Commentary: On Genesis 37:2

These are the descendants of Jacob (Genesis 37:2): Let those who love reason know and understand that which our Sages taught us [Shabbat 63a], “A verse never departs from its plain meaning.” It is still true that in essence the Torah’s purpose is to teach us and relate to us teachings, rules of conduct and laws which we derive from hints [hidden] in the plain meaning of Scripture, through superfluous wording, through the thirty-two principles of R. Eliezer, the son of R. Jose the Galilean, or the thirteen principles of R. Yishmael. Due to their piety, the earliest scholars tended to devote their time to midrashic explanations, which are the essence of Torah; as a result they never became attuned to the profundities of the plain meaning of Scripture.

Furthermore, the Sages said, “Keep your children away from too much higgayon.”¹ They also said, “Studying the Bible is but of incomplete merit, but there is nothing more meritorious than studying Talmud” [Bava Meẓi‘a 33a]. Accordingly, they never became entirely attuned to the plain meaning of Scriptural verses. As [Rabbi Kehana] says in Tractate Shabbat [63a], “I was eighteen years old and I had studied the entire Talmud and I had never realized that ‘A verse never departs from its plain meaning.’”

Similarly, Rabbi Solomon, my mother’s father, who illumined the eyes of all the diaspora, who wrote commentaries on the Torah, Prophets and Hagiographa, set out to explain the plain meaning of Scripture. However I, Samuel, son of his son-in-law, Meir—may the memory of the righteous be a blessing—[often] disputed [his interpretations] with him to his face. He admitted to me that, if only he had had the time, he would have written new [revised] commentaries, based on the insights into the plain meaning of Scripture that are newly thought of day by day.

Now let the wise consider the way earlier scholars interpreted the phrase ’elleh toledot ya‘qov to mean, “These are the events and happenings that befell Jacob.” This interpretation is folly. Of all the occurrences of the phrase, ’elleh toledot X in the Torah or the Hagiographa, some elaborate the children of X, while others elaborate X’s grand-children, as I explained above in the portion ’Elleh toledot noah.

Above, in the portion Bereshit, it is written, When Noah had lived five hundred years, Noah begot Shem, Ham and Japheth (Genesis 5:32). The text then explains how all the world sinned while Noah found favor (Genesis 6:8). The text then explains (Genesis 6:9), These are the toledot of Noah—i.e., “how did his grandchildren come about?” Since he had three sons and God commanded him to take them into the ark for twelve months, when they came out, sons were born to them after the flood (Genesis 10:1). [The text then proceeds to explain all their descendants] until they numbered seventy descendants who became the seventy nations, as it is written (Genesis 10:32), From these the nations branched out.

Similarly, the text concerning Esau explains in the first section the children that he begot when he lived in the area of his father’s residence [Genesis 36:1–5]. Then the text explains that he went to another land . . . and settled on Mount Seir (Genesis 36:6, 8). After completing that section, the text begins a new section with the words (Genesis 36:9), These are the toledot of Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites, on Mount Seir—a section concerning [the descendants of] Esau’s children.

Just as one finds that the text relates, concerning Esau, that his children were born in the land of his father’s residence, before he went to another land on account of Jacob (Genesis 36:6), while his grandchildren were born on Mount Seir, so one finds similarly concerning Jacob. Above (Genesis 35:22) the text states, The sons of Jacob were twelve in number. At the end of that section the text further explains that, These are the sons who were born to him in Paddan-Aram. And Jacob came to his father, Isaac . . . (Genesis 35:26–7). So the text has [to this point] already explained who Jacob’s sons were and where they were born, as it did in the case of Esau.

Now [still following the pattern of the narration of Esau’s line,] the text writes, these are the toledot of Jacob—i.e., his seventy descendants and how they were born. And how [were they in fact born]? Joseph was seventeen years old and his brothers were jealous of him. As a result, Judah left his brothers (Genesis 38:1) and begot children—Shelah, Perez and Zerah—in Chezib and Adulam. As the events unfolded, Joseph was taken down to Egypt (Genesis 39:1) and begot Menasseh and Ephraim there. Joseph then sent for his father and household, which now totalled seventy souls. Moses, our teacher, had to record all this since he would yet chastise them, saying, Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons in all . . . (Deuteronomy 10:22).