Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”L
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G-d's Covenant with Avram/Avraham
G-d told Avram that He is G-d who rescued him from Ur Kasdim so that he could give him this land to inherit.
Avram asked G-d how he will know that he will inherit the land?
G-d tells Avram to sacrifice several animals, each symbolic of the future temple offerings:
* 3 calves - symbolic of the 3 bulls which are:
* the one brought on Yom Kippur
* the one brought when the interpretation of a certain law is hidden from the nation due to a mistake on the part of the Sanheidrin
* The heifer who's neck was broken
* 3 goats - symbolic of the 3 he-goats which were sacrified:
* Inside
* for the additional festival offerings
* for the individual sin offering
* 3 rams - symbolic of:
* the guilt offering for a definite sin
* the guilt offering for a doubtful sin
* the ewe lamb which is brought for an individual sin offering
* A turtle dove and a young pigeon - these are various species which were offered for all kinds of sacrifices which were brought for atonement.
It is the custom of one who establishes a covenant to split an animal in two and to pass through the two parts. So this is what Avraham did to set up a covenant regarding inheriting the land that G-d promised to him.
Avraham took all of these animals and with the exception of the birds, split them in the middle and placed each animal opposite its mate.
The idol worshiping nations of the world are liked to various animals, while Israel is likened to young doves. This is why he did not divide the birds, hinting at how Israel will exist eternally, while the other nations, which he did split, will slowly vanish.
There is a bird of prey, which in Hebrew is called the עַיִט. These birds swept down to consume the carcasses but Avraham caused them to fly away. Rashi says that this is an allusion to a time when King David will come to destroy such birds but G-d will not permit him to until the time of the Moshiach.
Just as the sun was about to set, Avram fell into a deep sleep, and fear and darkness came to him, foreboding the advent of the troublesome and dark exiles.
G-d told Avram about these exiles, saying that his progeny will be strangers in a land that is not their own in which they will be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years.
Rashi gives the following breakdown of these 400 years. It begins with the birth of Yitzchak, as Yitzchak dwelled in Gerar and then Yaakov dwelled in Cham (i.e not their own lands, even before the descent to Egypt):
Yitzchak was 60 years old when he had Yaakov.
Yaakov was 130 years old when they went down to Egypt, making Yitzchak 190 years old at that time.
And then they stayed in Egypt for 210 years, which is the numerical equivalent of the word רְדוּ ("went down").
210 +190 = 400 years.
Rashi dismisses the idea that others might have that the 400 years referenced were all spent in Egypt, based on the fact that Kehath was amongst those who descended into Egypt, and he lived for 133 years, his son Amram lived for 137 years and Moshe was 80 years old when they left Egypt. This means that without even calculating the overlapping years (i.e. when both Amram and Kehath were both alive and/or when Amram and Moshe were both alive), the total only comes to 133+137+ 80 = 350 years.
G-d says that four kingdoms, namely Babylon, Persia and Media, Greece and Edom will disintegrate for having enslaved Israel.
G-d makes an allusion to the 10 plagues and to the Israelites leaving Egypt with a lot of money from there.
G-d lets Avram know that he will pass away before all of this happens and thus not witness it. He reassures him that his father Terach would repent, as would Yishmael. He also says that Esav would not be involved with evil during Avram's lifetime - this caused Avram to die five years before his time, as Esav rebelled on that very day.
G-d tells Avram that they will be exiled in Egypt for three generations, after which the fourth generation will return to the land of Cannan, where they were now. The three generations which were in the Egyptian exile included: Yehudah, Perez and Chezron. Then the fourth generation which entered into the land of Israel included Caleb, the son of Chezron.
Only by the fourth generation will the Amorites have sinned to their capacity at which time G-d will punish them. G-d does not punish a nation until it has reached completion.
The sun set and it was dark and Avram saw a smoking furnace, with burning wood. This was an omen that the pagan kingdoms would eventually go to hell.
That day, G-d made a covenant with Avram, foretelling that he would give him progeny, and also promising that He would give his progeny that land - from the river of Egypt until the Euphrates river. Although the Euphrates river is the last of the four rivers that flow from Eden, G-d refers to this river as being "great" due to its association with the land of Israel.
G-d promises that He will give over ten nations to Avram's descendants. Three of these nations, namely Edom, Moav and Ammon, referred to here as the Kenites, Kenizzites and Kadmonites will only be given over in the Future Era. The other seven are: The Hittites, Perizzites, the Rephaim (which is the land of Og), the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Yevusites.
Avram's wife Sarai had still not given him any children. Sarai had an Egyptian handmaid named Hagar. Hagar was Pharaoh's daughter. In witnessing the miracles that were done for Sarah, Pharaoh declared that it was better that his daughter be a handmaid in that home than a mistress in another home.
Sarai advised Avram to try to have children with Hagar, so that perhaps she could "build up" from her* in the merit of her bringing Hagar, her rival, into her home. *Side note: Since whoever does not have children is "demolished" and not built up.
So after having lived in Canaan for ten years* Avram obeyed the Divine Spirit within Sarai and enticed Hagar to be with him, telling her how fortunate she was to merit to cleave to a holy body like his. *Side note: Rashi cites the Breishis Rabbah (45:3) here which teaches that a man is obligated to marry another woman if his wife hasn't borne him children after ten years. The ten year count here only began once they lived in Canaan (i.e. it didn't include any years before that) since G-d only promised that He would make Avram a great nation in the Land of Israel.
Hagar conceived after the first time they were intimate. When she realized that she was pregnant, she lost respect for Sarai, saying that Sarai's private and public life didn't match up. In public she behaved as if she were righteous, but then in private, she was unable to conceive after all that time.
Sarai told Avram that she blames him for this injustice, saying that when Avram prayed for a child, he only prayed for himself and not for both of them. Also, he didn't admonish Hagar for her cruel words against Sarai.
Sarai cast an evil eye on Hagar's pregnancy, and Hagar miscarried.
Avram gave Hagar to Sarai and told her to do whatever she felt was right to her. Sarai enslaved her harshly, and Hagar ran away.
An angel of G-d found Hagar by a water fountain on the road to Shur in the desert. The angel asked her where she was coming from* and where she was going. *Side note: He knew where she was coming from, but asked this to open up the conversation to encourage her to speak.
Hagar answered that she was running away from her mistress Sarai. Then another angel* told her to return to Sarai and let herself be oppressed by her. *Side note: A separate angel was sent to her for each statement.
Another angel told her that He would "greatly multiply her seed".
Another angel told her that after returning to Sarai's home, she would conceive and bear a son whom she should name Ishmael, on behalf of G-d hearing her affliction (the name Ishmael literally means "G-d heard").
The angel tells her that he will love the wilderness and hunting. He will be a bandit and everyone will hate him and attack him and he will have many descendants.
Hagar called out to G-d, calling Him the G-d of seeing (רֳאִי) alluding to how G-d sees the humiliation of those who are humiliated or alternatively, the G-d who sees all but no one sees Him. While Hagar was used to seeing angels in Avraham's home, she expressed her wonderment at seeing angels in the desert. We can tell that she was used to seeing angels by the fact that she wasn't frightened of them, even after seeing four of them (or according to some opinions, five or three), whereas by contrast, Manoah (in Shoftim 13:22) saw an angel once and thought it meant that she would die.
The water fountain/well where Hagar saw the angel was thus called "Be'er Lachai Ro'i" (literally, "a well upon which the living angel appeared" according to Targum Onkulus) and it is situated between Kadesh and Bered.
When Avram was 86 years old, Hagar gave birth to a son through him, and Avram named his son Ishmael. Although Avram hadn't heard the angel that Hagar had, he knew to call him Ishmael due to the Holy Spirit resting upon him.
Scripture specifies Avram's age here to give praise to Ishmael who got circumcised at the age of 13 (when Avram was 99 years old - detailed below) and yet he did not object.
When Avram was 99 yeras old, G-d appeared to Him and introduced Himself by the name of שַׁדַּ-י, which characterizes G-d's sufficiency. Thus G-d was telling Avram that His G-dliness was enough for every creature and therefore Avram should "walk before Him" - meaning, to serve Him and cleave to His service and G-d will protect Him.
G-d tells him to "be perfect" - i.e in all of G-d's trials.
An alternate understanding of "walk before G-d" given by the Midrash (Breishis Rabbah 46:1) is that it is a reference to circumcision, which will make Avram "perfect".
Alternatively, before Avram was circumcised, he constantly battled with his yetzer hara (evil inclination), through his two eyes and two ears and male organ (5 organs in total). After he was circumcised, he no longer needed to battle the yetzer hara. And thus the letter hei (numerically equivalent to 5, corresponding to these 5 organs) was added to his name, bringing the numerical value of his name to 248, which corresponds to the number of organs in the human body to symbolize that he had now achieved perfection in his body.
G-d says that He wants to establish a covenant with Avram. He says that He will give Avram love, as well as the land of Israel as an inheritance (through Avram fulfilling the commandment of becoming circumcised), and will multiply him a lot.
Before being circumcised, Avram wasn't strong enough to stand whenever the Shechina (Divine Presence) stood over him, thus after G-d told him this, Avram fell on his face.
And G-d told him that He was making this covenant with him and foretold that Avram would become a father of many nations, and as such, his name will no longer be Avram, but rather Avraham. This name change was fitting as "father of many" (אַב הֲמוֹן) is an acrostic of the name Avraham (אב ר הם). Originally, the reish (ר) in his name illustrated that he was the father only of Aram which is where he was born, however even now when he was given the status of being the father of the whole world, the reish remained. Rashi cites the Breishis Rabbah (47:1) which likens this to the yud in Sarai's name, who complained to the Shechina after it was removed when her name changed to Sarah, and was then later added on to Yehoshua's name (he was originally called Hosea (הוֹשֵׁעַ) and only later became Yehoshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ).
G-d tells Avraham that He will make him very fruitful, and that he will become many nations (alluding to Israel and Edom, since he already had Ishmael) and that kings would come from his line.
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