Ensuring that We Are Not Thieves

In opening his commentary on the Torah, Rashi notes:

Rabbi Yitzḥak says: the Torah (whose primary purpose is presentation of the 613 mitzvot) should have begun with the verse “This month shall be for you the first of the months” [Exodus 12:1], which is the first mitzva commanded to Israel. What is the reason that it begins with the account of creation? Because “He declared to His people the strength of His works, in order that He may give them the heritage of the nations,” [Psalms 111:6] for should the nations of the world say to Israel “You are thieves and have stolen the lands of the seven nations (of Canaan),” Israel will reply to them: “The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He, He created it and He gave it to whom He pleased; when He willed He gave it to them, and when He willed, He took it from them and gave it to us.”

      Rashi Genesis 1:1 [based upon Yalkut, Exodus 12:2]

It is remarkable that Rashi sees the primary purpose of the Torah’s description of creation as being confirmation of Israel’s right to its Land. We can note with sadness that this lesson seems lost on many Jews, let alone on the nations of the world. (My rabbi, Rav Yaakov Warhaftig, noted that it is the failure of Jews to appreciate the lesson which allows the nations to ignore it.)         Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe notes that it is clear and obvious that Torah was given primarily to and for the Children of Israel, thus Rabbi Yitzḥak’s comment is directed at the Jews: it is incumbent upon us to appreciate that the Land was given to us by God.

          Rabbi Wolbe comments further:

Immediately with the first verse of the Torah, the focus is on the Land of Israel. The entire Book of Genesis is intended to teach that God gave the Land to His people and thereby to confirm Israel’s right to its Land (as are first eleven chapters of Exodus). The focal point and the purpose of the first sixty-one chapters of Torah is the Land. The entire purpose of physical creation is to allow the Shechina to have a place within this world, the tangible world. The end is to have Klal Yisrael in the Land of Israel, where the Shechina will rest. Rabbi Yitzḥak comes to teach us that the purpose of Torah is the Land of Israel, since all mitzvot are related to the Land of Israel, and fulfillment of the mitzvot outside the Land is only as a matter of being familiar with them upon return to Israel [based upon Sifrei Parashat Ekev 43:17].

Finally, Rabbi Wolbe adds an insight which addresses an additional lesson of Rabbi Yitzḥak’s comment for the Children of Israel: the Torah teaches that one who is unworthy will lose his place. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden as a result of their sin. The generation of the flood was removed entirely from the world. The generation of the Tower of Babel was spread throughout the world. Similarly, the Canaanites were unworthy of the Land and were replaced by the Children of Israel. The implied message is that Israel’s status in the Land too is a function of their fulfillment of mitzvot.

Israel’s holding its Land is both a great privilege and a deep responsibility. We must be worthy of the Land.