Why Abraham Was Called the Great Man Among the Anakim

Another interpretation: "the great man among the Anakim" (Joshua 14:15). Rabbi said: this is Abraham. And why does it call him great? Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Elazar in the name of Rabbi Yose ben Zimra: the strides of Abraham our father were three mil. Rabbi Yehudah son of Rabbi Simon says: a mil, as it says, "a path his feet had not trodden" (Isaiah 41:3) — the final letters of "who acted" (mi pa'al) spell, in reverse, mil. Rabbi Nechemiah in the name of Rabbi Aibu: his feet did not even gather dust when he pursued the kings, but he was like one who walks from his house to the synagogue. Another interpretation: why does it call him great? Because he was fit to have been created before Adam the first man. But the Holy One, blessed be He, said: perhaps he will spoil things, and there will be no one to come after him and repair it. Said the Holy One, blessed be He: behold, I will create Adam first, so that if he spoils things, Abraham will come and repair in his place. Said Rabbi Abba Kahana: a man who has a sagging beam, where does he set it? In the middle of the house, so that it can bear the beam before it and the beam after it. So too Abraham — the Holy One, blessed be He, set him in the middle of the generations, so that he might bear the generations before him and the generations after him. Said Rabbi Levi: one brings the orderly woman into the house of the disorderly woman, but one does not bring the disorderly woman into the house of the orderly woman.