Likkutei Sichos Vol. 20 – Bereishis 1
1. On the verse "In the beginning G‑d created"[1], Rashi brings the statement of Rabbi Yitzchak[2]: "The Torah should have begun only with 'This month shall be for you'[3]… Why then did it open with 'In the beginning'? Because 'He declared the power of His works to His people, to give them the inheritance of the nations'[4]." Rashi explains that this answers the claim of the nations of the world: "'You are robbers[5], for you conquered the lands of the seven nations' — they can answer them: 'The whole world belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whomever He saw fit'…"[6]
The precise wording, "The Torah should have begun only… Why then did it open with 'In the beginning'" — unlike the wording found in some Midrashim[7], "The Torah need not have been written… Why then was it written from 'In the beginning'" (and the like) — implies that the question in this statement is not that these sections (from "In the beginning" until "This month") need not have been in the Torah at all, but that they need not have been the beginning of the Torah[8], since the Torah should have begun with "'This month shall be for you,' which is the first mitzvah that Israel was commanded"[9].
Now since the answer (also) to this question is "for if the nations of the world will say…", it follows that to refute their claim "You are robbers…" it is not enough that "In the beginning G‑d created…" appear (somewhere) in the Torah; it must be the beginning of the Torah. This is puzzling: even if "In the beginning" had come after "This month," we would still know that "the whole world belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it…" Why would that not be a sufficient answer — why must the Torah specifically open with "In the beginning"?
2. We also need to understand:
Since "the Torah should have begun (been written) only with 'This month shall be for you'" — meaning that, from the standpoint of Torah itself, its beginning should not have been "In the beginning" (or that this should not have been in the Torah at all) — and especially since the author of the statement stresses this with the wording "only… with," which shows that it is essential[10] — how can it be that in order to refute a claim of the nations of the world, the order of the (Written) Torah is changed (and all the more so, that something is added to it)?
Moreover, to refute the claim it would seemingly have been enough to hand down the answer orally from generation to generation (as with the Oral Torah in general). Indeed, we find in the Gemara[11] that Geviha ben Pesisa answered the claim of "the people of Africa" (that "the land of Canaan is ours") with a(nother) explanation that is not stated (explicitly[12]) in the Written Torah (and similarly with the descendants of Yishmael and the descendants of Keturah, regarding their claim that "the land of Canaan is ours and yours").
We are therefore compelled to say that the matter of "it opened with 'In the beginning'" is not only an answer to the nations of the world, but something that concerns the Jewish people themselves, in their (Torah and) service of G‑d.
[This will also explain why the verse cited in Rabbi Yitzchak's statement, "He declared the power of His works to His people, to give them the inheritance of the nations," does not mention that this is an answer to the nations of the world, but says "He declared to His people." That is, "He declared the power of His works to His people" concerns the Jewish people themselves[13]: so that the Jews should not think that by their conquest of "the lands of the seven nations" they are "robbers," they are told at the very beginning of the Torah that "In the beginning G‑d created."]
3. This will be understood according to the (inner) explanation of the Tzemach Tzedek[14] on this statement:
"You conquered the lands of the seven nations" refers (spiritually) to "conquest" — the service of the Jewish people in the lands (and, in general, in the world)[15]. When Jews "conquer" — when they take worldly things (permitted matters) and use them for the sake of Heaven — they remove them from their non-Jewish, even merely mundane, state and turn them into articles used for a mitzvah, a holy thing, holiness, and up to the holy of holies.
On this comes the claim (of the nations of the world), "You are robbers": the things that are under the dominion of the nations — at any rate, mundane things — belong to them, the nations claim [as the Midrash[16] says, that Yaakov and Esav divided the worlds between them: Yaakov took the World to Come and Esav this world]. Consequently, (according to the nations of the world) the service of conquest — by which one "expands the bounds of holiness"[17] — is a kind of "robbery."
The answer to this is: "In the beginning G‑d created" — "everything is from You"[18] — "the whole world belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whomever He saw fit." The fact that these things were (before man's service) in the domain of the nations, or at least of the mundane, is only because "by His will He gave it to them" — it was G‑d's will that (as a result of the sin of the Tree of Knowledge) they be given to them[19]. But (that itself was so that) afterwards "by His will He took it from them and gave it to us": G‑d wants the Jewish people to take these things back from them and return them into "the bounds of holiness" (as they were before the sin), through the service (conquest) of the Jewish people.
This is also the meaning of "The Torah should have begun only with 'This month shall be for you'": Torah is higher than the work of Creation[20], and so also higher than the service carried out with the work of Creation (worldly matters) — the service of conquest[21]. This is plain in the person who serves G‑d as well: when a Jew studies Torah or does a mitzvah, he is at that time clothed in a holy thing[22] and is above worldly matters. But when he is busy with his permitted, personal affairs, even when he does them for the sake of Heaven, they remain (even then) "your deeds" and "your ways" — permitted matters that a person desires for the sake of his body, his existence and his vitality, that is, for the sake of his animal soul.
According to this explanation, however, the question raised above (section 1) becomes even stronger. If the service of conquest is lower than Torah and mitzvos, it is true that it must be written in the Torah, so that we know that this service is required (and that it is not a matter of "robbery"); but how can it be that it should be the beginning and opening of the Torah (when coming first in order — in the Torah — indicates coming first in importance)?
4. One of the explanations that can be given for this:
Although the service of conquest — in the language of Chassidus, the service of birurim (refining) — is, in the order of levels, lower than Torah study and the fulfillment of mitzvos (as explained above), nevertheless, the Supernal intent in the creation of the world ("the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms"[23], which means, as the Alter Rebbe explains it[24], a lower realm "than which there is none lower") is fulfilled through the service of birurim more fully and more deeply than through Torah study and the fulfillment of mitzvos. For through it, a dwelling place for Him is made even in a person's permitted matters, which are truly "lower realms"[25].
[Similarly, there is an advantage in this service with regard to a person's soul: in the service of birurim he must call up deeper powers of his soul than in Torah study and the fulfillment of mitzvos. To ensure that even when one is not within the four cubits of holiness but is occupied with worldly matters, one remains bound to holiness — to the point that all permitted matters are done only "for the sake of Heaven" (or higher still, "in all your ways, know Him") — one must simply be stronger. One must reach a stronger bond of the soul with G‑d, one that is not weakened even while one is occupied with worldly matters[26].]
This is also why the Torah "opened with 'In the beginning'"[27]: because the completion of the main purpose of the intent of creation — a dwelling place in the lower realms, than which there is none lower — is achieved through the service of "In the beginning G‑d created" (the service of birurim).
5. This explanation, however, is not sufficient. From the continuation of the wording, "Why then did it open with 'In the beginning'… for if the nations of the world will say…", it is evident that the Torah "opened with 'In the beginning'" because otherwise (even if "In the beginning" had come later in the Torah) there would still be room for the nations' claim, "You are robbers" (as said above, section 1).
According to the above, however, the reason the Torah "opened with 'In the beginning'" would not be to refute the claim "You are robbers," but only to put first and emphasize the advantage of the service of birurim ("In the beginning G‑d created") over the advantage of the service of Torah and mitzvos ("This month").
This will be understood in light of the well-known teaching that worldly matters are of two kinds[28]:
(a) Permitted matters, which are conquered and refined through the service of "all your deeds shall be for the sake of Heaven" and "in all your ways, know Him," and, of course, through Torah study and the fulfillment of mitzvos.
(b) Forbidden matters, whose vitality comes from the three entirely impure kelipos, which have no good in them at all. These things too have a spark of holiness that brings them into being, gives them life and sustains them (for the existence of anything comes only from holiness), but the light of holiness of these sparks is utterly concealed in them[29]. As a result, only rarely (not in the usual case, which is what the Torah speaks of) are they refined — through nullification in a majority or in sixty[30], and the like; through deliberate sins becoming merits by teshuvah out of love[31], and so on. But ordinarily they cannot be refined and raised up into holiness — and that is why they are forbidden.
Accordingly, it can be said that the main claim of "You are robbers" (spiritually) concerns those things regarding which the claim has a basis according to Torah. For a Jew who conducts himself according to Torah has nothing to do with refining forbidden things; there must be "turn away from evil," and forbidden things must be pushed away[32]. That is, according to Torah they are as if they were not in a Jew's domain at all (but in the domain of the kelipah).
Therefore, if "In the beginning" had come after "This month" [and all the more so since this is essential — "The Torah should have begun only with 'This month shall be for you'": Torah itself requires that its beginning be "This month"] — meaning that the service of conquest and birurim would be carried out only through Torah study and the fulfillment of mitzvos — then "you conquered the lands of the seven nations" (which includes the refining of the sparks in the three impure kelipos[33]) would have been robbery.
6. The claim is answered by the fact that the Torah "opened with 'In the beginning'":
Although from the standpoint of Torah the sparks in forbidden things cannot be refined, from the standpoint of "the Holy One, blessed be He" Himself (who is above Torah) the power of teshuvah was given, which (teshuvah out of love) brings it about that deliberate sins become merits [as Chazal say[34], that it is specifically when "they asked the Holy One, blessed be He, 'What is the punishment of the sinner?' and He said to them, 'Let him do teshuvah and he will be atoned for'" (as opposed to when "they asked the Torah"[35])], and through this the sparks too are refined.
For "everything is from You" — forbidden things included (as explained above, their existence and vitality come from the sparks of holiness in them), and they too are in G‑d's "ownership." And since G‑d's very Essence is above the bounds of concealment and revelation, the sparks of holiness too (in which the G‑dly light is utterly concealed) are united with Him. From there comes the power of teshuvah to refine even these sparks and raise them up to holiness.
But since "the Torah is light" — the revelation of all matters of holiness comes through Torah (even those that in themselves are above Torah) — the matter of teshuvah (the refining of the sparks in forbidden things) is also stated and explained through Torah[36].
This is the difference between the two versions of Rabbi Yitzchak's statement mentioned above (section 1): (a) "Why then was it written from 'In the beginning'," and (b) "Why then did it open with 'In the beginning'":
For the refining of permitted matters, "it was written from 'In the beginning'" is enough — that it is written in the Torah (somewhere). For although this service too has an advantage over the service of Torah and mitzvos (as explained above, section 4), Torah gives room for this service; on the contrary, Torah obligates it.
The refining of forbidden things, however, is not according to the order of Torah. For even one who says "I will sin and then do teshuvah" commits a transgression and is liable to punishment according to the extent of the damage[37], for he damages, etc. And because of this aspect of the conquest of the lands of the seven nations, it must stand at the opening of the Torah: since the power for this refining comes from a place higher than Torah[38], it therefore comes (within the Torah itself) as the beginning and opening of the Torah.
7. This is also what Rabbi Yitzchak says: "Why then did it open with 'In the beginning'? Because 'He declared the power of His works to His people, to give them the inheritance of the nations'":
To the Jewish people ("His people") there was drawn down ("declared," a term meaning drawing down[39]) and handed over "the power of His works"[40] — the G‑dly power (and spark) that is in (all) "His works."
For since Israel and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one — even higher than the union of Torah with the Holy One, blessed be He, as Chazal say[41] that "Israel preceded" the Torah — the Jewish people have the power of "the Holy One, blessed be He" (who is above Torah) for teshuvah, through which deliberate sins become for him as merits[42].
However, since a person's service proceeds in order and by stages, so it is with teshuvah too:
At the beginning of one's service, when one's level of teshuvah (in the person himself) is still such that he feels his service consists of tearing himself away from evil, teshuvah (as he feels it) is something like "robbery": he has to take something that "belongs," as it were, to the domain of the kelipah.
Later, however, when he reaches the higher level of teshuvah — "and the spirit shall return to G‑d who gave it"[43] — when in his teshuvah he feels the movement of returning to his root and source (up to "G‑d who gave it," his first root and source), because the (root of his) soul shines in him as it is united with "G‑d who gave it" —
then likewise, regarding the refining of the sparks of holiness (from forbidden things) that he refines through this, he senses that (this is not a matter of "robbery," but that) "everything is from You,"
and that the entire descent (of the sparks) was from the outset only for the sake of the ascent — destroying in order to build — so that a Jew should raise them back up to their root and source through teshuvah.
And through this the Jew attains the elevation of teshuvah: "In the place where baalei teshuvah stand, even the completely righteous cannot stand…"[44]
And this is why (even) the righteous are brought to teshuvah — as Chazal instruct every Jew, and with regard to every day[45]: "all his days in teshuvah."
(From a talk of Shabbos Parshas Vayikra, 5740)