When G-d breathed life into Adam, Adam reached his highest level of perfection
There are 5 verses which seem out of place. After creating Adam and before commanding him, the Torah speaks of rivers.
Netziv says that from these rivers we can learn about the world, and about the role of man within it. If there is nothing to learn, what difference does it make? Why are these rivers mentioned? There are many other rivers in the world.
He cites Gemara in Bechorot 55a (Chazal will give us an insight into the background to the verses, and as a result the Netziv will explain what we can learn from this for human life).
According to Chazal the Euphrates is the name of the river before the separate into four rivers. Only Euphrates comes from Eden.
Netziv explains that there are four types of people, and their enjoyment in the physical world. These four types are represented by the four rivers.
RT What emerges from the commentary of the Netziv?
The “insertion” of these verses 10-14 is an expression/metaphor of man’s relationship with G-d. When I speak of creation of man from “G-d’s point of view” – that’s the first verses of Bereishit. However there is a dimension from “man’s point of view” which is represented by the rivers which metaphorically describe man’s relationship with G-d.
This is the Torah’s way of telling us that man has tzelem Elokim.

There is a switch in the names of G-d. Chapter 1 is Elokim. Chapter 2 is Hashem Elokim.
Netziv explains that when man describes G-d as the Creator of the world, the Torah uses Elokim.
YK-VK (See Parshat Noach) represents man’s personal connection to G-d.
There are actually three levels:
1. G-d – G-d side (which we cannot understand)
2. G-d – man side
3. Man – G-d side
Therefore it is natural that the first chapter of Bereishit speaks of Elokim because it speaks of creation
Chapter 2 is the shift from Elokim(mode 1) to YK-VK (mode 3) so it makes sense that the two names are used in combination.

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The Torah states in creation that “There was no man to work the ground…” (Bereishit 2:5).
HaAmek Davar explains that there are two activities which provide reward in this world – korbanot (prayer) and work.
Thus working the ground is in fact equivalent to prayer

He cites Gemara Chullin 60b as evidence: G-d desires the prayers of the righteous.
The suspense of the Chumash (terem yitzmach) leads to the revelation that the natural world is waiting for man to be created (i.e. HKBH waiting for man to pray).

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In this shiur, Rabbi Triebitz looks at a specific example of how the Netziv resolves apparent difficulties with the text by looking at the historical context of the event.

In Bamidbar (chapter 20) Moshe is punished for hitting the rock to bring forth water. However, in Shemot (chapter 17) Moshe was instructed to hit the rock to provide water. The Netziv answers that while the Children of Israel were in the desert they were subject to miraculous providence, and were not subject to natural laws. However, in preparation for entering the Land of Israel, from Parshat Chukat, in Bamidbar, God began gradually weaning them off, to live by the laws of nature. Hence, the first time Moshe hit the rock. In Bamidbar he was supposed to speak, not to the rock, but to the people, to instruct them with words of mussar and halakha, as described in the Talmud (Ta’anit) as the correct procedure when there is a lack of rain.

Thus, the Netziv views the Chumash not as a ‘flat’ text, looking simply at the words, but as a contoured text taking into account the historical realities of the time (and understood through the eyes of Chazal).

Rabbi Triebitz then explains the difference between “proza” and “shir” (which seem to me to be exactly the opposite of their parallel English words, “prose” and “poetry”).

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In the second shiur, Rabbi Triebitz continues with the Netziv’s Introduction to HaAmek Davar (Kidmas HaEmek) and explain what the Netziv meant when he refers to the Torah as Shira (poetry), and discuss the distinction between philology and poetic structure.

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Kidmas HaAmek – Netziv’s Introduction

In the first shiur, Rabbi Triebitz begins to study the Netziv’s introduction to his Commentary on the Chumash (HaAmek Davar) entitled Kidmas Ha’amek. There the Netziv speaks about Esoteric/Exoteric interpretation of Torah and we discover his “secret” agenda

Here is a link to the HaAmek Davar from HebrewBooks.org
Here is another link from Wikitext which is not a pdf

Even though the work is normally known as HaAmek Davar (and even though sometimes it is punctuated as such on the title page), Rav Herczeg pointed out to Rabbi Triebitz that his first work was named HaAmek Sheila, where ‘sheila’ is a verb. If so, this work should follow the same pattern and ‘daber’ must be a verb.

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