Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac of Troyes, better known as Rashi, who lived in the 11th century, is beyond question the greatest of all Jewish teachers and educators. His commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud were for centuries the textbooks of a people, and the basis of Jewish learning and of Jewish piety was felt to be “chumash [Pentateuch] with Rashi.” The first printed Hebrew book was Rashi’s commentary on the Torah.
Rashi’s genius was that he could be simple to the simple and complex to the complex—all at the same time, and even in the same sentence. His commentary struck a mean between the literal, common-sense interpretation of the text (p’shat) and imaginative speculation (d’rash). He thus democratized Jewish education by making the sacred books available to the beginning student at the same time that he preserved the complexities of traditional Midrashic exegesis.
To be truly understood and appreciated, Rashi must be read in the original Hebrew. First, because he is the master of a hard and compact style that is one of the treasures of Hebrew literature. Second, because so much of his exegesis is dependent upon puns, double meanings, ambiguities, and the very spelling in the text of the Bible and the Talmud. But the modern reader’s introduction to Rashi has been made immeasurably easier by the recent appearance of an edition of the Pentateuch with Rashi’s commentary and an interlinear English translation, published by the S. S. and R. Publishing Company, Brooklyn, N. Y. (Genesis and Exodus have been completed, and the rest will follow shortly; the price is $3.50 per volume.) This translation has been consulted—though not always followed—in preparing the following selections.
In English, Rashi may seem to some readers a little odd: the translation is not only into another language but into another spiritual atmosphere altogether. Though some of Rashi’s problems (e.g., the dual name of God, adonai and elohim) are those faced by modern Biblical criticism, his solution is quite different. For he accepted the text as divinely inspired in its every letter, and worked on the premise that, as he states, “the world was created with the Hebrew language.” His exegesis is homiletical, not objective, for he believes that Scripture teaches morals as well as truth—indeed that truth and morality are one and the same. Every letter and phrase of the text poses a significant problem of the divine meaning and the divine intention.
Some of his seemingly trivial points conceal important principles: for instance, the first comment printed here, which is a considerably shortened version of the original, aims to establish the fact that Scripture is not chronological—thereby overcoming many apparent contradictions in the text (such as the two creations in Genesis), and making it possible for the commentator to use later material in order to explain earlier passages.—Ed.
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In the beginning (b’reshit) created God (Gen. 1:1).
This text is not to be grasped without interpretation, as our rabbis interpret it: [the creation was] for the sake of the Torah, for it is called (Prov. 8:22) “the beginning of His way”; and for the sake of Israel, for they are called (Jer. 2:3) “the beginning of His harvest” And if you come to explain it plainly, explain it thus: At the beginning of the creation of heaven and earth, and the earth was unformed and void, and darkness, etc., God said, “Let there be light.” For the text does not come to teach the order of creation, to say that these [heaven and earth] came first; for if it came to teach this, it would have been written: “first” (barishona) He created the heavens, etc. For you do not find the word reshit in Scripture when it is not in the construct state [beginning of] to the word after it. . . . So here you should say: in the beginning of His creating. And if you will say the text comes to teach that these [heaven and earth] were created first then be astonished at yourself. For indeed the waters came first, for it is written: “and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.” And Scripture has not yet revealed when was the creation of the waters. From this you learn that the waters preceded the earth. Furthermore, the heavens (shamayim) were created from fire (esh) and water (mayim). So you are forced to admit that Scripture does not teach any order of earlier and later.
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In the beginning God (elohim) created the Heavens and the Earth (Gen. 1:1).
And it was not written, “the Lord (adonai) created,” because at first He was minded to create it [the world] in the quality of Justice; but He saw that the world would not endure; so He gave precedence to the quality of Mercy and united it with the quality of Justice, and thus it is written: “in the day that the Lord (adonai) [of Mercy] God (elohim) [of Justice] made earth and heaven” (Gen. 2:4).
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And God saw the light that it was good (Gen. 1:4).
Here, too, we need the words of the Agada: He saw that it was improper that the wicked make use of it, and He set it apart for the righteous in the future to come.
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And God said: Let there be a firmament in the Midst of the Waters (Gen. 1:16).
Let the firmament be firm; for although the heavens were created on the first day, they were still fluid; and they congealed on the second day at the rebuke of the Holy One, blessed be He, when He said: “Let there be a firmament.” And so it is written (Job 26:11): “the pillars of heaven shook”—throughout the first day; and on the second, “they were astonished at his rebuke”; like a man who is shocked and stands at a rebuke from one who frightens him.
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And God created the great sea-monsters (Gen. 1:21).
Great fish which are in the sea; and in the words of the Agada, this is Leviathan and his mate. For He created them male and female and killed the female and salted her for the righteous of the future to come; for if they were fruitful and multiplied, the world would not endure because of them.
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And God said: Let us make man in our image (Gen. 1:26).
From this we learn the humility of the Holy One, blessed be He. Because man was to be created in the likeness of angels, and they would envy him; therefore He took counsel with them. . . . He said to them: There are higher beings in my likeness; if there are no lower beings in my likeness, lo!—there would be envy in the creation.
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And God said: Let us make man (Gen. 1:26).
Even though they did not assist Him in His creating, and this is an occasion for heretics to make use of the “us,” Scripture does not shrink from teaching us good conduct and the quality of humbleness, that the great should take counsel with and seek permission from the small. . . . And the answer to the heretics is written close by: “and He created man” (1:27), and it is not written: “and they created.”
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And God created man in His image (Gen. 1:27).
In the mold made for him: for everything was created by God’s word, but he was created by God’s hands; as it is said (Ps. 139:5) “And Thou hast laid Thy hand upon me.”
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Male and female created He them (Gen. 1:27).
Further on it is said (Gen. 2:21): “and He took one of his ribs, etc.” Midrash Agada says He created him two-faced in the first creation and after that divided him. And the plain meaning of the text is: Here you are taught that both of them were created on the sixth day, and it does not explain to you the manner of their creation, and that is explained to you later on.
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And God said unto them: Be fruitful and fill the earth and subdue it (v’kibshuha) (Gen. 1:28).
The vav [in kibshuha] is lacking [and it may therefore be read: v’kabshah—he shall subdue her]. This is to teach you that the male subdues the female and she is not to be a gadabout And this is also to teach you that the man, whose way is to subdue, is commanded to be fruitful and multiply, and not the woman.
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And it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day (yom ha-shishi) (Gen. 1:31).
The letter he [the definite article which also stands for the number five] is added to shishi [to make up ha-shishi—the sixth, whereas on previous days the definite article is omitted] at the completing of the work of creation to teach that He came to terms with them [the works of creation] on condition that Israel would accept the five books of the Torah. Another interpretation: They all stood suspended until the sixth day, that is, the sixth of Sivan [when Israel accepted the Torah]. . . .
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And every shrub of the field was not yet in the earth (Gen. 2:5).
. . . As for the passage where it is written (Gen. 1:24): “Let the earth bring forth”—they did go forth, but remained at the openings of the ground.
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And the Lord God formed (va-yyitser) the man of dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7)
[The double y indicates] two creations; a creation for this world and a creation for the resurrection of the dead. But for the animal, which does not stand before final judgment, two y‘s are not written in describing its creation.
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Dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7).
God collected the dust from all over the earth, from the four corners, so that wherever he dies, it would receive him for burial. . . .
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And the Lord God said: It is not good that the man should be alone (Gen. 2:18).
So that it should not be said, there is a dual authority: the Holy One, blessed be He, among higher beings, is one, without a mate; and this one among lower beings is without a mate.
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I will make him a help opposite him (k’negdo) (Gen. 2:18).
If she is virtuous, she is a help. If she is not virtuous, she is opposite him, in strife.
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And the Lord God formed out of the ground every beast of the field (Gen. 2:19).
This “forming” is the “making” previously mentioned (Gen. 1:25): “And God made the beast of the earth, etc.” But it is repeated here to explain that the winged creatures were created from the slime; for it is said previously they were created from the waters, and here it says from the earth.
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And the Lord God built the rib which he had taken from the man into a woman (Gen. 2:22).
Like a building, wide below and narrow above to contain the child, like a storehouse of wheat which is wide below and narrow above, so that its burden will not be too heavy for its walls.
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And the man said: This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh (Gen. 2:23).
This teaches that Adam came unto every beast and animal and was not satisfied in them.
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She shall be called Woman (isha) because out of Man (ish) was she taken (Gen. 2:23).
The one word comes from the other. Thus we know that the world was created with the Hebrew language.
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Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife (Gen. 2:24),
The Holy Spirit says this to forbid lewdness to the children of Noah.
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