Bereishis: 5783 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with a short insight for Parshas Bereishis: the first Rashi in the Torah begins "[the Torah] need not have begun with Bereishis, but rather with 'This month shall be for you.'" Why did it begin…

00:00 Speaker 1 That comes out—

00:01 Speaker 2 Rabbi Sonnenfeld, please.

00:05 Speaker 3 There’s the first Rashi in the Torah: “Rabbi Yitzchak said.” That’s how Rashi begins his commentary. Some say that because his father’s name was Yitzchak, he wanted to honor his father, so he cites the teaching in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak. “The Torah should have begun only with ‘This month shall be for you,’” because the Torah is a book of mitzvos. The first mitzvah is “This month shall be for you”—sanctifying the new month. So the Torah should have begun there. Instead, “He declared the power of His works to His people.” If the nations of the world come to the Jewish people and say, “You are robbers, because you conquered the land of the seven nations,” Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us an answer to give them: “The whole world belongs to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He created it and gave it to whomever He saw fit. By His will He gave it to them, and by His will He took it from them and gave it to us.” The Rebbe asks this question: What, seemingly, is behind this claim, “You are robbers”? Throughout the world, nations have fought wars. One fought another and took its land. Would anyone today come to America and say they took their country from the Native Americans? They were stronger, they fought, and so they took the... What does “You are robbers” mean? What is the basis for it? What is the problem? We fought and were stronger, so we took the country. Why call that robbery? That’s how the world works. The Rebbe answers: What is the claim of robbery? It’s true that, in the usual course of the world, when someone is stronger, he takes the other’s land, takes his country. But when the other side becomes stronger, it can fight him and take it back. When the Jewish people conquered Eretz Yisroel, they didn’t merely take it from them. It

02:04 Speaker 3 became something different. It became the Holy Land. Even if others conquer that land back, it remains the Holy Land, Eretz Yisroel. That is not how things normally work in the world. That was the basis of the claim, “You are robbers”: you conquered it in a way that cannot be reversed. Its holiness remains forever. That is what prompted the claim, “You are robbers.” And so the Torah begins by telling us that Hakadosh Boruch Hu, by His will, gave it to the Jewish people. That removes the claim of “You are robbers.”

02:36 Speaker 2 All the power!