Shabbat Parashat Bereishit - 578​6

Shabbat Parashat Bereishit - 578​6

Rabbi Hal Miller

  ​Now any tree of the field ​was not yet on the earth and any herb of the field had not

​  yet sproute​d, for Hashem God had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no

​  man to work the soil.​ [Bereishit 2:5]

​This verse gives us a reason why plant life "had not yet sprouted", since God had not sent rain yet, but there are a number of verses that come before this one which seem to contradict the idea that plants did not yet exist.

First we look at Bereishit 1:11, the third day of Creation, where "God said, let the earth sprout vegetation of plants bringing forth seed, trees of fruit yielding fruit each after its kind, which have their seed in them on the earth, and it was so." Next we look at the following verse [1:12], "And the earth brought forth vegetation, herbage yielding seed after its kind, and trees yielding fruit, each containing its seed after its kind. And God saw that it was good." Both of these verses seem to say pretty clearly that God commanded the earth to bring forth vegetation and the earth did so, and that it was good.

Then in verses 1:29-30 God tells that all of this vegetation is for man and for beast for food, and again He ends with "and it was so". From these four verses in chapter 1 it seems clear that the vegetation is in existence on day three, in usable form, before our verse, which comes on day six.

The Gemara in Chullin [60b] addresses our issue, calling it a contradiction. "This teaches that the types of herbage emerged but they remained at the portal of the ground until the first man came and prayed for them, whereupon rain fell and they sprouted. To teach that the Holy One, blessed is He, desires the prayers of the righteous." This is a good explanation of the reason that God had not yet sent rain, but does not actually address the apparent contradiction regarding when the plants appeared.

​Rashi explains that on the third day, God commanded "Let it become filled and let it be covered with a raiment of plants." He then differentiates from our verse of the sixth day saying about the third where it says, "and the earth brought forth", that it means "they did not emerge, but they stood at the entrance of the ground until the sixth day." This follows the Gemara, but gives a little more explanation of the 'how'. Although it is helpful, our problem remains that before our verse, vegetation was given for food, and there were a couple "and it was so" clauses. For this Rashi looks at the phrase "was not yet on the earth" in our verse and explains that the word terem, usually translated as 'before', here means 'not yet'. We can read into this that although the vegetation existed on day three, it was sitting idle, whether inside the ground or above being a second question, and that until the rains came the plants were not really living things. Onkelos seems to be saying this as well, commenting on verse 2:9 that "God caused to grow from the ground", that on the sixth day, the plants existed but were not yet growing. Saadiah Gaon modifies this to "grow in the ground".

Rav Hirsch looks at the second word of our verse, siach. The word often means conversation, but as Rav Hirsch writes, "siach is the general name for growth" that it refers to things like spiritual growth, but also to vegetation. He says that it cannot have that latter meaning here since the vegetation was already in existence from the third day, thus in our verse it must refer to growth. This points also to the lack of growth from the third day since God granted the bringing of rain to man, who was created on the sixth day. Now in our verse on day six, the third-day vegetation will begin to grow.

Ramban also looks at the definition of our subject matter. First he notes that most of the things created were by the phrase "let there be", directed either at the primordial matter or to the item itself, but here God directs His command on the third day to the earth, that it should bring forth something and Ramban asks why this is so. He answers that this is a continuing command so the earth will produce plants repeatedly and forever, not just this one time. He also looks at the words used for vegetation in these various verses, deshe and eisev and suggests that perhaps what was created on the sixth day is in fact a different set of plants from what came about on the third day. In the end, he says that all the vegetation created on the third day was in its full height and maturity, but it did not start to grow until the rains brought by Adam on the sixth day.

It seems that God created everything in that first moment, but only pushed the start button on things at times He thought best for various reasons.