא. [transliteration from the ancient Greek. Ed.] Both the raw material used to create heaven and that used to create earth are unique and distinct, and the word ברא refers exclusively to the creation of these two phenomena.. The “names” תהו and בהו given by the Torah to these raw materials are intended to forestall man changing the names in question and renaming them to suit his purpose. The words are composites, i.e. בו הוא parallels Isaiah 34,11 ונטה עליה קו-תהו ואבני בהו, “and He shall measure it with a line of chaos and with weights of emptiness.” The word קו is derived from קוה, hope, i.e. the builder employs the plumb line to check if the results of his efforts justified his hopes and expectations. אבני בהו, refer to the stones which the building consists of. [the foregoing is taken from Nachmanides. Ed.] After the Torah reported that initially G’d created heaven and earth, it reverts to the subject of “earth,” explaining that after the initial creative activity producing tangible matter, the phenomenon known as “earth” (in contrast to that known as “heaven”) was in a state of תהו, meaning tangible matter devoid of distinct shape and contours, so that it was best described as בהו, as G’d proceeded to provide it with distinct shape and contours. This meant that what had originally been a single raw material, now became “split” into the four basic raw materials we are all familiar with, i.e. fire, water, earth and atmosphere, air, wind. Ever since that stage of development, whenever we refer to the word הארץ, we mean the phenomenon which is composed of varying proportions of these four raw materials. When the Torah refers to the completion of G’d’s creative activity on the seventh day and describes it as ויכלו השמים והארץ וכל צבאם, it refers to the totality of what is known in our literature as the עולם התחתון, “the lower universe,” the part of the universe inhabited by living bodies. The word חשך describes the element fire, because the original fire is black. Had it been reddish it would have illuminated the night so that the darkness of night would be impossible to observe. The water which is the raw material used to mould the dust of the earth, is referred to by the Torah in our chapter as תהם, This is why the waters of the ocean are referred to as תהומות as in Exodus 15,8 קפאו תהומות בלב-ים, “the normally mobile waves became inert (as if frozen) in the midst of the ocean.” The bedrock of the ocean is referred to as תהום as we know from Isaiah 63,13 מוליכם בתהומות כסוס במדבר, “He guides them through the depths of the sea as one guides a horse through the desert.” In our context here, what we know as “air,” is referred to as רוח It is a well known fact that the combination of these four raw materials comprise what we know as ארץ, the globe we all inhabit. The pillar holding this lower universe together is the globe of earth, surrounded by water on most of its surface surrounded further by the atmosphere we call air or רוח. The fire in turn surrounds this atmosphere. [the heat of the sun emanates from beyond the atmosphere. Ed.] What our verse reveals is that this phenomenon described as ארץ, was “dressed up” in a shape, meaning that the element fire surrounded it on the outside, the atmosphere, air, רוח being an element in constant motion interweaving with the other elements. The innermost spot within all these layers is known in the language of our sages as אבן שתיה, the foundation stone of the earth, i.e. the stone which “waters” the entire globe. To sum up, the meaning of the first two verses is: “at the beginning G’d created heaven and He created earth, both out of non-existent matter. When the earth was first created, it was in a chaotic state devoid of form and contours, a mixture of the four basic elements fire, water, earth and wind, none of which had been defined as yet as to their functions.

גר ותושב אנכי עמכם, “I am a stranger as well as a resident amongst you.” A stranger because I came from a foreign land – and a resident because I intend to settle amongst you. Rashi suggests that Avraham also implied that if he were to be denied his request he would insist on his legal rights in the matter (by simply becoming a permanent resident). If you were to point out that according to what Rashi had explained on Genesis 13,7 where the Canaanites are described as the then residents of that land, that had been before he had become a father of children. (Such people cannot claim permanent resident status.) After all, G-d had not promised Avraham that he would inherit this land. He had only promised it to Avraham’s descendants. Now that Yitzchok had been born, he was entitled to inherit part of the Land.

אל ארץ הכנעני וגו׳ TO THE LAND OF THE CANAANITE — And although it enumerates here only the five peoples, all the seven nations are implied (Mekhilta) for all are included in the generic term Canaanite, although there was one of the races of Canaan which had no other name than that of Canaanite (whilst the other races had, beside the generic name Canaanite, some special designation as Hittite etc.: hence under the term Canaanite one may understand either the one race bearing this name or any of the other races. Here, therefore, the introductory word הכנעני alludes to the particular tribe so called and to the two others included in this generic term, or it may allude to three tribes included in the generic term. In either case we get the “seven peoples of Canaan”).

נשבע לאבתיך WHICH HE SWORE UNTO THY FATHERS — In the case of Abraham it says, (Genesis 15:18) “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram [saying, To thy seed I will give this land]”; in the case of Isaac it says, (Genesis 26:3) “Sojourn in this land … [for to thee and to thy seed I will give all these countries]”; and in the case of Jacob it says, (Genesis 28:13) “the land wheron thou liest [to thee will I give it and to thy seed]” (Mekhilta).

זבת חלב ודבש FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY — milk flows from the goats and honey flows from the dates and from the figs.

את העבודה הזאת THIS SERVICE — that of the Paschal offering. But has it not already been said above, (Exodus 12:25) “And it shall come to pass when ye be come into the land … [that ye shall keep this service]”? Why then does it repeat it again? On account of a new matter that is introduced here; viz., in the former chapter it says, (v. 26) “And it shall come to pass when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?” and there Scripture is speaking about a wicked son who excludes himself from the Israelite community (by saying ye, as though he does not wish to participate in the service), whilst here it states, (v. 8) “And thou shalt tell thy son”, referring to a son who does not know how to enquire, and Scripture teaches you that you yourself must open up the conversation with Agadic explanations which attract the heart (cf. Mekhilta; Shabbat 87a).

Iron chariots. ‘And that what you say, go up to the forest and conquer the land of the Perezzites and the Rephaim [is not so simple] because the Canaanites are a mighty people, and they possess iron chariots.’ Do not wonder if Scripture refers to the Perezzites and Rephaim as Canaanites for they were all descendants of the original Canaan.¹²The original Canaan was the grandson of Noach, who was cursed by Noach. See Bereishis 9:25.