Genesis 6,9. “The Lord said to Avram: ‘go for yourself,’ etc.” Many commentators ask why Avram endangered Sarai by taking her with him to Egypt, seeing that G’d had not given any instruction for either him or his wife to go to Egypt? The answer may be in the words: אל הארץ אשר אראך, “to the land that I will show you.” By being vague about Avram’s destination, and not naming the country, G’d may have hinted that Avram should move to any country which circumstances would indicate as a suitable destination for him.
Hence, when he came to Eretz Yisrael and shortly thereafter a famine struck that land, he reasoned that it was time for him to move further south, to Egypt where there was no famine. This is the meaning of 12,10 ויהי רעב בארץ וירד אברם מצרימה כי כבד הרעב בארץ, “It was that when a famine broke out in the land, Avram descended to Egypt as the famine in the land was severe.” He took the outbreak of the famine as a sign from G’d not to remain in the land of Canaan, but to move on.
He was convinced that he acted in accordance with G’d’s wishes. An alternate approach to the words: אל הארץ אשר אראך, “to the land that I will show you.” It is a general rule in life that when in doubt about a course of action that one should pursue, one must rely on one’s G’d given power of reason. G’d indicated to Avraham by giving him these vaguely worded instructions that he was free to follow what his reason dictated to him. Yet another possible meaning of these instructions: It is a general rule that when a person flees from persecution in one location that he turns to a place where he feels that he will be more secure, even if it means that he will have to keep on moving instead of establishing a permanent home.
Since Avram had fled from Nimrod as we know from Bereshit Rabbah 38,13, G’d’s instructions to Avram to proceed to a land that He would show him, was meant to reassure him that he would no longer have to live the life of a fugitive as had been the case as long as he was in Mesopotamia, a land under Nimrod’s rule. Concerning G’d’s adding that Avram was to move away from his birthplace etc., מארצך, ממולדך, G’d made clear that contrary to the norm that when someone moves to a new place he generally has some roots there already and he will be accompanied by “the sparks” (see my discussion of this term on page 21), in this instance G’d told Avram that this move would be of a different dimension.
He was to leave behind all that tied him to his previous abode. While he would now proceed in the direction of his true spiritual roots, what had gone before had no connection with his true roots. It had now become his destiny to restore the “sparks” that accompanied him to their true homes. We find an interesting verse in Samuel I 7,17, where the author writes ותשובתו הרמתה כי שם ביתו, “and Samuel returned to Ramah, for that was where his home was.”
The words “for that was where his home was,” are redundant as the reader is familiar with this fact. The prophet added these words to inform the reader that the prophet Samuel could be “at home,” wherever he decided to spend the night. His “roots” were so inextricably linked to his people that he was at home in any place in the land of Israel. The same was true, of course, of Moses and Aaron. Genesis 12,2.
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you and make your reputation great.” The Talmud (Pessachim 117) comments on this verse that “making Avraham great,” meant that when referring to G’d the Creator, people would describe G’d as “the G’d of Avraham.” The word ואברכך is a promise that the Israelites when praying will refer to G’d as “the G’d of Yitzchok,” whereas the words: ואגדלה שמך, “I will make your name great,” refer to the Israelites referring to G’d as the “G’d of Yaakov” in their prayers.
I might have thought that when concluding the benediction they would also mention the names of all the patriarchs; in order to signal that this is not so, the Torah continues with והיה ברכה, “be a blessing!” (sing) i.e. that the signature of the benediction contains only the name of Avraham, i.e. מגן אברהם, “(Gd) the shield of Avraham.”There are three attributes that G’d employs in His continuous relations with the creatures in His universe; they are אהבה, “love,” גבורה, “power,” and תפארת, “harmony, splendour.”
When G’d relates to His creatures with the attribute of אהבה, “love,” all parts of the universe are filled with all manner of “good” (welcome) phenomena. When He has recourse to the attribute of גבורה, “power,” the result is that the creatures affected will feel the opposite of comfortable. When G’d employs the attribute of תפארת in relation to His creatures, the world will also feel an abundance of goodness, as it is G’d’s purpose and desire to be able to glorify in His choicest creation, man.
When G’d is able to do this, He inundates the universe with love. We must not misunderstand the attribute of גבורה by regarding it as something negative. While the attribute of גבורה, when active, may appear to the people affected by it as something negative, unwelcome in the extreme, it is designed to enable G’d to again relate to all His creatures with love, once that attribute has accomplished its purpose.This is what we are told in Job 8,7 (by Bildad) והיה ראשיתך מצער ואחריתך ישגה מאד, “though your beginning may be small (painful), in the end you will grow very great.”
The overriding function of the attribute of גבורה is to carry out retribution in the world so that G’d will afterwards be able to pour out all His goodness on His creatures. Historically, the person who had realized this better than anyone else, was Nachum, nick-named, איש גם זו, who whenever something happened to him that was unpleasant, painful, etc., immediately reacted by saying: גם זו לטובה, “this too will eventually be revealed as having been a positive, constructive event.” (Taanit 21).).It is generally known that Avraham symbolizes the attribute of love, whereas Yitzchok symbolizes the attribute of power, and Yaakov symbolizes a merging of these two attributes, resulting in what we call תפארת, harmony.
When the Talmud in Pessachim 117 first thought that it would be appropriate to sign the first benediction of the amidah prayer by referring to G’d as the G’d of Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov, it concluded that the reason the sages who formulated this prayer did not do so, was because they wanted to stress that ultimately, what G’d is all about is the attribute of love, the attribute personified best in the personality of Avraham. [The Maharshah on that section of the Talmud points out that the letters in the word והיה are the same as the letters in the tetragram, i.e. the name of G’d symbolizing the attribute of Mercy.
Ed.] The other two attributes’ function is auxiliary, i.e. to help G’d be able to fully display His attribute of love. The three attributes of G’d are also represented by the 12 tribes, as well as in the phylactery worn on the head which features a three armed letter ש on one side and a four armed ש on the opposite side of the housing. The three armed ש symbolizes the twelve tribes, seeing that the head of each of these “arms,” comprises four components, making a total of 12, each tribe being “rooted” in one of these “roots. [For a comprehensive treatment of the symbolisms in the letter ש, the reader is referred to Rabbi Michael Munk’s “wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet,” pages 207-213.
Ed.] These 12 שרשים, roots, are also known as 12 dazzlingly white lights known as אין and יש respectively. There is another שורש, root, above the twelve mentioned which is known as אפס, “void.” Concerning this latter root we are told in the Sefer yetzirah (ancient kabbalistic text attributed to Avraham) בלום פיך מלדבר ולבך מלהרר, “restrain your mouth from speaking and your heart from even contemplating.” (The subject is the ten emanations by means of which G’d created the physical universe in stages.)Let us try and explain the subject by means of a parable.
A tree has numerous branches; each of these “branches” is perceived as being “rooted” in the tree’s trunk. The trunk itself possesses one root that includes all the other roots of its branches. The word אחד “one,” alludes to this as the letters ח+ד=12, whereas the letter א =1. The Zohar II,162, commenting on B’rachot 17, that when saying the word אחד in the kriyat sch’ma, one must not draw out the letter א as it refers to this “void,” refers to the line from the Sefer Yetzira that even spending time on trying to understand the true meaning of G’d’s uniqueness is forbidden [as it may lead one astray.
Ed.] Genesis 12,2. “and be a blessing!” The letter י-ה in the word והיה is an allusion to G’d, whereas he letters ה-ו are an allusion to the Jewish people. As long as Avraham had not existed, there had not been a human being who tried to “awaken” G’d’s largesse to be dispensed in the lower regions of the universe. G’d’s largesse, when it was dispensed for the good of mankind, owed this exclusively to the Creator’s goodwill.
As soon as Avraham became active on earth, there were deeds on earth that “awakened” G’d to dispense His largesse as a result of acts performed by His creatures. In other words, prior to Avraham, G’d’s name could be spelled in the order of י-ה-ו-ה, whereas this order had now been reversed and His name could be spelled as ו-ה-י-ה. This is what the author of Bereshit Rabbah 39,11 had in mind when he said that the meaning of the word והיה is equivalent to the meaning of the word שמחה, joy, i.e. there had not been any joy on earth prior to the appearance of Avraham on earth.
The reversal of the sequence of the letters ו-ה hints at this largesse having its origin in the lower, rather than the celestial regions. [I have not found a reference to שמחה joy, in our versions of this Midrash. Ed.] Genesis 12,3. “I shall bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I shall curse.” At first glance it seems strange that the Torah changed the order of subject and object when speaking of anyone who would curse Avraham.
Why would people who bless Avraham be given a blessing before they had actually done so? We find here an example of the principle that G’d considers good intentions as part of the carrying out of such intentions, i.e. the party carrying out a noble intention, is retroactively rewarded not only for the deed but also for the thoughts that led up to the deed. When planning something wicked, G’d does not take this into consideration even after the wicked act has been carried out. (Kidushin 40.) Genesis 12,8. “he built an altar for the Lord Who had appeared to him there.”
Why did the Torah have to add the word אליו, “to him,” at the end of this verse? Would we not have understood this without being told?I believe that on this occasion G’d promised material blessings, and this is why Avraham felt obliged to build an altar in acknowledgment of this. The word “altar” serves also as a symbol for man’s expressing his desire to come closer to his Creator by means of a material offering.
He does so by reciprocating in the only way a human being can reciprocate for receiving a gift from G’d. Accordingly, the word אליו describes an element of reciprocity that occurred here in the relations between man and G’d, his remaining not only at the receiving end of G’d’s largesse. In order to give expression to this aspect of the man-G’d relationship he had to build an altar. Man’s gift to G’d must be brought in a fitting manner, the altar serving as the vessel in which this gift is presented. Genesis 12,8.
“Bet-El to the west and AI to the east;” it is understood by the Kabbalists that the tzaddik must always remain attached to the ayin, אין, i.e. to a negation of that which is primarily physical, יש or known as “reality,” in our parlance. He is able to ignore such “realities” due to his awe for the Creator; the word: והעי, is a variation of עי השדה, “ruins in the field;” (Micah 1,6). When the tzaddik is attached to this אין, he is able to draw down to our physical universe goodwill and blessings from the celestial domain of the universe.
Our verse illustrates the concept of how a man of the caliber of Avraham is able to be a source of good for the entire human race.[The author’s approach to our verse is again based (in my opinion) on the implied question of why the Torah would bother to inform us about such apparently irrelevant details about locations, details which we read in public year after year for over 3700 years. Compare author’s commentary on the measurements of Noah’s ark.
Ed.] The moral/ethical message of the verse is that in order to enjoy the benefits available in this terrestrial part of the universe, one must first make certain that one maintains close links with the celestial parts of the universe, which is the source of these benefits. What was considered a ruin, עי, before the tzaddik had established close ties with the celestial domain, turns into בית אל, a “house of G’d on earth,” after he has done so.
The Torah confirms this a few verses later after Avraham returns from Egypt, when he is described as very rich in livestock, silver and gold. (Genesis 13,2) Genesis 12,9. “Avram journeyed ‘southward’ in stages.” In order to understand the significance of this verse we must remember that the meaning of the word נגב, becomes clear from Joshua 15,19, where Calev is reported as giving his daughter Achsah to whom he had given some land in the southern district of Yehudah, an additional source of irrigation in response to her plea; the negev was known already then as a semi arid region.
The expression: מנוגב, taken from the word נגב, means “dried out, lacking in moisture.” In fact, נגב is identical with דרום, an allusion to G’d’s attribute of חסד, loving kindness. When the word נגבה is used in our verse instead of the word דרומה, which in common parlance means the same thing, the reason is that the Torah wished to draw the reader’s attention to the blessing inherent in the word נגב.
Water, though generally perceived as a blessing, a necessity, also has a down side, as we are all aware of. When the word נגב is used for “south,” this implies that water flowing there is an unmitigated blessing. The moisture mixed with the natural characteristic of נגב results in a perfect blend of two elements. The Torah reports here that Avraham understood how to blend service of the Lord with being of service to the people among whom he lived.
He knew how to “get out of his skin,” and to spread the generous nature of which he was possessed far and wide. In doing so, he served his Creator with his entire personality. [Some of these words are my own. Ed.] An alternative approach to the meaning of this verse, not substantially different from the previous one. There are two different methods in which man can serve his Creator.
The first method is based on man’s awe and reverence for his Creator. The second method is based on man’s love for his Creator. The basic difference between these two approaches is that he who serves the Lord because of his awe and reverence for Him, reflects the fact that he is rooted in the יש, the material reality of the terrestrial part of the universe, someone who is conscious of the limitations of the transience of life, and the finite nature of everything physical; it is natural that he is overcome with awe for the source of this finite universe, the Creator. The second method of serving the Creator, i.e. the motivation being love for the Lord, does so because he feels himself as totally unworthy, possessing no so-called self-respect, but is part of the אין, metaphysical aspects of the universe.
We must remember that among the people serving G’d out of love for Him, some may be motivated by the awareness that serving the Lord earns a reward, so that this may consciously or subconsciously affect the purity of his service of the Lord. Anyone who serves the Lord in this fashion belongs to the category of people serving Him out of the יש dimension of the universe. Only he who serves the Lord exclusively by trying to provide the Lord with a sense of satisfaction, pleasure from His creatures, belongs to the category of people serving Him from the dimension of אין a domain totally devoid of anything remotely physical.
When the Torah wrote of Avram that ויסע אברם הלוך ונסוע הנגבה, it testifies to the spiritual accomplishment of Avram who had ascended to the level of serving G’d from love, i.e. by totally negating himself as an individual. The term הנגבה is used to describe something dried out, i.e. no longer possessed of physical urges, not even serving the Lord for the promise of a reward.Another angle from which our verse may be viewed zeroes in on the repetition of the words denoting traveling, journeying, i.e. הלוך ונסוע.
Why did the Torah have to write two verbs to describe this journey? The basis of this exegesis is the Zohar III 263, according to which Avraham served G’d out of feelings of love, and that the meaning of the word הנגבה is exchangeable with דרומה, an allusion to חסד, love (as in זכרתי לך חסד נעוריך, “I gratefully remember the love of your youth as a bride” Jeremiah 2,1)It is known that the Zohar (5 separate occasions) has repeatedly stated that what occurs in our terrestrial world evokes its counterpart in the celestial regions.
If this is so, it is clear that by serving the Lord out of love, Avraham evoked a reciprocal sentiment on the part of G’d, Who poured out His love for the creatures on earth. Accordingly, our verse describes the journey described as progressive, i.e. the repetition of הלוך ונסוע, emphasizes how Avraham moved closer and closer in the direction of the ideal חסד, i.e. הנגבה. The first of these two words, הלוך, logically, describes the direction in which Avraham’s spiritual journey took him, whereas the second word ונסוע describes the reciprocal journey made toward him by the Lord. This point is made even more clearly in Genesis 13,14 where we read: וה' אמר אל אברם אחרי הפרד לוט מעמו שא נא עיניך וראה מן המקום אשר אתה שם צפונה ונגבה וקדמה וימה, "and the Lord had said to Avram after Lot had separated from him ‘raise your eyes and look northward, southward, eastward and westward;’” this was a promise first and foremost that he would see in his lifetime three of the patriarchs of the Jewish people, i.e. himself, Yitzchok, and Yaakov.
The first three directions mentioned here symbolize the attributes חסד , גבורה, and תפארת, referring to Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov in that order.When telling Avraham that he would see את כל הארץ, “the whole of the land” (future Eretz Yisrael), this refers to David, whose attribute is מלכות, Royalty, David representing this symbol on earth, the Jewish people. David is directly linked to the patriarch Avraham, was shown “the whole land,” so that he would be aware that the glory of the Kingdom of David would be directly traceable to him.
This is the reason why north and south, east and west are listed here in this order. According to Ari za’l, ימה, “west,” refers to the emanation יסוד, the emanation directly above the emanation מלכות, the one symbolized by the kingdom of David.[Malchut, as the “lowest” of the emanations, is the one closest to the physical universe. Rabbi Elie Munk (Ascent to Harmony) has described the emanation Malchut as “History” (of man), thus seeing it as the bridge between the actual physical universe and the celestial domains, since when something becomes “history,” it has either receded or ascended (depending on whether the persons making history made constructive or destructive contributions) to a domain beyond the physical but robbing it of the “substance” common to phenomena in the earthly domain of the universe. Ed.]According to the Zohar, tzaddik and tzedek, the righteous person and the performance of righteous deeds, are indivisible, i.e. the emanations מלכות and יסוד always go hand in hand.
We find this concept first alluded to in the Torah when Malki Tzedek, King of Shalem, (Jerusalem) in Genesis 14,18 congratulates Avram on his victory, blesses him in the name of the Lord, and presents him with bread and wine. The word לחם, commonly understood as “bread,” is used to describe חכמה, “wisdom,” whereas the word יין, commonly understood as “wine” means בינה, “insight,” in this context.
Malki Tzedek presented these items as symbols of the two highest emanations man can usually attain, both of which Avraham employed in his service of the Lord. [As on previous occasions, the author sees in such apparently irrelevant details as a King bringing bread and wine from hundreds of kilometers from Jerusalem. According to Genesis 14,15, Avraham had pursued the armies of Kedorleomer all the way to Damascus) an allusion to something far more profound. Ed.]The Zohar I,199 traces the fact that a tzaddik serves the Lord with חכמה and בינה to Job 28,28 יראת ה' היא חכמה וסור מרע בינה, “Reverence for the Lord is wisdom, to shun evil is understanding, insight.”
The two blessings that Malki Tzedek, who was viewed as G’d’s High Priest in those days, most likely Shem, Noach’s oldest son, bestowed on Avram, represent the two emanations that Avram had been able to use in his service of the Lord, and are reflected in Targum Yonathan’s translation of the Torah, in the first verses of the Torah in which they appear. [In our verses, instead of commending Avraham to G’d, as we would translate the words ברוך אברם ל.., Yonathan ben Uzziel translates: ברוך אברם מ..., “Avram has been blessed by the supreme G’d, etc.” Ed.]
Targum Yerushalmi translates already the first words of the Torah, i.e. בראשית ברא אלוקים את השמים ואת הארץ, as “in the beginning G’d used the emanation of חכמה to create heaven and earth.” Genesis 13,16. “so that if one can count the dust of the earth then your offspring too can be counted.” G’d’s comments were triggered by Avram having seen in his astrology charts that he was not going to have offspring.
G’d taught him that “science” such as astrology is valid only in terms of the terrestrial part of the universe. Astrologers therefore are able to decipher only matters accessible to ordinary people’s powers of perception. The Jewish people’s fate could not be predicted on the basis of such limited powers of perception. This is why Jews are not allowed to attempt to count the stars as we know from Yuma 22, where the Talmud states כל המונה את ישראל עובר בלאו, “anyone making a headcount of Israelites transgresses a negative commandment.”
The Talmud quotes Hoseah 2,1 in support of this. The result of such a count would be misleading, as the yardsticks that apply to other nations do not apply to the Jewish people. Avram who had not yet been aware of this, had therefore misread what appeared to be written in the stars concerning his future. The Talmud Shabbat 156 cites our verse in support of this. [The verses cited there are Genesis 15,4 and 5.
Ed.] Basically, seeing that our prayers and/or repentance have the power to alter G’d’s decrees, how could constellations in the sky that are predictable in advance have any bearing on our fate? Genesis 14,14. “when Avram heard that his brother (nephew) had been taken captive, etc.” When the Torah continues and speaks about Avram taking with him 318 men in his pursuit of Kedorleomer and his armies as far north as the tribal territory of Dan (in the future), the number 318 is not accidental, but represents the numerical value of the word שיח, another word for דבור, suggesting that Avram defeated these armies by means of uttering the holy name of G’d. [The reader is referred to when Moses killed the Egyptian in Exodus 2,13, an act referred to in Exodus 2,14 as having been accomplished by a word, i.e. אומר.
Ed.] The word דבור also means הנהגה, leadership; the word שיח=318 also occurs in the sense of השפלה, humiliation, i.e. Avram humiliated these boastful kings. The word occurs in Proverbs 23,27 in that sense, i.e. שוחה עמוקה זונה, “a harlot is a deep pit.” [The author is at pains to understand the number of men Avram took with him as also having profound symbolical meaning. Ed.] Genesis 14,18. “and Malki Tzedek King of Shalem produced bread and wine, seeing that he was a priest loyal to the Supreme G’d.”
We have previously referred to two different types of people worshipping G’d, one worshipping Him out of a sense of negating himself as a person, making no demands on life, whereas the other expresses his worship of G’d through performance of positive and negative commandments, as well as by being of assistance to his fellow-man. The former is dedicated truly to the metaphysical world, the totally spiritual Being Who created the universe, the one we described as אין, presiding over אין prior to commencing creation, whereas the other serves the Lord under the heading יש, thereby raising the phenomena in the physical world from a mundane to a more spiritual level when he performs the positive and negative commandments of his Creator.
G’d gave the Jewish people these commandments to perform as part of living in a domain called “יש.” Since the person serving G’d under the heading of אין does not perform specific commandments applicable in the יש part of the universe, he cannot draw down from the metaphysical world any of G’d’s largesse, held in reserve by G’d for the human race. It is an error to think that by performing מצות מעשיות commandments involving our bodies in what appear to be mundane activities, we have closed the door to being part of the meta-physical world, the אין.
This element of the אין part of the universes is the נחת רוח, a pleasurable sensation, satisfaction that man’s good deeds cause the Creator to experience.Indeed, he who draws down upon himself physical gratifications in this world by means of his מצוה performance, attaches himself both to the אין and to theיש aspects of the universes; he does the former through having desired to provide his Creator with this sense of satisfaction, with the feeling that He has demonstrated to the creatures in the celestial regions that He had been correct in His fondest hopes when He undertook to create a free-willed human being; such a person also attached himself to the יש part of the universe as the commandments of the Torah were given in order to make him an inseparable part of this יש part of the universe.
This is the reason why, on occasion, we find that some people by dint of performing G’d’s commandments find their livelihood on this earth. Our sages in Yuma 28 express this thought when they said that Avraham kept all the commandments of the Torah down to the minutest detail such as ערובי תבשילין, a rabbinic ordinance enabling us to cook and bake on the festival in preparation for the Sabbath on the next day, something ordinarily forbidden as it appears as if one used a holy day to prepare for the mundane day following, by having made appropriate preparation for the observance of this very festival on the eve of the festival in question by having prepared basic meals for it.
To the question how one could “fulfill” commandments of the Torah at a time when the Torah had not been revealed yet, the answer is that when man endeavours through intense mental concentration to divine what is pleasing to his Creator, he can tune in to the appropriate “wavelength.” Avraham was the first individual who succeeded in doing this. Avraham had succeed in placing all his 248 limbs at G’d’s disposal, so that he was inspired with divining the will of his Creator.[Once the Torah had been given this feat could not be repeated, just as the akeydah, Avraham’s offering his son as a sacrifice to G’d in response to G’d’s request, could not ever be repeated.
Ed.]According to tradition each of our limbs has a function to perform for the 248 positive commandments of the Torah. In fact, unless these limbs were used to perform G’d’s commandments, they have no claim to life on this earth (or at least in the Land of Israel). In a descending order, the head fulfils the commandment of wearing tefillin. As long as Avram did not live in the Holy Land, he had not had an opportunity to fulfill any of these מצות, “as yet unrevealed commandments,” as there would be many commandments that could not be fulfilled even after the Torah had been given, since they are not inextricably tied to the soil of Land of Israel.
He was therefore “missing” a considerable number of limbs in his body, limbs that could not perform their real tasks until he had settled in the Holy Land.Avraham was aware of this; this is why he had served the Lord by the first method that we described earlier, i.e. by selfless devotion to G’d, negating any claim to the comforts life on this earth affords the creature living it, serving Him exclusively from the אין aspect of the universe.
This helps explain why he allowed himself to be thrown into a fiery furnace by Nimrod in order to demonstrate his utter devotion to the Creator. Once he moved to the Holy Land, there was no more need for him to demonstrate his loyalty to G’d by such negation of his entire body.If the reader were to ask that Yitzchok’s being offered as a potential sacrifice to G’d occurred in the Holy Land, something that does not appear to conform to the principle just described, the answer is quite simple.
Yitzchok’s being offered as a sacrifice was the fulfillment of an express command by G’d, whereas G’d had never told Avram to put his life on the line in his theological confrontation with Nimrod. [In fact some commentators, especially Rabbi Yitzchak Arama in his Akeydat Yitzchok, are extremely critical of Avraham for having done what he did without express permission from G’d. Ed.] Since Avraham’s service to the Lord was based on his attachment to the אין, the purely metaphysical domains of the universe, it is clear that he could not draw down some of G’d’s largesse to the earth, the domain of the יש, the primarily physical, material domain of the universe.
Once he had moved to Eretz Yisrael, where he served G’d by performing mitzvot with his limbs, the situation changed, and this is what made Rashi comment that the words: לך לך מארצך, mean that he was to undertake this journey for his gratification and personal benefit, להנאתך ולטובתך. [If that were not the meaning, we would ask how being told to uproot himself could be for his personal benefit.
He had seemed to be quite at ease and content in Charan. Ed.] Incidentally, this answers the query raised by Rash’ba why Yaakov married two sisters while they were both alive, something that is forbidden according to the Torah, and the patriarchs are presumed to have observed Torah laws in their time. Since service of the Lord while outside the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael did not consist of the body’s limbs fulfilling the commandments, and it was therefore impossible to perform these commandments, there was nothing wrong with marrying two sisters.
This also explains why one of these sisters had to die once Yaakov had crossed back into Eretz Yisrael. He would not have violated the commandment even in Eretz Yisrael when he married Leah, so that it was Rachel who would live “in sin” with him in the Holy Land unless she had been immediately divorced. Close scrutiny of what the Rash’ba wrote shows that he gave due consideration to this.Someone who serves the Lord under the auspices of the אין parts of the universe, is granted a clear vision of G’d, whereas serving the Lord under the auspices of the יש, results in such a person being given an aspaklaria, meurpelet, a vision screened by a veil.
Association with the יש, i.e. aspects of the material part of the universe, results in all of one’s sensations being affected by phenomena found only in this domain of the universe. When the Torah writes at the beginning of chapter 15 that היה דבר ה' אל אברם במחזה לאמור, “the word of Hashem came to Avram in a ‘vision,’ proceeding to say, etc.;“ we understand this as a manifestation of G’d’s word to Avram by a vision screened by a veil while he was engaged in serving G’d by the performance of mitzvot with various parts of his body.At that point G’d told Avram not to be afraid, אל תירא אברם, as he would continue to act as his shield, אנכי מגן לך.
G’d reassured Avram that the fact that he was now serving Him by performing מצות, i.e. under the auspices of the יש instead of the auspices of the אין, that this was not a lowering of the standards that he was used to, but that on the contrary, he was in line for a great reward, שכרך הרבה מאד. As long as the Torah had not yet been given, fulfilling the “commandments” while in Eretz Yisrael was quite different from nowadays when the Torah has been given, and fulfilling the parts of it that are capable of being fulfilled in the Diaspora, is deserving of recognition.
When Avram served G’d outside the land of Israel, concentrating on the aspect known as מסירת נפש, wholehearted physical and mental devotion to the Lord, he thereby “repaired” the reputation of G’d amongst mankind, which had sustained considerable damage due to the sins of mankind which had apparently been ignored by the Creator, thus giving the impression that He either did not care or was unable to deal with.Tanchuma 8 on Parshat Chukat, relates in the name of Rabbi Yossi bar Chaninah, that at the time when Moses ascended to the celestial regions He found G’d preoccupied with the details of the rules pertaining to the red heifer.
He overheard G’d saying that the correct ruling concerning the age of the red heifer when it is to be burnt is according to “my son Rabbi Eliezer,” i.e. when it is one year old. Anyone reading this Midrash must surely ask how G’d had been able to say something like that, seeing that Rabbi Eliezer was born more than 1000 years after Moses died. We have a tradition that man is not programmed, can make his own decisions, so that it is impossible to foretell who will say what tomorrow, never mind 1000 years hence?In answering this justified question, we must consider that the domain we called אין, the totally spiritual domains of the universe, included within it all the aspects of wisdom as something potential.
While this potential had not yet assumed definitive proportions until someone possessed of both body and soul was able to formulate it, its very existence in “embryonic” form, so to speak, makes it possible for a human being when the time comes to draw upon this “wisdom” and make use of it in the material world of the יש. The example of the “red heifer” discussed in the Tanchuma is merely an illustration of the principle that nothing “new” or “original” is produced in the realm of the physical world, the world known as the יש in kabbalistic parlance, or “olam hazeh”, in what we are used to refer to when speaking of what goes on the planet we live on.
The acquisition of such חכמה, wisdom, as is necessary to arrive at the conclusion that the red heifer must be two years old when it is to be burnt, is largely a matter of the will of the individual grappling with this halachic problem. The “freedom of choice,” as we call it, means that we are free to decide if we want to make the effort to acquire such wisdom or not. It is not withheld from anyone who truly labours to acquire it by willing it with all his being.
While he was in the celestial regions, Moses heard that there would in due course be a scholar by the name of Rabbi Eliezer who would have attained that particular piece of wisdom enabling him to correctly rule on the problem that was under discussion in the heavenly spheres at that time. Ed.]G’d has two options when dealing with man’s aspirations. He can either decide to grant man’s request in accordance with that person’s expressed wish, or He can decide to be guided by what the overall situation in His universe requires for its good at the time, [as frequently, if not most of the time, the desires of an individual do not correspond to, or coincide with what is in the best interests of the world as seen by its Creator. The “decision” to grant man whatever he requests from G’d, or not, is known as the דעת המכריע, “The consummate wisdom of the supreme decision Maker.”
The alternate method of arriving at the decision to grant the requests of individuals, i.e. to consider the overall interests of all those affected by such decisions as paramount, is known as דעת המתפשט, “the consummate wisdom of the One Who takes into consideration the interests of all parties affected”.Avraham was under the impression that even though it had been decided by G’d to grant him children, he could still continue to worship G’d from the premise of the אין, considerations involving only the metaphysical parts of the universe.
This is why he said that his servant Eliezer would be his heir, i.e. that he personally could remain completely detached from earthly concerns. G’d therefore corrected him, telling him that such a detachment would not be possible, as he would have biological issue, [implying that he could not opt out of the duty to raise a son in a material universe. Ed.] This is the meaning of the line (15,4) והנה דבר ה' אליו לאמור לא יירשך זה כי אם אשר יצא ממעיך הוא יירשך, “and here the word of G’d came to him, saying: ‘this one will not inherit you, but someone emerging from your entrails will inherit you.’”
The introductory words in this verse inform Avram that the decision concerning this has already been made in heaven, though its implementation is not yet due. According to Bereshit Rabbah 43,7 there is a disagreement between Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman and the other sages, concerning the meaning of the verse ומלכי צדק מלך שלם הוציא לחם ויין והוא כהן לא-ל עליון; according to Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman, Malki Tzedek revealed to Avram the deeper meaning of the office of High Priest.
It was the method of serving the Lord by using the method of מסירת נפש, the total negation of the self in exchange for attachment to the אין, totally metaphysical aspects of the universe.According to the other sages, he revealed to Avram the more mystical aspects of the Torah, i.e. how to serve the Lord by means of performing the commandments designed to be performed by different parts of our body. Genesis 14,19-20 “Blessed be Avram to the Supreme G’d,….and blessed the Supreme G’d Who has delivered your oppressors into your hand.”It is a rule that when G’d deals with a person on the basis of מדה כנגד מדה, “measure for measure,” reward or punishment will be in a reciprocal relationship to one another.
However, when G’d does not apply this method in dealing with an individual, and He does man a favour-that he has not earned,- he is the recipient of a gift from G’d. Since Avram was a person whose very personality exuded loving kindness, it is clear that G’d reciprocated in equal measure. In this instance, -the victory of a few men under Avram’s command over mighty armies, was something he considered as way in excess of his input thus far.
In other words, G’d had given Avram a gift that he had not deserved.The Ari’zal writes that when we recite three times daily the words מלך עוזר ומושיע ומגן, “King, Helper, Saviour and Shield,” our sages used this formulation to describe such an undeserved gift from G’d. We also find that Onkelos translates the word חנם in Genesis 29,15 and in Exodus 21,2 as מגן. By using this formulation, Malki Tzedek gave Avram a hint that he had received an undeserved gift from G’d.
This hint was reinforced by Malki Tzedek referring to G’d as the “Supreme G’d owner of heaven and earth.” What man possesses he does not have to acquire. When he needs something that he does not own, he has to acquire it. Avram did not need to acquire the virtue of loving kindness, as apparently, he personified this virtue since birth; However, the characteristic of גבורה, the kind of bravery and heroism needed to wage war successfully, was not a quality he possessed from birth, so that he had to acquire it.
Malki Tzedek blesses G’d for having provided Avram with this quality at a time when he was really in need of it. Seeing that G’d “owns” heaven and earth, He is able to bestow this quality on people whenever it suits Him. Another approach to Malki Tzedek’s blessing. There are problems [i.e. obstacles erected by Satan’s involvement in our region of the universe, Ed,] in this “lower” part of the universe that most people are able to deal with on their own if they really put their mind to it.
There are other problems that man, without direct help from G’d, cannot deal with irrespective of how well intentioned and capable he is. In such instances, when warranted, G’d has to “kill,” i.e. neutralize the obstacles facing deserving individuals. When Avram, representing “loving Kindness,” killed the four kings who had defeated the Kings of Sodom and his allies, he did so by garbing himself in a halo of heroism, appearing to be a powerful warrior, since he was engaged in battling pagan forces, active deniers of the concept of monotheism.
By engaging in such a battle, he acted against all his natural instincts, on behalf of a higher ideal.Malki Tzedek praised G’d, the Supreme G’d, Who had enabled Avram to prevail over his oppressor against what must have seemed like impossible odds. Although G’d owns the whole universe, on this occasion He had allowed or enabled Avram to assume powers that normally are reserved for the Supreme G’d, exclusively.
It was clear to Malki Tzedek that Avram on his own could never have achieved such a stunning victory unless G’d had actively intervened on his behalf.As soon as Avram had completed his victory, after having temporarily set aside his natural tendency of relating to all phenomena in the universe only with loving kindness, he was given G’d’s promise that he would sire a son, who in due course would personify this virtue of גבורה that Avraham had been able to acquire when he thought that the situation demanded it.
Until Avram had demonstrated this ability to garb himself in גבורה, the conditions had not been ripe for him to sire a son such as Yitzchok. Up until now, had Avram sired a Yitzchok, his son’s major characteristic would have been the opposite of that of his father. This, in due course, would have resulted in an estrangement between father and son. Now that Avram had learned to appreciate the value and necessitude of this personality trait, the conditions had been created for father and son to coexist harmoniously. Yet another interpretation of Malki Tzedek’s blessing of Avram: We must try and understand the sequence of “blessed be Avram to the Supreme G’d, the owner of heaven and earth, and blessed this Supreme G’d Who acted as shield against your oppressors delivering them into your hand.”
When Malki Tzedek refers to G’d as owning heaven and earth, we paraphrase this three times a day in our prayers by referring to G’d as קונה הכל, “He Who owns everything.” [If I understand the author correctly, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok proceeds at this stage at quite some length and quoting many verses from Scripture, to explain why Malki Tzedek’s definition of G’d as (separately) owning heaven and earth may be misunderstood and has not been adopted by the sages in our daily prayers who opted instead for “owning everything.”Malki Tzedek’s definition contributed to man believing that there were forces on earth, which though subordinate to G’d, the “Supreme G’d”, nonetheless deserved a measure of man’s fearful or grateful recognition, as the case may be.
If G’d tolerated this prior to Avram’s becoming a factor on earth, He did so out of the goodness of His heart, realizing that these visible phenomena, as opposed to His invisibility, contributed to man’s errors in his perception of Who is Who in the universal hierarchy. Ed.] Genesis 15,1. “After these events the word of G’d came to Avram in a vision- and said to him: ‘do not be afraid,’ etc. and he built an altar there to the G’d Who had appeared to him.[At this point the author claims to quote a commentary of Nachmanides on the words “he built an alter there,” where Nachmanides questions why Avram built an altar on this occasion, and not on a previous occasion.
I have been unable to find such a commentary by Nachmanides. The nearest thing to it is a super-commentary by Sifssey Chachamim on Rashi Genesis 12,8 where he raises such a question. I will nevertheless present the author’s commentary, in which he deals with this problem supposedly raised by Nachmanides. Ed.]In answering the question of why, until this time, Avram had not built an altar, we must first explain the concepts of “altar” and “sacrificial offering.”
When a person experiences something painful, be it physical or mental, he is not free to focus on the actual pain, but must focus on the causes of his having to endure such pain, and why on account of this pain his ability to serve his Creator had become impaired. When he reacts to his pain in this manner he causes G’d satisfaction, נחת רוח. Keeping this in mind we can understand the Talmud Yerushalmi, B’rachot, 2,4 stating that the messiah was “born” on the 9th day of Av, the day that the Temple was destroyed.
This was because the Jewish people felt such pain over the loss of the Temple, and their inability to serve G’d there by offering their sacrifices. As long as the Temple had been standing, G’d was able to derive satisfaction, נחת רוח, from the offerings presented on the altar in the Temple. We know this from Leviticus 1,13 אשה ריח ניחוח לה', ”an offering by fire of pleasing odour to the Lord.”
This offering represented the opposite of צער, painful feelings. As long as the Temple was standing, the people of Israel dwelled in relative calm and safety. The principal cause of Israel’s state of disquiet, pain, unrest, etc., is the fact that we are not able to perform the sacrificial sacrifices by means of which we could give “pleasure” to the Creator. As a corollary to our inability, while in exile, to present these offerings, G’d in turn is not encouraged to release the bounty of goodness He has in store for His faithful servants on earth.
We have pointed out previously that with the advent of Avram, this reciprocal relationship between man and G’d had become of great benefit to man. (Compare page 51 on this interaction).Ideally, our joy in this world as well as our pain, must always focus on our relationship with our Creator and how we can improve it; we must never consider our personal feelings as being of the essence. “Joy” in the eyes of the Torah, has not been granted in order for us to behave as do gentiles when they set off “fireworks” to give expression to their feeling happy about something.It is worthwhile to remember that the Hebrew word for “sacrifice” is קרבן, from the root קרב, to come close, or closer.
When offering a “sacrifice,” to the Creator, we are sublimating something mundane, usually something representing some of the most treasured living creatures, animals which serve as our livelihood, to the Creator Who had endowed the terrestrial part of the universe with such creatures for the benefit of the highest ranking living beings on earth, the ones who have been created in the image of their Creator. According to what we have said the query posed by Nachmanides is easily answered.
At the beginning of the portion where G’d had told Avram to leave Charan for his own good, He had not promised him anything specific, such as children, or that he and his children would inherit the land of Canaan, for instance, even though G’d assured him of a great future in general terms, i.e. “I will make you great and your name great.” He had basically assured him only that he would not be losing anything by undertaking this journey.
By now, however, G’d had added specific promises in addition. These promises concerned matters that are of importance to people who feel rooted in the terrestrial life on earth. In recognition of these promises Avram built an altar, i.e. he reciprocated the good that G’d had done for him with an act that would bring him closer to G’d. He did so to show G’d that he did not view His promises as intended for himself as such, but as a means of enabling him to continue to intensify the manner in which he had been serving G’d.[I feel constrained to add at this point that according to all our traditional sources the revelation discussed in chapter 15 of Genesis occurred 5 years before Avram was commanded to leave Charan to a destination G’d did not immediately reveal.
This interpretation is based on the fact that otherwise the verse in Exodus 12,40 that the Israelites had dwelled in Egypt for 430 years is impossible to reconcile, as traditionally, the 400 years of which G’d spoke in chapter 15,13 began with the birth of Yitzchok. Ed.] Avram rejoiced that as a result of G’d’s promise his children too would be able to serve their Creator in due course. We had pointed out that the significance of offering G’d animal sacrifices on an altar was to demonstrate one’s desire to tighten one’s bond with the Creator.
The word אליו, to him in 15,7 is not really necessary, as there had been no interruption between this verse and the one preceding it, so that it was necessary to insert this word to prevent any misunderstanding about whom G’d was addressing. The word אליו appears to hint that in this instance G’d addressed Avram primarily in his capacity as a member of the world of the יש, the part of the universe in which it is possible to sublimate the secular to a level of holiness, to elevate it to the level of metaphysical dimensions.
Our author concludes by repeating the words of the verse that is not part of our chapter at all, i.e. ויבן שם אברהם מזבח לה' הנראה אליו. Let us examine the meaning of the word: מחזה, “vision.” When the prophets either saw or heard the words G’d wished them to communicate to the people, they would become completely detached from normal “reality;” this was due to the overwhelming impact of hearing the word of the Creator.
Once they had cut themselves off from earthly concerns entirely, they would be able to hear the instructions issued by the Creator. When the prophet in turn would deliver these messages to the people, they would again be in a state of suspended animation, their ordinary faculties, including their minds, ceasing to function. Having delivered the message that G’d had instructed them to deliver, their normal faculties would again become operative.
The procedure we just described applied to all prophets throughout the ages with the exception of Moses, who did not need to go into a trance, abandoning his ordinary faculties, in order to hear the word of G’d. G’d’s communications to Moses took place while Moses’ faculties were fully operative, so that G’d spoke to him as “man speaks to man.” Moreover, G’d’s communications to other prophets were “dressed up” as a parable of some kind, or they were shown an image of some kind illustrating G’d’s message.
G’d never needed to communicate with Moses by having recourse to parables or visions in order to enable him to understand what He was saying to him. Seeing that G’d’s communications to all the prophets including Avram were not perceived in the manner our intellect receives input from our brain, G’d showed them images, or illustrated what He wanted them to understand by means of a parable when He addressed them.
It follows that what the Torah describes Avram as having experienced was not perceived in the manner that ordinary perceptions are perceived by man. [According to the author, the brain acts as an interpreter of G’d’s words before the prophet receives the message; when communicating with Moses, G’d did not need to employ an interpreter for Moses to understand His message. Ed.] When the sages describe other prophets as having to negate normal channels of communication in order to absorb what G’d wanted them to hear and communicate to their peers, this is what they meant. At any rate, when reading our portion, it is clear that the Torah speaks to us no less in parable form than G’d did to Avram when He communicated with him.
If a man of the intellectual level of Avram, someone who had been able to work out what would be written in the Torah in the future, had to be addressed by G’d by means of a parable, how much more so do we ordinary mortals need to have the report of such a prophecy “toned down” for us in parable format. The entire paragraph commencing with קחה לי עגלה משולשת וגו', “take for me a three year old heifer, etc.,” must be understood allegorically, as Avram was not on the level of Moses so that G’d would have communicated with him verbatim.This is also what the Talmud (Yevamot 49) had in mind when we are told there that all the prophets received their communications from G’d through a “screened” vision, with the exception of Moses who enjoyed such communications without any screen having been interposed between G’d and him.There is another level of prophetic insights which is somewhat between the level of ordinary prophets and the prophetic level enjoyed by Moses; this level is manifest when the source of the prophecy addresses the intellect of the recipient, but in doing so has voluntarily restricted the intensity of the message so that it does not overwhelm the recipient.
It is this level that Avram enjoyed when the word of G’d came to him in what the Torah described as מחזה, a “vision.” An alternative way of interpreting the line: היה דבר ה' אל אברם במחזה לאמור, “G’d’s word came to Avram in a vision as follows;” there are two types of verbal communication, דבר used by a master when he wishes to address his servants. Some masters use a direct visual method of speaking to their servants; others address their servants while being shielded behind a dividing curtain.
As a rule, the intimate friends or highly placed servants of the master enjoy direct communication, whereas the lower echelon of servants does not get to see the face of the master while being addressed by him. The reason for this discrimination is that the Master is an intelligent being and his method of expressing himself is not understood well by servants that lack education.While Avram had attained a degree of intimacy with his Creator that qualified him for being addressed by the Master (Creator) in the manner prophets are normally addressed, he had attained this status due to having served his Master from feelings of love for Him.
At the same time, he had not bonded with his Creator through the use of additional virtues. Now that he had defeated the 4 kings and their armies, using the characteristic of גבורה, valour and courage in the process, and had thereby avenged the manner in which these kings and their followers had insulted G’d’s majesty, he had qualified for a level of communication that, while not on the level of Moses, was still superior to the manner in which G’d addresses most prophets. This is why the Torah introduced this paragraph with the words: אחר הדברים האלה, “after the preceding events.” Still another method of understanding our paragraph, and especially the manner in which it is introduced: Service of the Lord may be predicated on one of two considerations. 1) The person concerned, using his power of reasoning, has come to the conclusion that the universe did not create itself but was created by a Superior intellect, an intellect that is many times superior to the human intellect.
It seems clear to such a person that such a Creator deserves to be worshipped. 2) Another reason why some people worship G’d as the Creator and Master is that G’d has endowed them with a special divine inspiration, commonly known as סייעתא דשמיא, an assist originating in the celestial regions. The former type of person has formulated in his mind’s eye some notion of the essence of such a Creator; the latter type of person, while loyal, has not formed any notion of what this Creator may be like.
The former type of individual, having arrived at certain conclusions, is able to communicate them to other people and possibly convince them to share his views so that these people too become servants of the Lord. The second category of individual lacks this ability to convince others to be like him, as he cannot explain to them rationally why he is convinced that he is on the right path. Avram had by now attained a level of intelligence, במחזה, that enabled him to get a fairly clear vision of what G’d, the Creator of a universe, is like. Having attained insights, -not unlike a father who hands down to his son his insights- he could now be informed that he would also be blessed with physical offspring, parallel to the intellectual achievements that he had to his credit due to his own efforts. Genesis 15,1. “do not fear, Avram, I will be your shield.”
G’d reassures Avram that He is aware that when he took revenge on the four kings and their armies this was an act of self-defense, as they had planned to harm him. G’d had protected him so that they could not carry out their evil designs. He had killed these kings and their soldiers. G’d had done so because He loved Avram and He would continue to act as his shield, but not from feelings of revenge against them, but because of His love for him, so that Avram would not have any of his merits and the reward due him deducted from his credit balance in heaven, on account of G’d having come to assistance. Genesis 15,2.
“Avram said: ‘My Lord, what will You give me., seeing that I walk on earth without a biological heir?’”15,7. G’d responded immediately, by saying:והנה דבר ה' אליו לאמור וגו', it is difficult to understand the word לאמור, “saying, or to say,” since to whom was Avram supposed to tell what follows next?We may better understand this formulation by looking at Numbers 14,13-20 where Moses asks G’d how by wiping out the Jewish people at that time, His name would be exalted amongst the gentiles; on the contrary the gentiles would interpret this as a sign of G’d’s inability to keep His promise to His people.
Upon listening to Moses’ argument at that time, G’d relented and forgave the people in accordance with Moses’ argument. On the last words, Rashi comments: “on account of Moses having said due to G’d’s inability, etc.” It is difficult to see in what way Rashi added anything to what Moses had said, as reported by the Torah.Upon reflection, Moses’ comment to G’d about what the Egyptians would say if G’d were to wipe out the Jewish nation is difficult.
Did Moses really think that omniscient G’d needed him to tell Him about this? It appears from the fact that Moses bothered to mention this to G’d that the words of a tzaddik do have an influence on G’d’s decisions. This is confirmed in Job 22,28, ותגזר אומר ויקם לך, “you will decree and it will be fulfilled;” In the verses quoted from Numbers 14 we find that G’d immediately responded to Moses’ argument by changing the decree.
Had G’d wanted to prevent the Egyptians to make the kind of comments Moses had assumed they would make if Israel would be destroyed, He could have brought this about. The fact that He did not, and preferred to cancel His own decree, bears witness to the effectiveness of Moses’ prayer. Moses’ prayer prompted G’d to say: סלחתי, “I have forgiven, etc.” It is this that Rashi had in mind when he commented on our verse above by saying. “on account of Moses having said, etc.”; Rashi meant if Avram not mentioned the fact that he had no biological heir to G’d, G’d would not have changed a heavenly decree that had been in existence since before he had been born.
In order for the decree that Avram would not sire any children to be rescinded or altered, he himself had to mention his grief about such a decree in a prayer. Only then could G’d respond to this prayer. G’d had to use provocative statements in order to get the obedient and unquestioningly loyal Avram to be provoked into making a comment that appeared to question G’d’s promise that he would have children to be converted.
The word לאמור in verse 1 is the Torah’s hint that G’d engaged Avram in the conversation following in order for him in the course of this conversation to reveal to Him that he experienced mental anguish at not having children of his own. Once Avram had revealed this in an unmistakable manner, G’d was able to take into consideration the prayer of a tzaddik and to change the decree Avram had read in the stars.
Accordingly, Avram had to be induced to say that Eliezer would be his heir. Genesis 15,8. “how can I be certain that I will inherit it?" (the land of Canaan) When looking at these words superficially, we must wonder how someone of Avram’s caliber could express doubt in G’d’s promise being fulfilled. The very idea that Avram requested some kind of visible token or miracle to confirm the fact that G’d would keep His promise is revolting!
Since when is G’d required to confirm His prophecy by performing a miracle?Furthermore, if this was the meaning of Avram’s question, he should have asked: “how do I know that You will give the land to me!” After all, this was what G’d’s promise to him had sounded like. To the average reader of the Torah, G’d’s words meant that the reason G’d had saved Avram from Nimrod’s furnace was in order to give him the land of Canaan.
Besides, how does G’d’s answer that Avram would die at a ripe old age long before the 400 years He had spoken of would have ended, answer Avram’s question? How is the promise that after 400 years of being strangers in a foreign land, and slaves to wit, and that the fourth generation would leave bondage with great riches, relevant to Avram’s question?If, according to the plain meaning of the text, G’d’s answer included a punishment for Avram’s having questioned that G’d would keep His promise the prediction that his offspring would have to endure a period of enslavement in a foreign land, before leaving their with great riches, how does the line commencing with ידוע תדע וגו', contain even the remotest hint of this?
We do not find anywhere an allusion that Avram’s question of במה אדע כי אירשנה, “by means of what sign will I know that I will inherit it,” was in any way inappropriate, much less punishable! On the contrary, the assurance that Avram himself would not share either the exile of the slavery but would die contentedly of old age, sounds like the opposite of any punishment! The fact that G’d implies that he will join his father in the hereafter suggests that even Terach, Avram’s father, has a share in that hereafter.
Rashi, who was so astounded at that verse, concluded that in his old age, Terach had become a monotheist, a repentant sinner.At any rate, the suggestion that one of the patriarchs, who are presented to us as the carriers of the legs of merkavah, the Divine chariot, would be equated with Terach is too mind-boggling to be considered seriously. Everything that has been handed down to us about Avram suggests that he was unwavering in his faith in G’d from his very youth, and certainly did not have any theological relapses. Nachmanides stated with absolute certainty, basing himself on Genesis 25,8 that Avram had always considered anything that happened to him as being G’d’s desire and meant for his own good.
Nachmanides understood this as being the meaning of the words: זקן ושבע ימים, “of old age, satisfied and satisfied in years.” Contrary to most people, who are described in Kohelet Rabbah, 5,9 as leaving behind many unfulfilled aspirations when they die, Avraham died fully fulfilled. In Baba Batra 117, as well as in Sanhedrin 91 the meaning of the word מורשה is discussed, there being different opinions of how the distribution of the ancestral plots in the Land of Israel was determined by lottery; if the lottery only applied to the tribal allocations, or to families.
The discussion also concerns whether only Jews who partook in the Exodus or their offspring were allocated land, or whether the allocation included Jews who had lived before that period, including Avram, Yitzchok, etc. Avram’s question of במה אדע כי אירשנה, meant: “how will I know that I personally will be included in the distribution of the land at that time? He knew that he would not inherit a plot of land in Israel as part of his father Terach’s merit, as he had been the first convert to Judaism, something that was confirmed in Sukkah 49. Since he did not endure slavery in Egypt as did the generation of the Exodus, he was not sure that he would qualify at the time of the distribution.Avram’s question had been triggered by G’d saying to him:, לתת לך את הארץ הזאת לרשתה, “to give to you this land in order to inherit it.” (15,7) Avram wanted to know if he would live long enough to take part in the distribution of the land in Joshua’s time, or how he was to understand the words: לתת לך, “to give to you.”
The Talmud in Sukkah 49 quotes psalms 47,10 where we encounter the expression עם אלוקי אברהם, “the nation that worships the G’d of Avraham”; a sage raised question whether G’d perhaps is not also the G’d of the people of Yitzchok and the G’d of the people of Yaakov.” The answer given is that Avraham was the first convert from which the Jewish people developed, so that he enjoys a special status.
As a reward, G’d gave the land of Israel especially to him. Avraham wanted to know if, since the land of Israel becomes a מורשה, his share would be due to his father bequeathing it to him. The term ירש, “to inherit,” always implies that one inherits from a father. If Avram’s question had been במה אדע כי תתן לי, “how will I know that You give it to me,” it would have been inappropriate, of course.
G’d had spoken about “giving;” Avram asked only about the hereditary aspect, אירשנה.We will deal with the expression במה אדע, somewhat later in this paragraph. When G’d introduced His reply to Avram’s question with the words: ידוע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך, “you must truly realize that your descendants will be strangers, etc.,” this can best be understood when referring to a commentary by the Zohar I 87 on the verse: (Genesis 2,4)אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם .
The letter ה in smaller script in the middle of this word alerts the reader not to read the word as a single word, but as באברהם ברא, i.e. G’d created the universe on account of, or with the eventual assistance of Avraham.” Had G’d not foreseen that someone like Avram will be born, He would not have considered it worth His while to create the human race. The fact that Avraham, on his own, without prompting, would proclaim the name of the Creator, made it worth G’d’s while to put up with all the sins man would commit. Avraham would be the one to acquaint his peers with the concept that G’d is One, is unique, is in charge of the universe and yet had granted the creatures he made in His image freedom of choice to choose their own path in life.
The fact that this Avraham would sire a Yitzchok, and Yitzchok in turn would sire a Yaakov who raised 12 sons who would form the nucleus of the Jewish nation, a nation of priests, made it all worthwhile for G’d. When the Jewish people collectively accepted G’d’s Torah, without critically examining what was written therein first, this was a crowning moment not only for the Jewish people, but it enabled G’d to converse with a mortal human being, Moses, as if he were on His own level, i.e. פנים אל פנים, face to face.When G’d introduced His reply to Avram’s question with the words: ידוע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך, “you must truly realize that your descendants will be strangers, etc.,” this can best be understood when referring to a commentary by the Zohar I 87 on the verse: (Genesis 2,4)אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם .
The letter ה in smaller script in the middle of this word alerts the reader not to read the word as a single word, but as באברהם ברא, i.e. G’d created the universe on account of, or with the eventual assistance of Avraham.” Had G’d not foreseen that someone like Avram will be born, He would not have considered it worth His while to create the human race. The fact that Avraham, on his own, without prompting, would proclaim the name of the Creator, made it worth G’d’s while to put up with all the sins man would commit. Avraham would be the one to acquaint his peers with the concept that G’d is One, is unique, is in charge of the universe and yet had granted the creatures he made in His image freedom of choice to choose their own path in life.
The fact that this Avraham would sire a Yitzchok, and Yitzchok in turn would sire a Yaakov who raised 12 sons who would form the nucleus of the Jewish nation, a nation of priests, made it all worthwhile for G’d. When the Jewish people collectively accepted G’d’s Torah, without critically examining what was written therein first, this was a crowning moment not only for the Jewish people, but it enabled G’d to converse with a mortal human being, Moses, as if he were on His own level, i.e. פנים אל פנים, face to face.Moses reminded the people in Deut. 5,4 how 40 years earlier, when most of them had not yet been alive, G’d had addressed the whole nation on the פנים אל פנים “face to face level,” [until the people asked Moses to be their interpreter instead.
Ed.] At that time all creatures on earth were in awe of their Creator. When the people had consecrated the Tabernacle in the desert as a “home” for Hashem in the lower parts of the universe, G’d took delight in the world He had created, as we know from Taanit 26 where the Talmud understands Song of Songs 3,11 ביום חתונתו וביום שמחת לבו, “on His wedding day, the day when His heart rejoices,” as referring to G’d’s feelings on the day of the revelation at Mount Sinai, and the day when the Tabernacle was consecrated, respectively.
This is the kind of נחת רוח, “pleasure, satisfaction,” that man in the lower part of the universe can contribute to G’d in the loftier spheres, in heaven. On both of these occasions the joy was reciprocal, G’d showing that He can associate with earthlings and take pleasure from this. The Israelites’ enthusiastic response after the splitting of the sea and their miraculous and escape from Pharaoh’s pursuing armies, was another occasion when the reciprocal nature of the relationship between G’d and His “chosen” people was demonstrated publicly.
Nowadays, almost 4000 years later, we recall these events and praise the Lord every week when we pronounce the blessings over wine. Not a day goes by without our giving thanks to the Lord for the Exodus from Egypt.At the time when Avram lived, the world, i.e. the planet earth and man on it, was still in a state of semi-collapse, its continued existence far from assured, until Yitzchok and Yaakov continued the work that Avram had started when he kept proclaiming the power and goodness of the Creator.
This assurance of the earth’s continued existence was only confirmed with the creation of the Jewish people, and this people’s leaving Egypt as G’d’s people, after having slaughtered the Passover, and proven that they considered the Creator as their highest authority.The Tur, commenting on why we mention the Exodus of Egypt in the weekly Kiddush, as opposed to the Kiddush on the festivals whose link to the Exodus is self-evident, explains that the Sabbath harbours within it the כח המוליד, the power that enables creatures to regenerate themselves by producing offspring.
This “power” is conditional on the observance of the Sabbath (in some form). Terach, Avram’s father, while able to produce physical offspring, was unable to produce offspring equipped with the kind of soul that would be active in spreading the message that G’d is the one and only Creator. [I have not been able to find where the Tur writes this, although he writes about man as well as most other living creatures becoming endowed with the ability to procreate bodies in his Torah commentary. (Genesis 2,3) Avram’s deeds, the ten tests G’d subjected him to, all of which he passed with flying colours, became the foundation stone of the Jewish people.
Had it not been for this, the Jewish people would not have been witnesses to the ten plagues with which Gd smote the Egyptians, nor would they have qualified for G’d personally addressing them when He gave the Ten Commandments. This assured Avraham his place as the founding father in the hierarchy of the Jewish people, and therefore as a participant in the Exodus from Egypt. In His answer to the question of במה אדע כי אירשנה, “How will I know that I will inherit it,” G’d assures him that he will be no less entitled to a share in the Holy Land than the people who physically marched out of Egypt in Moses’ time.’’G’d entertaining the thought that there would develop a Jewish nation, and that this nation would proclaim Him as their G’d, etc., would result in generating the necessary response in the form of a deed in producing the required souls, נשמות.
This “thought” is expressed in the first two letters of Avram’s name אב. When G’d had that thought about a Jewish nation, He referred to Avraham as אב, not to Terach. A son’s claim to life in the world after death is based on the spiritual merits possessed by his father. Something similar occurs when the mother entertains the appropriate thoughts at the time of marital union with her husband. Such thoughts influence the baby to be born from that union, either positively or negatively.
By telling Avram details about how his descendants would develop into a people, G’d also implied that contrary to what Avram might have hoped, his father [at that time still very much alive. Ed.] would not be part of that chain. [When we speak of Terach, Avram’s father in the Haggadah shel Pessach every Seder night, the author has drawn a dividing line between Terach and Avraham. Ed.] The belief that the thoughts that cross the minds of parents engaged in marital intercourse influence the spiritual focus of a child conceived as the result of their union, is universally accepted in the writings of our sages, and especially so in Nachmanides’ essay האמונה והבטחון, chapter 15, page 395 in כתבי רמב'ן, published by Mossad Harav Kook. [The authorship of this volume has not been determined with accuracy even nowadays. Rabbi Chayim David Chavell, whose edition I am using, devotes 11 pages to his introduction when he explains that there is some genetic spiritual input by both the father and the mother into the soul of the child they produce.
If I understand the message in these words, it is that this input is transmitted only at the time when the parents conceive the child, and it outweighs what the parents try to teach the youngster after he or she has been born. It follows that if the parents are interested in transmitting their own and their ancestors’ good characteristics to their own children, they must not only live according to these principles, but even conduct themselves according to these principles in the privacy of their bedrooms.
Perhaps this sheds some light on the lament of many parents who have one or more children who do not follow in their footsteps and who fail to understand this. Ed.] Pessachim 50 urging us to be careful to perpetuate the good practices of our forefathers meticulously, the Talmud quotes Proverbs 1,8 שמע בני מוסר אביך ואל תטוש תורת אמך, “my son, hear the moral instruction of your father, and do not forsake the teachings of your mother.”
It is clear from the Torah’s description of Terach before he had sired children (assuming he became a monotheist later) that the thoughts we have described did not occur to him when he and his wife conceived Avram. In fact, if Terach had been a believer in the one and only G’d, much of the credit Avraham accumulated would have been due to his father.Avraham was the first human being, who, by absorbing some of the “sparks” of the Shechinah which we discussed on pages 21-22 was able to transmit such spiritual values by means of his semen.
He himself had absorbed only the kind of material input from his father and mother as is capable of being defined through DNA in our days. In the parlance of our sages this input of physical matter by the mother is known as אודם, primarily cells which produce blood, whereas the input by her male partner consists primarily of לובן, albumen.Terach and his wife contributed only elements of the material terrestrial part of the universe to the fetus of Avraham, whereas G’d, anxious to see an eventual Jewish people emerge from that embryo, contributed characteristics that stemmed from the spiritual spheres of the universe.
This is the meaning of Avram’s question “how do I know that I will inherit?” The word דעת or ידע always describes a close attachment to the subject or object it describes. Avram wanted to know which spiritual characteristic links him to his existence in the terrestrial world, a link described in Proverbs 1,8 as אבי in the verse שמע בני מוסר אביך, in which Solomon cautions his listeners to carefully perpetuate the moral lessons absorbed from אביך, your father, i.e. your roots.
His question was prompted by his realization that he could certainly not be expected to perpetuate the moral lessons that he had been taught in the house of his father Terach. If he were to do this, how could he possibly bequeath to his offspring the qualities needed to become G’d’s people? He knew instinctively that this could happen only if he had in his genes spiritual input from a higher world.
The characteristic that represented this spiritual input is know as אב, part of the name אברהם. The word ירושה, inheritance, is always used in connection with inheritance from one’s father; hence seeing that the word אב, father, was part of his name this was the link that enabled him to become the first patriarch of the Jewish people. Avram understood that the origin of the Jewish people, a concept in G’d’s mind and the contribution He had made as the third partner in any human being to Avram’s genes, were of the same kind, so that the Jewish people could truly be described as having its terrestrial root in Avraham, as he would be called shortly before Yitzchok was born.When G’d told him that he should realize that his offspring would begin their collective life as “strangers,” i.e. as a new nation in the families of nations, it was this strain that he shared his spiritual origin with.
He would henceforth have to concentrate on his role as the spiritual root of that nation as and when it would become such. G’d reminded him already in verse 7 that this was the purpose for which He had saved him from the fiery furnace in Ur Kasdim continuing this theme in verse 18 when He entered into a sacred covenant with Avram. He had given him a preview that the development of this nation of which he would become the founding father, would undergo a difficult “adolescence” and that these difficulties once endured and overcome with His help would qualify them for their historic mission as trailblazers of monotheism.
Although Terach is credited with having sired Avram, (Genesis 11,26) this was merely a biological phenomenon; he was in no way an ancestor of Avram in the sense that Avram as the son would continue a tradition sacred to his father.To the question of how we are to understand Genesis 15,15 ואתה תבוא אל אבותיך בשלום תקבר בשיבה טובה, “as for you, you will join your “fathers’ in peace and will be buried in a ripe old age,” the word אבותיך does not refer to Terach; but is an assurance that Avram would die without sharing the servitude his descendants would experience.The Zohar I 78 commenting on Genesis 12,5 ואת הנפש אשר עשו בחרן, writes that Terach became a penitent, but that this does not mean that Avraham would be reunited with his father in the life after death, but since our sages had difficulty in how to understand the words: ואתה תבוא אל אבותיך בשלום, they understood this as Terach sanctifying the name of Avraham’s G’d while still alive.
The name of “G’d” in that verse therefore is אב, the spiritual genes that we described above as having been injected by G’d into the ovum that eventually developed into Avram.[We may understand this as Terach establishing a horizontal spiritual bond with his son through his penitence instead of the vertical bond created when a father passes on his spiritual values to his son. Ed.]If you find it difficult to accept the argument that Terach is not to be regarded as Avram’s “father” in verse 15, consider the following statement in Yevamot 22. גר שנתגייר כקטן שנולד דמי, “a convert after conversion is comparable to that of a newly born baby.”
He has no residue of the spiritual input normally transmitted by the respective genes of his father and mother. The only spiritual force active within him is that of the soul which has been given to him by his Creator. He is no longer called after his father, when called up to the Torah, the name of his father, the gentile, is not even alluded to. The reason is that he no longer contains the spiritual input his father had transmitted to him at birth.
The separation of such a convert from his biological father is so absolute, that according to Biblical Jewish law the convert is free to marry his biological mother, or sister, (assuming either of them has converted). [If the Rabbis forbade this, it is because it raises suspicions that the conversion had ulterior motives. Ed.]. Avram/Avraham both because he was a convert, and because his name was changed by G’d before he sired Yitzchok, was no longer connected to Terach at all.
When the Torah writes in Genesis 25,19 ואלה תולדות יצחק בן אברהם, אברהם הוליד את יצחק, “and these are the generations of Yitzchok; son of Avraham; Avraham had sired Yitzchok,” the Torah makes a point of describing Yitzchok as descendant of Avraham, whereas it never described Avraham as a descendant of Terach. The term “father,” is mentioned in the Torah only in connection with the characteristic אב which G’d had supplied to Avram, and which helped him to sanctify G’d’s Holy name to large groups of people as we explained previously.
An alternate approach to the line: במה אדע כי אירשנה. There is no question that Avram did not request a sign from G’d as proof that his as yet unborn descendants would inherit the land of Canaan.The idea that his claim to the land of Canaan could be remotely due to his having Terach as a father never even occurred to him. If we needed proof of that, we need only recall the Talmud B’rachot 16, according to which the Jewish people have only three patriarchs and 4 matriarchs.
The title “patriarch” implies that one is the “root” of the son whom one has sired by means of transmitting seed from the brain, the seat of one’s intelligence, which transmits it to the semen. It follows that the thoughts that preoccupy the father at the time when he engages in marital relations are transmitted through his semen to the ovum upon merging with it. If the father-to-be thinks holy thoughts at the appropriate time, some of these will be transferred to his seed, etc. There can be little doubt that Avraham was not the product of a father who entertained such godly thoughts when he helped conceive him.
How could he therefore be considered a patriarch of the Jewish people? Terach was wholly consumed by thoughts and desires centered around the physical part of his existence on earth. If his offspring was of a diametrically opposite orientation this could not have been attributed to his biological father at all. It must have been due to G’d’s desire that with the development of the fetus resulting in Avram, G’d intended to lay the foundation of a Jewish nation.
We can think of it in terms of G’d providing some additional spiritual light to His universe at the time of Avram’s birth. He was destined to become a new type of “tree of life,” albeit outside the boundaries of Gan Eden. According to Ari’zal, Terach and his wife became the “go-between” before this light could be made available in the terrestrial domain of the universe in order to assuage the feelings of Satan, who would otherwise have accused G’d of having favoured the creatures in the “lower” part of the universe.
The fact that Terach, i.e. what he represented as a merchant of idols, sired Avraham according to the norms prevailing in our part of the “lower” universe, deprived Satan of the opportunity of accusing G’d of such favoritism of the human race versus other loftier regions and their inhabitants. [I have not seen the words of the Ari’zal, but I trust that I have understood them correctly. Ed.] The essential thing to remember is that the actual birth of Avram was a result through intervention by Divinely inspired intelligence.Terach does not feature at all in the אב part of Avram’s name; no part of his intellect provided the characteristic in Avram’s personality that enabled him to develop as he did.[It is important to remember, especially for people who have little background in kabbalah, that the idea of G’d predetermining a person’s lifestyle and his abilities has been spelled out in the Bible when G’d told Jeremiah that He had destined him to be the prophet during the period when the Temple was in danger of being destroyed.
G’d was nearing the end of His patience with the Jewish state of that period even before he had been conceived. (Jeremiah 1,4) Ed.] In spite of all the reasons for disqualifying Terach from being given any credit as the indirect founder of the Jewish people, the fact that Avram had spent 9 months inside the womb of his mother after she had been impregnated with his semen, Avram was required to undergo 10 “tests,” in order to cleanse himself ritually from the spiritual contamination he experienced in his mother’s womb.Rashi [not found there, Ed.] writes about this aspect of the ten trials Avraham had to undergo in his commentary on Exodus 6,8 נתתי אותה לכם מורשה אני ה', “I have given it to you as an inheritance, I am the Lord.” [The contradiction in this verse is obvious; since when is an inheritance “given?” it is transmitted from father to son upon the father’s death!
Ed.] Regardless, of where that Rashi may be, both in our chapter as well as in Exodus 6,8 G’d speaks about the gift of the land of Canaan becoming an inheritance. If Terach had been involved in the matter, why would G’d have to “give” the land to Avram first? In his commentary on Choshen Mishpat, on the section dealing with the laws of inheritance, the author of Meirat Eynayim states that the expression ירושה, inheritance, in legal parlance, applies only to property inherited from one’s biological father.
From the wording in Exodus 6,8 as well as from the wording in Genesis 15,18 it is clear that G’d considers Himself as Avram’s “father” in the matter of bestowing on him the “gift” of the land. His offspring, or the part of his offspring to whom he deeds it, will henceforth “inherit.” It. When Avram heard this, he was unclear if he had understood correctly, as he had never heard of an inheritance originating as a gift. Hence he asked במה אדע כי אירשנה, by what legal process can I be sure that it will be mine as something to bequeath?”
In other words, “who is my father from whom I can inherit this land?” Avram’s question reflects his awareness that “his father” in this instance could not possibly be Terach. In response to Avram’s concerns, G’d answered him: “You shall be aware that your descendants in their formative stages will experience both being strangers and even slaves until at the end of the 400 years, I will judge the people who have subjugated them and treated them cruelly, so that they will leave that land with vast possessions.” G’d’s message to Avram is that the Exodus of this people from the land of their oppression will be due to their being his direct descendants.
His very birth paved the way for the Jewish people to come into existence and to in due course accept the very Torah that Avram had already been observing without having been commanded to do so.In light of this, your very birth through Divine input of some holy spirit, seeing that I am your “father,” enables Me to speak to you of “inheriting” the land that I am promising to your descendants.”
G’d implied that Avram had been quite correct in surmising that Terach had nothing to do with the events occurring in Avram’s future. The author refers to his exegesis of a statement in Baba Batra 117 where the Talmud states that the so-called “inheritance” of the Israelites being given the land of Canaan, is quite different from ordinary inheritances. Normally, the living inherit the dead.
In the case of the Israelites receiving ancestral land in the Land of Canaan, the dead inherited the living. The “normal” process of inheritance is based on the son being a branch of the father, [the father being the trunk. Ed.] The trunk (father) provides the elements that enable the branch to achieve its perfection (producing fruit).
This parable does not fit the Jewish people and its development. In the history of the Jewish people, the “dead” are the generation of the Israelites that experienced the Exodus as adults, who although not physically living to experience the conquest of the land, “inherited” it, since, but for their existence the next generation could not have taken possession of this land. Rashi explains that G’d took the Jewish people out of Egypt in order for them to inherit it by arriving there.
Their arrival in the land constitutes their achieving their objective, שלימות, much as the branches of the tree producing fruit achieve their objective. In Leviticus 25,38 we read: הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים לתת לכם את ארץ כנען להיות לכם לאלוקים, “I have taken you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan to become your G’d.” According to our author, Rashi explains the words לתת לכם, as “in order for you to achieve your שלימות, maturity there by performing My commandments.”
According to Baba Batra 158 the very air of the Holy Land confers wisdom on its people. The reason why even walking in the Holy Land [by Israelites, of course, Ed.] adds to one’s wisdom is illustrated by an example of Rabbi Zeyrah who left Babylon in order to settle in the Holy Land again, changed his mind on a Halachic point involving the laws of inheritance, accepting the view of a local scholar, whereas a sage who moved from the land of Israel, adopted the former view of Rabbi Zeyrah when he came to Babylon.Since the generation who left Egypt as adults did not get to the land of Israel, only their sons, it follows that the parents did not achieve their שלימות, “maturity” until their sons had made the Land of Israel their ancestral heritage.
This is the meaning of “the dead inherited the living.”This statement in the Talmud about the dead inheriting the living, also explains another statement in the Talmud Sanhedrin 104, according to which a son [while alive Ed.] can confer spiritual merits on his [deceased] father, whereas his deceased father cannot confer merits on his surviving son. The Talmud bases this on the example of the second generation of the Israelites bestowing merits on their fathers after they carried out the task set by G’d for this people of settling in the Holy land and observing the Torah there.
Avraham after his death, or Yitzchok, after his death, could not confer merits on their respective sons that these had not acquired during their respective lifetimes. Let us now proceed to explain the first verse in our portion, לך לך מארצך...אל הארץ אשר אראך, a verse which presented many commentators with difficulties. The major difficulty bothering these commentators is that we do not find anywhere that G’d showed Avram the land of which He had spoken. Another difficulty they raise is at the end of the previous portion when we read about Terach taking his family, including Avram and his wife (Genesis 11,31) planning to settle in the land of Canaan, but remaining in Charan without concluding his intention.
Terach may have had reasons of his own why he did not continue his journey, but why did Avram and his wife not continue, as planned?The author relates an answer to this query that he had heard from his father of sainted memory and Rabbi Dov Baer of Mezeritch, based on a Zohar I 85 which discusses the mystery of the unity of G’d which comprised masculine and feminine attributes. When or how did these “split?” [The souls that descend into this world are perceived as the “fruit” i.e. results of the deeds of the Creator, Ed.]
In our domain of the universe we do not encounter such a fusion of both attributes. [If I understand correctly Rabbi Dov Baer drew a parallel to the Talmud Zevachim 51 where the problem of how blood of a burnt offering that was slaughtered on the northern part of the altar, and transferred to bowls there, could be poured down the south east corner, without violating the rule that it must be poured down the יסוד, base of the altar, (Exodus 29,12, et al) when the south east corner of the altar did not have such a base, [and the priests always had to walk in a certain direction always turning right, not backtracking.
Ed.] The gist of the Rabbi’s commentary is that there are two ways in which to serve the Lord. One is based on awe of the Creator, יראה, the other on love for Him, אהבה. [The matter has been touched on already in connection with Genesis 14,15, page 56. Ed.]In order to serve G’d out of feelings of true awe one must first have mastered Torah and its various disciplines and have toiled greatly through study and concentration, performance of the commandments, and good deeds; only then will one be qualified to be granted the ability to serve the Lord by embracing the attribute of awe, involving, as we explained previously, a total negation of the self in doing so. On the other hand, it is impossible to truly love one’s Creator except through one’s (good) deeds.
Love, i.e. selfless love, is based on recognizing this attribute in G’d, Who has nothing to gain by performing loving deeds for man who is unable to reciprocate, as He is not in need of anything His creatures can offer Him. If someone employs his G’d given intellect to search and find the goodness of G’d, he will be rewarded by receiving further enlightenment from G’d. We read in the Zohar that Avram realized that in the Holy Land one could perform service of G’d properly; so that he “wrapped,” i.e. committed himself wholly and enthusiastically to G’d.
As a result, whereas Terach had moved to Charan after Avram had been saved from Nimrod’s furnace, only in order to save himself from his former customers who accused him of having sold them useless idols, he stayed there. Avram immediately experienced a call from G’d, Who wished to help him fulfill his wish to go to the Holy Land. By telling him that only he was to do so, G’d showed him that if one honestly and sincerely wishes to serve His Creator, the Creator, in turn will extend a helping hand.
Since at that time Avram’s awe was the principal element that prompted him, seeing that he had experienced such a miraculous escape from Nimrod’s furnace, he remained on this level of serving G’d from יראה, a feeling of reverence and awe, for the time being. When G’d spoke about “showing” him the land to which he should proceed, He meant that unless he would be given further guidance by Hashem, he would not ascend higher rungs on the ladder that would bring him closer to his Creator.
G’d mentioned three separate stages involved in his reaching his self-imposed objective. He had to shed certain concepts that had previously attached him to the community surrounding him. They are: ארצך, מולדך, בית אביך, “your native land, your birthplace within that land, your family, i.e. the house of your father.” The three places mentioned represent נפש, רוח, נשמה, 1) “physical life-force, known as the body’s essence; 2) the “spirit”, seat of one’s urges and physical aspirations; 3) the spiritual essence, the soul. Up until the time when Avram left Charan he had served G’d by engaging the three attributes we just mentioned.
Now that his quest to be near to his Creator would be reinforced by his being on holy soil, he would qualify for more comprehensive revelations from G’d, enabling him to proceed from serving G’d out of feelings of awe to serving Him out of feelings of love.We have already explained why G’d promised Avram that He would make his name great, that he would be a source of blessing to all with whom he would come into contact and that his name would be “great.” (pages 41-44) We ask ourselves, that if Avram had followed G’d’s instructions to set out into a new and unknown land without having first been given these assurances by G’d if he would not have earned a great deal more merit than he did after being “armed” with these promises?In fact, the reverse is the case.
When the Torah tells us that Avram set out in accordance with the instructions he had received from G’d (Genesis 12,4) the reason the Torah adds the words: “as G’d had commanded him,” is to inform us that the only reason Avram emigrated from Charan was because G’d had told him to. It did not occur to Avram that the promises G’d had made to him would be fulfilled by his obeying G’d. [Compare Or Hachayim on this verse, or my translation of his commentary on page 123 Ed.]
Accordingly, if Avraham had not known that he would receive a reward for undertaking this journey and all that it entailed, it would not even have rated as one of his “ten trials,” so that his reward would have been much less. Being able to serve the Lord after having received promises from Him, without these promises affecting the quality of his service, was a far greater ethical achievement than serving the Lord altruistically, but not knowing that such service carries the promise of a reward.
G’d’s challenging Avram to do just this was the essence of the trial. Genesis 15,14., “and also the nation whom they will serve I shall judge;” many commentators were stymied by the connective letter ו at the beginning of the word וגם. What does this letter connect to? [Compare Or Hachayim my translation pages 141-143. Ed.]It seems to me that Avram viewed the fate of his ancestors during this period as being subjected to 400 years of the rule of the attribute of Justice, as is evident from his reaction to this prediction with a dark sense of foreboding. (see 15,12) G’d assures him that He would not single out Avram’s descendants for the rule of the attribute of Justice, but that the nation that enslaved his descendants would experience retribution also, and in the end the Jewish people would recognize this period with its deprivations as having ultimately been of benefit for them. Genesis 15,17., “and behold a smoking furnace and flaming torch that had passed between these pieces;” in this instance the Shechinah, G’d’s presence, passed between the pieces of the sacrifices, prior to G’d making a covenant with Avraham; [this was similar to heavenly fire descending on the communal offerings offered by the Israelite in the Tabernacle.
Ed.] The reason it is described as עבר, briefly passing, is so that we would not confuse this phenomenon with the Shechinah that rested permanently on the Tabernacle during the Israelites’ wanderings in the desert. Genesis 16,8 or Genesis 16,11., “The angel of G’d said to her (Hagar) etc.” It is somewhat surprising that whereas Manoach upon realizing that he had seen an angel was afraid that he would die forthwith, (Judges 14,22) Hagar did not react with fear at all.
The reason may be that the angel which appeared to Hagar had appeared as an angel in the garb people expected angels to appear in. The angel that had appeared to Manoach and his wife had assumed human form, though he had looked awe-inspiring, so that Manoach and his wife had assumed that he was merely a prophet. When upon his departure to the celestial regions in the smoke rising from Manoach’s offering, it turned out that they had seen a heavenly being, Manoach reacted with fright, and his wife had to calm him by showing that his fear was quite unreasonable. (Verse 20-23 there). Genesis 16,12,” “his hand raised against all, and everyone’s hand raised against him;” (normal translation)Our author, basing himself on Zohar II 32, understands the word כל in this verse as ברית, covenant.
This has been expounded upon in שערי אורה, [a book authored by Rabbi Joseph ben Avraham G’iktiliyah, a disciple of the famed Rabbi Avraham Abulafia. Ed.] The word ידו refers to the power and authority enjoyed by Ishmael. To the question why Ishmael had been endowed by G’d with such greatness, the answer is that this was the reward for his agreeing to have himself circumcised at an age when this is extremely painful.
There is, however, a minor difference between the type of circumcision performed on Ishmaelites and that performed on Jews, i.e. an extra thin membrane around the glans being removed in a halachic circumcision. This is hinted at in the word יד. The last word כל, hints that the other nation with whom G’d has a covenant based on circumcision, Israel, will eventually overcome Ishmael. Genesis 17,4., “I, here My covenant is with you; you will become (founder) of a multitude of nations.”
The principal task of the tzaddik’s service of the Lord is to ascend spiritually to higher levels, so that the entire human race residing in the “lower” part of the universe is elevated. The Zohar expressed this by writing: “we need to be able to make an appearance, facing the King.” It is clear that there is a danger that when the tzaddik, (Avraham) in order to fulfill the mission of founding numerous nations, has to descend to the moral/ethical level of these people in order to subsequently elevate them, he faces the danger of becoming submerged among them instead.
Avraham was keenly aware of that. Here G’d assures him that He will protect him against these dangers as His covenant will accompany Avraham all the way when he undertakes “outreach.” Genesis 17,13., “to be circumcised, etc.:” [what follows is not documented although the author quotes Bereshit Rabbah, 49. It is not found there, nor in Bereshit Rabbah 47, where it ought to be, if at all. The author himself appears to have had his doubts, and this is why he attributes the so-called “quote” די לעבד להיות כרבו, “it is appropriate for a servant to emulate his master,” to a statement in the Levush.
The authenticity of the statement has been questioned as it implies that just as G’d is “circumcised,” so His favourite creatures must be. I will content myself with paraphrasing the thoughts of the author. We know that in order to create a physical world, G’d had to “reduce” the impact of His emanations, or to be מצמצם, “to understate the extent of His brilliance.” In order for G’d to conclude a covenant with Avraham in his capacity as the founder of the Jewish people, G’d’s “junior” partner on earth, he and the people under his authority had to perform a symbolic act on their body, i.e. the removal of their foreskin.
By doing this they emulated an attribute used by their Creator. This explanation may answer the question that if G’d created everything in His universe in a perfect state, (compare Genesis 1,31) why would it be necessary at this stage for Avraham to remove a G’d given part of his body? Ed.] Genesis 17,22., “G’d ascended from above Avraham.” In order to understand the significance of what is written here we must go back to Bereshit Rabbah 42 where Avraham is described as consulting with his friends Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre, on his having been commanded to circumcise himself.
Two of his friends advised against it, whereas Mamre reminded him that the G’d Who had saved his life several times, would most certainly not demand something of him that was not in his interest. Mamre was rewarded for this by G’d. The point our author sees in our verse is that Avraham was given an opportunity to refuse carrying out this commandment, so that if he withstood the temptation to do so he could receive an even greater reward for having resisted the urgings of the evil urge, dressed up as “pious advice.”
G’d’s “ascending from ’above’ Avraham,” means that G’d distanced Himself from Avraham for a while in order to give the evil urge, Satan in the guise of two of his friends, an opportunity to tempt him not to obey this commandment.