A: 2:4- Elleh toledot ha-shamayim and the earth when G-d made them
B: 6:9 – Elleh toledot Noah
C: 10:1 - Elleh toledot the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Yefet
D: 11:10 – Elleh toledot Shem
E: 11:27 – Elleh toledot Terah
F: 25:12 – Elleh toledot Yishmael
G: 25:19 – Elleh toledot Yitzhak
H: 36:1 – Elleh toledot Esav
I: 36:9 – Elleh toledot Esav
J: 37:2 – Elleh toledot Yaakov
(A similar phrase occurs in 5:1, “This is the book of toledot of Adam.” The phrase also appears in Bemidbar 3:1, see our discussion on Bemidbar 3:1,2, "A true legacy" and in Ruth 4:18.)
A common denominator of the five large narrative units is that towards the end of each unit, the Torah records the death of the main figure of the narrative of the unit who descended from the person in the heading elleh toledot. The one exception is by unit B, elleh toledot Noah, which we explain below. By the sections that do end with a death, they are mostly genealogical sections and the end of the sections signal the end of an era.
What does the phrase "elleh toledot" mean? Many commentators discuss the meaning of this term in reference to 37:2, which records “Elleh toledot Yaakov, Yosef was 17 years old.” A question about this verse is, why does the verse only refer to Yosef and not to all of Yaakov’s children?
Rashi (on 37:2, also see Ibn Ezra, Radak and Seforno on 37:2) writes that elleh toledot means these are the accounts of the generations of Yaakov until they reached their permanent settlement (in the land of Israel) and the cause of their travels was the fight between the Yosef and his brothers.
Ramban (on 37:2) disagrees since he claims that the word toledot refers to descendants, which seems to be closer to the literal interpretation of the word, and he argues that while 37:2 just refers to Yosef the intention is to include all of the sons of Yaakov. Yet, why then were the other sons not mentioned?
Ramban offers a second possibility (also see Rashbam on 37:2) that the phrase elleh toledot in 37:1 refers to Yaakov's grandchildren which are mentioned in the genealogical list in 46:8-27. However, Yaakov’s grandchildren are not mentioned until chapter 46, and their births and lives are not related to the main story of the unit, the fight between Yosef and his brothers.
My view is that the phrase elleh toledot should be understood as a combination of both approaches that it refers to both the accounts of the person and the genealogy of the person. How can this be? The phrase should be understood as the legacy of X. According to Webster's dictionary legacy is "something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor from the past." In the book of Bereshit, the legacy of a person can be one's descendants, that one received life from an ancestor, or it could be that the ancestor's actions impacted on the future generations. This legacy for each unit can be discerned by examining each unit.
The first unit of the book of Bereshit is elleh toledot of the ha-shamayim and the earth (unit A), and this begins after the introduction to the book of Bereshit, 1:1-2:23. One oddity about the heading of the first elleh toledot unit, 1:24, is that this is the only heading where no person is mentioned in the heading. Instead, the heading refers to physical entities, ha-shamayim and the earth. However, Adam, and hence humankind, was the descendant of ha-shamayim and the earth, as 2:8 records that G-d created Adam from the ground, and G-d blew into him air (ha-shamayim).
Unit A records the legacy of the creation of heavens and earth, humankind. Thus, the story of the Garden of Eden left a legacy, I think for good, for humankind, see our discussion on 2:7,8,21,22, “Two creations of humans.” Also, chapter 4 records the accomplishments of ancient people, 4:20-22. Furthermore, Noah can also be viewed as the legacy of humankind since he would continue humankind’s existence as his name states, 5:29. The unit ends, 6:7,8 with G-d declaring that He would kill all people except for Noah. This follows the typical pattern that the descendant of the person in the opening heading (here physical entities) dies at the end of the unit. In addition, this decision by G-d to have the flood marks the end of an era.
The second unit of the book of Bereshit is elleh toledot of Noah, 6:9, unit B. This section begins by referring to Noah in the heading, and the unit concludes with his death, 9:29. The unit does not conclude with the deaths of one of his children, as occurs in all the other long elleh toledot units, and this unit has the most minimal genealogy of all the units, just a brief reference to the sons of Noah, 6:10. This minimal genealogy also occurs by the elleh toledot unit of Moshe and Aharon in the book of Bemidbar, Bemidbar 3:1,2.
A reason why unit B does not end with the death of a descendant of Noah, is because the words after the phrase of elleh toledot, is not Noah’s children, which is the usual sequence after the phrase of elleh toledot X, but Noah’s righteousness, 6:9. Instead, Noah’s righteousness could be questioned due to the strange incident at the end of the unit when Noah gets drunk, 9:20-27. Thus, it could be that the minimal genealogy in the section is because the deaths of Noah’s children do not end the unit. In any event, the death of Noah marks the end of the era of the flood, as afterwards his sons start to spread out throughout the world.
Unit B is the legacy of Noah, which is the survival of the world. This survival was not just Noah's survival in the flood but also the covenant after the flood, which meant that the world would not be destroyed again by a flood, 9:8-17. Even with this universal legacy, still the section ends with a brief narrative of his children, and Noah’s blessing to two of his children, 9:20-27, which maintains the literal idea of Noah’s genealogy being his legacy.
The third unit of the book of Bereshit is elleh toledot the children of Noah, Shem, Ham and Yefet 10:1, unit C, and the legacy of this unit is that the sons of Shem, Ham and Yefet spread throughout the world. This is recorded both in conjunction with the births of their children and through the story of the tower of Bavel, 10:32 and 11:9. Furthermore, this section ends with G-d dispersing the people by the tower of Bavel, 11:9, which signals the end of the era in the Torah where the Torah records G-d focus on the entire world.
The fourth unit of the book of Bereshit is elleh toledot Shem, 11:10, unit D. This unit is the legacy of Shem that his descendant was Avraham (Avram), and Avraham's birth is recorded in the last verse of the section, 10:26. The second to last verse of the unit records the death of Nachor, Terah’s father, 11:25, and this unit ends with the births of the three sons of Terah, 11:26. Their births signal the start of a new history, the Jewish people, as all three sons will be ancestors of the Jewish people. This section marks the end of the Torah’s record of the many families who descended from Shem, as the focus of the Torah will now be just of one family who descended from Shem.
The fifth unit of the book of Beheshti, is elleh toledot of Terah, 11:27, unit E. The main figure in this unit is Avraham the son of Terah (the person in the heading) and the unit ends with Avraham’s death, 25:8-11. His death marks the end of his era. The legacy of Terah is Avraham and Yitzhak. The main issue in this section is who would continue Avraham's covenant with G-d. Yitzhak is Avraham's successor and almost at the end of the section Yitzhak marries Rivka which shows the covenant would continue through Yitzhak and Rivka. Afterwards we are told some more genealogical information about Avraham, Avraham's death and the final verse of the section is that G-d blessed Yitzhak, Avraham’s son, 25:1-25:11.
The sixth unit of the book of Bereshit, is elleh toledot of Yishmael, 25:12, unit F. Yishmael’s death is recorded in the second to last verse of this short section, 25:17, but the section ends with an enigmatic verse, 25:18. The last word of the verse is nafal, fall, which marks the end of the era of Yishmael’s children.
The seventh unit of the book of Bereshit is elleh toledot of Yitzhak, 25:19, unit G, and in this unit, the main figure is Yaakov. In this case, the unit ends not with the death of Yaakov but with Yitzhak, 35:28,29, see our discussion on 25:19, “The elleh toledot unit of Yitzhak.” Yitzhak’s death marks the end of the era of Yitzhak.
The legacy of Yitzhak is Yaakov and Yaakov's children, 35:22-27. The main issue in this section is which son, Yaakov or Esav, would be the successor to Yitzhak in continuing the covenant with G-d, and in the end of the unit Yaakov was blessed by G-d to be Yitzhak's successor, 35:10-15. Afterwards there is the genealogy of Yaakov and his children, that Yaakov lived with Yitzhak, which shows that he was Yitzhak's successor, 35:16-29.
The eighth unit of the book of Bereshit is the first elleh toledot of Esav, 36:1, unit H. This unit ends with Esav leaving the land of Israel, 36:8, which signals the end of an era, his claim to the land of Israel. One legacy of Esav is that he willingly left the land of Canaan and instead he and his descendants received the land of Seir, 36:6-8.
The ninth unit of the book of Bereshit is the second elleh toledot of Esav, 36:9, unit I. Esav’s second legacy is his numerous descendants that lived in the land of Seir. This section does not with a death, but the last verses refers to Esav’s descendants that they were chiefs as opposed to being kings, 36:40-43, which signals the fall of his descendants and the end of their era, see our discussion on Chapter 36, “The rise and fall of Esav.”
The tenth and last unit of the book of Bereshit is elleh toledot Yaakov, 37:2, unit J. There are three possible conclusions to this unit. One, 46:30 and 47:9, when Yaakov refers to his impending death, two, 49:33 when Yaakov actually dies and three, 50:26, the last verse of the book of Bereshit, when Yosef dies. The true end of the unit is the death of Yosef, which marks the end of his era. This ending follows the pattern that a unit ends with of the death of the person who descends from the person in the heading elleh toledot, and Yosef is mentioned immediately after the elleh toledot phrase in 37:2. Also, maybe, since Yosef’s death occurs a while after the genealogy of 46:8-27, there is a “mini-end” with Yaakov referring to his impending death in 46:30 and 47:9. In addition, the genealogy of Yaakov’s family marks the end of the era of Yaakov and his family living in the land of Israel for quite some time.
The legacy of Yaakov is that his whole family stayed together and would become a nation. The main (only?) issue of the unit is the fight between the brothers. The beginning of the fight is recorded immediately after the phrase of elleh toledot in 37:2, and almost led the family to separate. However, the family joined together in Egypt, as 46:8-27 records the list of Yaakov's family that both Yosef and his brothers were going to Egypt. The pattern of this list is followed in Bemidbar 26:1-51, which shows that the family did develop into a nation.
37:2 refers to Yosef after the phrase elleh toledot Yaakov and not the other children of Yaakov since of all of Yaakov’s sons, Yosef was the one to fulfill the prophecy that Avram’s fourth generation would return to the land of Israel (15:16) and the unit ends with Yosef’s brothers swearing that they would take Yosef’s bones back to the land of Israel to fulfill this prophecy, see our discussion on 15:16, "Who is the fourth generation?" Thus, Yosef was the most important son of Yaakov’s legacy.
The eighth unit of the book of Bereshit is the first elleh toledot of Esav, 36:1, unit H. This unit ends with Esav leaving the land of Israel, 36:8, which signals the end of an era, his claim to the land of Israel. One legacy of Esav is that he willingly left the land of Canaan and instead he and his descendants received the land of Seir, 36:6-8.
The ninth unit of the book of Bereshit is the second elleh toledot of Esav, 36:9, unit I. Esav’s second legacy is his numerous descendants that lived in the land of Seir. This section does not with a death, but the last verses refers to Esav’s descendants that they were chiefs as opposed to being kings, 36:40-43, which signals the fall of his descendants and the end of their era, see our discussion on Chapter 36, “The rise and fall of Esav.”
The tenth and last unit of the book of Bereshit is elleh toledot Yaakov, 37:2, unit J. There are three possible conclusions to this unit. One, 46:30 and 47:9, when Yaakov refers to his impending death, two, 49:33 when Yaakov actually dies and three, 50:26, the last verse of the book of Bereshit, when Yosef dies. The true end of the unit is the death of Yosef, which marks the end of his era. This ending follows the pattern that a unit ends with of the death of the person who descends from the person in the heading elleh toledot, and Yosef is mentioned immediately after the elleh toledot phrase in 37:2. Also, maybe, since Yosef’s death occurs a while after the genealogy of 46:8-27, there is a “mini-end” with Yaakov referring to his impending death in 46:30 and 47:9. In addition, the genealogy of Yaakov’s family marks the end of the era of Yaakov and his family living in the land of Israel for quite some time.
The legacy of Yaakov is that his whole family stayed together and would become a nation. The main (only?) issue of the unit is the fight between the brothers. The beginning of the fight is recorded immediately after the phrase of elleh toledot in 37:2, and almost led the family to separate. However, the family joined together in Egypt, as 46:8-27 records the list of Yaakov's family that both Yosef and his brothers were going to Egypt. The pattern of this list is followed in Bemidbar 26:1-51, which shows that the family did develop into a nation.
37:2 refers to Yosef after the phrase elleh toledot Yaakov and not the other children of Yaakov since of all of Yaakov’s sons, Yosef was the one to fulfill the prophecy that Avram’s fourth generation would return to the land of Israel (15:16) and the unit ends with Yosef’s brothers swearing that they would take Yosef’s bones back to the land of Israel to fulfill this prophecy, see our discussion on 15:16, "Who is the fourth generation?" Thus, Yosef was the most important son of Yaakov’s legacy.
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