The first Rashi on Chumash cites a midrash stating that the Torah should not have begun with the creation of the universe but with the first mitzvah preceding the exodus from Egypt. Actually, this statement is not found in any midrash identifiable by us, but according to the Tosafist R’ Chaim Paltiel, was actually a statement Rashi heard from his father, R’ Yitzchak. Regardless of the author, the statement continues to explain that the Torah begins with Creation because the nations of the world will one day say, “You are thieves who conquered this land from the seven nations.” The Torah begins by describing how Hashem created all lands to demonstrate that Hashem can give any land to whomever He pleases.
The last Lubavitcher Rebbe examines this passage in his super-commentary on the commentary of Rashi. He says in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak (this time not his father, but from the Gemara Brachot 7b) that when you see a wicked person enjoying a temporary advantage, do not provoke him, because your wisdom is beyond his comprehension. For this reason, Rashi says, Hashem finds it necessary to answer the argument of the nations of the world – not for their sake but for Israel’s sake. We have to understand that our cause is just and that the Torah is our deed of ownership over the Land of Israel that is indisputable despite any claim of the nations, whether logical or otherwise.
Ramban expresses concern with Rashi’s question here. It seems natural to him that the Torah would begin with the creation of the world. After all, the foundation of our beliefs and the basis for our election by the Creator for the purpose of carrying out His commandments is predicated upon the stories in the Torah that precede the Exodus. The book of Bereishit can’t possibly be viewed as extraneous nor is the account of Creation irrelevant.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that Rashi is approaching the Torah as a book of law concerning Israel’s obligations incumbent on us as a consequence of our covenant with Hashem. Following this reading, it seems that the other stories should be in another book, even and especially those commandments that were given to all of humanity, such as “be fruitful and multiply” and even the commandments of the sons of Noach and those that were given to the forefathers, as these were not given to the people of Israel as a nation.
But this is exactly the point of the opening book of the Torah and the answer inherent in the account of Creation. The edicts of Hashem are themselves creative by their nature, and they alter reality. Until the Land of Israel is given to the descendants of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, it is the nature of the land to be susceptible to conquest and occupation. But once Hashem decrees that this land is to be an eternal inheritance, it is no longer simply a land like any other but it is the Land of Israel. It is the land of our covenant with the Creator of the Universe, and no actions of any individual or nation can ever change this state of affairs.
So when the descendants of Cham (i.e., Canaan) temporarily annex the land from Shem, this conquest has no legal or ethical bearing on the status of the land. The land never truly becomes the Land of Canaan nor is it the property of the seven nations that inhabited it. Israel cannot steal her own land from these illegitimate occupiers because it is always and eternally the Land of Israel and can never be known as anything other than this. All land belongs to Hashem who created it, as the opening midrash states. But this land has been altered by an act of transmission from its Creator to our ancestor Avraham, and it is always and only designated for Israel.
This is why the Torah begins with the creation of the world: to establish the provenance and the permanency of this act of transmission and to negate the claims of the nations whenever and however they arise in the course of human history.
