ויאמר אלוהים תדשא הארץ דשא, on the third “day”. God commanded the earth to produce vegetation, in other words, He equipped the earth with the ability, potential, to grow plants of different kinds. This was the second instance in which elements were amalgamated, i.e. employed in conjunction with one another, the product comprising more than one of the basic elements. (compare verse 9) The purpose of these various plants was to serve as food for the land-based living creatures which had not yet been created. The living creatures created on the fifth and sixth day respectively, formed the third stage of employing different elements in conjunction with one another, i.e. in a still more sophisticated manner.
The meaning of the word תדשא is equivalent to תוציא דשא, “bring forth herbs.” This דשא must be viewed as a relatively primitive form of grass, a forerunner of the eventual grass, so that a special verb is used to describe this process. The prophet Yoel 2,22 uses the word in that sense when describing primitive plants growing in the desert. Both the words צמח and דשא describe either primitive plants, or plants which have not yet grown to their full extent. The activities of the luminaries on the third day were relatively weak, not comparable to the power assigned to them on the fourth day, as we already mentioned in our commentary on verse 3. Only on the fourth day did their power increase sufficiently to materially influence the atmosphere covering the surface of the globe. As a result, plants of an advanced calibre were then produced by the earth, the trees growing to their full height, etc.
This is what is meant by the words spoken by God on the fourth day: להאיר על הארץ, i.e. to make their impact felt all over the surface of the earth. This is also what Moses referred to in Deuteronomy 33,14 וממגד תבואות שמש, וממגד גרש ירחים. The meaning of the word להאיר, usually understood only as “to provide illumination,” is in fact twofold. It means “to give light,” as well as “to carry out its assigned tasks.”
דשא, עשב. “deshe” which would develop into “eyssev.” Once it had attained maturity, it would grow seed by means of which to perpetuate itself. Other commentators (Nachmanides) view דשא as a primitive herb which does not produce seed, whereas עשב is a superior kind of herb producing seed. Both in the expressions מזריע זרע and תדשא דשא the noun follows the verb, seeing that it is based on the verb. This is meant either to further define the activity represented by the verb, or to lend more importance to it. We find several examples of such constructions in Samuel Ii 12,15 ויצם דוד צום, “David observed a fast;” another example is found in Isaiah 42,17 יבשו בשת, “being utterly shamed.” Still other examples are: Ezekiel 22,27 and Isaiah 5,6.
עץ פרי, the verb תדשא also includes the command to the earth to produce fruit-bearing trees. The meaning of the expression עושה פרי is that when this tree emerges from the bowels of the earth it is not to be masculine
1 but is to directly produce fruit, much as a woman produces children. The trunk does not need to be fertilised by a feminine counterpart. The tree therefore bears a name which includes its masculine and feminine components. Similarly, what the tree produces is known as פרי. As for the Torah sometimes speaking of פרי אדמתך, “the fruit of your soil,” (
Deut. 28,
4) when we would have expected פרי עציך, “the fruit of your trees,” this formulation is justified seeing that it is only the fruit which is edible and not the trunk, i.e. the tree itself. Therefore the word פרי appears in a construct form, belonging to אדמתך, i.e. the source which also brought forth the tree itself. We find a similar construction in Hoseah 8,7 צמח בלי יעשה קמח, “a plant yielding no flour. Perhaps the best known such construction is להוציא לחם מן הארץ, (
Psalms 104,
14) or, as we say in our daily benediction before eating bread: המוציא לחם מן הארץ, “Who brings forth bread from the earth.” Bread does not come forth from the earth but is baked by man; nonetheless its origin is in the stalks growing out of the earth.
It is possible, on the other hand, to understand in the term עץ not only the trunk, but the foliage, seeing the leaves and the peel also grow and act as protective covers, shields 2 Even though these leaves do not serve as food for human beings, they do serve as food for the birds. For these various reasons the expression עץ פרי as opposed to פרי העץ can be justified, i.e. even the parts of the tree which are not, strictly speaking, its fruit, may be described as if they were. There is a popular saying quoted in Chulin 92,יבעון איתכליא רחמי על עליא דאלמלי עליא לא מתקיימין איתכליא, “let the grapes pray for the leaves for without the leaves the grapes would not exist.”3 As to the fact that the leaves are also part of the trees, the same applies to trees that do not bear fruit. If it were not so, the Torah would have made separate mention of that category of tree when reporting what had been created on the third day.
Consider the fact that David listed the sequence of what God had created during these 6 days in Psalm 104. When he referred to the birds in verse 12, mentioning that they sing in the foliage of the trees, he went on in verse 16 to mention the cedars of Lebanon as the place where some of these birds make their nests. These cedars are not fruit-bearing trees, but are referred to as trees which God planted. In other words, the non fruit-bearing trees are singled out by David as having been made by God for the benefit of the birds. (compare author’s commentary on that Psalm in detail) Moreover, each of those trees is also useful for man who makes all kinds of tools and furnishings out of these non fruit-bearing trees.
למינו, each species should cleave to its own kind. The word למינה applies also to the different herbs just as to the trees; this is why it is mentioned at the end, i.e. to all the foregoing. The same is true in verse 12 when the Torah reports that earth indeed produced each category of plant so that it could preserve its respective species. Our sages both in Rosh Hashanah 11, as well as in Chulin 60 also display another approach to these verses. Rabbi Chanina bar Pappa explained Psalm 104,31 יהי כבוד ה' לעולם ישמח ה' במעשיו, “let the glory of the Lord endure forever, let Him derive joy from His creatures.” This verse was supposedly said by the angel in charge of running the universe on behalf of God. At the time when God commanded the trees to be careful not to lose their individuality but to preserve the peculiarities of their respective genes, the herbs said to themselves that “if God had been interested in different plants intermingling with one another, why would He have cautioned the trees against doing this? They reasoned further that if God said this to the trees which are very distinct from one another by nature, then surely He is interested in their (herbs) maintaining their own individuality, seeing that they are in so much greater danger of losing it through growing so closely to other species of herbs!” As a result, they were careful to emerge on the surface of the earth, each category according to its species. When the angel in charge of running the universe on God’s behalf saw this, he spontaneously broke out in the words יהי כבוד ה' וגו'.
אשר זרעו בו, which contained seed of its own kind as part of it. Both the herbs and the fruit contain their seed within themselves. The meaning is that they are equipped with the means to reproduce themselves, to perpetuate their existence on earth as a species. The herbs contain their seeds within pods or peels, the pods acting as protection against these seeds being destroyed. In the case of fruit-bearing trees, the seeds are contained within the fruit. Only the outer part of the actual fruit is eaten, the seeds being discarded. Even figs, which are eaten together with their seeds, can reproduce from the edible seeds within them. The interior of these little grainy particles we eat contain the basic seed needed for them to reproduce. This is the meaning of the words אשר זרעו בו, “whose seed is contained within it.”
על הארץ. What is meant is that when such seed falls onto the earth it will develop into a plant of the same kind as the one it had fallen from. Compare the Jerusalem Targum on this translation.
ויהי כן, it came forth exactly as God had directed.
1. like certain strains of palms,
2. שומרים in halachic parlance,
3. a parable comparing the scholars to the ignorant people, reminding the former that but for the latter there would be no point to their own existence.