BEREISHIT

by: Rav Avraham Brandwein

"In the Beginning, Elokim Created." Rashi says that Rabbi Yitschak said thatthe Torah should have rather begun with, "This month is to you" which is the first Mitzva with which Israel was commanded So why does it begin with, "In the Beginning"? Since it is written in Tehillim, "Through the force of His actions, He spoke to His Nation to bestow upon them the patrimony of the nations."

So, should the nations of the world say that you conquered the land of Israel that belongs to the nations, the People of Israel will answer them that the whole world belongs to the Creator. He created it according to his will and gave it to them and, by the same will, took it from them. This is what Rashi, z"l, said.

And, in effect, it is puzzling why He first had to give the Land of Israel to the Nations and, afterwards, take it from them and give it to Bnei Yisrael, when He could have given it, immediately, to Bnei Yisrael. And the answer is that there is an important principle that is also a natural law and, that is, that the negative must come before the positive and this is according to what is written in Kohelet that "the light has the advantage over the darkness," meaning that we can evaluate anything only if first we lacked it. Only then can we enjoy it and appreciate filling the lack. Because, without the lack, we will be unable to retain the completeness that was given us and we can easily lose it. For this reason, the Land of Israel was given first to the nations and only after enslavement in Egypt could we appreciate freedom and our entrance to the Land.

The law was established in Creation as it is written, "There was Evening, there was
Morning, One day. That is to say that first there was evening, i.e., the darkness and then the light. Together, they are one day. According to what is written above, we shall also understand why man is born first with the evil inclination as is written in the next Parsha, "The impulse of a person is evil from his youth" and only at age thirteen does the good inclination arrive. After a person receives, from the bad inclination, all the great desires and aspirations will he be able to being, later, with the help of the good inclination, all these desires to holiness. And from where does a person draw the force to subdue the evil inclination that, after all, came before the good inclination? The answer is that, already, while in his mother's belly, he is taught the whole Torah and by virtue of this he can subdue the evil inclination that the Torah preceded.