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Kahane on the Parsha
Rabbi Meir Kahane- Parshat Bereishit
STOP BEING DEFENSIVE!!!
The most famous of all the commentaries of the
great Rashi is, undoubtedly, the very first one. Concerning the verse, "In
the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth..." (Genesis 1:1),
Rashi quotes the Midrash that asks: Why did the Almighty begin the Torah with
the story of creation? After all, the Torah is essentially a book of laws and
statutes. Surely, it should have begun with the first mitzvah the Jews were
commanded to keep.
The well-known answer is, of course, that the
Almighty wished to underline the fact that "He told His people the
strength of His deeds in order to give them the inheritance of the
nations" (Psalms 111:6). Meaning: Should the nations come to the people of
Israel and complain, "You are THIEVES! You have STOLEN the land of the
seven Canaanite nations!" the Jews can reply, "The land belongs to
the Almighty who created it. By His will He originally gave it to the
Canaanites, and by His will He took it from them and gave it to us."
Thus the words of Rashi. Nevertheless, a look at
the verse from Psalms that is cited gives rise to a question. If the verse is
to be an answer to the nations, it should have read, "He told the nations
the strength of His deeds," not "He told HIS PEOPLE the strength of
His deeds."
The answer is, however, that the most serious
problem when it comes to the Jewish claim to Eretz Yisrael is not the fact that
the nations do not recognize it. The nations are no problem for a Jewish
people with faith in G-d. The real tragedy is the fact that so many of the
Jewish people THEMSELVES do not believe or have grave doubts about the
legitimacy of the Jewish claim to the land. In order to make the nations
believe, it is the Jews themselves who must first be convince! And that is
why the verse emphasizes, "He told His people the strength of His
deeds." If the Jews believe it, they will have the strength and
self-confidence to tell the nations.
Yet another question is raised by the Siftei
Chachamim. In Parshat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:6), Rashi writes, "[The
Canaanites] were capturing the land from the descendants of Shem since Noah had
given it to Shem when he divided the land." If that is true, what claim do
the nations have on Eretz Yisrael? How can they accuse the Jews of stealing the
land? After all, if Noah originally gave the land to Shem and the Jews are his
descendants, it is only right for them to retake the land from the Canaanites
who stole it in the first place.
It appears to me that the answer to this
question contains an important lesson for today. Yes, the Jew ONCE lived in
Eretz Yisrael and the land ONCE, originally, belonged to Shem, but the nations
of the world can always say, "What does it matter what happened centuries
ago? People come and people go. What matters is that now, TODAY, the Canaanites
live here, and you cannot come after so many years claiming it's yours."
Indeed, this is exactly what the Arabs say to the Jewish people today!
How do we reply to this claim? The lesson of the
first Rashi in the Torah is that, in the end, there are no "logical"
or "political" answers to the world. The ultimate answer is only the
one: The Almighty created the land. He is the owners and in Him vests all
title. He decreed the Jewish people to be His inheritance, and the land to be
theirs. Let us believe it and shout it forth joyously.
The Jewish Press, 1979
Shabbat Shalom!
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