As we begin reading the Torah again, Rashi’s opening question challenges us: Why does the Torah begin with the creation of the world, rather than with the first mitzvah given to the Jewish people?
His answer is familiar. If the nations accuse Israel of taking the land of the seven nations, we can respond that the entire world belongs to Hashem. He created it, and He determines to whom it is given.
The Ramban, however, develops this answer into a profound lesson about moral responsibility.
Look at the stories that open the Torah. Adam receives a home in Gan Eden, but his sin leads to his expulsion. The generation of the Flood loses its place in the world through its wickedness, while Noach and his family survive. The generation of the Tower of Babel sins and is scattered across the earth.
These stories establish a pattern: the relationship between people and the places they inhabit carries moral obligations. In the Ramban’s reading, when a nation persists in sin, it can lose its land to another nation. The Creator’s authority over the earth includes His judgement of those who live upon it.
This explains why the Torah begins long before Avraham, before the Exodus, and before the giving of the mitzvot. Before we learn about receiving our land, we must understand what living in Hashem’s world demands.
Then comes the Ramban’s most challenging point: this principle applies to us too.
Hashem gives the land to His people so that they will serve Him and keep His Torah. The Ramban explicitly warns that if Israel sins, the land can expel us, just as it expelled the nations before us.
The same Torah that establishes our right to the land also establishes our responsibility within it.
That is a demanding understanding of divine morality. When we say that Hashem is the source of justice, we accept that His judgement reaches us as well. We must allow His Torah to examine our choices, challenge our assumptions, and shape our conduct.
For us, the opening of Bereishit therefore carries both reassurance and a summons. Our connection to Eretz Yisrael is rooted in Hashem’s gift, and that gift calls us to lives of holiness, honesty, compassion, and justice.
As we begin the Torah anew, let us remember that the privilege of belonging to Am Yisrael carries a profound responsibility: to live by the Torah of the One who entrusted us with His land.
Let us be worthy.