Lead Tidbit
First Rashi... Again
Do you ever look at something many times and still see something new? Let's take another look at the first Rashi of his commentary to the Torah, notwithstanding the fact that Menachem writes about it in his column, Rabbi Rones wrote about it in CHIZUK & IDUD, and Batsheva Pomerantz quoted it in CPCL. At first glance, it looks like Rashi is quoting Rabbi Yitzchak's suggestion that we can use the Torah to refute the claims of other nations that we are merely occupiers in Eretz Yisrael. This is what Rashi says. But there is more. The pasuk in Tehilim that is quoted (111:6) emphasizes that G-d is telling His nation - us, the Jewish People, about what He did and does... so that WE will understand that this Land was given to us by Him. Not by the League of Nations. Not by the United Nations. By Him.

The Torah is not just a work for the acquisition of knowledge and intellectual stimulation. It is The Book that requires of each of us belief. Belief in its Writer and belief in what He wrote. And belief in the Oral Law and Tradition that He transmitted to Moshe Rabeinu to be passed down through the generation.

When the Torah states that, "I Am HaShem your G-d Who took you out of Egypt, the House of Slaves", it was commanding us not only to hear and understand that statement, but to believe in its Truth, completely and without reservation.

When the Torah states that In the Beginning, G-d created the Heavens and the Earth, it was not just telling us about Creation, but commanding us to believe in G-d's Creation of the world AND in our Oral Tradition that He maintains constant supervision of this world throughout its existence and its history, and continues to "renew with His goodness, daily, the acts of Creation".

And the same can be said of Rabbi Yitzchak as quoted in Rashi #1. We must know and believe the Truth of whose Land this is. And act accordingly.