Rashi's Commentary on Genesis Foresaw Jewish Land Claim
Translated & summarized from Ice by baba
The commentator Rashi, writing in France around 1000 CE amidst the turmoil of the Crusades, began his Torah commentary by asserting Jewish ownership of the Land of Israel based on divine creation. This explanation, citing Rabbi Yitzchak, preemptively addressed claims of conquest by stating God granted the land to the Jewish people. The article posits that Rashi's words transcended the chaotic reality of his time, offering an eternal perspective on Jewish connection to the land. This divine mandate, the author argues, remains the foundational principle of Jewish presence in Israel.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- Commentator Rashi began his Torah interpretation in France around 1000 CE, asserting divine Jewish ownership of the Land of Israel.
- Rashi's opening commentary cites Rabbi Yitzchak, explaining Jewish claims to the land are based on God's creation.
- The commentary addresses potential accusations of Jewish conquest by stating God granted the land to the Jewish people.
- Rashi's words are presented as transcending the immediate political and military turmoil of his era.
- The article argues Rashi's divine mandate remains the foundational principle for Jewish presence in Israel.
- Jewish communities faced severe persecution and displacement during the Crusader conquest of the Land of Israel.
While major centers of Jewish life were in turmoil around 1000 CE, the commentator Rashi, in his study in Troyes, France, began writing his commentary on the Torah. At that time, Jewish communities in Germany and Spain were prominent, but the situation in the Land of Israel was dire. A millennium after the destruction of the Second Temple, the small Jewish population, then 10% of the local populace and persecuted under Muslim rule, faced a devastating low point with the Crusader conquest. Crusaders massacred Jews in Jerusalem and Haifa, and banned Jewish presence in Jerusalem, effectively emptying the city of its Jewish inhabitants. Jewish communities fled to coastal cities, maintaining a precarious existence in poverty without organized spiritual leadership.
Thousands of miles away, Rashi commenced his commentary with the first words of Genesis. The opening passage cites Rabbi Yitzchak, who questioned why the Torah didn't begin with the first commandment given to Israel, "This month is the beginning of months for you." The reason, according to Rabbi Yitzchak, is to preemptively address potential claims from other nations. If non-Jews accuse Jews of being "robbers" who conquered the lands of seven nations, Jews can respond that "all the land belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whomever was pleasing in His eyes. He gave it to them by His will, and by His will He took it from them and gave it to us."
This theological assertion, the article argues, was remarkably detached from the contemporary reality of warring Crusaders and Muslims vying for control of the Land of Israel, while the Jewish people were dispersed and fragmented. Rashi, however, seemingly transcended the immediate circumstances, viewing the Torah's message beyond time and place. He calmly disregarded the powerful nations of the era, formulating an eternal claim: the land is ours because God decided so, and we know this because "In the beginning" God created everything. The article notes a tradition that Rashi's name is an acronym for "Our Master Rashi, may he interpret, the explanation of the Torah of Truth," suggesting divine endorsement of his work.
Even a thousand years later, as Crusaders and Muslims clashed in Germany and Spain, and accusations of Jewish conquest persisted, a flourishing Jewish community existed in the Land of Israel, unprecedented since the Second Temple's destruction. Rashi's message, the article concludes, continues to remind us that our presence is divinely ordained, with all other factors like military, diplomacy, and economy being secondary to this fundamental, divine decision, the true "beginning" of the entire narrative.