Lech Lecha 5719
בראשית פרק יד
(יט) וַיְבָרְכֵהוּ וַיֹּאמַר בָּרוּךְ אַבְרָם לְקל עֶלְיוֹן קֹנֵה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ:
(כ) וּבָרוּךְ קל עֶלְיוֹן אֲשֶׁר־מִגֵּן צָרֶיךָ בְּיָדֶךָ וַיִּתֶּן־לוֹ מַעֲשֵׂר מִכֹּל:
And he blessed him, and said: 'Blessed be Avram of God Most High, Maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God the Most High, Who hath Delivered thine enemies into thy hand.' And he gave him a tenth of all.
Alef.
1.
תהלים פרק קי
(א) לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר נְאֻם יְקֹוָק לַאדֹנִי שֵׁב לִימִינִי עַד־אָשִׁית אֹיְבֶיךָ הֲדֹם לְרַגְלֶיךָ:...
(ד) נִשְׁבַּע יְקֹוָק וְלֹא יִנָּחֵם אַתָּה־כֹהֵן לְעוֹלָם עַל־דִּבְרָתִי מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק:
A Psalm of David. The LORD Saith unto my lord: 'Sit thou at My right Hand, until I Make thine enemies thy footstool.'
The LORD hath Sworn, and will not Repent: 'Thou art a priest for ever על דברתי Melchizedek.'
Nedarim 32b : Because Malki-Tzedek misspoke and it was caught by Avraham, Avraham replaces him as priest, i.e., Kohanim will be descended from Avraham rather than from Malki-Tzedek.
Ibn Ezra: The sequence used by Malki-Tzedek was appropriate (implying that nothing negative should happen to him as a result.
2. The Gemara understands the phrase עַל־דִּבְרָתִי as meaning “because of his speaking concerning Me”, i.e., by placing Avraham’s praise ahead of that of HaShem.
Beit.
1. The two possibilities for קנה that RaMBaN sees in RaShI’s words are:
a. Acquisition by whatever means ones acquires something.
b. Fabricating the thing, and by virtue of having done so, owning it.
2.
תהלים פרק קלט
(יג) כִּי־אַתָּה קָנִיתָ כִלְיֹתָי תְּסֻכֵּנִי בְּבֶטֶן אִמִּי:
For Thou hast קנית my reins; Thou hast Knit me together in my mother's womb.
דברים פרק לב
(ו) הֲ־לַיְקֹוָק תִּגְמְלוּ־זֹאת עַם נָבָל וְלֹא חָכָם הֲלוֹא־הוּא אָבִיךָ קָּנֶךָ הוּא עָשְׂךָ וַיְכֹנְנֶךָ:
Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? Is not He thy father that קָּנֶךָ? Hath He not Made thee, and Established thee?
בראשית פרק יב
(ה) וַיִּקַּח אַבְרָם אֶת־שָׂרַי אִשְׁתּוֹ וְאֶת־לוֹט בֶּן־אָחִיו וְאֶת־כָּל־רְכוּשָׁם אֲשֶׁר רָכָשׁוּ וְאֶת־הַנֶּפֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר־ עָשׂוּ בְחָרָן וַיֵּצְאוּ לָלֶכֶת אַרְצָה כְּנַעַן וַיָּבֹאוּ אַרְצָה כְּנָעַן:
And Avram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that עָשׂוּ in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
In RaMBaN’s first interpretation, which he says that RaShI follows, “עשי'” is equivalent to "קני'". Consequently,
a) Tehillim 139:13 since HaShem is the Creator of the person and is Responsible for “Assembling” the person, per force He “Owns” the person.
b) Devarim 32:6 is an extremely clear statement to the effect that God’s Kinyan of the nation is effected by His having Made them. (One could possibly argue the reverse, i.e., Kinyan is the state of the people which could have been actuated by various means; yet in this case it came about via Asiya.”
c) Beraishit 12:5 Avraham and Sara cannot be given credit for literally having “made” the souls, since this is beyond a human being’s purview. However, according to the Rabbinic tradition that when someone converts, it is as if they are newly born (Yevamot 23a), and Avraham and Sara were depicted as having converted people to monotheism, consequently they were responsible for these individuals’’ spiritual makeovers and consequently it could be said that by means of this process, they could make a claim upon them. (While RaShI cites the view that they converted people in Charan, he only brings that as a secondary interpretation. The explanation that he begins with, indicating that he prefers that one, is that these were the people—slaves—that Avraham and Sara had acquired in Charan, effectively a support of the RaMBaN’s preferred interpretation regarding the verse in Beraishit 14 quoting Malki-Tzedek.)
3. Since Avraham in his time is usually given credit for having conceptualized HaShem as the Creator of the Universe, the implication is that while others may have been monotheists, they may not have believed that matter was Created, but rather that matter was also eternal, as the Greeks believed. Therefore to attribute to Malki-Tzedek this view might have been further than RaMBaN wished to go. When RaMBaM in Guide for the Perplexed II:39 lists prophets earlier than Avraham, such as Adam, Shem, Ever, etc., even he does not include Malki-Tzedek in the list.
Gimel.
1. The Midrash understands the end of the phrase “בָּרוּךְ אַבְרָם לְקל עֶלְיוֹן קֹנֵה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ” as not describing HaShem, but rather describing Avraham.
2.
בראשית פרק יד
(כב) וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָם אֶל־מֶלֶךְ סְדֹם הֲרִמֹתִי יָדִי אֶל־יְקֹוָק קל עֶלְיוֹן קֹנֵה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ:
There would appear to be no ambiguity re the end of this verse. Avraham could not be speaking of himself, only of HaShem. (But one could say that Malki-Tzedek intended it to refer to Avraham, and Avraham is “correcting him”, i.e., there is only One קֹנֵה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ, not a human being but rather HaShem.
Daled.
R. Yochanan in Nedarim suggests that Avraham could have retained the captives that he liberated and brought them to monotheism instead of returning them to Sodom, which was such a corrupt society in so many ways. For this he and his descendants would ultimately be held accountable.
The Midrash considers Avraham’s refusal to enrich himself by means of the spoils that he liberated a demonstration that he was motivated by idealism when he went to war, not self-aggrandizement and enrichment, as so many others may be.
Heh.
Prior to the war with the kings, the Tora lists a single Revelation to Avraham regarding what he could expect in the future:
בראשית פרק יב
(ב) 1) וְאֶעֶשְׂךָ לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל 2) וַאֲבָרֶכְךָ 3) וַאֲגַדְּלָה שְׁמֶךָ 4) וֶהְיֵה בְּרָכָה:
(ג) 5) וַאֲבָרֲכָה מְבָרְכֶיךָ 6) וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ אָאֹר 7) וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה:
רש"י בראשית פרק יב פסוק ב
(ב) ואעשך לגוי גדול - לפי שהדרך גורמת לשלשה דברים ממעטת פריה ורביה, וממעטת את הממון, וממעטת את השם, לכך הוזקק לשלש ברכות הללו שהבטיחו על הבנים, ועל הממון, ועל השם. (וזהוואגדלה שמך, הריני מוסיף אות על שמך, שעד עכשיו שמך אברם מכאן ואילך אברהם, ואברהם עולה רמ"ח כנגד איבריו של אדם):
ואברכך - בממון:
והיה ברכה - הברכות נתונות בידך, עד עכשיו היו בידי, ברכתי את אדם ואת נח ואותך, ומעכשיו אתה תברך את אשר תחפוץ.
דבר אחר ואעשך לגוי גדול זהו שאומרים אלקי אברהם, ואברכך זהו שאומרים אלקי יצחק, ואגדלה שמך זהו שאומרים אלקי יעקב. יכול יהיו חותמין בכולן, תלמוד לומר והיה ברכה, בך חותמין ולא בהם:
מארצך - והלא כבר יצא משם עם אביו ובא עד לחרן, אלא כך אמר לו התרחק עוד משם וצא מבית אביך:
אל הארץ אשר אראך - לא גלה לו הארץ מיד, כדי לחבבה בעיניו, ולתת לו שכר על כל דבור ודבור. כיוצא בו (בראשית כב ב) את בנך את יחידך אשר אהבת את יצחק, כיוצא בו (כב ב) על אחד ההרים אשראומר אליך, כיוצא בו (יונה ג ב) וקרא עליה את הקריאה אשר אנכי דובר אליך:
(ג) ונברכו בך כל משפחות האדמה - יש אגדות רבות, וזהו פשוטו אדם אומר לבנו תהא כאברהם, וכן כל ונברכו בך שבמקרא, וזה מוכיח (בראשית מח כ) בך יברך ישראל לאמר ישימך אלהים כאפרים וכמנשה:
The word “ואברכך” is ambiguous, and only according to RaShI’s first commentary (in contrast to his “דבר אחר”, does he understand the word as a promise of future wealth. But once there is the possibility that HaShem has Promised Avraham that he had nothing to worry about materially, it is understandable how he can be so idealistic with respect to the spoils of Sodom and Amora.
Vav.
1.
ישעיהו פרק מא
(ב) מִי הֵעִיר מִמִּזְרָח צֶדֶק יִקְרָאֵהוּ לְרַגְלוֹ יִתֵּן לְפָנָיו גּוֹיִם וּמְלָכִים יַרְדְּ יִתֵּן כֶּעָפָר חַרְבּוֹ כְּקַשׁ נִדָּף קַשְׁתּוֹ:
Who hath Raised up one from the east, at Whose Steps victory attendeth? He Giveth nations before Him, and Maketh him rule over kings; His Sword Maketh them as the dust, His Bow as the driven stubble.
The reasons why ChaZaL, and following their lead, RaShI and RaDak, believed that this verse is poetically describing the relationship between HaShem and Avraham might include the following:
a. Avraham came from the East, specifically Ur Kasdim.1 He was known as HaIvri,2 i.e., from the other side of the Jordan. If the text is indeed discussing Avraham, then the claim is being made that rather than Avraham discovering God on his own, he was inspired to do so by HaShem Himself. HaShem Chose Avraham and Placed him upon a path to discover God, even prior to his doing so. This might enter into the Midrashic discussion (Beraishit Rabba 30:8) of Avraham’s age when he discovered HaSheM. One view is that he was 48, a time when a person is at the height of his reasoning powers. Another view was that Avraham was 3. This latter view would perhaps be consistent with the concept that Avraham was led to the discovery, rather than he reasoned it out on his own.
b. Avraham’s association with proclaiming righteousness could be understood on two levels. On the one hand, it could be a reference to his proclaiming his monotheistic beliefs3 and attempting to get others to believe similarly.4 One of the underlying beliefs associated with monotheism is that rather than living in a random universe, we live in one where there is rhyme and reason underlying it, i.e., Tzedek, even if we are not in a position to understand that that is always the case. The other way to interpret Avraham’s proclamation of Tzedek is his regularly confronting injustice on the part of rulers and others. See my essay, “Avraham the Gadfly” at http://text.rcarabbis.org/
c. The major military victory associated with Avraham was his defeat of the alliance of nations led by their kings that had ransacked Sodom and Amora and taken his nephew Lot captive, described in Beraishit 14.
2. Yeshayahu 45:1-3 appears to tie 41:2 directly to Cyrus:
Thus Saith the LORD to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have Holden, to Subdue nations before him, and to Loose the loins of kings; to Open the doors before him, and that the gates may not be shut: I will Go before thee, and Make the crooked places straight; I will Break in pieces the doors of brass, and Cut in sunder the bars of iron; And I will Give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I Am the LORD, Who Call thee by thy name, even the God of Israel.
3. a. RaShI—HaShem (calling to all those in the Creation)
b. RaDaK—Avraham (calling to people to forsake idolatry)
c. ShaDaL—HaShem (calling to Cyrus to be kind to the Jewish people)
4. Aside from a single word at the outset of Isaiah 13, I would not know about whom the prophet is speaking. Similarly in Isaiah 41, it is not made clear who is being discussed.
5. I would suggest that HaShem had the concept in mind of an individual who would represent His Interests in the world, without having specifically identifying him at the outset of the Creation. In this manner, the person who would quality would have to earn that status rather than have it happen inevitably. Consequently, it happened to turn out to be Avraham, but if circumstances had been different, perhaps it could have been someone else. Therefore it would not be prudent to specifically mention Avraham or Cyrus or anyone else for that matter.
The other possibility is that perhaps there will be several people simultaneously trying to advance HaShem’s Program and not just a single one. See R. Jonathan Sacks’ The Dignity of Difference.
And He Said unto him (Avraham): 'I am the LORD that Brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to Give thee this land to inherit it.'
And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew--now he dwelt by the terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were confederate with Abram.
Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first; and Abram called there on the Name of the LORD.
And Abraham planted a tamarisk-tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the Name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.
And Avram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Charan; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
And when Avram heard that his brother was taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan.
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