"The Lord says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand'" (Psalm 110:1). This verse launches one of the most complex readings in Aggadat Bereshit — about how the Holy One loves and exalts Israel by investing their ancestors with greatness that flows forward through every generation.
The right hand of God is not incidental. In the ancient world, the right hand was the position of honor, of power, of the closest ally. When God places someone at His right hand, He is saying: you are my closest partner. You speak for me. You share my authority. The rabbis read this verse as a promise first made to Abraham, then to the patriarchs collectively, and ultimately to Israel as a whole — a nation elevated not by military might but by proximity to the divine.
The psalm calls the saints in the land "the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight" (Psalm 16:3). The rabbis read "his greatness shall be from him" (Jeremiah 30:21) as a reference to the forefathers — meaning everything Israel has ever received flows from those first three figures. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob: the right hand that never fails, the protection that never lifts. Not because Israel always deserves it. Because the covenant is located in the ancestors, and the ancestors sit at God's right hand, and the right hand holds on.
Chapter 17: Prophets [1] "Thus says the Lord: 'If not for my covenant day and night, I would not have established the fixed order of heaven and earth.'" (Jeremiah 33:25). This is what the scripture said, "Look upon the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." (Psalm 74:20) Look to the covenant, even though Israel has no good deeds, the Holy One, blessed be He, redeems them by virtue of the covenant. Look to the covenant, when Israel was in Egypt they prostrated themselves to idolatry, as it says, "To your fathers, each man threw away the idols of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt" (Ezekiel 20:7). He redeemed them only by virtue of the covenant, as it says, "And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant" (Exodus 6:5), and it is written, "And God heard their groaning, and remembered His covenant" (Exodus 2:24). When they came out of Egypt and arrived at the sea, they rebelled, as it says, "And they rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea" (Psalm 106:7). And the sea sought to drown them, as it says, "The waters were a wall to them on their right and on their left" (Exodus 14:22). They were filled with anger towards them and sought to drown them. When the water reached their clothes, their clothes hung from the water. When the water saw the covenant of circumcision on them, it retreated, as it says, "The sea saw and fled" (Psalms 114:3). What did the sea see? It saw the covenant of circumcision and fled. And it did not split except through the merit of circumcision, as it says, "To cut the Red Sea into pieces" (Psalms 136:13). They came to the desert and neglected the circumcision for forty years, as it says, "For all the people that came out were circumcised" (Joshua 5:5), "For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness" (Exodus 16:35), "And he raised up their children in their place" (Joshua 5:7). All of Israel neglected the circumcision for forty years, except for the tribe of Levi, who circumcised their children, as it says, "And your covenant will be preserved" (Deuteronomy 33:9). "It is a covenant of circumcision: When the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, the tribe of Levi, who were circumcised, were carrying the Ark [of the Covenant], while the rest of the Israelites were uncircumcised. The inhabitants of the Jordan Valley sought to drown the Israelites because of their lack of circumcision, but God performed miracles for them. At that moment, God gathered 60,000 Israelites between the two poles of the Ark, so that they could see who was circumcised and who was not, and flee. As it is written, 'The Jordan turned back before them' (Joshua 3:13). Joshua said to the people, 'Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you.' The 60,000 people stood between the two poles of the Ark, as if they were piercing it with their foreskins. And what is the meaning of this? It is like the verse in Jeremiah that says, 'Go and buy yourself linen undergarments...so that your linen undergarments may serve as a witness for you' (Jeremiah 13:1-11). Just as the linen is not moved from its place despite the thorns, so too the 60,000 people stood firm between the poles of the Ark, as if they were being pricked by thorns." (Jeremiah 4:3). And it was a sting to Jeremiah. He said before God, "Master of the universe, there are thorns in it and they sting me, and I am in pain." God said to him, "This is not how the children of Israel acted when I brought them between the two poles of the Ark, and they were stinging the Ark with their foreskins like thorns, as it is said 'As the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto Me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah' (Jeremiah 13:11). And from where do we know that foreskin is called thorns? As it is said 'Thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: Break up for yourselves fallow ground, and sow not among thorns' (Jeremiah 4:3), and it is written 'Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart' (Jeremiah 4:4). Therefore, since it is like thorns, see how abominable foreskin is before God. Even Moses, great among the prophets, wise men, and righteous, when he delayed circumcision for one hour, God sought to kill him, as it is said 'And it came to pass on the way at the lodging place [etc. and sought to kill him]' (Exodus 4:24). "If not for my covenant day and night." (Jeremiah 33:25)." [2] Another thought: "If not for My covenant..." "See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse; the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, to go after other gods which you have not known." [Beitza 5a] "Furthermore, if not for My covenant day and night, I would not have established the laws of heaven and earth" [Jeremiah 33:25]. King Agrippa asked Rabbi Eliezer the Great: "If the mitzvah (commandment) of circumcision is so beloved by the Holy One, Blessed be He, why was it not included among the Ten Commandments given at Sinai? After all, the Torah specifically warns against transgressing the mitzvot to honor one's parents, to keep Shabbat, not to murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, or covet. Why is there no explicit commandment to circumcise?" Rabbi Eliezer replied: "You claim to be an expert in Torah, but you clearly do not know it as well as you think. The mitzvah of circumcision was indeed given at Sinai, even before the Ten Commandments, as it says in the third month after the children of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt... [Exodus 19:1]. And then, 'If you will hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you... [Exodus 15-16]. This refers to the mitzvah of circumcision. Rabbi Akiva says it refers to Shabbat. Therefore, it is written, 'If not for My covenant day and night,' which includes both circumcision and Shabbat. And that is why it is said, 'If not for My covenant, day and night'."
