הקדמה ללימוד תורה שבכתב
An introduction to learning the written Torah
בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ: (א:א)
In the beginning of G-d’s creating the heavens and the earth. (1:1)
Rashi explains: Rebbe Yitzchak said, “Hashem did not have to begin the Torah but from ‘החודש הזה לכם’ – ‘This month shall be for you’ (Shemos 12:2) because this is the first mitzvah that Israel was commanded. Why did it begin with Bereishis? Because ‘כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו לתת להם נחלת גוים’ – ‘The power of His acts He told to His people in order to give them the estate of nations’ (Tehillim 111:6). So that if the nations of the world will say to Israel, “You are bandits, for you conquered the lands of the seven nations.” Israel will say to them, “The whole earth belongs to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He created it and He gave it to the one found proper in His eyes. By His wish He gave it to them, and by His wish He took it from them and gave it to us.”
Behold, these things are known: that the primary purpose of Rashi in his composition is “to explain the simple meaning of the Torah,” and as he himself mentions many times in his work: “and I did not come except to explain the simple meaning of the Torah.” Yet it is our duty to state that matters are not as they seem, for anyone who studies his words can see that his words are also a means to understand the depth of the intention that the text wishes to make known to us. This is what Rashi seeks to reveal to us by reproducing the saying of Rebbe Yitzchak at the beginning of his composition, because that saying serves as a general instruction about how a person is obligated to reflect upon the holy Torah, and also as an introduction and a “disclosure of purpose” for Rashi’s objective in his work.
For this we must know: if Rashi’s ultimate aim in his composition were only to explain the “simple meaning of the Torah,” there would have been no place for the saying of Rebbe Yitzchak in his work; for although Rebbe Yitzchak revealed something necessary for our knowledge — namely that we must know how to answer the charge of the nations — his words do not help one understand the plain meaning of the text. However, since Rashi’s chief purpose was not merely to explain the plain meaning of Torah, and he wished to enlighten the eyes of Israel and inform them what the real purpose of his composition is, therefore he chose this saying in which indeed is contained the fundamental point that sheds light both on the method of Torah and on the aim of his composition.
And so that we may point with a finger to this point and explain it, we must first examine the meaning of Rebbe Yitzchak’s words.
When one glances superficially over Rebbe Yitzchak’s words it appears that in his brief remarks he sought to answer the whole of the difficulty, yet when one contemplates his words a bit one sees that his principal difficulty was not explained; for he posed a question about the whole of Bereishis and part of Shemos, and he answered only a portion of a portion from Bereishis. For to reply to the nations’ charge “you are robbers,” the story of the creation of the world by HaKadosh Baruch Hu would suffice for us, and perhaps a few additional matters from the Book of Bereishis, in order to explain the succession of the Israelite nation and the promise of the Creator to the avos that He would give the land to their offspring. But most of the matters related in the Book of Bereishis are not necessary for us to answer the nations; so what then did Rebbe Yitzchak answer to his principal question?
However, when one examines Rebbe Yitzchak’s words precisely one sees that his difficulty does not encompass the entire Chumash of Bereishis and part of Shemos but rather concerns that which the Torah opened with: Bereishis. For at the outset he wished to sharpen in us understanding and teach us a great principle how we are obliged to gaze upon the Torah passages, and he prefaced this with a short line which, in his opinion, was sufficient to understand this principle; and only after he prefaced the principle did he present his difficulty based upon that principle; and from this you will understand that the essential intent of his difficulty is to pave a way for us of how we are required to contemplate the Written Torah, and you will also comprehend from this the depth of his explanation.
This foundational principle that Rabbi Yitzchak wished to teach us is in fact rooted in the Zohar HaKadosh (vol. 3, קנב): “Woe to those obligated ones who say that the Torah is nothing but a mere narrative, and they look only at that garment and nothing more; those are not the righteous ones who look upon the Torah as is proper. Just as wine does not reside except in a vessel, so too the Torah does not reside except in that external garment, and therefore one need not look except at that which is beneath the garment; and therefore all those words and all those stories are garments.”
In these words the Zohar HaKadosh reveals to us what is the correct way of viewing our holy Torah. Our Torah’s purpose is to teach us the matter of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and why is it that we see that about half of it consists of narratives? And if there will be those who, because of their folly, err and say that the Torah appended to itself various stories for mere storytelling, the Zohar will not tolerate them; the Zohar calls them “those obligated” and explains that those stories are garments and we must scrutinize their inner content, and thereby many ways of proper conduct that the Torah wishes to teach a person will be revealed to us. For besides the explicit 613 mitzvos, the Torah desires to teach a person additional straight paths which are pleasing to the mind of our Creator, and these are hinted at in the narratives of the Torah.
This is what Rebbe Yitzchak revealed to us at the head of his remarks: “It would not have been necessary to begin the Torah except with ‘This month shall be unto you’” — which is the first mitzvah that Israel was commanded — and if so know that the study of the Chumash of Bereishis is not merely a ‘word-by-word explanation’; you must examine every particular of what is said therein and contemplate what the Torah intends to teach us by it. And as an introduction and an illustration of this method of study Rebbe Yitzchak poses the difficulty: “What is the reason that it begins with Bereishis,” for there is no mitzvah in the story of the creation of the world. To this he answers, “because He declared to His people the power of His works” and so forth. Were we to take his words alone we would understand that Rebbe Yitzchak answered that the Torah thereby gives only good counsel to Israel how to remove from themselves the accusations of the nations. (And it is true that the contemplators of Torah find counsel to their matters in the holy Torah.) But according to our statement his principal difficulty was: what point in the service of HaKadosh Baruch Hu did the Torah desire to teach us in these posukim? And the answer is that although the Torah was not given only to Israel, our Creator desires that the nations also believe in His unity and recognize that He is Master of the world. (And as we see, the plagues and punishments upon Egypt, besides serving as punishments, had the purpose of making them know that there is G-d in the land; and as HaKadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe, “and the Egyptians shall know that I am Hashem.”) Therefore if it should happen that the nations come with the accusation against Israel “you are robbers,” Israel may seize the opportunity and reveal to the nations that there is G-d in the land and “the whole earth belongs to HaKadosh Baruch Hu,” and thereby remove from themselves the nations’ charge; because since “He created it,” “He gave to whom is right in His eyes, He gave by His will and He took from them and gave to us.”
This is what Rashi intended to inform us at the beginning of his work. He also feared lest Israel, the pious who study his composition, err and think that indeed he comes only to explain the plain meaning of the Torah, and not delve deeply into his words to understand that besides the plain meaning there are also hints in his words which reveal what the Torah desired to teach us. Moreover, a grave error might arise, chas v’shalom, that his method would prove the opposite of the view of the Zohar HaKadosh — that one would think, chalilah, that the narratives were written merely for storytelling. Therefore, he transcribed this saying so that they should understand that there is depth in all his words, and that the contemplator of them must scrutinize carefully and understand their method, the “ways of HaKadosh Baruch Hu.”
