Lech Lecha

The portion Lech Lecha begins with chapter 12 of the book of Bereshit, but we will begin reading from the end of chapter 11, Noach, to refresh the backstory in our memory a little. We will read the story of how Terach, Avram's father, together with his family went out of Ur-Kasdim.

Ur-Kasdim. There are commentators who discuss the name of this place and say that it is, actually, not a geographical place but some event, some confluence of circumstances. But the very early targums (for those who don't know, targums are translations of Scripture into Aramaic, which were made in the times when Aramaic was a spoken language, in the time of the Second Temple and a little later) did not simply translate the text, but added some comments, some understandings that existed at that time. And, naturally, when we want to understand the original meaning and compare it with later commentaries, we can turn to the Aramaic translations, which are the very, very earliest interpretations (this is almost the 1st – 2nd centuries). And these very targums translate this as the name of a place.

 It is known that such a city really existed. It is a place where the sun was worshipped.

אוֹר (ur) – this is light, sun and this is a city of sun worship. From there the family of Terach came out, and for some reason they decided to set out for Canaan. Why did they decide to set out for Canaan? Some say: “Terach lived on in the city of Ur-Kasdim and thought: ‘I have no luck here, there is no happiness for me here. One son of mine died, another son married too late, his wife is barren, he has no children, and what awaits me here ahead. Let me try changing my place of residence, so that maybe my life will change.’”

The Jewish sages said that whoever changes his place of residence also changes his fate. In the sense that they put into the word fate, he changes the agenda for himself.

Other commentators say that in fact Avram was a traveler. Long before this (five years before) he had been in the land of Canaan (and we will talk about this when we talk about the covenant between the cut bodies, why they speak of five years earlier). And it was Avram who was the initiator. He came and told about this land: “Let's go to the Canaanite land. It is such a wonderful land!”

Still others say that the story of how Avram, being a rebel and the first atheist, quarreled with the surrounding population or with the rulers (there are different stories and different traditions). There is, for example, the story of how Avram smashed all the idols in the shop of Terach, who was an “idol-maker.” Or the story of how Avram annoyed the king and he was thrown into a fiery furnace. According to these stories Avram was a rebel-dissident, he spoiled relations with the authorities and with the people. And Terach decided, so to speak, to take Avram out of harm's way to the Canaanite land, which is a province, a backwater, and there it is easier to get through everything. And therefore it says: וַיֵּצְאוּ אִתָּם (vayetzeú ittám) – and they went out together with them …, because possibly the initiator of all this was Avram. Terach and Avram flee, and all the others join them. Why in this case is it written: vayikkách térach – and Terach took … This is a tribute of respect to Terach as the father of the family. This is how the commentators who say that the initiator of everything was Avram explain it. They did not reach Canaan. They stopped in a large city called Charan. Indeed, a large city for those times. Unlike Ur-Kasdim, where the sun was worshipped, in Charan the moon was worshipped. So, the family moves to Charan and settles there. What other detail should we pay attention to? In the list of those who went out with Terach from Ur-Kasdim there is no Nachor, another son of Terach. At the same time, later, when Yaakov flees from his father's house, he flees precisely to Nachor in Charan (we know that Nachor lives in Charan). The commentators explain this by saying that Nachor could have moved earlier, and then the family simply stopped at Nachor's, as many move to the capital from the province, or Nachor moved later. For some reasons Nachor did not join Terach at that moment, but he moves later. This, actually, contradicts nothing.

We talked about the chronological problem: it turns out that Avram went out before Terach's death. At this point we can begin reading our weekly portion. The events take place either in Charan, where the family had already moved, or this call already sounded in Ur-Kasdim, and following this call Avram went, but did not go immediately, and the Most High had to, let's say, nudge him and address him a second time. There is also a dispute about this in the Tanach (two different opinions are also mentioned). So:

Lech lechá – this is a phrase that has been honored with many different translations and interpretations. If you look at the pshat, at the simple meaning: “Go for yourself!”, that is, go and pay no attention to anyone or anything. And the main message is – go!

We have a fear of doing something, of striving somewhere, of trying to succeed at something, of trying to do something. And many say: “Don't stick your neck out! Just sit still!” Otherwise it is pride, a display of some ambitions. The Most High says here (and with these words Jewish history begins): “Lech lecha (Go for yourself)! Go for yourself out of your own parts, out of your father's house, away from everything that is familiar to you! You can leave for the land that I will show you. You go, I will show you what is intended for you. Lech lecha! Go for yourself! Don't fall in line, don't look at everyone! Go! Go out!”

The commentators argue: “Well, why did Avram have to go off somewhere.” Here one could also say: “Fine, you live in the city of Mogilev, why should you go to Brazil to preach. Preach at home in Mogilev, at home in Rio de Janeiro. And wherever you live, preach there. Where you were born, there you are of use. Why drag Avram back and forth.” The commentators say that this is like a vessel with fragrances, which must go across the earth, and everywhere a burning of incense must come from it, a sweet smell must come out of it. Besides, the Most High must test Avram in order to multiply his reward. Through him many miracles will be performed and many testimonies given. It is better for Avram to walk. A candle is not put under a vessel. A candle must shine. This is part of the blessing. You go for yourself, but you will be a witness to Me.

When we pronounce a blessing, we are speaking about a connection to a source: “I will make you a source of blessing, a source of abundance. Not only will you yourself receive abundance, but abundance will also flow through you. You, like a connected hose, will pour out blessings on the whole world.” And through this:

I will magnify your name, glorify you, that is, make your name known everywhere, and it will be a blessing.

Some commentators say that what is meant here is that the very name Avram will be blessed and every person will say: “God grant that my son be like Avram.” And this also works that way, but the Most High speaks not only about this, but about Avram really being a blessing. Spiritual and material abundance will come through him.

The word klala (curse) in this case to deprive of weight, to deprive of dignity. The word kavod (dignity and glory) is connected with the root koved (heaviness). And in the Russian language the word respect – vaga (weight). The word klala, on the contrary, is from the word kalil (weightless), that is the one who will deprive you of dignity will be cursed.

… And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

All nations will receive blessing through you. Being the father of many nations, you will be a blessing for all nations. Such is the promise the Most High gave to Avram.

In the second verse one should pay attention to the expression I will make you a great nation. That is, you are not yet ready to be a great nation, I will do work in you, I will lead you through some trials, through some events, through which you will become a great nation.

When Yaakov goes down to Egypt, the Most High says to him: asemecha – I will set you there as a great nation. Yaakov is already ready. About Avram it is still said: ve'e'escha – I will make you a great nation. There will be some work, there will be some transformation inside Avram, which is yet to take place.

So, Avram, Lot and Sarai, of course, go out of Charan. Imagine that a person lives and receives a revelation: “Go, I will tell you where!” So he goes out of the house. How does he sense where to go? How did Avram understand in which direction he should go at all? One can go north, south, west, east. How did Avram understand that it was precisely to Canaan? And the commentators return to that assumption (which we talked about), that Avram had possibly been in Canaan. Other commentators say that by Ruach haKodesh, that is, by the Holy Spirit, Avram already sensed where he needed to go. Still others say: “Well, geographically there is only one serious road from Charan to Canaan. Therefore Avram went with the thought that the Most High was already directing him. And his seemingly random choice is not random.”

Regarding this very expression וְאֶת־הַנֶּפֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר־עָשׂוּ בְחָרָן (ve'et-hannéfesh asher-asú vecharán) and the souls that they made in Charan) there are many different commentaries. Some say that this is the preaching of monotheism. Avram had already put together in Charan this kind of small community of Avramists, and he goes out together with it. But other commentators say: “No, these are male and female slaves, servants. Everything they had made in Charan, they took, both the property and the slaves.”

Let's go back to what we read at the very beginning. Terach goes out, takes Avram, Lot, Sara with him, and they also go out of Ur-Kasdim. Here it is written:לָלֶכֶת אַרְצָה כְּנַעַן (lalechet artza kena'an) – to go to the Canaanite land. But they don't arrive anywhere, they arrive in Charan. They went out to the land of Canaan, but did not arrive. And this time Avram went out and arrived. One could say here: well, that is because he went out by God's word. But not only that. After all, the Torah tells us certain details for some reason. For example, the fact that Avram took property and slaves, while Terach took nothing of the kind, he went out traveling light. Possibly Terach was driven by the material, Terach had nothing to take. Avram went out and took the property that was made in Charan. In Ur-Kasdim they apparently made nothing. Avram went out from a state of some prosperity, from economic sufficiency, because he had some property. Therefore he went out and got there by God's blessing. He had no economic motives. There was no motive to go somewhere, change something and earn something. There was only the motive to serve the Most High, everything else he had, he was already well off.

What is the place of Sh'chem? Possibly the place where the city of Sh'chem is. This means that Avram came in from the same side from which the forefather Yaakov will later come in. Yaakov, returning to the land of Israel, will repeat Avram's path. He will come in right from the side of Sh'chem, from the side of Gilad.

As far as the Oak of Instructions. This is a special kind of place in history. Apparently, for the pagans this was a kind of place of power. An oak under which oracles, fortune-tellers sit, and therefore it is called Elon More – Spirit of Directions. And to this very place Avram comes. And the Canaanites were then in the land. That is, the land is not empty, it is populated by the descendants of Canaan.

Canaan is a descendant of Cham. A nation that is cursed with the curse of Noach. And here the Most High fulfills His promise and reveals to Avram the point of his destination.

When we are told: “Settle here,” what do people do? Someone plants potatoes, someone starts building a house, someone puts up a little bathhouse, someone builds a school. Avram, first of all, when he was told where he would live, where his seed would live, built there an altar to the LORD, who was revealed to him. And this will become Avram's way of life, by and large, the leitmotif of his whole path.

Of course, this place is not yet called Beit El. Yaakov will later call it Beit El. At that moment this place is called Luz. But Avram again walks, as it were, through prehistory. Just as he comes to the place of Sh'chem, he comes to Beit El. We are shown that Avram is already traveling, already marking out some waypoints where some historical events will later take place.

The commentators say that Avram foresaw the problems that there would be at Ai when the people would be returning to the land of Israel, and prayed to make it easier for the people, so that there would be fewer of these problems. One can simply say: Avram builds altars everywhere he is, and turns to the Most High.

Avram goes around his possessions, looks over the land that the Most High gave him. He does not sit in one place and continues to move south, toward the Negev.

So, Avram went to Egypt. And while he is on the road, you and I will talk about methods of studying the life of the patriarchs. There is an approach that says that the patriarchs are sinless. We must never see mistakes in them, they do not make mistakes, they do not sin, this is impossible. Another approach says that all the patriarchs are also people. Maybe better than us, more righteous than us, but people. They make mistakes, sin, can repent (do teshuva), and precisely because of this we can learn from them. I share the second approach and therefore will cite the opinions of commentators who say things not very flattering with regard to the Forefather Avram. Of course, one must remember where I am and where he is, his dignity will not be taken from him. But we are discussing his deeds, his life. And this is the life of a human being.

Let's return to Avram going down to Egypt. There are commentators who say that from this deed of Avram (when he goes down to Egypt) we can draw a lesson: when there is famine, when things get tight, we may leave the Holy Land. It is hard to condemn a person who is going through famine, especially when he sees how those close to him, his children, the people he loves are starving. It is understandable that famine, poverty can push a person to various deeds.

Other commentators say: “No, on the contrary. Avram sinned. And the fact that Avram went down to Egypt, and the whole subsequent story – this is Avram's great problem, and precisely because of it the people will later be forced to stay in Egypt.” “This sinful deed of Avram – explains Ramban – will lead to the whole people being forced to end up in galut.” And the good deeds that Avram does, for example, receiving guests, will be counted to the merit of the whole people. But Avram's sins will also be counted against the people, who will be forced to correct them. One can say: in Avram everyone went down to Egypt. So, we read on, the continuation of the story. Get ready, now it will be sad.

“Here, I know now that you are a woman beautiful in appearance!” How much free scope there is here for different commentators and understandings. Some say that Avram was so modest that he did not look at Sara's face at all and kept his eyes lowered all the time. But there is a law, there is a rule according to which a man has no right to marry a woman without seeing her face, so that she should not be unpleasant to him. Others say: “Well, Avram paid no attention to other women (did not look), and here he suddenly compared and saw: ‘Oh, what a beauty my wife is!’” But another understanding is most probable. Avram says: “I know that you are my beautiful woman. Now, since I know that you are my beauty, we will have to take precautions.”

Every nation has some moral principles of its own. Even the pagans have them. The Egyptians, as the Torah says, as tradition says, respected marriage. Therefore no-no-no, God forbid, to take the wife of one's neighbor or the wife of one's far-off one. A married woman is forbidden even to Pharaoh. But it is easy to make her a widow. One can kill her husband, then she will be free, and one can marry her. That is, they treated the values of marriage with respect, and the values of life with less respect. And Avram says: “Here they will kill me so that you stop being my wife and become my widow, and then they will take you.”

Here again the commentators differ in their opinions. Rabbi Levi Ben Gershom says: “There is nothing to be done, a wise person must not give in to sentiment. Of course, one feels sorry for Sara that she may end up in Pharaoh's court. And, it would seem, it is not good, not ethical to give away a wife like that. But this is how a wise person acts. There are times when there is no room for calculations, no room for ethics and no room for beautiful behavior. One simply has to save one's own skin.” “Who is important? Avram is important. He is the Forefather, in him they will be blessed. And Sarai? Well, there is nothing to be done. One feels sorry, of course, for little Sara, but such is her lot as a woman.”

Ramban again says: “Our forefather Avraham sinned a great sin. This is not done. And because of this the people will be in slavery. That is not how one treats wives. He should have relied on the Most High, that the Most High would deliver him.”

Other commentators say: “Avram is simply in a panic and makes a wrong decision, he calculates the situation incorrectly.”

Chizkuni believes that Avram's mistake is that he asked Sara: “Say that you are my sister and a married woman, you have a husband, but he is somewhere out there, far away in Canaan, he cannot be killed.” That is what Avram wanted. So says Chizkuni, and so he explains this situation. This, of course, is a very beautiful explanation, which puts a lot in its place. Avram wanted to, but miscalculated.

Another commentary speaks of Avram's miscalculation, that he counted on this: he is the brother and will haggle endlessly over the bride-price, over some sum that he wants to receive for Sarai. He will drag out the negotiations, and by then the famine in Israel will also end, and it will be possible to calmly run away.

All these explanations appear because we want to justify Avram somehow. After all, there sits inside a desire to say: well, Avram, of all people, will act worthily.

There are commentators who draw comparisons with Queen Ester or with Yael, who also entered into relations with pagans to save the people of Israel. These commentators say that, after all, Yael and Ester were allowed to for the sake of saving Israel, we do not accuse them. We do not accuse Ester of having been with Achashverosh, and Yael of having been with Sisra. And in exactly the same way one cannot accuse Sara, because Avram is kol Yisrael at that moment, that is, all Israel is concentrated in Avram. If there is no Avram, there will be no Israel later either.

There are commentators who try to explain what is happening with the help of mysticism and magic. So, about Ester they tell that she was able to separate out her evil inclination and make of it a kind of double. This double of Queen Ester, her exact copy, a she-devil in her guise, went to Achashverosh and slept with him. And, God forbid, not Queen Ester, according to this version. And a similar story happened with Yael. And with Sara too, they say, something similar happened. In fact, according to this version, it was not Sara that Avram gave away, but such a double that they slipped to Pharaoh. This version exists. I can mention it. Unfortunately, I cannot agree with it, because for me it does not fit very well into Scripture.

And commentator after commentator, each from the position of his own ethics, from his own views – they all try to justify Avram. Who does not justify Avram? For example, the already mentioned Ramban. Also Abarbanel, a medieval commentator who lived at the time of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. He was minister of finance at the queen's court. He wrote: “Avram acted the way noble men do not act. This is an ignoble deed of Avram's.” Well, what can I say? I generally agree with Abarbanel and Ramban, but everyone, of course, is free to choose his own position here.

Pay attention that the name Sarai is not mentioned here (she is called woman, this woman, this woman…). Most likely because the story is told, as it were, through the eyes of the Egyptians. They saw, they took… Possibly also because the Torah wants to show us that Sarai herself as a person takes no part in this. Absolutely without will, she shows nothing, proves nothing, does not show off with anything. Everything happens by itself, and for everyone she is simply a woman.

If we assume that Avram planned to haggle for a long time, then, apparently, Pharaoh made him an offer that is hard to refuse, and paid some indisputably large sum. And if Avram counted on saying that Sara has a husband somewhere, then, apparently, he was misunderstood. Or Avram had no such intention. And Avram as a brother can give his sister in marriage. And when a brother gives his sister in marriage, he also receives for her the bride-price (the money that is due for a bride, bride-price or kalym, whatever you call it).

Pharaoh paid very dearly in order to take this woman to himself honestly, as he understood it. What is happening from Pharaoh's point of view? A beautiful woman came to Egypt, her brother gives her in marriage. Pharaoh paid the brother generously.

This can be understood as for Sarai, Avram's wife. Or it can be understood like this: for the words, for some speech of Sarai, Avram's wife. That is, Sarai prayed, and Pharaoh was struck with afflictions. A third way of understanding: by the word of Sarai, Avram's wife. That is, she warned Pharaoh: “Such-and-such will happen to you, and such-and-such, and such-and-such …” Therefore, when this happened, Pharaoh understood that it was because of Sarai.

One way or another, we see, Pharaoh guessed what this punishment was for. Possibly because Sara warned him. Maybe he consulted with his priests. They too sometimes understood a thing or two. Maybe he received some revelation, or his intuition was well developed. One way or another, he guessed. Even for Pharaoh it is terrible and dreadful: not to say that this is your wife. “How could you act like that?” – Pharaoh reproaches Avram. And Avram here, apparently, has nothing to answer. Later he will answer another person. But to Pharaoh Avram answers nothing.

The commentators stop here and in horror begin to comment: “He took her for himself as a wife… does not mean he went in to her. This does not mean that he touched her, but means that he only took her for himself as a wife and was about to go in to her.” And here one can somehow substantiate this, because such an expression really can mean was only about to take as a wife.

And, besides, it is said that God did all these afflictions and blows so that Pharaoh would not touch Sara. But if you read the plain text, you can see that Pharaoh took her as a wife.

Everything begins with lech lecha (go for yourself), and in the continuation this may sound: kach valéch (take and go). Pharaoh speaks to Avram with contempt. It is completely incomprehensible to him how one can act like that.

The verb vayshallechú can be understood as sent off, escorted, or it can be understood as drove out, threw out. It can be understood softly, it can be understood roughly. Here one can see that Pharaoh no longer says: “Go for yourself!” Avram here does not go by himself, he is escorted or, more roughly, shown out of Egypt.

I am sure that everyone who reads this story about Avram has his own thoughts, and they cannot be the same. Our attitude toward Avram and his deed also cannot be the same. I love the story of father Avram very much, and it is very hard for me to accept this deed. But everyone has his own attitude. If I have thrown a little firewood onto the campfire of your thought, then that's wonderful.

We are reading about how Avram returns to the land of Israel from Egypt.

Always, when it is a matter of returning to the land, of moving to the land of Israel, we say: “And he went up…” Inside Israel, when we speak about coming to Jerusalem, we say: “He went up.” In Jerusalem, when we speak about the Temple, we say: “He went up.” And so they say: “Two went up to the Temple.” One goes up to the Temple. What is meant is not only the geography of going up, it is not only up the mountain, it is in the spiritual sense. So, Avram went up out of Egypt.

… he, and his wife, and all that he has, and Lot with him, to the Negev.

Naturally, when a person goes from Egypt to the land of Israel, he first passes through the Negev. Pay attention to the order of the words in the sentence: first Avram, then the property, then Lot. In Bereshit (12:5) we read:

…and Avram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, the son of his brother, and all the wealth that they had acquired.

Lot in this case is listed on the side of Avram and Sarai, before the property. But in the verse that we have just read, the property separates Avram and Lot. And Avram has no small amount of property.

The wordכָּבֵד (kavéd) – heavy. avram has very much livestock (here a general word is used both for small livestock and for large livestock), silver and gold. Avram is rich both in property and in precious metals.

We remember that Avram pitched his tent (we read about this in the previous chapter) between Beit El and Ai. And Avram returns to the same place, to the place where he built an altar, where he offered sacrifices to the Most High.

That is, Avram returns from Egypt. Returns safely. He safely lived through the famine, safely lived through Egypt. And the first thing he does – he returns to the place where he had been, to the place of worship of the Most High. He pitches a tent there and again calls on the Name of the Most High.

Most likely, when Avram was in Egypt, one can assume that Lot, after all, is also a relative of Sara, and they gave him something too. He also has property. He returns from Egypt not empty-handed. But what he has is not comparable with what Avram has. He has small and large livestock, and tents.

Why does the Torah list tents here? Since when have tents become property? This is not some kind of real estate that can be counted. Well, tents and tents. Everyone has tents. Because, if we see that Avram pitches a tent as a place of worship of the Most High, for him a tent is potentially a temple, a place of service to the Most High, then for Lot a tent is a part of his property. And in this, too, one sees the difference between Lot and Avram.

Avram, first, is much richer than Lot, because Lot has neither silver nor gold. Second, Lot has (as the Torah subtly notes) an attitude toward property. And the tents are only a particular case of this, only a good example.

And one more important difference: we do not see anywhere that Lot offered any sacrifices or raised any prayers to the Most High.

So, as one would say in modern language, a large chamúla, a large clan, a large family of nomads returns from Egypt to the land of Israel.

The land could not bear them, because they had much property. The land is not deserted, the land is populated, and there is not all that much room for pastures. Besides, these places are not water meadows, where one could calmly drive out the livestock and graze it. These places are sometimes hard to reach. Indeed, with large herds it is hard for two large clans to manage on a small territory.

Why this addition? The commentators and the midrashim say that Lot grazed his livestock and accidentally wandered onto the fields of the Canaanites and the Perizzites. When Avram led out his livestock, the livestock went in such muzzles, so as not to eat from other people's fields or graze on other people's fields. When the Canaanites, the Perizzites said: “What are you doing? This is our land!” Lot answered: “But the Most High promised us that all this will be our land.” And, as the midrash says, the Most High intervened and said: “It will be, when I drive out these nations. But as long as this is not so, you must live with them as good neighbors, Lot.” This is what Lot did not understand. There is such an interpretation.

A simpler interpretation, closer to the simple meaning of the Torah, is that this land was populated by the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and because of this there were no pastures.

אַל־נָא תְהִי מְרִיבָה (al-ná tehí merivá) – … let there be no confrontation …, מַחֲלוֹקֶת (riv) – this is a quarrel, מְרִיבָה (meriva) – this is something that drags on for a long time, some kind of feud that becomes a division over generations.

Again, some commentators say that Avram said: “We are as alike as two drops of water, and the herdsmen mix us up, so let's separate.” But nowhere is such a miracle mentioned. Lot is simply Avram's nephew.

Avram says here: “We are brothers after all, let's divide things like brothers.”

Why couldn't they, instead of talking about a feud and a quarrel, get together in the evening, call the herdsmen, do some explanatory work with them, explaining to them that there is no need to quarrel? Or fire these herdsmen and take others. And the answer, probably, lies first of all in Avram's words between me and you. This quarrel is first of all between me and you, and only then between the herdsmen. It is precisely Lot and Avram who have different views on life, different views on property. This only spills over into the relations between the herdsmen, Avram sees this and says it precisely so: “…between me and between you, between my herdsmen and between your herdsmen.” Here you won't get off with firing the herdsmen, here the problem is ideological.

And Avram gives way here and says:

That is, they separated. Here, probably, one can give a small explanation about the ancient system of orientation in space. A person once oriented himself by the positions of the body: kedem – this is east, forward; achor – this is west, backward; smol – left, north; teyman – right, south.

The people are nomadic, and they need to roam. The two families must roam in some way, still in step. And Avram says: “You to the left, I to the right. You to the right, I to the left. You to the north, I to the south. You to the south, I to the north.”

Avram proposes to divide the holy land. He thinks that, since the promise of the Most High was: “To you and to your seed I will give this land,” Lot is almost like seed, he is a nephew, and according to some versions, and they are not so far from the possible truth: Lot was adopted by Sara and Avram, and it is precisely on this basis that he goes with them.

Lot, out of two options, as we see, chooses a third option.

The Torah makes this remark because the reader of the Torah at the time of the giving of the Torah knows how everything looks in those parts. And the Torah reminds us that this happened still before the destruction of Sedom and Amora, about which the Torah has not even told us yet. And in those times this was a flourishing green region. And this Lot, who has opened wide his eyes, sees this land, and it appears to him: like the garden of the LORD (for Lot this is partly mythology) all the way to Tzo'ar.

Lot saw a huge territory with an excellent water supply, excellent for livestock and for farming. But pay attention, Lot compares it with Egypt, where he has just been. If for Avram the visit to Egypt is something traumatic, it was not a wonderful tourist trip. Then Lot has a nostalgia for Egypt: “Here it is, the land that is like Egypt,” and therefore Lot chooses to move there. Here the motive of his action is – I want to go to Egypt or, at any rate, I want to live as in Egypt.

An interesting remark can be seen here. The Torah describes: “And Lot went from the east…” But if you look at it geographically, then no, he did not go from the east. He actually had to go to the east in order to end up where he ended up. So what does mikkédem mean? Lot went away from his past, from what was kodem – from what was before.

But here let us make one more digression and talk about orientation in time. What was kodem – what is in front, is what already was. What a person sees before him, what lies ahead of him, that will be acharei – what is behind. Thus a person stands facing his past and with his back to his future. In front is the past, and behind is the future, because that is how a person sees. And this is the orientation that is given in the Torah. In this particular place one can understand it so.

Lot left, broke with his past. And here the brothers separated. Ish – a man separated from his brother. And Avram stayed to live where he lived.

That is, Lot gradually roamed, roamed, moved through this Jordan region, until he reached Sedom. It was a process. First Lot leaves his brother Avram, leaves the past, and little by little, bit by bit, he roams his way to Sedom.

We will come back to this question. Lot left Avram, the one who proclaimed the LORD, and “tented his way,” roamed his way to people who are evil and sin against the LORD.

At this moment the LORD is revealed to Avram and says to him again:

Some commentators say this here: “While Avram was in Egypt and while this Lot (when he had already become impure, attached to possessions) was in Avram's camp, the Most High did not speak with him. When Lot separated, then the Most High again addresses him. That is why the Torah says here: after Lot had separated from him.”

Other commentators say that Avram perhaps hoped that through Lot his seed would inherit the land, and therefore grieved very much when Lot separated, or thought: “If I could not properly raise Lot, then how will I raise my own children…”

One way or another, Avram needed comfort. And the Most High comes to comfort Avram.

“lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west.

You too lift up your eyes, as Lot lifted up his eyes, and look from the place where you are, to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west.

This is also the answer to Avram's so bold offer to Lot to divide the land. After all, he could have been left without Jerusalem that way, if Lot had taken, God forbid, the piece with Jerusalem.

If you are afraid that you will be left without seed because Lot left, then know that I am giving you a promise: your seed will be like the dust of the earth. No one will be able to count your descendants. Such is the promise the Most High gives to Avram.

Some commentators and interpreters wonder why such a comparison – the dust of the earth? In another place it is compared with the stars of heaven. The commentators explain that even in the state of Lot, in the state of attachment to possessions, of some immersion in the material, in distance from the Most High, the people of Israel will grow and multiply in number. In quality it will be like the dust of the earth, but there will be a lot of it.

The Most High will guide the people of Israel, will lead it to correction, even when it is in a fallen, so to speak, state. Therefore Avram can rely on the Most High as an educator. Even through the dust the Most High will lead the people. And to this very grief (if I could not raise Lot, then how will I raise sons) the Most High says: “Rely on Me.” All the more so in an elevated state of the people. If it thinks about the heavenly, the lofty, concentrates on serving the Most High, it too will multiply and will also be like the stars of heaven. Neither the one nor the other can be counted.

Then the Most High commands Avram and says:

Lot also walks, moves across the land, across that valley which he chose, and goes where he goes. The Most High commands Avram: “You too walk through this land, as its master, because I am giving it to you.” What Lot chose, he chose. And Avram carries out the command of the Most High:

Lot came where he came. An altar he did not build, because he ended up among people who were bad, evil, hostile to the LORD.

Avram too came where he came. He came to Chevron, to a place that will become the center of Jewish life for a long time. And what does Avram do there? He builds an altar to the Most High (we do not know what Lot does in Sedom).

This is the story of the separation of Avram and Lot. The story of when a person leaves the community of the Most High, separates from the one who serves the Most High, and little by little reaches Sedom. This is the story of Lot. We will come back to him again, he is not a completely lost comrade. The name Lot means wrapped in fog, hiding in the gloom, incomprehensible, murky, but not in the bad sense of the word, but in the sense that the essence is not revealed right away.

In the last chapter we read about how Avram and Lot separated. Lot went to the Jordan region and, gradually roaming, moved to the city of Sedom, where very bad people live (as the Torah testifies). Avram walked through all his land, which the Most High had granted him (the Most High once more confirmed the promise to him). And in the end Avram settles in the area of the city of Chevron. And it is at this moment that we begin reading the fourteenth chapter:

TID'AL, KING OF A MULTITUDE OF NATIONS.

Shinár is the ancient name of Babylon. Amrafel, as many suppose, is none other than Hammurabi, the creator of the famous laws, the great Babylonian king, who in his old age really set out and conquered, subjugated the whole region to himself. A great king of a great country. This is important.

Aryoch is a representative of the Hurrians, a proto-Armenian people living approximately in northern Mesopotamia, said to be one of the ancestors of the modern Armenians.

Kedorla'omer – this name has become such a common noun in Israel. When people want to say that someone has some old, ancient name, they say: Kedorla'ómer. An example of an ancient, ornate name.

Indeed, ever since ancient Iranian tablets were found in Susa, in that very capital of Shushan, where later the events of megillat Ester will take place, precisely there, in Elam, from there is Kedorla'ómer. And this name means servant of Omer, a local Elamite godling.

Tid'al is called here the king of many nations. This is Tudhaliya, the Hittite king, from central Turkey. Indeed, a place densely populated by different nations and tribes.

Imagine the might of this army. Here there is Babylon, and the Hurrians, and Elam, and Asia Minor, Turkey. A huge army gathers together. And for what did they gather together:

The name Bera in Hebrew sounds be ra – in an evil way, in a bad way, by a bad path. And this is the King of Sedom

…and with Birsha, the king of Amora,

 The king of Amora, he is almost a namesake of the king of Sedom. His name is Biresha, from the word rasha – villain, resha – villainy, in a villainous way.

... Shin'av, the king of ADMA, …

This is the king of one more city, his name is Shin'av. How can this be translated? The midrashim like to interpret the names of good people in a good direction, of bad people in a bad direction. The name Shin'av is interpreted as hating the father (sone av) or hated by the father, and also from the word sho'ev – sucking in, the one who “gets pumped full” of money, “gets pumped full” of possessions. If we nevertheless turn to the original meaning, then most likely Shin'av is the god Shin, that is, the god of the moon is reckoned as my father.

Shem'ever, the king of Tzevoyim,

And the last of the kings who are named by name is Shem'ever, the king of Tzevoyim. Shem'ever is, as they say, a theophoric name, a name that contains within itself the name of a god, although he is not named. He is named simply by the name Shem. Shem'ever – this means my godling – he is a hero, heroic.

…and King Bela, who is called Tzo'ar.

And the fifth of these five kings, whom the four attacked, is Bela, who is also called Tzo'ar. The commentators say that since this was such an insignificant king of a completely backwater town, the name of this king was not preserved. The Torah does not call him by name.

So, these four kings attacked five kings. It would seem an unequal battle, if one does not sense all the irony. Kedorla'omer gathered a huge host in order to go against these five kings. On the whole, a backwater, remote region.

All of them crowded together in the valley of Shidim (translated as Devil's valley or Valley of devils, demons), which hu yam hamélach (sea of salt), – this is the name of the Dead Sea.

That is, for twelve years they paid him some tribute, some taxes, some levy. In the thirteenth year they got tired of paying it. Actually, this is what became the cause of the war. A year later he found out that they had stopped paying him.

This time Kedorla'omer is in first place, because here he is the most important one, here he is the leader of the companyiThe Russian says "leader of the company". In Russian this word is almost identical to the word for "campaign", which may be meant here; it is translated literally..

Whom else they struck:

Let's try to figure out what is happening. Four kings begin a military campaign against five backwater cities. The campaign is most likely a demonstrative one, to show the whole world, so that they would see and be afraid, how dangerous it is not to pay the tax to the masters. For this the army of Kedorla'omer alone would have been enough, these are five small backwater cities. Nevertheless Kedorla'omer, apparently for money or for some royal affairs of his own, enters into an alliance with three more kings, big empires, moves with this whole cohort, and attacks the Refa'im and the Achureans, and does not yet go in the direction of the five cities.

Who are the Refa'im and the Achureans? In general, who is being talked about? The second chapter of the book of Devarim will help us understand this. Moshe tells about the plan of conquering the land and opens up the history a little. In the book of Devarim (2:9–11) we read:

And the LORD said to me: “Do not be hostile against Moav and do not start a war with him, for I will not give you any possession of his land, since to the sons of Lot I have given Ar as a possession. The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and numerous, like giants. The Refa'im were considered giants, and the Moavites called them Emim.”

The word emim means terrible, frightening. So, one of the peoples that were struck, one of the subtypes of the Refa'im, is the Emim, they too are Refa'im, and the Refa'im are giants. That is, some tall, gigantic people, whom the Moavites call Emim. It was precisely them that the five kings attacked.

There were also the Zezim:

…And you are approaching the sons of Ammon. Do not be hostile to them and do not provoke them, for I will not give you anything of the sons of Ammon as a possession. Since to the sons of Lot I have given it as a possession. It is considered the land of the Refa'im, the Refa'im lived in it formerly, but the Ammonites call them Zamzumim. (Devarim 2:19–20)

Zamzumim – these are those very Zezim (abbreviated), which are spoken of in our portion. What do Zezim or Zamzumim mean? These are those who do what they devise. Those who have enough strength to do what they will devise. In this there is a certain analogy with what the Most High says about the builders of the Tower of Babel. A strong, big, mighty people.

And they are a people great, numerous and tall, like giants, but the LORD destroyed them before their face, and those succeeded HimiIn this quotation the Russian capitalizes "Him" (both times), as if it referred to God, although it means those who were driven out. The capital is kept as in the source. and settled in their place. As He did for the sons of Esav, who live on Se'ir, before whom he destroyed the Chorites, and they succeeded Him and settled in their place until this day. (Devarim 2:21–22)

So, here the LORD tells about the Emim, and about the Zamzumim, and about the Chorites, and about the Refa'im, as about strong, tall peoples, as about mighty and strong armies. These are no longer backwater little towns.

And it is not for nothing that the book of Devarim mentions that with the help of the Most High, by His miracles, these peoples, these armies were defeated and other peoples took their place. The Most High says: “It was I who helped defeat them.” This apparently happened in some miraculous way, because the peoples were very strong.

One may ask: “So, the kings began a military campaign against five small cities. Why then did they go, before the main battle, to wear down their strength and attack large, serious neighboring peoples?” Apparently, because the peoples did not let them pass so easily. If you look at the map, the kings made a serious circle, made a loop and approached the valley of Shedim from the other side. Why did the neighboring peoples suddenly hinder them from passing? The simplest assumption is that the five cities came to an agreement with these strong peoples in the neighborhood. Why, indeed, should we pay tribute to a man with the dubious name Kedorla'omer, who is somewhere far away, when one can come to an agreement somewhere nearby and pay tribute to the neighboring peoples, who took the tribute, took patronage and protection over the five cities. That is precisely why, most likely, they had to fight them.

After this war, after this battle:

El-én mishpát literally translates as spring of judgment, a fountain, at which people gather to hold some court proceedings, a place of public meetings. And this same place is called kadesh – sanctified.

The Amalekites, of course, are not even in the project yet. Amalek is a descendant of Esav, whose father has not even been born yet. But the Torah gives us the geography that is understandable to the readers of the Torah, so that we roughly understand where the thing is actually happening.

And the Emorites, who also appear as a very strong people living in Cheshbon (in the second chapter of Devarim). And here about the location of the Emorites it says: those who lived in Chatzetzon -Tamar.

So, the big military campaign made a loop and approached Sedom, having practically subdued all the presumed allies of the five kings. Only then:

Against Kedorla'omer, king of Elam … Again he is in first place here. At the very beginning Amrafel (Hammurabi) was in first place, because he has the largest army. Here at the very beginning is Kedorla'omer, because here he is the main one and the whole campaign is for his sake.

So, they fought with Kedorla'omer, king of Elam, with Tid'al, king of Goyim, with Amrafel, king of Shinar, with Aryoch, king of Elasar. Four kings against five.

The midrash says that the kings of Sedom and Amora fell into a pit of tar. The king of Amora perished right there, and the king of Sedom was pulled out by an angel, or he somehow got out by himself, about that we do not know, but we will still meet him again.

So, four kings crushed the five cities of the region of the Jordan.

That is, they took away not only the food supplies, but they took away all those who could be pressed into slavery, who were useful, whom it was worth feeding, who could work (labor force). Such a pogrom they carried out in Sedom. Many commentators say that this was a kind of warning to Sedom to come to its senses.

Ha'ivrí many translate, especially scholarly Bible critics, trying to connect it with the tribe of the Habiru and so on. There are many different scholarly views on this. But one can translate it simply according to the pshat, according to the simple meaning of Scripture, that a Hebrew is a descendant of Ever.

Elone Mamre is one of the districts of that Chevron.

The meaning of the name Emori is one who speaks and answers for his words. Eshkol – this is a cluster of grapes. Some person who has many fruits. Today about a person who is active in many spheres they say that he is eshkolyot, a man of clusters. Eshkol – a cluster, naturally, a symbol of fertility.

Aner – the name of the third brother means the pauper of the god Ram. There is a God whose name is Ram (again some local Chevron godling) and with him one poor in spirit, his insignificant servant Aner. “Holyfoolforthesakeoframa” – that is how one can translate it. These are the names of the three brothers, neighbors of Avram.

And they, the allies, literally possessors of a covenant with Avram; Ba'alyó brit is a fairly well-known phrase for the Middle East, in the Torah it is used only here. But still everyone understands that these are people with whom Avram made a treaty of mutual assistance. The first military alliance, a sort of “Avram's NATO.”

 A nephew can be called a brother.

… and he armed his pupils, born in his house …

Chanich is usually translated today simply as pupil, one who is brought up under a counselor, one who is being brought up. In early Middle Eastern terminology one can trace the idea that chanichim – these are a kind of guardsmen, people who are brought up for labor and defense, professional warriors. Nevertheless, such a claim must be made with great caution.

So, he took the pupils born in his house.

… three hundred eighteen…

It must be said (we will learn about this further on) that Emori, Eshkol and Aner also go along with him. This, as one Israeli defense minister used to say, is a small but smart army.

… and pursued them as far as Dan.

 Avram did not chase after them to Dan, did not drive them with whips to Dan, but quietly made his way, crept after them to Dan, to the Golan Heights, almost to the very north of modern Israel. In those years this place was called Laish, but the Torah tells its story to its contemporaries and therefore uses the current names for the Israel of the time of the giving of the Torah.

That is, Avram used military tactics. First, he chose the night for the attack; second, somehow he divided his small army into parts. And struck them, and drove them as far as Chuva, which is to the north of Damasek, that is, he drove them far beyond Damasek.

Avram returns with victory, with a huge amount of trophies. This is a triumphal return.

Avram goes by a somewhat different route. The king of Sedom goes out to meet him (probably, after he had washed himself off from the tar, he went out to meet Avram). But the meeting will not take place yet. Avram will not yet meet the man whose name is Bera (in an evil way). Because quite unexpectedly another man came out to meet him:

So much has been said about Malkitzedek. I have spoken a lot about him. There is something about him in the lessons on Yom Kippur and in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Some identify him with Shem, the son of Noach. One of the books of Chanoch says that Malkitzedek is Ner, the elder brother of Noach, a kohen, who before the flood was taken up to heaven by the angel Michael. There are many other parallels as well. Again I will mention the Epistle to the Hebrews. About the personality, and about Malkitzedek himself, one can talk, and talk, and talk. But right now we are focusing more on pshat, on the simple meaning of the Torah. Therefore I want to speak about the wordplay that the Torah shows here.

There is King Bera, the king in an evil way, who is waiting for Avram. There is Malkitzedek, the king of righteousness, who came out to meet him to bless him. He is also a priest of God Most High. A priest always also represents the Most High. In a priest, one way or another, the Most High himself is revealed. Much has been said about this, and the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks about it, and in a psalm this special priesthood is mentioned. But we are now reading pshat, and for now what we can see, precisely by reading pshat, is this: there is a king whose name is Bera, the king of evil and villainy in Amora. And there is a king who is called Malkitzedek, the king of righteousness, he is also the king of Shalem, (possibly, Jerusalem). Possibly, here is also Avram's first encounter with Jerusalem. This too is very important.

So, the king of Shalem came out to meet him:

These four words cause difficulty for the commentators. Each one interprets this, strange as it may seem, in accordance with his own belief, in accordance with his own convictions. Some say that here it is written: Avram gave a tithe to Malkitzedek (this is understandable, Malkitzedek is a kohen). Others say that Malkitzedek blessed incorrectly: first he blessed Avram, and only then the Most High. Because of this incorrect setting of priorities the priesthood was taken away from Malkitzedek at that very moment and passed to Avram. And then it was Malkitzedek who gave a tithe to Avram as a kohen. Only it is unclear from what. From the bread and wine that he had. Each commentator understands by virtue of his faith, by virtue of his desire to understand.

For me the meaning is simple: if Malkitzedek is called a kohen, then Avram gives him a tithe of all the trophies that he won in this war. Avram gives a tithe to Malkitzedek. He gave nothing to the king of Sedom of all his spoil, of all his trophies, Avram gives to the righteous king, thereby joining the priesthood of righteousness, paying tribute, pointing out Who is the source of his victory. He gives Malkitzedek a tithe of everything. And again the king of Sedom appears on the scene (the freeze-frame is switched off):

Avram captured everything. This is, in essence, his trophy. It is not a given that he owes the king of Sedom anything back at all. The king of Sedom here is the loser, but he tries to be magnanimous. Besides, it is very convenient to pay with property that for the most part is the property of your subjects. What is the name of the king of Sedom? Bera – “in an evil way.”

Will Avram, who has just given a tithe in order to join righteousness, want to get rich at the expense of the one who got everything in an evil way. Here is what Avram says:

 To raise a hand (we have already spoken about this more than once) – this means to swear. And what is Avram's oath:

An oath usually has a condition. If I do something, then let such-and-such happen. Or the other way around. If You, LORD, do something for me, then I will do such-and-such, and such-and-such will happen. When there is no condition, when we say “If you do …,” – it is like a blank form that Avram gives to the Most High. In this case he says: “If I take something from him, then here is a blank form, I am ready to sign, my signature is already on it, so that you would do with me what You want, punish me in any way at all, if I take something of his property.” Why such squeamishness or scrupulousness in Avram toward the property of the king of Sedom, after all, these are his legitimate trophies?

…And you will not say, you will not be able to say: I made Avram rich.

The word he'eshárti (made rich) has the very same root as the word ma'aser (tithe). Avram has just given a tithe. As the sages say, give a tithe in order to get rich. Avram has just given a tithe to the king of righteousness. One can understand it this way: he made the king of righteousness rich. He does not want to get rich from evil. So that no one could say: “Evil made Avram rich.” This is important for Avram. To take something from the property of Sedom, to take something from Bera – for Avram this means to lose the blessing of Malkitzedek. Either evil or righteousness – the choice for Avram is simple.

Well, but the conversation does not end there, and Avram adds:

Avram is righteous. He keeps away from evil, but these are his principles. He is not righteous at someone else's expense. He is righteous at his own expense. And this, by and large, is a lesson to all of us: if you want to be righteous – be righteous at your own expense. Do not force someone else to be righteous or to be the seals of your righteousness, if they are not ready for this.

Such is this amazing and, one could say, epoch-making fourteenth chapter. The story of the victory in the very, very First or Zeroth World War.

In the previous chapter we read about the amazing victorious campaign that Avram waged, having won a victory over four very large imperial armies. After this, it would seem, live and rejoice, but Avram, of course, is afraid. Afraid, possibly, because he fears (and it is logical to fear) that the armies of those countries will gather bigger forces and strike at him. Even if he will constantly defeat them and it will be an unceasing victorious war, still one wants to live in peace after all. As the saying goes: we can repeat it, but we do not want to repeat it.

The commentators speak of yet another fear: Avram fears that “the bank of his merits above” is not all that large, and that he used up his entire “credit” with the Most High for his protection when he got into this war, which the Most High had not even commanded him. Maybe some other fears and doubts torment Avram as well. The Most High reveals Himself to him and comforts him:

Here the Most High neutralizes two of Avram's fears at once. “First of all, I am your shield, I will protect you, do not fear. Secondly, your reward is very great.” What does Avram answer to this?

The word holéch here is not only “I walk,” but the word lalechet (to leave, to go away) is used in the sense of I will die. “I will die in loneliness.”

According to the customs of those countries and those places it was indeed accepted that a slave (the chief of the slaves) could inherit from his master if the master had no other heirs. Why is he called here by his position? Not simply the slave Eliezer, but uven-méshek.

There are commentators who like to find mistakes in the Torah. Bible scholars, who say: this word damések – Damascus, and meshek are written the same, and so such a repetition arose. One can say that uven-méshek is a person who is more devoted to the household than to Avram. Of course, he is devoted to Avram, he is a faithful servant to Avram, he is a righteous servant, but not as an heir.

You know how it happens when a person hires, say, a gardener. And so the gardener leads guests through the garden, shows them around and says: “Here we have roses growing, and here I have tulips growing, and here, look what an orchid I have grown.” And he speaks about the household as if it were his own. But this is the master's household. This is a good quality, on the one hand. On the other hand, there must be a separation. And Avram says: “Yes, he is a devoted slave. He is not a son, and he worries about my household, about all my property. But I do not want him to inherit from me.” How can these words of Avram be understood? Why did Avram suddenly start speaking about this? This is the childlike feeling of the presence of a father, a good and loving God, who says: “I am a protection to you, your reward is great. Look, Avram, how I love you!”

Probably each of us in communion with the Most High has had such a feeling, when you feel Him as a good Father, and you can climb onto His lap, hug Him and ask for something very, very childlike, something very, very simple.

One can give such a very childlike cartoon comparison. In the book “The Kid and Karlsson” the Kid says to his mom: “If I am worth so much, after all you would not part with me even for 100,000 million kronor. If I am worth so much, then may I, please, have a few kronor now for a puppy.”

Avram speaks with the Most High very much like a child: “If I have so much of everything, if I have such great credit up there, have pity on me. Make it so that my seed inherits from me, so that my heir is not this Eliezer from Damesek, because this does not make me glad. No wealth makes me glad if I cannot leave it to my children.”

Of course, this is a metaphor, and children do not come out of their parents' guts. The son of your insides is your offspring. Biblical metaphors are sometimes very harsh and colorful.

Remember that the Most High at first compared the seed and said: kiafar aretz – like the dust of the earth. Here is the elevated state of the seed, which is compared with the stars of heaven.

The sixth verse is a very important verse, very much is built on this verse:

To understand better what this means, so that these are not empty words, let us turn and look at where else this is used. In the Psalm (105:31) (106 in the Synodal translation) it is told about Pinchas:

Pinchas stood up and prayed, and the epidemic stopped; and it was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation, forever.

It turns out that righteousness can be not only the righteousness of a person, but it is somehow passed on from generation to generation forever.

Another place where we meet the word tzdaká is the second book of Shmuel (19:29):

after all, the whole house of my father was guilty of death before my master, the king. And you placed your servant among those who sit at your table. What right do I still have, where do I still have tzdaka to complain to the king?

And in Nechemya (2:20) we read:

I gave answers and said to them: “The God of heaven, He will make us prosper, and we, His servants, will build, but you have no share and right, and memory in Jerusalem

This is Nechemya's conversation with the Samaritans, here he speaks about the right.

That Avram believed the Most High gave him a right, gave him the possibility to receive certain rights. And from Aramaic tzdaká is translated gave him certain rights. By the way, to be justified in court is also to receive certain rights. And if one gets very carried away, then the word justification can be understood as a giving of rights, although, of course, this is a midrash. What this is about, we will understand further on:

One can say that here the Most High (if we speak in human language) announces the conclusion of an alliance with Avram. One could say, He makes a proposal to the people of Israel: “I want to make a covenant with you.”

What does Avram answer?

There are different ways to understand this question of Avram's: “How will I know that I will inherit it?”.

Some see in this a weakness of Avram. It happens that a person, having said something worthy, immediately shows weakness. Remember when Peter first said: “You are the son of the Living God, You are the Mashiach.” And literally a few verses later, to that very same Peter, whom the Mashiach had praised, he (Yeshua) says to him: “Get away from me, Satan!”

Some say that here Avram departed from that righteousness, and he asks: “How will I know that I will inherit it.” And the commentators say these four words: bammá edá ki irashénna (How will I know that I will inherit it?) – the punishment of Israel for each of these four words is a hundred years of stay in Egypt, according to these commentaries.

Other commentators see this in a positive sense. Avram is concerned and says: “I have received tzdaka, I am justified now before the Most High by my faith. How will I know that my children too will be able to keep their faith?” Every believing person has such a concern: “How will I know that my children will also be believers?”

This question of Avram's also has a legal, social aspect. When we buy a house, or a car, or something expensive, we are given a document of ownership. If we buy a cup or a television, then maybe we will not be given documents for them, but valuable things require documentation, this is a testimony to us and a testimony to others, if anyone asks. When a husband and wife enter into marriage (enter into a covenant), they too exchange rings and perform some ceremony, when it becomes clear to everyone that this girl has become the wife of this man. She put on a white dress, a ring, went out into society and testified to everyone that she is indeed a lawful wife, and not a common-law wife. One can understand this question this way, and the events will develop as an answer precisely to this question. And here is what the Most High answers Avram:

The four kinds of sacrifices here correspond to the four sacrifices that are mentioned in the Torah, where calves, and heifers, and rams, and goats, and doves are also offered. Four kinds of animals for sacrifice. The commentators find parallels and say: “These four kinds of sacrifices are in order to turn the situation around in the future wars between the four kingdoms that will attack Israel.” Others say: “This is precisely atonement for those four words that Avram said.” And there are different opinions, but one can say this: these are all the kinds of sacrifices that exist at that moment, one animal from each kind. So that no one would say: but at this level, but here something has not yet taken place.

The Torah here uses a common name for the dove and for the turtledove. After all, two turtledoves are one single sacrifice, therefore the pair here is counted as one.

Why did he not cut the bird? The book of Vayikra will perhaps answer this question for us. In the first chapter, in the seventeenth verse, the order of offering a bird as a sacrifice is described: let him break the wings of the bird, but not divide it into parts, and burn it on the altar. This is a burnt offering, its fragrance is pleasing to the LORD.

The sacrifice of a bird has a special status, but the bird is not cut up (this will be in the commandment of the Torah in the book of Vayikra). And Avram here, apparently, already knows the laws of sacrifice.

So Avram prepared everything that is necessary for the sacrifice, this is a very complicated procedure. Just imagine that even today, when one needs to cut up, for example, a bull or a heifer, they are taken to a meat-processing plant, to huge saws that lift and saw. Even with modern technologies this process is not quick, it involves certain logistics. And Avram must have worn himself out quite a bit, toiled quite a lot, in order to cut, to divide these bodies.

Avram laid everything out and prepared everything. What could he have been thinking while he was doing this? This is not simple work, the Most High commanded him to do this. What did he expect from this?

In order to answer this question, let us turn to archaeology. In the city of Alalakh (this is present-day central Turkey) many tablets and historical documents were found. And there are several stories there. For example, the story of how King Abbael I handed over lands to his brother Yarim Lim. And the story of how the small king of Kitik named Bargaya handed over lands to Metiel, king of Arpad. In all these cases, when land was handed over, a deed of gift was concluded, which was formalized by a covenant among cut-apart bodies. The giver said that he would not take this land back, that he releases this land and hands it over as a gift, he placed curses on himself connected with the fact that he would not try to get this land back. We can read in one of the documents that were found that, when Metiel passes among the cut-apart bodies, it is said about him: “As this calf is cut apart, so let Metiel and his nobles be cut apart, if he breaks this covenant.”

Yirmeyahu says the same thing to those who wanted to release the slaves: “Like that calf which you cut apart, so you too will be cut apart.”

That is, this is an official testimony, which the Most High gives to Avram, understandable to all the surrounding nations, that this is not an oral covenant, it is not that some land, some apartment was handed over to Avram in words, the land was handed over to him as property, legally certified. This is not a common-law marriage, this is an official wedding, an official conclusion of the covenant of the Most High and Avram, which can be a testimony for Avram and all the nations.

The eleventh verse tells us an unexpected detail:

Why are we told this? Maybe it is such a literary device, to build up tension in the reader? But that is not the case with the Torah.

Some interpreters say that these birds of prey are a symbol of Mashiach, a symbol of the coming judgment, to which all violators of the law will be handed over in the times of Mashiach. And Avram drives these birds away, that is, through this symbolic gesture he asks the Most High to put off the days of judgment, so that as many people as possible could come to salvation and know the Most High.

And we will try to understand this through the eyes of a person of Avram's era, as far as this is possible.

In Sumer, once upon a time, there lived a king whose name was Ienatum. He lived approximately at that time. He was distinguished by being a strong conqueror (or maybe he was not distinguished by this, but was, like the other Sumerian kings, a conqueror). With those whom he defeated, he concluded a vassal peace. Sometimes this Ienatum had his own “photojournalists,” and they captured the conclusion of peace, of course, on bas-reliefs, not in photographs.

Through the cut-apart, scattered bodies we see all the pictures familiar to us, but on several bas-reliefs we see birds that pounce on the corpses, and this is explained as part of the treaty. “If I depart from this treaty, then let the birds swoop down and peck at my corpse.” And thus, the appearance of the birds in Avram's vision is already the beginning of the revelation of the Most High to him.

Why is it necessary to conclude such a covenant? It is like a testimony to Avram. One can say: the Most High made Avram a proposal. This is not a proposal to live together for a while and see what comes of it. The Most High offers Avram not a common-law marriage, but concludes a covenant with him in such a way that other nations too would understand: here, a covenant has been concluded. And the covenant is concluded between cut-apart bodies, so that both to Avram and to others it would be clear – this is a covenant, these are serious obligations. Avram believed the Most High and this became his merit, through which he finally received what was promised.

We will see further on that the Most High says here: “Here, now I give you what I promised. And, handing over what was promised, the Most High hands it over together with a deed of purchase, with an official document, with the conclusion of a covenant as a testimony to all, in accordance with how this was then clear and understandable in the whole world. The covenant is concluded with an already worthy Avram. Worthy, because he believed.

So, we read in the twelfth verse:

The sun began to set (or to decline toward sunset). In Hebrew they say the sun came, that is, the sun came to where it had been going since morning.

We know (we have read the book of Bereshit) that this is about the exile to Egypt. And we also read in the twelfth chapter of the book of Shemot that the exile lasted four hundred and thirty years. Where does this difference of thirty years come from? Why is it four hundred here, and four hundred and thirty there? And many say that the Most High simply rounded it off here. But the Torah is not afraid of numbers that are not round, after all. From this many conclude that the covenant with Avram was concluded thirty years before the birth of Yitzchak, when Avram was seventy years old. That is, even before Avram went out of Ur-Kasdim and somewhere, somehow traveled through the land of Israel, asked the Most High for this land, prayed about this land, and the Most High promised it to him. And now the Torah describes this.

There is such a version, it may be beautiful and agree with the arithmetic, but it does not fit, in my view, into the overall picture. And I think that these four hundred years can be understood differently.

What does this mean? The Most High says to Avram: “You are afraid that your children will leave this land. And I tell you: ‘Yes, they will leave this land. Not simply leave, they will not move to America to develop their business, no. They will leave and fall into slavery, and maybe the nation will not treat them the way you treat your slave Eliezer. On the contrary, they will be tormented, they will be enslaved. Despite this, I will bring them back.’”

“That you were afraid that you would leave alone. No. You will leave in peace, everything will be well with you.”

The commentators argue even about the translation itself. Some say: “This is not about the Emorites, this is about an utterance. These very four words how will I know that I will inherit will lead to four generations being in exile, and the fourth will return when the cup of speech (emor), what you said, overflows.” Others say that the Emorites are a general name for all the nations that live there, in Canaan. Most likely, it is precisely the second version that is the most correct: the cup of the sins of these nations has not yet overflowed.

What is a smoking furnace and a fiery torch? Does God ride on a furnace? In Yeshayahu (31:9) it speaks of God's furnace:

and his strength will pass away from fear, and his princes will be terrified of the banner, the words of the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and His furnace in Yerushalayim.

That is, the Most High has a furnace in Yerushalayim. This is an image of the punishment of sinners.

What kind of torch? About the torch we read in chapter 62 of the book of the prophet Yeshayahu:

for Tziyon's sake I will not keep silent, and for Yerushalayim's sake I will not rest, until His justice goes forth like radiance, and His salvation like a burning torch.

Punishment – the furnace, salvation – the torch. Both sides: judgment and justification, mercy and judgment – passed through at the making of the covenant.

From the eighteenth verse we read about a very important event:

If in the previous chapters the Most High said “I will give!”, then here, after Avram won the victory, after the bringing of the tithes, after he testified to his faith and was found worthy, the Most High makes a covenant. Why do I compare it with marriage? Because marriage is also a covenant. The Most High says: “This is not a common-law marriage. We are making a covenant before all the good people, I have given (already in the past tense) you this land now.”

… from the stream of Egypt to the Great River, the river Prat.

That is, Avram received what was promised by faith. Through faith he became worthy, received the right to obtain what was promised. And when the Most High was leading Avram out, let us remember how He said: “I will make you a father of many nations,” that is, “I will change you so that you can be a father of many nations. I will prepare you for inheriting this land.” And the evidence of this change is when Avram testified to his faith to the Most High. Faith gave him the right to the fulfillment of the promises. This is his passing of the exam.

And further the lands of the nations that the Most High gave are listed:

“The lands of these nations I am handing over to you, and all of them will be driven out. And although today de facto this has not happened yet, I promise you: now this is your land. It will not be yours, it is already yours now.”

This is an epoch-making event in Jewish history.

 In the previous chapter we read about many important historical events. The Most High made a covenant with Avram between the cut-apart bodies. The Most High partly revealed to Avram that his descendants would be exiles in a foreign land for four hundred years and in the fourth generation would return to the land of Canaan. The Most High said to Avram for the first time: “Behold, I have given you this land.” For the first time, because it speaks of the land already being given to Avram.

In our chapter 16 we return to Avram's house, and the Torah will again show us what is happening in Avram and Sarai's family. We will read from the first verse:

Some say that this is not simply a slave woman, this is the daughter of Pharaoh himself. When Sarai was in Pharaoh's house, he looked at her manners, at how she lives, then looked at her husband too and reasoned (so the midrashim say): “Better that my daughter be a slave woman in this house than a princess in mine. There she will be brought up better.” And according to these midrashim, Hagar is not simply Hagar the maidservant, she is an Egyptian princess.

But the simpler understanding is this. When Avram and Sarai were leaving Pharaoh's house, he presented them with many gifts. Among other things, Sarai too received this slave woman as a gift. And this is simply a slave woman named Hagar.

I do not give birth, and it is not a hex, not witchcraft, and not something medical, it is God's will, apparently, that I should be barren. Ten years Avram and Sarai have been living in Canaan, that is a long time for trying to get pregnant. Avram and Sarai did not read the book of Bereshit, they do not know how it will all end. They are people faithful to the LORD, faithful to His promises in the way they understand them. And it was quite reasonable for Sarai to reason: “Maybe God decided that I am barren, maybe I must get a child from the slave woman, maybe Avram must have seed from someone else.” And Sarai says to Avram:

… go in to my slave woman, perhaps I will be built up from her.”

The verb ibbané can be translated: I will be built up from her, or I will be sonnediThe Russian uses a coined word built from "son" (roughly "to be made to have a son") for the second reading of the Hebrew verb. "Be sonned" imitates that coinage. from her. “Maybe, when she gives birth, I will give birth too. Her giving birth is a blessing. Her pregnancy will lead to the blessing of my pregnancy.” Most likely, the first meaning is meant here: I will be built up from her. She will give birth to a son, and it will be my son.

… and Avram listened to the voice of Sara.

And here too there are two different understandings. Some say that Avram thought: “Yes, probably God decided so, that you are barren and the child must be born somehow differently.”

Other commentators think that Avram here did not even think about the promise. He heard all the pain and bitterness in Sara's voice and therefore listened to her voice (the intonation, listening closely to the voice), got frightened and agreed.

Let's try to understand what is going on in this story at all. Why does Sara have such an idea? Why does Avram listen to her? And what happens next?

Avram and Sarai live before the giving of the Torah, but this does not mean that there are no laws around, no customs and traditions of some kind. In the fourteenth chapter of Bereshit we mentioned King Hammurabi (the Babylonian king, conqueror of the whole region at some time). Besides everything else, he is also a lawgiver. He established some of the most ancient laws in the Middle East, which somehow regulated the way of life. Among other things, the laws also concerned our situation.

I will read an excerpt from these laws, and we will try to understand how they relate to us. I will read paragraphs 144–146 (the laws of Hammurabi are available online, and you can reread them).

144. If a man has taken as wife a barren woman, and she has given her husband a slave woman, and has let him have sons, and this man wants to take himself a concubine besides his wife and besides her slave woman, then he must not be permitted, he may not take himself a concubine.

When Sarai gives her slave woman as a wife to Avram, it becomes clear that Avram can no longer take anyone else as a wife. This, if you imagine Sarai simply as a woman, is also a concern for preserving the family. For ten years Avram lives with Sarai, for ten years Sarai is barren. And since she is not just in the Bible, she is a real woman, a real person, perhaps she has all sorts of different doubts about where her barrenness comes from, about how Avram is to have children and how to preserve her family.

145. If a man has taken as wife a barren woman, and she has not let him have a son, and he wants to take himself a concubine, then this man may take himself a concubine and bring her into his house. But this concubine must not be made equal with the barren wife.

This is, so to speak, a continuation of the previous paragraph. If Sarai does not give birth and she has no slave woman, or her slave woman also does not give birth, then Avram, according to the laws of that time, can bring a concubine and she will bear children for him. Here the law immediately makes a reservation: but this concubine will not be equal with her mistress. Why is such a reservation needed? It is clear that a woman who becomes pregnant and is able to give birth may exalt herself over her mistress. This is what we read in our case. When Hagar realized that she had become pregnant, she began to exalt herself over her mistress. What is to be done in such a case? The next paragraph of Hammurabi's law is about this too.

146. If a man has taken as wife a barren woman, and she has given her husband a slave woman, and that one has borne sons, and then this slave woman has begun to make herself equal with her mistress, and after she has borne sons, the mistress must not sell her for silver.

This is literally what happens between Sarai and Hagar. Here there is social protection for the slave woman. You cannot sell her and keep the children. You cannot separate her from her sons. What, then, is allowed? The mistress may put the slave marks on the slave woman and count her among the slave women. What can the mistress do? She can say to her: “Beauty, you think you are the master's wife? To him you are a wife, but to me you are a slave. So go do the dirtiest work, like an ordinary slave. Go wash the dishes, clean the yard, whitewash the ceiling. You will do everything I say. You are a slave.”

These are the laws of that time, which existed then. There are also the laws of Nuzi. In the Nuzi tablets a story was found about a man who gives his daughter Gilyamnaga in marriage. And he demands of the potential husband that he not take a second wife. And if his daughter turns out to be barren, then for that case he gave her a slave woman as a gift. We see that such laws exist throughout the region. Everyone knows this problem, that a slave woman who has become pregnant like this may begin to disdain her mistress. A situation that was ordinary in those times. Of course, we are far from slavery, and all this seems terrible to us. And the attitude when a woman gives another woman to her husband also seems terrible to us. It has not been done like that for a long time, since the giving of the Torah. Because the Torah forbade a Canaanite slave woman, while remaining a slave, to become a wife. She must first be set free. And that is another story. But we read in the Torah both about Lea and about Rachel, that they gave their slave women as concubines to Yaakov, that is, in those times, in that region this was a familiar story.

Shlomo in the book of Mishlei speaks about a similar situation:

Under three the earth trembles, four it cannot bear: a slave when he becomes king; a scoundrel when he eats his fill of bread; a hated woman who has married, and a slave woman when she inherits the place of her mistress.

These four phenomena Shlomo calls unbearable for the earth. The earth cannot endure such a thing. And it is clear how bitter this whole situation is for Sarai.

It is not very clear why Sarai, who, actually, stirred up this whole mess, now comes and says such words to Avram. Perhaps, as the commentators say, there is a purely feminine doubt here. Perhaps Avram whispered something to Hagar at night, said something to her such that she allowed herself to exalt herself. Perhaps Avram casts loving glances at her growing little belly, and Sarai, naturally, as a woman, is jealous and understands that this encourages Hagar in her exaltation, her disdain for Sarai.

Some commentators say that Avram restrained Sarai. When Hagar showed off, displayed pride and exaltation, Avram would say: “Be patient, Sarochka, she is after all the mom of my future son.” And Sarai got tired of all this, she came and said: “My grievance is against you, bring order to the house, at least rein in this Hagar, who exalts herself over me. Why don't you say anything to her? God will judge between me and you.”

These are words of hurt. “Do you not fear God? We started all this with an understanding of God's will. Do you not fear God?” Some commentators see in this a very daring phrase and say that Sara lived one hundred and twenty-seven years. For those times this is a relatively young age, and her life was shortened for this phrase. When you say to someone, “May the LORD judge!” you yourself also come to judgment and you yourself can also be condemned. And the commentators cite Sarai as an example.

I think (one wants to say in Sarai's defense) that these are words of hurt, words of grief. What does Avram answer?

“Do with her whatever you want. I do not claim that she is my wife. I confirm that she is your slave woman, and you can deal with her as a mistress.” And Sarai began to lay heavy work on her.

This verb vatte'annéha can be translated as to torment, to torture. But in many cases, in many places, for example, in the first chapter of the book of Shemot, this verb can be understood as to strain with heavy work. We read in the laws that this is exactly how a mistress may act in a case when a slave woman loses the understanding of who she is, in order to put her in her place. Sarai began to lay heavy work on her, and this, naturally, can greatly offend an exalted pregnant woman. Besides that, an employer, a slave owner, can be very cruel.

Hagar cannot cope with the hurt, with the bitterness, with this oppression, that she, apparently, is constantly being made to do something, and she runs away into the wilderness.

The word én can be translated eye. In general, source and eye are words close in meaning. So, the angel finds her at the spring, and this spring is also called an eye (this will be useful to us later).

That is, the angel immediately calls her by her status. Not Hagar eshet Avrám – Hagar, wife of Avram, as Sarai is called at the very beginning, but Hagar – slave woman of Sarai. I am addressing you in this status. Here Hagar too acknowledges that Sarai is her mistress.

That is, go back to Sarai and humble yourself, endure the fact that she will humiliate you.

Pay attention, both verses begin with the words and the angel of the LORD said to her. Why not build one quotation out of his words? Why is it repeated twice? Because an answer is expected. That is, after the angel said “Return to Sarai …,” Hagar's answer should have followed. But perhaps she sits, cries, is silent and says nothing. That is why the angel enters the conversation again. This is the Torah's pictorial art in describing a conversation.

So, the angel of the LORD says to Hagar:

“I will greatly, greatly multiply your seed. and so that its number will not be able to be counted.”

Apparently, Hagar still does not answer. This is not because she is so insolent. Imagine, perhaps she is sitting and weeping bitterly, because she is a human being. A pregnant slave who was forced to enter into some kind of relationship with her master. And she wanted a relationship, but got into a fix. She simply feels bitter and wants to cry.

This sounds a little strange. The angel says to Hagar roughly this: God has heard your cry about how you suffer in enslavement to Sarai, and said to you: “Go back to Sarai and be enslaved there, and when a son is born to you, you will gratefully name him God heard.” Where, then, is the consolation here? Where, then, is the God who heard here, if He heard and said: “Well, so that is how it should be”?

And in the following words of the angel there is Hagar's consolation:

Pere means wild, but another meaning is wild donkey. This is a kind of donkey that roams the desert and does not yield to domestication and training. That is, he will be a person whom no one will be able to enslave or bring to heel.

… his hand on everything (he will be mixed up in everything, will take part in everything, and everything will happen through him).

This is a very many-sided, multi-layered prophecy, but, in essence, it is a consolation to Hagar about the destiny, about the prospects of her descendants, who will gain both freedom, and power, and strength – everything that Hagar, perhaps, wants for herself and for her son.

…and before all his brothers he will dwell.

It is held that the descendants of Yishmael are traders, those who are occupied with trade, those who are engaged in caravans, and therefore they are scattered. The whole trading network belongs to Yishmael in the spiritual sense, the whole merchant class.

What is meant here is that you will now be enslaved under the hand of your mistress, but your son will be a person whom no one will be able to enslave, because he is pére adám, and his name will be Yishmael, because the LORD has heard of your suffering.

There is an interesting midrash in the collection of midrashim Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer, in the 32nd section. Why was his name called Yishmael? Why does this name contain a verb in the future tense – God will hear, and not in the past – God heard? Because in the future God will hear the cry of the people of Israel because of what the descendants of Yishmael will do. The midrash says that in the future the descendants of Yishmael will oppress Israel, as Sarai oppressed Hagar. What will this be for? So that the people of Israel would return to the Most High. According to these midrashim, Yishmael is the instrument of the Most High for the return of Israel. In the future the descendants of Yishmael will oppress Israel. And here the midrash refers to the Psalm (55:20): “God will hear, and the One Enthroned from of old will humble them.” Yishmael literally “will humble, will enslave them,”iThis sentence is elliptical in the Russian as well; it is translated literally. again the very same verb with which it is said that Sarai oppressed Hagar, and that God heard Hagar's oppression. And from this the conclusion: Yishmael has a purpose, he will be the scourge of the Most High for humbling the people of Israel. This is retribution measure for measure, in the opinion of these midrashim, for the fact that Sarai oppressed Hagar.

So then, what is Hagar's consolation? Why does the Most High say: “I have heard, and now go back and be enslaved”? The first way of understanding: I have heard, and your son, your descendants will be free and not held back by anything. The freedom that you want, you will receive through your children, in your descendants.

The second understanding, and this is more a midrash for us, for Israel. It was, of course, no consolation for Hagar that Yishmael is the scourge of the Most High, and that the spiritual descendants of Yishmael, not by blood, those who oppress Israel, they, as it were, repay measure for measure for what Sarai did. Again, this is according to the opinion that Sarai acted badly toward Hagar. For many, of course, this opinion will be hard to take in and accept, but imagine that the people who put forward such a supposition, who put forward, in general, ideas that we do not like, they too are faithful servants of the Most High, they understand with their reason, with their faith, but not the way we do. Always remember this when you hear something that you do not agree with and that outrages you.

And many commentators, for example, Rav David Kimchi says that this was a great mistake, a great sin on Sarai's part, despite the fact that Hagar behaved badly. It was a sin on Sarai's part to oppress her, and on Avram's part to allow it, and they will be punished for this. But, on the other hand, commentators such as Rabbeinu Chananel say that Avram and Sarai did everything right.

We need not be afraid to see some mistakes or misdeeds in the deeds of the forefathers. If something is said about such mistakes and such misdeeds, then we must learn from it, for without sin, without some mistake, there is no teshuva either, there is no correction. Therefore this can be understood the way it is revealed.

So, the angel gave Hagar a prophecy concerning her son.

This is a very important understanding for grasping the encounter of a person with God; Hagar here names God with a name in accordance with how she understood His essence at her spiritual level.

At the beginning of creation darkness was created, then light. In the darkness the Most High said: “Let there be light!” It is said: “And there was evening, and there was morning.” First darkness, then light. At first God is invisible, unrevealed. And later, when it will be about the commandment to appear three times before the face of the Most High, there it is to show oneself before the face and to see His face. That is, a gradual revealing of the face of the Most High in this world. Here, in the first encounter, Hagar says: “You are the God who sees me. I, even here, and even at this level, even in the desert, even abandoned and having run away from my mistress, I am still convinced that He sees me.”

Concerning the well it is written he called, not she called. Perhaps the well is named so, and this is an impersonal expression. Or perhaps it is about Avram, and Hagar came to him, returned, and it was then Avram who named the well be'ér lacháy ro'í (the well of the living one who sees). Those who live in Israel can go and look at this well. It is within walking distance of the town of Yerucham.

The angel foretold that Hagar would name him so. Here we read that Avram named him so. And the commentators say that this was revealed so to Avram by the Holy Spirit, or Hagar told him this whole story, and Avram named the well so and, according to the promise given to Hagar, named the son so.

Such is the rather ambiguous story that took place in the house of Avram.

We need to stop and understand what kind of name this is – Shaddai. Some understand it this way: “I am God, who sets boundaries for everything”. Shaddai – the One who tells everything its measure. One can understand it in exactly the same meaning: setting boundaries, but from the word sade – a field or something measured out, that on which the boundary lines stand – “I am God, who sets the boundary lines”. This name also has the meaning: shadad – to protect, to guard, “I am God, who guards you”. This can also be understood as the full-bodied God. The word shad – a woman's breast, “I am God, who feeds”, in the literal sense, as one feeds an infant, the whole universe. And further the Most High says:

…walk before Me and be simple.

The word תָמִים (tamím) can be translated as perfect, blameless, or, on the contrary, one can translate: “be simple, walk before me in simplicity”, that is, sometimes trusting the Most High, not trying to understand what will be. Not trying to keep asking: “Daddy, where are we going? And what will we do there?” The Most High wants people to walk before Him in simplicity, in trust. Some believers understand this commandment at such a level that, when a pregnant woman, a mother of a family, has an ultrasound, she does not ask what sex the child will be, in order to accept whatever will be. To such a degree this simplicity is accepted (this is just as an example).

So, the Most High says: “Walk before Me in simplicity” or “Walk before Me and be perfect.”

There is already a covenant between Avram and the Most High. And when the Most High says “I will give a covenant,” we can expect that the Most High will add something to this covenant.

What is the essence of the change of name? If we examine the name Avram, it consists of two parts: Av (father) and ram (exalted). If one understands this name in a pagan way (Terach was a pagan), one can translate: my father is Ram, (this is one of the gods of Mesopotamia), or my father will be exalted, or I will exalt and glorify my father.

What is the difference between the names Avram and Avraham? If one translates simply into Russian, one can say: father hiiigh. This ה (hei) as it were stretches, magnifies the meaning of height and changes by an order of magnitude the height of the level at which Avram is. And he already becomes the father of many nations. From some father of a family he becomes a father on a world scale.

We have spoken about the fact that when the Most High speaks about multiplying, He means quantity. When He speaks about making fruitful (from “to breed”), He means quality. That is, your faith, your deeds will not simply breed, but will bear fruit.

…and I have set you over the nations, and kings will come out of you.

That is, Avram's path, that very lech lecha with which we began the weekly portion, has a very exalted end: the Most High promises a qualitative change of Avraham's offspring and its quantitative multiplication.

This is the new thing that the Most High says to Avraham. If before this the Most High gave Avraham the land, and promised the land, and said that it has already been given to him, the potential is already there, then here the Most High says: “I will be God to your people.”

What does this mean for us? When the Israelites come out of Egypt and go through Sinai to the land of Israel, suddenly, unexpectedly, there is a stop and the giving of the Torah. And one could have said: “Wait, wait! There was no talk at all about any Torah. What Torah? The Most High promised us the land! You, Moshe, brought us out so that we would go into the land. Suddenly some Torah, incomprehensible commandments: do not boil a kid in its mother's milk, and a heap of others…” And the Most High here speaks about this very covenant: “I will be God to you and to your seed.” God in the sense of Elohim, in the sense of the Judge establishing laws. And therefore:

That is, we read further in the Torah that there is an uncircumcised heart or uncircumcised ears; different organs can have uncircumcision. But this uncircumcision of the heart or of the ears is non-material. And the material expression of uncircumcision is there where circumcision of the foreskin on the male sexual organ is done. And when we circumcise it, a correction of the whole flesh takes place. The symbol, that place where uncircumcision holds on in the body, the Most High tells Avraham to remove. And by this, as many understand, is attained the status tamim (perfect).

… and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.

There are several signs of the covenant in the Torah: the rainbow – the sign of the covenant with the sons of Noach, circumcision – the sign of the covenant with the sons of Avraham, Shabbat (Sabbath) – the sign of the covenant with the sons of Israel. Thus the Most High says: “Between Me and the sons of Israel this is an everlasting covenant.”

The Most High continues:

We remember that seven days is the period of a woman's purification after the birth of a boy. And after this purification the woman could be part of this rite. On the eighth day boys are circumcised.

There are many more different reasons and different explanations. The commandment is to circumcise, when the Torah says: “On the eighth day every boy shall be circumcised.” Naturally, the boy cannot circumcise himself, and we read that this was done by fathers or mothers in some cases, as, for example, Tzippora. We also read that at a certain moment in history, in the first book of Maccabees (1:63), it is told that mohels (people who do circumcision professionally) had already appeared. Before this, fathers circumcised their children with stone knives. We read this in the book of Yehoshua ben Nun, we read this in the story with Tzippora. And there were people who circumcised themselves. Possibly Avraham circumcised himself, maybe someone helped him. That is, circumcision became an inseparable part of Jewish history, an inseparable part of Jewish identification. This applies even to secular Jews.

That is, every Jew has on his flesh a testimony that he is in covenant with the Most High. As a woman has a wedding ring, which shows to others: here, I am in a covenant, so also circumcision is a testimony that a person is in a covenant relationship with the Most High.

Accordingly, he will fall away from the covenant relationship with the Most High, because he has broken My covenant.

The name Sarai can be translated in different ways: inclined to power; having a potential of strength; she who is able to rule, able to govern. Sara is she who rules. The same thing, but already with a realized potential. And here the Most High does not quite change Sara's name, He testifies that Sara's name has changed. He does not say: “Sara will now be called Sara, she was Sarai.” The Most High says: “Do not call her Sarai, because her real name is Sara.” Because this potential is already revealed in her, she is already Sara, she is not being renamed, but her name, her inner essence has already changed.

In essence, she shares Avraham's blessing. The Most High says twice here: וּבֵרַכְתִּי אֹתָהּ – Uverachtí otá And I blessed her. The first time, Sara's blessing will be that she becomes a mother. There is this kind of miracle in the people of Israel, that our foremothers Sara, Rivka, Rachel, Lea do not give birth for a long time. One could say that this is for some sins (someone would start checking), but for us it means that the birth of a child by the blessing of the Most High is a supernatural birth. Sara's son will no longer be Terach's grandson, this is Sara's son, this is the beginning of a new genealogy.

And the Most High says here: “I will first bless her, and she will bear you a son.” This is the first blessing. And it is good when children are born to us, this is a blessing. When our children continue our path, this is a double blessing and here the Most High says: “I will also bless her, because she will give birth, and her seed will prosper.”

How can this be translated into the concepts we talked about? “I will multiply her and make her fruitful. She will have many children, and they will be good children.”

Vayitzchák – this is the name of Avraham's future son. Some commentators say: “Vayitzchák – and he laughed for joy, at last he receives testimony that he will have a son specifically from Sara, and this is such a joy, such a miracle will be in his life.” Others say that he laughed because, well, how is such a thing possible.

And Avraham himself says in his heart, as the Torah opens it up to us a little:

… “CAN a son be born to a gray-haired hundred-year-old elder, maybe ninety-year-old Sara will give birth?”

From the fact that vayitzchák is written here, we can say: the verb tzchák is not used in the sense of joy and merriment. It is always a reaction to something absurd, to something that causes an ironic smirk, rather. And what Avraham says here, and the fact that the Torah says: “Avraham said belibbó”, which always relates to a state of some unbelief, most often to the wicked. When a person doubts, he turns to his heart as to an authority, follows his heart, instead of, like a righteous man, speaking to his heart. This does not mean that Avraham is wicked here, but it means that Avraham (the father of the believers) here doubts what the Most High says: “Can a hundred-year-old elder give birth? Can ninety-year-old Sara give birth?”

What is Avraham talking about here? He perhaps thinks: “This is too great a miracle for me, for a hundred-year-old to give birth, for a ninety-year-old woman to give birth. If only Yishmael would live and be before You.” That is: “Would You grant that Yishmael be righteous, that he walk before You.” Many of us believing people (I can say this about myself) have such a state, that it seems to us: “We are now going to dare to ask God for too much, we are burdening Him too much with our request.” Indeed, not understanding, sometimes not realizing the degree of the Most High's might, we think: “This is hard for Him to do. Let us ask Him for something easier.” If you look at Avraham from the outside, you can say all sorts of things about him, but if you look into yourself, you can see such behavior.

So, the Most High says to Avraham: “Nevertheless Sara will bear you a son, and you will call him by the name Yitzchak.” The Most High himself gave him this name. What does it mean? The simplest meaning is he will laugh. And the commentators say: “Well, this is, possibly, because Sara laughed then in the tent, and Avraham laughed now here.” Can it really be that this name Yitzchak is a reminder of a sin?

Others say: “Tzchok – laughter. Why laughter? Is it a reaction to absurdity? Laughter can be a reaction to a miracle. Tzechok – went beyond the bounds of the law, that is, something that is done, that contradicts and does not correspond to common sense and therefore is miraculous and amazing.”

One can also understand the name Yitzchak as yitza chok (a new law came out). That is, Yitzchak is not a violation of the law, but a filling of the law. Yitzchak came not to break the law, but to fill the law. Yitzchak – yitza chok (the law came out).

Some commentators break down the name Yitzchak as an abbreviation (based on gematria): yud – the Ten Commandments, tzadi – this is ninety (Sara's age), chet – this is eight (the days of circumcision) and kuf – this is one hundred (Avraham's age). Of course, this is a late commentary.

What does Yitzchak mean? Yitzchak is a hint at the whole of Jewish history, in which what is accomplished, what is fulfilled, at first seemed absurd and impossible. Many events in Jewish history seemed absurd, but in the end were the foundation for the numerous miracles that happened in Jewish history. In the twentieth verse the Most High continues:

And about Yishmael I have heard you – there is a certain play on words here: Yishmael – this is God will hear. And about the one about whom God will hear, I have heard you.

And I will multiply him – And in number he will increase very, very much! A very similar blessing, almost the same as is given to Yitzchak.

And he will beget twelve rulers. If Esav begets arufim (military commanders), and Yaakov will later beget the tribes of Israel, which will have their own rulers, then regarding Yishmael it is said that he will beget rulers, but not tribes. They will not form a single whole. And I will make him a great nation. What will not be with Yishmael, what is not promised to Yishmael? The covenant is not promised to Yishmael. The Most High says in the twenty-first verse:

We often encounter this phrase vayá'al Elohím – and the LORD went up. Apparently, this is how communication with the Most High ends, when He is revealed.

That is, on the same day Avraham gathers everyone and circumcises them. And a very interesting detail. The Most High says: “On the eighth day every one shall be circumcised.” And from this they made such an ordinance that circumcision is done only by day, at night circumcision is not done. Avraham here hastens to fulfill the commandment and circumcises all the males in his house.

Economically it would have been right to divide the people into groups, so that someone would be working, so as not to stop all production, the whole household. This is very bold. Besides the fact that this is an operation that can affect male strength (not such a simple operation, and faith is needed to agree to such an operation at an adult age), it is also entrusting to the Most High his household, everything that Avraham has. And trust in the Most High regarding protection, after all, someone could take advantage of his helplessness. This is an act of faith in many respects.

Perhaps here it is shown from the very youngest to the very oldest. Perhaps also otherwise. Here the Torah says that there are certain difficulties for a ninety-nine-year-old old man (it is not so easy at ninety-nine to make up your mind). But there are also difficulties of another kind for a thirteen-year-old boy. Each one overcomes some problems of his own, performing circumcision by faith.

What is amazing about our chapter? It seems to complete what was said at the very beginning, lech lecha – go! I will make you… Here Avraham finishes the young soldier's course, finishes this course of preparation that made Avraham out of Avram. And here we see that the Most High does not simply make a covenant with Avraham that he will receive some gift – land for himself and for his descendants. Here the Most High says to Avraham: “This relationship is forever!” Not simply: “I promised the land, I gave the land, well, live on it, and with that our relationship has ended.” The Most High says: “No, this relationship will be eternal, because I will be God to your people, and to you I will be God, and to your seed after you.” This is the most important thing in the covenant, because precisely thanks to this we can be in a covenant relationship with the Most High. This is the beginning of the covenant, which is both the covenant and the promise of Mashiach, everything that is promised to us too.

At the very beginning of chapter 12 of the book of Bereshit we read about how the Most High addresses Avram:

Go for your own sake, you need this, this is needed for your development, for your own sake go.

FROM YOUR COUNTRY, FROM YOUR HOMELAND, FROM THE HOUSE OF YOUR FATHER TO THE COUNTRY THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.”

At first glance, the Most High says to Avram: “You go, and I will be showing you.” There is no address that could be typed into a navigator so as to then follow its directions, when and where to turn and what to prepare for. It is good to follow a navigator, but it seems that nothing is said about this here. But every verse of the Torah has many different readings, and every person reads the Torah with his own eyes. There is almost never a single correct reading of the Torah. One of the best-known Hasidic teachers, Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner, who lived in the 19th century in the town of Izhbitza, not far from Lublin in Poland, gives a completely unexpected reading of this verse. He says: “Ashér ar'éka – That which I will be showing you, or that which will be shown by Me to you, – this is the very name of the country.”

The particularity of the existence of the believing person Avraham and of the children of Avraham lies in constant attention, in a constant seeking of the face of the Most High. And what does the Most High say here to Avraham? “You go for your own development, so that you become a better Avraham (then still Avram, later also Avraham), you begin your development, and I will be showing you, I will constantly be your horizon, which you will see. I am calling you to the country of horizons, to the country where a 99-year-old old man can father a son, to the country where there is no aging, because there is constantly some new horizon, to the country where there is never a final development, where there will be a horizon and where the very essence of existence is the striving toward a new horizon, the striving forward.” Running light as a way of life, to which the Most High calls. He says: “Go to the country that is a path, to the country that I will show you. I will constantly be before you, you will constantly be walking toward Me.” This is a country-path, a country where there is no permanent, static state. A country in which a person can develop dynamically. The land of endless possibilities, that is what people usually say about another country, but about that country they say it meaning material development, finances. Finances have their limit. The Most High calls a person to perfection, to limitless perfection. This constant self-perfection is the very name of the country to which the Most High calls Avraham and to which he calls each of us as sons of Avraham. With the Torah one must move, in the Torah one must move, one must constantly develop, change, grow and reach for the Most High like a flower, like a plant reaches for the sun, grow oneself, be oneself.

It says lech lecha (go for yourself), it does not say lech li (go for me). No, the Most High says: “Go, grow yourself, develop yourself. But develop yourself through the potential that I give you, through the strengths that I give you, through the development that has been laid into you. Develop the talents, the abilities, the light that only you can bring into the world.” If in the year 1948 from the creation of the world Avraham and his light were needed in the world, then Avraham came to carry this light. And the more of this light, the better. This is what the Most High speaks about. To this country of eternal youth, eternal development, eternal potential the Most High calls Avraham. Avram, who later, afterward will also become Avraham. And to this country He calls each of us.

In chapter 22 of the book of Bereshit the Most High now tells Avraham to take his only son, whom he loves, Yitzchak, and to bring him as a burnt offering. And where to go with him, the Most High says:

Here it is no longer I will show you, but I will tell you. We do not see that the Most High somewhere told Avraham later: “Look, here is this mountain.” This did not happen. What is the Torah telling us here? If we apply the same approach that Rav Leiner applies, then one can say: “I will tell you, I will give you a new understanding of what is happening.” Avraham, who is going to offer his son as a sacrifice, hears what the Most High says to him through an angel: “Do not raise your hand against the youth.” This is what the LORD says. Sometimes, when we walk, we hear the voice of the Most High, and this voice does not deceive us. We walk, and it seems to us that we have some task, some definite goal, and the Most High suddenly, unexpectedly gives us a new understanding and tells us that the goal was actually something completely different. It is amazing that Avraham does not say: “Oh, what a pity. It would have been great to rise to such a level of faith and heroism, not to miss this commandment, to rise to this level, to such a level, so as to offer my son as a sacrifice after all. How heroic, how grand it would have been to do this.” Avraham does not say this. Avraham has the understanding that the Most High gives, when the Most High says to him: “Stop!” On the one hand, yes, Avraham follows the Most High, on the other hand, there is a readiness to suddenly, unexpectedly realize that what is happening was not a complete understanding, and now the Most High reveals the full understanding, gives a new understanding. The Most High says something that makes one look completely differently at what we have just been doing, at what seemed to us important, and necessary, and a feat of faith. And this is unquestionably a feat of faith – to go with one's son to this mountain, and suddenly we hear that something completely different is important. And the ability to hear this voice, this too is that state to which the Most High calls us.

What are our children? I will tell the truth, I am not at all sure that I would have led my children to bring them as a burnt offering. Thank God that He does not call me to this. But surely some of our plans, our ideas, our visions, our desires to do something, build something, arrange something, interfere in someone's life or somehow change our own life, some vast heap of plans that are hard for us to give up, and here there is also the state of ashér omár elécha (what I will tell you). Then one can hear that in what seems to us grandiose, majestic and heroic, one needs to stop. One needs to reformat one's view of the past, this too is part of communion with the Most High, and this state of readiness to see Him and ability to hear Him, this is part of the seeking of His face, watching His face.

It is very important to remember that everything begins with the phrase lech lecha. This is what you need. There is no need to sacrifice your happiness, your potential – on the contrary, it must be developed. It is you who must grow toward the Most High, and nothing must break in the process. And at the same time one must stop and look: perhaps it is worth putting out a branch in another direction? These two states of seeing and hearing are necessary for every inhabitant of that country to which the Most High calls us.

Such a reading is one of the possible options and in no way claims to be the only correct reading. I simply suggest looking at the relationship with the Most High from this angle, from this point of view.

Today the topic of our conversation will be covenants. Let's try to understand what the New Covenant is, what the Old CovenantiThe Russian terms here mean both "New/Old Testament" and "New/Old Covenant". Since the whole talk is about covenants, "Covenant" was chosen. is, when, and where, and with whom these covenants were concluded and how many covenants there were at all. Let's try to understand when the covenant with the pagans was concluded and much else.

To begin with, let's try to understand what the word brit means. We will not find an explanation of this word either in the Tanach or in the Talmud right up to the early Middle Ages, when a man appears who to this day remains one of the greatest experts in biblical Hebrew, one of the greatest Jewish grammarians and interpreters of the Torah – Ibn Ezra. This is a man with a very difficult fate, a great traveler and wanderer, but, as I already said, his main quality – he is the first systematizer of Hebrew. And one can say that to this day he is the most authoritative expert on the meaning of this or that biblical word. And when Ibn Ezra examines the word brit, he says that it can have two possible origins. The first option: from the word levarer – to choose. Let us remember: when Golyat shows off before the Jewish people, he says: “Choose for yourselves a man to fight with me.” The word choose – bru has, according to Ibn Ezra's assumption, the same root as the word brit, that is, the word brit goes back to the word levarer – to choose, to select. Not in the sense of chosenness, but in the sense of choosing some kind of quality. Chosenness is there, but it has secondary significance.

The second option, also proposed by Ibn Ezra, is the origin from the word levater – to cut apart, to set boundaries. We remember that Avraham made a covenant with the Most High by the cut-apart bodies of animals, the cut-apart sacrifices, and the word cut apart (mevutar). The alternation of consonants in Semitic roots is an accepted and quite familiar phenomenon, therefore the root batar (to cut apart, to divide) can be the root for the word brit. What is the essence here? It is the marking of a boundary, the distribution of obligations between the parties. And we will still talk about this option.

Another way of understanding is given by Nachmanides two centuries later. He believes that the word brit denotes pledges not conditioned by anything, that is, promises that will be fulfilled in spite of everything.

And I think that the word brit contains within itself, as often happens with biblical words, all three ways of understanding.

Regarding the boundary, we can say that there is an interesting verb that is constantly connected with the word brit: in the Russian text we read I will make a covenant, but in Hebrew we read likrot brit, the verb likrot – to cut off, to hew out, to cut away. For example, a phrase from the Tanach is well known, when the Most High says: “I hate divorces.” In Hebrew: “Ani sane kritot” – “I hate cuttings off, cuttings away.” One of the most terrible punishments that the Torah gives is karet (“the soul will be cut off from the people”). And so God says literally: “I will cut off a covenant.” And here one can see the establishment of a specific boundary.

So, brit, on the one hand, is the choosing of one by the other and the complete devotion of one to the other, and on the other hand, it is the distribution of obligations, the distribution of territory, of tasks between two entities, between two allies, between those who enter into this covenant.

For now let's set aside the meanings of the concept brit and remember where this word was first mentioned. It is mentioned in the covenant with Noach, and there is a certain strangeness in this. Even several strangenesses. First, the word brit (covenant) is mentioned even before the flood came. And again we are partly misled by the Synodal translation. The book of Bereshit (6:18): “But with you I will establish My covenant, and you will enter the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you.” The whole family, the whole house of Noach. Again, pay attention that the covenant is concluded with Noach, and under the covenant his whole house is saved together with Noach. Remember, “you will be saved, you and your whole house”? We will return to this too. Now I want to draw your attention to the word yekimóti, translated as I will establish, but in fact, from the point of view of Hebrew, the original says: “I will restore (I will resurrect) My covenant, and you will enter the ark, you, and your sons.” God speaks about the resurrection of the covenant. Let's try to understand further which covenant God wants to resurrect, to restore, since this is, in essence, the oldest of the “new” covenants.

In the prophet Yirmeyahu (33:25, 26) we read about yet another covenant, which we did not know before: “Thus says the LORD: ‘If I have not established My covenant about day and night and the statutes of heaven and earth, then I will also reject the offspring of Yaakov and of David, my servant, so as not to take any more rulers from his offspring for the offspring of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, for I will return the captives and have mercy on them.’” And in the same chapter we read: “Thus says the LORD: ‘If you can break My covenant with the day and with My night, so that day and night do not come out in their time, then My covenant with My servant David can also be broken, so that he will not have a son reigning on his throne, and also with the Levites and the priests, My ministers.’” The Most High mentions a covenant here, but it is not a covenant about day and night, as in the Synodal translation, it is a covenant with day and night. With day and with night God made a covenant, with the world order on earth, with time God made a covenant, God established certain times on earth. We know that from the day the Most High created the luminaries, that is, began to create the host of heaven, He gave these luminaries as a sign of day and night. First God called the light day and the darkness night, and then allotted each of them its own time, when the project “Earth” was launched. After all, when we read “there was evening and there was morning,” the question arises: where was evening and where was morning? Now it is not the case that it is evening everywhere on earth or morning everywhere; somewhere it is evening, somewhere morning, because the earth is round, the sun does not illuminate all of it, and there are time zones, because the sun illuminates the earth at different angles. And this is an ordinance of the Most High, the Most High gave us these planets for signs, so He says. And here the Most High says that with this whole universe, with this whole world order, a covenant was established.

We read about yet another covenant in the prophet Hoshea, in chapter 6: “But they, like Adam, broke the covenant…” There was some covenant with Adam. We already see 2 covenants which were possibly concluded before Noach, and the Most High is trying to restore one of these covenants. Let's look at what the Most High said to Adam, and to begin with, let's remember that the Most High, when He planned the creation of Adam, said: “Let us make man, and let him have dominion..., and over all the earth.” The Most High set man over the earth. In Bereshit (1:28) we read: “And God blessed them, and said to them: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and possess it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every animal that creeps on the earth.’” We know that when Adam was not in the state of the fall, when he was in Eden, he did not have to kill animals, there was complete peace between him and the animals, and he himself was not afraid of animals. We also talked in the talk on the portion Ki Tissa about the fact that in the Holy of Holies in the Temple this state of Eden was restored, because animal sacrifices were never offered there, in the Holy of Holies there was only the burning of incense. Psalm 115 (in the Synodal translation 113) says: “The heavens are the LORD's, but the earth He gave to men.” What does this mean? He did not give us this earth as a gift, because it is said that the earth is the LORD's and everything on it, it belongs to the LORD, but He gave it to man to serve on it, and so it is written that God placed Adam in the garden to serve there and to keep it. From whom did the garden need to be guarded? Who could attack the garden? To keep – in the sense of preserving this garden, tending it, etc. The word leavod – to work, it, as we have already said, is similar to the work that was performed in the temple. The action of the priests in the Temple is also called work. Adam's task was to raise the earth, to fill the earth with the Divine. Adam himself by his nature was also a piece of earth, as Scripture describes it. The Most High made him from the earth, into which the Most High breathed breath from His bosom, and then Adam became a living man. Adam was supposed to raise the earth to the Divine level. We read that the first altar that the Most High describes to us was of earth, not of stones, but specifically of earth. The idea of the altar is to raise the earth, to raise the material, to raise the physical world to the spiritual level, to the Divine level. And the first Adam was called to this. Therefore, when Adam fell, the words sounded: “You are dust and to dust you will return. Cursed is the earth because of you.” The earth turned out to be cursed because Adam could not raise it, and Adam is expelled. He does not stand in the covenant, as Hoshea says, and is expelled from paradise onto the earth, and for 10 generations the Most High is silent until Noach.

Noach enters by the promise that God will restore the covenant with him. And when Noach finishes his voyage in the ark, when he returns, like a sailor, to land, he builds an altar, and this is what the Most High says to him: “This is the sign of the covenant which I set between Me and between you and between every living soul that is with you, throughout generations forever.” With whom is the covenant made? With mankind and with all the animals, with the whole animal world the covenant is made forever. And what sign of the covenant does the Most High speak of? “I set My rainbow, so that it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and between the earth.” That is, the covenant is made between God and the earth. But wait, the Most High was just saying between you and every soul, and now we hear the earth? Because through the salvation of Noach – the salvation of the whole earth, just as through the curse of Adam – the curse of the whole earth. Further the Most High says: “And it will be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and between you and between every living soul in all flesh. And the water will no longer become a flood to destroy all flesh.”

So God restores the covenant in Noach and chooses the rainbow as the sign of the covenant. Let us look at what a rainbow is. From the physical point of view, a rainbow, whenever it appears, is always formed by the play of light on drops of water. Usually these are raindrops, occasionally these are tiny droplets of fog. Clouds are formed from the very smallest drops, and in these very smallest drops a rainbow cannot yet appear, it appears in larger drops. And if someone tells you that he saw a rainbow when it was snowing, then that was apparently already melting snow, which is like drops. So, imagine how the earth is being covered with clouds. Clouds are the potential of rain, the potential of a flood. When the sky is covered with clouds, and when the drops are already beginning to appear and are becoming large, and when the first rain has already started, the rainbow begins to be visible. The rainbow is the refraction of light through drops of water.

What does the rainbow resemble? The rainbow resembles the glory of God. The prophet Yechezkel speaks of this in chapter 1, verse 28: “As the appearance of the rainbow and the clouds in time of rain, such was the appearance of this radiance.” The radiance had an appearance similar to a rainbow. In Revelation, in chapter 4, we read that the one sitting on the throne and the angels have a halo in the form of a rainbow – this is a symbol of the Glory of God. Therefore God says in chapter 9 of Bereshit: “I set My rainbow in the clouds.” There are two Names of God that are used in the first chapters of the book of Bereshit: the Name Elohim, which means Judgment, and the four-letter Name, which we do not pronounce, the tetragrammaton. The four-letter Name means mercy, and here, in this chapter, we see that God speaks of the Name Judgment. When judgment is revealed, the clouds gather and a flood is brewing, God holds back His judgment, because He sees the rainbow, sees the revealing of His Glory through the clouds.

And how can we see the rainbow? The rainbow is revealed when a person sees it at an angle of 42°; if the angle of view on the rainbow becomes smaller, the rainbow goes down below the horizon and it is impossible to see it. Exactly 42°. Surprisingly enough, 42 is a magical number in terms of redemption. We see that there are 42 encampments that Israel passed through on the way from Egypt to the land of Israel. We also see 42 generations from Avraham to Yeshua, as Matthew says: three times 14. We also know the story that Avraham is compared in the midrashim to the new, newborn, first moon, then David appears, as the full moon, then again the waning of the moon down to the descent into Babylon, and the rising of the moon of Mashiach, the great moon that will never set. This is the same midrash, it says: three times 14; from the new moon to the full moon is 14 days, and three times 14 is the very same 42. The number 42 is firmly connected with salvation, and this is such a curious physical fact.

In Noach the first covenant is restored, the one the Most High made specifically with Adam. It is said: “From one blood the LORD made all the tribes of the earth.” And Paul says that through the sin of one man sin entered the world and struck all mankind. Adam stood on behalf of all mankind, just as Noach stood on behalf of the whole earth.

After Noach another 10 generations pass, and Avraham appears. Avraham goes out of Ur, goes to the land of Israel, and the Most High says to him: “I will make you a father of many nations.” Not I will set, not I will appoint, but I will make you, that is, the Most High promised that a certain work would be carried out in Avraham, which would transform him into a new person. And Avraham, as a new person, so it is written: bri'a chadasha – a new creation, the same thing that Paul says, that whoever is in Mashiach is a new creature.

What is the difference, what were these 10 generations from Noach to Avraham needed for? About Noach it is said: Noach ithalech et-HaShem, he walked with God; one could say that he walked around God, courted God. Noach understood that God is the source of life and wanted to use this for himself. He understood that if he led the life of a righteous man, this was profitable for him; he served God, one could say, out of fear, out of rational considerations. About Avraham, however, it is said that he ithalech lifnei Adonai, he walked before God, that is, he loved God and was His herald; he was no longer a servant for the sake of gain, for the first time he had faith and selfless love. And this selfless love for the Most High is Avraham's main quality, which all believers inherit. When Yeshua says “you will have love among yourselves,” this is first of all love for the Most High, which gives birth to love for one's neighbor. Without this there is no way. The first five commandments of the tablets give the commandments of relations between man and the Most High, the second five commandments – between man and man. In the first five there is the Name of the Most High, in the second five His Name is not mentioned. If after each commandment of the first five it is written I am the LORD, in the second five this is not there. Why?

By the way, why do we not pronounce the four-letter Name? People say to me: “Why don't you say, for example, the way the Jehovah's Witnesses say it – Jehovah, why don't you pronounce the Name that way?” Imagine that your beloved father sent you your portraitiThe Russian also says the father sent "your portrait" and that you would not hang "your portrait" in the toilet, although the father's portrait seems to be meant. It is translated literally., maybe 2 portraits or 3, and you hung it in the bedroom, and in the living room, and in the children's bedroom. You will not hang your portrait in the toilet (God forbid) or in a cattle shed. A portrait must hang in a clean place, and the Most High, although giving the commandments “do not steal,” “do not commit adultery,” does not even want to connect His Name with this. And when we pronounce the Name, we must be in a state of corresponding purity. Human modesty and humility say: “I am not worthy to pronounce the Holy Name now. I will not pronounce it.”

But let us return to Avraham. Avraham became the first, new creation, the father of a new people; the Most High wants to create a new tribe. But we know that Avraham had seven children, the sons of the concubine he sent away, and at the center of the narrative of Scripture are Yishmael and Yitzchak. Yitzchak receives the inheritance, then with Yitzchak, too, not everything is in order, there is no peace between the children: Yaakov flees from Esav, Esav remains in the land, very complicated relations. A gradual selection takes place, in which some of the people go outside the borders of the land of Israel; this does not mean that they fall out of the Divine plan. Imagine a country, the same Soviet Union during the Second World War, when there are people who fight at Stalingrad, and there are people who guard the border with Japan, guard the border with Mongolia, who are in relatively peaceful places and not on the front line, but they too are part of the army. Until the time,iThe Russian phrase at the start of this sentence literally means "until the time" but can also mean "for a time". It is translated literally. the descendants of Adam multiplied so that Israel was the only people that served the Most High, because the Most High was beginning the building, was beginning the realization of that covenant which had been made with Adam, was restoring this covenant. Because God's covenant is immutable, and if the Most High promised Adam, blessed Adam, that he would rule, then he will rule, even if he breaks the covenant. Yirmeyahu in chapter 31 says: “You broke the covenant, but I was faithful to you.” Look at the correct text: I was faithful to the covenant, I kept the covenant. The Most High keeps the covenant. And from Avraham begins the expectation of the restoration of that covenant which must be restored – the covenant with Adam.

People ask: “Where and when was the covenant with the gentiles established?” There is no such covenant, but this does not mean that all of you will be driven away, that whoever is not a Jew goes to hell. God forbid! God is not only the God of Israel! God wants every tribe to bow its faceiThe Russian word for "tribe" used in this passage also means "knee", so the author's phrases echo "every knee shall bow". English can carry only one meaning and uses "tribe", with "bend the knee" where the Russian speaks of bending it. before him. In this is the special creativity of the Creator, whose co-creators we are called to be. So that any tribe, from Polynesia to the Seljuks in the north, any tribe would bend the knee before him, as it is, in all the enormous diversity. God does not want everyone to put on hats and sidelocks, God wants a diverse worship of Himself: every tribe, every people, every tongue. And when there was the miracle of Pentecost, God did not make it so that everyone understood Hebrew, God did not make it so that the holy language suddenly opened up for everyone, God gave the apostles the ability to speak to each one in his own language. And Avraham is called the father of many nations. Not of one nation. And God restores through Avraham, through Noach, the covenant with the whole world, therefore the seed of Avraham, of which the LORD speaks, is Yeshua. All who have entered into the body of Yeshua have come out of the body of Adam. They are descendants of Avraham, because Avraham is the first who began to carry God within himself, not to walk with God outside, but to carry God within himself. Noach had God, but He was on a flash card, on an external drive, He could be pulled up when needed, and this was righteousness, this was already a step forward. In Adam, God was written into the DNA, God was on the genetic level, and Adam is a completely different person. And God expects from us precisely restoration. Therefore God says: “My temple is a temple of prayer for all peoples,” all peoples will come there, there is no such people that cannot come there.

Now the question remains: and what is the new covenant, and with whom was it made? We know that Yeshua says, according to the Gospel of Luke: “Behold the cup of the new covenant – my blood, which is shed for you.” The cup of the new covenant? When does this new covenant begin to take effect? When does it become current for us, has it been proclaimed, have we entered into it? Peter tells in the 1st Epistle, in chapter 3, that once, in the times of Noach, 8 souls were saved from the flood, so now too baptism saves (not saved!) us. We are called, we are all now in the ark, which is sailing toward the making of the covenant, which is sailing toward that place when we will come out of this ark, will pass through this spiritual flood, through this water baptism. And we, on this ark, are under the protection of the Most High, because we serve the Most High. And the making of the covenant will be when the ark finishes its voyage, and whoever goes up onto this ark will live, when the covenant is restored that God made with the earth and the heaven, the covenant that God made with Adam, the covenant that God made with Noach, the covenant that God made with Avraham, the covenant that God made with Israel, with Aharon. Jewish sources say that God made a covenant with each of the people when Israel stood on Mount Gerizim, we read this in the book of Devarim, chapters 27 and 28. Curses, yes, but the commentary says that with each curse a blessing sounded, this is natural. And each of these blessings and curses is a covenant, for each point a separate covenant. A separate covenant with the whole people and with each person in particular. Some say that 48 covenants were made, others say that more than 500 thousand covenants were made, because each person entered into this covenant, the covenant was made with each one personally. But the covenant is a ticket for Noach's ark, which still has yet to sail.

We know that sin has already been defeated, we know that the victory has already been accomplished, and we must bring this victory to the earth, we serve this so that this Gospel would be preached to all nations, so that all nations would become disciples, just as Noach took every flesh onto the ark, so it is happening now too. So that there would be a new earth, a new heaven, so that it would be as it was in paradise and as it was in the Holy of Holies: there was peace among the animals, so that the lion could eat straw, and our children could play with snakes, so that the animals would live with one another in peace. We have already spoken about all this in the weekly portion Ki Tisa. That is the essence of what the new covenant is.

Then the question naturally arises: and why does God say through the prophet Yirmeyahu that He will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Yehuda? For the same reason that He says that He will make a covenant with Noach, and the whole world enters into this covenant, every living creature. To begin with, the whole family of Noach, and then the whole world as well. God made a covenant with Adam, and all mankind entered into it. And since it was given to the Jewish people, to the house of Israel and the house of Yehuda, to become bearers of the image of God, the covenant will be made with them, as with those who stand on behalf of all mankind. Imagine that some country, Russia or the USA, makes a treaty with someone. They do not ask every person to sign this treaty, but first of all treaties are made at the level of two presidents, two ministers, two kings, depending on the structure of the country, and the whole country bears the responsibility for it. In the good and the bad sense. We see how, for the crimes of Pharaoh, even the firstborn of the slave woman in the pit perished. You will ask: “And the slave woman in the pit, what does she have to do with it?” She has to do with it because she is a subject of Pharaoh.

And you and I, unlike that slave woman, thank God, become subjects of Mashiach Yeshua and enter into his subjecthood, into his house, into his body, and must draw still more people into them. And as for the house of Israel and the house of Yehuda, we must see, according to Yirmeyahu, at the end of days the restoration of the covenant both with the house of Israel and with the house of Yehuda. We also read the description of the temple in Yechezkel, and much else can be imagined – this is eschatology, this is the science of the future. It is beautiful and good to dream about it, but the work, the earth is given to us here and now, and we must work on it. And in God's plan is the restoration of Israel and Yehuda, and we will see how this restoration will be a great blessing to the world, about which Paul speaks in the Epistle to the Romans. We will see their restoration on the threshold of our ark finishing its voyage to that place where it will be possible, so to speak, to park, to put in at the pier. This will be the main sign that the time is coming. And then all the prophecies that concern Israel will be fulfilled. And now Israel keeps the experience of communion with God, Scripture has been entrusted to it, and this is extremely important, God does not abandon, does not stop the operation of his covenant, and the covenant is in effect, but God will only renew, resurrect this covenant, just as He resurrects the covenant with Noach. We see this.

We were just talking not about Israel, but about the gentiles, therefore Israel is a separate conversation altogether, and perhaps it is worth talking about this in a separate place, but, one way or another, all mankind is potentially a part of the new people of God, at the center of which Israel will be. Nothing has come to replace Israel, we read today, the covenant with Israel will not be broken as long as the heaven and the earth are not destroyed. Israel will be restored, will return to its place, and that original world order that ought to be will be established. But the covenant with the gentiles was made already with Adam, repeated with Noach, repeated a third time with Avraham and a fourth time with Israel, which, like Noach for his family, for the earth, stands on behalf of all mankind.

God grant us to serve what the Most High requires of us, to serve in the earthly temple, to make more disciples, to bring more people to the Most High and to be faithful servants to him.

With the portion Lech Lecha the Torah begins the story of the history of the people of Israel. More precisely, everything begins with one seemingly insignificant event:

And the LORD said to Avraham: “Go away from your land, from your kin, from your father's house to the land that I will show you.

This very word go away (lech lecha) became the name of our weekly portion, but it so happened, due to a peculiarity of translation, that in Hebrew these are 2 words and not one. The first word lech really means go, and the Tanach is simply full of this word. “If you will walk in My ways” or “Blessed is the man who did not walk in the counsel of the wicked.” Apparently, the whole relationship with the Most High is connected with walking. Avraham walked before the Most High, Noach and Chanoch walked with the Most High. Life is likened to walking; to live means to go, to move in some direction. The second word in the phrase lech lecha means to yourself – go to yourself, to your very self. If we want to glue or join two parts, we must clean their surfaces of all debris, grease, dirt, so that they stick together well. And a person walks through his life, and Avraham in our case is a man no longer young, a lot of things have stuck to him, clung to him, some habits of pleasing others have appeared, some actions have appeared based on “what will they think of us,” and even beliefs that arose under the influence of others.

Each of us has something that is not us, that has clung to us, suppresses us, keeps us from developing. And first of all the call of the Most High lech lecha is go to yourself, go to the revealing of your very self, then I will be able to work with your soul. I will make you a great nation. When you are clean in yourself, remelted, purified, then I will be able to work with you. As Rebbe Zusha of Annopol said: “No one will ever ask me why I was not Avraham or Moshe. They will ask me why I was not Zusha.”

They will never ask me why I was never Moshe or why I was not David; they may ask me why I was not Alex, and my task is to become Alex as much as possible, that is, to realize what the Most High has put into me, precisely my qualities, and to remove from myself everything that showed up to please someone, out of a desire to appear right, righteous before someone, righteous and not happy. When I want to live to please others, I sacrifice my happiness; I am constantly choosing between righteousness and happiness, and you too are constantly choosing to be right or happy. Not righteous, but right! To look worthy in the eyes of society or to look happy.

The Most High wants me to be happy, and He has put into me everything that is needed for me to be happy. Not everything that is needed for me to be pleasing to others and to be liked by others. And in this very state of happiness, of purification, of purity, in this state I can follow the Most High. As the Rebbe of Tzanz said: “In my youth I wanted to change the world, then – the country, then – the family. And then I understood: God grant that I change myself.”

In our walking after the Most High, at the very beginning of the path, at the very beginning of Jewish history, the Most High says: “Go to your very self.” Sometimes we hear about repentance (in Hebrew teshuva – return). A return not to somewhere you have not been – you cannot return to where you have not been – return is a return to yourself, to the pattern by which you were molded, to that very happy person God created you to be, to that instrument for happiness which God put into you. With this begins the first commandment in Jewish history.

In chapter 13 of the book of Bereshit we read about how Lot chooses a place to live:

So, we see that the Torah here tells us an amazing thing, that there is a certain similarity between the garden of paradise (Gan Eden), Sedom and Amora, and the land of Egypt. Three, it would seem, such different locations have a certain similarity. And the Torah here tells us what the similarity is: it is all watered – mashke. Mashke means liquid, moisture. We read in the book of Bereshit that a river goes out of Eden leashkod – to water the garden. And this word leashkod is from the very same root as mashke – wateredness. In the garden of paradise, and in Sedom, and in the land of Egypt the wateredness of the land is unconditional, the abundance is unconditional. There can be no lack of anything there, and this is what unites these three completely different areas.

In the garden of paradise there existed a completely natural, innate connection between man and God. This connection was part of man's nature before the fall, and therefore the abundance of the land was also part of nature, part of the universe. After what happened happened, in the land of Canaan, which wholly and completely depends on rain, there was such a small piece of the garden of paradise, the places that were called Sedom and Amora and all that upland. The land of Canaan depends on rain.

So, last week the people of Israel began to pray for rain. Why last week? Because in their time there were pilgrims who came to Jerusalem for the festival of Sukkot, and it was necessary for them to get far enough away so that the rain would not catch them on the road, and then one could begin to pray for rain. Of course, the people pray for rain, but not everyone needs rain, not everyone loves rain; rain is pleasant for agriculture. It is nice when you sit at home and look out of the window at this little rain. There is even a children's song like this: “Rain, rain, stop dripping already.” We, on the one hand, pray for rain, and on the other hand, it wets our clothes, it is wet, it is cold, it is unpleasant. This rain and the prayer for it are a manifestation of the constant need to restore communion with the Most High, of the necessity to produce in one's heart fuel for communion with the Most High, so that this rain would come down on the earth, so that this rain would be. This is the particular feature of the land of Canaan: in it one must constantly maintain the relationship with God, so that the land gives its fruits.

What was going on in Sedom? Sedom was truly a cup of abundance, in it there was no shortage of anything. The prophet Yechezkel says that because of this idleness the city did not notice the poor, there was no care for the poor and the destitute. When a society believes in abundance and prosperity within itself, but is not ready to notice the destitute, the needy, the sick, when the society considers itself perfect, then if someone destitute, someone not right, suddenly slips in among it, he already becomes an enemy of this society. This happened in socialist systems, when they were not ready to accept a person who lacks something, who is dissatisfied with something: everyone, without exception, had to be happy. And this was the problem of Sedom: there happiness had become so much a public good, so much a necessary element of public life, that whoever was poor, whoever was destitute, became an enemy, undermined the very foundation of this universal prosperity. This is what, actually, as the prophet Yechezkel says, brought Sedom to ruin.

In Egypt it is a completely different variant. A higher level of this corruption by happiness. There is the Nile, which, as it spreads out, actually gives abundance to the whole land of Egypt, and there is Pharaoh, who says: “The Nile belongs to me, the Nile is mine, and I made it.” There is not only a society of prosperity, about which it is said: “With a movement of your foot you opened the watering of the fields for yourself” (you simply had to push aside the sluice gate, and the water went onto the fields). There was also Pharaoh, who had been declared a god and about whom they believed that he precisely was the source of this prosperity. This also exists in many countries, in many dictatorships, where the dictator is proclaimed to be someone who provides the people with happiness, gives it prosperity and thanks to whom the people prospers. That is why Yaakov blesses Pharaoh. What is the essence of the blessing of Pharaoh by Yaakov? To reveal that Pharaoh himself also needs a blessing, that there is some higher source of blessing and prosperity.

Very often a community of believers falls into such “paradise” situations. Often people believe and say: “We are believing people, after all, we are saved. And we have the Mashiach, and the Holy Spirit is upon us, we cannot have illnesses, sadness, melancholy, burnout, depression, grievances – none of this can we have. Whoever is infected with all of this is, like the destitute man in Sedom, – immediately an enemy to us, set against us and set against God.” And it also happens that material prosperity becomes the same kind of value. And it is said: “A poor person in our community? Why, that is because he is a sinner, because he is an enemy of God. That is because he is not part of us; in fact, he is an outsider, he is not from here. With us everything flourishes. Rain? What rain? No, we haven't heard about any rain.” And it seems that we have already built paradise on earth, it seems that we are in paradise, but it may turn out that this only looks like paradise, and in fact it is Sedom. Or it may turn out that this is Egypt, where some minister has declared that his vision, his revelations give the ground for the prosperity of the whole community, and only the one who is with him prospers. And if you do not prosper, then you are his enemy.

The Torah here shows us, shows us with a small remark, that there are places which are very similar to paradise, but they are in fact not paradise, they are Egypt – a source of impurity; they are Sedom – a source of depravity and of bitterness toward one another. Despite all this abundance, here there is an absence of love, hostility. And despite contentment with everything, despite idleness, here there is inattentiveness to the poor and the destitute, an absence of care for the other. A person has so much of everything that he has no time, no desire, no strength, and no need either, to look at another, to take in other people's troubles, sorrows. And if someone is in bitterness, then he is not one of ours and he is an outsider. In just such a “paradise” a completely sincere believing person may end up. Into just such a “paradise” a community of sincerely believing people may turn. Perhaps the necessity to pray for rain guards against this. This is something worth paying attention to and worth taking note of.

Read also: Noach, Vayera, covenants and the weekly portions of the Torah.