Abraham Lifted Above the Heavens Beyond the Stars

"And Abram said, Behold, to me You have given no seed" (Genesis 15:3). Rav Shmuel bar Yitzhak said: The constellation presses me and says to me, Abram, you do not beget. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Let it be as your word - Abram does not beget, Abraham begets; Sarai does not bear, Sarah bears. "And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying" (Genesis 15:4) - angel after angel, speech after speech: I and three angels are revealed to you and say to you, Lot the cursed shall not inherit Abraham. "And He brought him outside" (Genesis 15:5). Now did He bring him outside the world, that Scripture says, "And He brought him outside"? Rather, He showed him the lanes of the heavens, as you say, "before He had made the earth and the outside places" (Proverbs 8:26), and He raised him up above the dome of the firmament. This is what He said to him, "Look now toward the heavens" - and looking-down (habatah) is only from above to below, as you say, "Look down and answer me, O LORD my God" (Psalms 13:4). "And He brought him outside" - go out from your astrology; you are a prophet, and you are not an astrologer, as it is said, "Restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet." In the days of Jeremiah, Israel sought to come to this measure [of astrology], and the Holy One, blessed be He, did not permit them, as it is said, "Thus says the LORD, Learn not the way of the nations" (Jeremiah 10:2), and so forth - already Abraham your father sought to come to this measure, and I did not permit him. Rav Levi said: While the sandal is on your foot, tread down the thorn. Anyone who is placed below them fears them, but you, who are placed above them, tread them down.