God Teaches Torah In The World To Come

It is written: "The secret of the LORD is with them that fear Him, and His covenant, to make them know it" (Psalms 25:14). What is the secret of the LORD? This is circumcision, for He did not reveal it from Adam until twenty generations, until Abraham arose and He gave it to him, as it is said: "And I will make My covenant between Me and you" (Genesis 17:2). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: If you circumcise yourself, you will receive the secret of the LORD. What is "the secret of the LORD"? The letter samekh stands for sixty, the letter vav for six, the letter dalet for four - that is seventy [reading the word "sod," secret, as a numerical cipher whose plain meaning is simply "secret"]. Seventy I will raise up from you in the merit of circumcision, as it is said: "With seventy persons your fathers went down" (Deuteronomy 10:22). I will raise up from them seventy elders, as it is said: "Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel" (Numbers 11:16). And I will raise up from them Moses, who expounds the Torah in seventy languages, as it is said: "Moses began to declare" and so forth (Deuteronomy 1:5). In whose merit? In the merit of circumcision, as it is said: "The secret of the LORD is with them that fear Him." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham: It is enough for a servant to be like his master. Abraham said before Him: And who will circumcise me? He said: You yourself. Immediately Abraham took a knife and was gripping his foreskin and came to cut, but he was afraid because he was old. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He put forth His hand and held it together with him, and Abraham cut, as it is said: "You are the LORD the God, who chose Abram" and so forth (Nehemiah 9:7). "And You made a covenant with him" is not written here, but rather "And You made the covenant together with him" - this teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, was holding him. Another interpretation: "The secret of the LORD is with them that fear Him." Initially the secret of the LORD was with those who fear Him, and afterward with the upright: "And His secret is with the upright" (Proverbs 3:32); and afterward with the prophets: "For the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: This Abraham is one who fears God, as it is said: "Now I know that you fear God" (Genesis 22:12). This Abraham is upright, among the upright, as it is said: "The upright love You" (Song of Songs 1:4). This Abraham is a prophet, as it is said: "And now restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet" (Genesis 20:7) - and shall I not reveal it to him? Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: This may be compared to a king who gave an estate to his friend. After a time the king wished to cut down from within it five barren trees. The king said: Were I to ask for it from his own private property, he would not object, and what is the matter in this? Yet he consulted with him. So too the Holy One, blessed be He, said: I have already given the land as a gift to Abraham, as it is said: "To your seed I have given this land" (Genesis 15:18), and these five cities are within his portion. Were I to ask for it from his own private property, he would not object to me, and what is the matter in this? Yet He consulted with him. Rabbi Yehudah son of Rabbi Simon said: This may be compared to a king who had three friends, and he would do nothing without their counsel. Once the king wished to do something without their counsel. He took the first and drove him out, sending him outside the palace; the second he imprisoned in the house of confinement and placed his decrees upon him; the third, who was exceedingly dear to him, he said: I will do nothing without his counsel. So too: the first man, Adam - "And He drove out the man" (Genesis 3:24); Noah - "And the LORD shut him in" (Genesis 7:16); Abraham, who was exceedingly dear to Him - He said: How shall I do anything without his counsel? Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman said: This may be compared to a king who had a single counselor, and he would do nothing without his counsel. Once the king wished to do something without his counsel. The king said: Did I make him my counselor for anything other than that I should do nothing without his counsel? Rabbi Yudan said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Behold, Lot the son of his brother is there, and shall I not reveal it to him? And the Rabbis say: I have already called him their father, as it is said: "For the father of a multitude of nations have I made you" (Genesis 17:5), and one may judge the son apart from the father. The giving of the Torah - I revealed it to him. Gehenna - I revealed it to him. The judgment of Sodom on the morrow - and shall I not reveal it to him? Rabbi Acha in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman in the name of Rabbi Natan said: Even the laws of the joining of courtyards Abraham knew. Rabbi Pinchas in the name of Rabbi Shmuel said: Even the new name that the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to call Jerusalem, as it is said: "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD" (Jeremiah 3:17), Abraham knew. Rabbi Berekhyah and Rabbi Chiyya and the Rabbis there in the name of Rabbi Yehudah said: There is no day on which the Holy One, blessed be He, does not innovate a law in the court on high. What is the reason? "Hear attentively the noise of His voice, and the sound that goes out of His mouth" (Job 37:2), and "sound" means nothing other than Torah, as it is said: "And you shall meditate therein day and night" (Joshua 1:8). Even those laws Abraham knew.