Rashi answers that if the nations of the world were to claim that the Jewish people were robbers, for they seized the land of Canaan and occupied it, the Torah proves that the whole world belongs to God, for He created it by His will and He gave it to whomever He pleased. Rashi states that the Jews can convincingly reply to the nations: "When He willed, He gave it to [one people], and when He willed, He took it from them and gave it to us."

Yet one might still ask, even though it is true that God is the Master of the world, and He can give the Land of Israel to whomever He wishes, how do we know that He wished to give Israel to the Jewish people? The answer is obvious ― the Torah tells us that God promised our forefathers that their children would inherit the land. (see Genesis 15:18, 26:4, 28:13)

But, once again, we might contend, as do the nations of the world, that God fulfilled His promise by giving their descendants the Land of Israel once in the distant past. But [perhaps] now He desires to give it to someone else. What proof do we have that Israel is ours even today?

We might suggest an answer here which gives a deeper meaning to Rashi's words. Nachmanides writes: "Be aware of the fundamental principle... that all the mitzvot which are observed today are observed only because God commanded them to Moses, and not because He commanded the prophets who preceded him."

The Meshech Chochma asks, what difference does it make whether we observe the commandments because they were given by Moses, or because they were given to the forefathers and the earlier prophets? Isn't the end result the same? God commanded us to perform these mitzvot and we must do so, no matter who presented them to us. Why then is it a fundamental principle that we observe the mitzvot only because they were given to us by Moses?

The answer to this question, maintains the Meshech Chochma, is that Moses's words are binding on us forever, because his prophecy was on the highest possible level, as if looking into a transparent mirror. Thus it is impossible for any future miracle or sign by any future prophet to contradict or overturn any of Moses's prophetic statements. It is on this level that the Torah was written, and this demonstrates that it is eternal.

And indeed, if a future prophet were to attempt to nullify any of the commandments which were given to us through Moses, the Torah cautions us to consider such a person a false prophet and a charlatan. This means that if we were to observe the mitzvot because we were enjoined to do so by the forefathers, whose prophetic vision was not on as high a level as that of Moses, the danger would exist that in the future another so-called "prophet" might arise who would claim that God "told" him to nullify these mitzvot of the forefathers.

Thus we might say that this is what Rashi had in mind in his comments on the beginning of Genesis. The story of Creation and the whole of Genesis had to be written by Moses and included as part of the Torah, in order to underscore the fact that the promise given to the forefathers regarding the Land of Israel was eternal and no one can claim that God changed His mind and now desires to give the land to someone other than the Jewish people. Thus, because we received the Torah through Moses, we know that the Torah and its mitzvot retain the status of eternity and God's promise of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people is a promise for all time.

We might explain homiletically Rashi's question why the Torah began with the mitzvah of sanctifying the month: The Torah was meant to teach the Jewish people throughout the generations how to live, and therefore the lives of the patriarchs and matriarchs also served as examples of how one must conduct oneself with righteousness.

In every generation the Jew is confronted with numerous tests of faith. Sometimes we are faced with overpowering coercion from the nations of the world to forsake our religious observance and our faith in God. Sometimes we have no other choice but to live as a "lonely man of faith," out of step with the rest of the modern world and surrounded by an environment hostile to the ethical and moral values of Judaism. It is for this reason that the Torah teaches us about the lives of our ancestors, in order to remind us of the values they represented in their lives and to inspire us to emulate these same values in our own lives. Thus we are told of Abraham that he was called "Ha'Ivri" to allude to the fact that the entire world was on one side and Abraham was on the other. Abraham's lifestyle was completely different from that of the rest of society.

If we can imagine the daily life of Abraham we will realize that he did not wake up in the morning and attend a daily minyan in a synagogue packed with other Jews. Rather he was a solitary Jew, all alone in a hostile world, and yet he served God with perfect faith. So, too, were the other patriarchs and matriarchs challenged in the same way, and in addition they tasted the bitter pill of anti-semitism. Joseph and his children lived alone in a world steeped in idolatry and immorality and yet they stood their ground and were true to their beliefs and acted righteously.

Throughout the generations, when faced with these challenges, Jews have called upon our ancestors for inspiration and as role models to help them through whatever circumstances they might find themselves in. Thus we can see the vital importance of Genesis, for it serves to give us hope and teach us how to survive as a Jew.

This led Rashi to ask, if the purpose of presenting the lives of our ancestors was to give us hope and inspiration to survive as a nation, then isn't this lesson also alluded to in the first mitzvah, that of Kiddush HaChodesh, sanctifying the month?

As the Midrash and classic commentators tell us, Kiddush HaChodesh is a particularly appropriate mitzvah with which to begin the Torah, because the life of the Jew waxes and wanes very much like the cycle of the moon. There are times when the moon shines brightly, yet at other times it almost disappears from view. However, it then returns and shines once again.

This reflects the history of the Jewish people. We lived through a golden age and then descended into a dark era, when it seemed as though the Jew would vanish from the face of the earth. But then we reappeared, to shine even more brightly then ever. And we were given the assurance that with the coming of the Messiah we would shine more brightly still...