Malbim: Commentary On The Torah Vol. 1 - Beginning And Upheaval

DUST JACKET TORN FROM INTO NATIONHOOD: Men live not only as individuals, however, but as nations — so there must exist a nation-ideal or poly-Adam. With Jacob and his twelve sons the time for the Jewish people had come. Although the need for it may have existed for a very long time before... it was only the singular convergence in Jacob of the physical and metaphysical that led finally to formation of this nation. . RA BBENU MEIR LEIB USH MA LBIIGI (5569-5640: 1809-1879) His extraordinary genius was widely recognized as early as age fourteen, and by the age of twenty he already had' completed a work of Halakhah (Torah Law) that earned the endorsement of the foremost authority of his day -- who wrote about him: `prodigious in the knowledge of Torah, in analytical power, in all the instruments of human thought. "His mastery extended to languages, logic, philosophy and Kabala, and he was well versed in the science of his day. All of which he combined and included in his Torah commentary. Moreover, a phenomenal orator and the greatest authority on the language of the Bible, he became a leader in the struggle against those who attacked the authenticity and unity of Scripture.