Kommentar zu Bereschit 12:7

ויבן שם מזבח AND HE BUILDED THERE AN ALTAR — in thanksgiving for the good tidings that he would have children, and for the good tidings that they would possess the land of Israel.

The sense of the expression, And there he built an altar unto the Eternal, who appeared unto him,⁵⁷Verse 7 here. is that he gave praise to the Glorious Name⁵⁸Deuteronomy 28:58. and offered unto Him a sacrifice of thanksgiving for His having appeared to him. Until now G-d had not appeared to him neither in a mar’eh nor in a machzeh.⁵⁹Mar’eh and Machzeh are terms for different degrees of prophetic vision. See Ramban further, 15:1. See also Moreh Nebuchim, II, 41-5, for full discussion of these terms and other prophetic experiences. Rather, the command, Get thee out of thy country, was said to him in a nocturnal dream or through Ruach Hakodesh.⁶⁰Literally, “The Holy Spirit.” See ibid., Chapter 45, beginning: “second degree of prophecy.” It is possible that the expression, Who appeared unto him, alludes to the mystery of the sacrifice. The one enlightened [in the mysteries of the Torah] will understand.

There he built an altar. God did not appear to Avraham when He gave him the order to go to Canaan because He does not grant visions outside of the Holy Land. Similarly, Avraham did not wish to build an altar where God does not allow His Presence to dwell.

וירא ה׳ אל אברם. G'd appeared to Abram. The Torah wishes to compliment Abraham on his great love for his Creator. G'd appeared to Abraham and promised him not only children but that his descendants would inherit the land he was on. Abraham considered the mere fact that G'd appeared to him as sufficient reason to build an altar for G'd. The feeling that G'd had deemed him worthy to appear to him was so overpowering that Abraham considered the promise of children and of the land as secondary. This is why the Torah stresses that he built the altar "to the G'd who appeared to him." This is what David said in Psalms 16,11: "In Your presence is perfect joy." Perhaps we find an echo of these sentiments when Ben Azzai declined to marry, saying that he was so in love with Torah that he could not do justice to the demands made upon him by marriage ( Yevamot 63).

וירא ה' אל אברם, at Elon Moreh, He appeared to him, telling him that this is the land He promised to show him.

For the tidings of children ... Rashi is answering the question: Why did Avraham build an altar now? If he built it on account of the Divine revelation, as the verse seems to be saying, then he should have built an altar in Charan as well — for Hashem appeared to him also there and said, “Go from your land.” Although it is not written there, “God appeared,” it was a Divine revelation nonetheless. Therefore Rashi explains, “For the tidings of children and for the tidings of Eretz Yisrael.” For it says, “To your descendants I will give this land,” and this contains both tidings. Furthermore, Rashi knows this because it is written, “To Adonoy Who had appeared to him.” Why is it not written just, “To Adonoy”? Because from “Who had appeared to him,” we learn that he built the altar on account of the vision he had now: the tidings of children and Eretz Yisrael.

ויאמר לזרעך אתן, G’d told him that although He had bidden him to leave his homeland and to come to this country and to settle in it, He had not said that He would give this land to Avram forthwith by dispossessing the present inhabitants, as this was not practical, Avram being only a single individual. Possession of this land was possible only after his descendants had become sufficiently numerous. As of the time G’d was speaking to Avram, the land, instead of being an inheritance, would be like a gift to him, and he was expected to familiarise himself with his gift. He would encounter only sympathy and goodwill from the local inhabitants. When, in due course, his descendants, more than 600.000 strong, would come back here they would encounter hostility, and the conquest would take quite a while, the inhabitants being killed or driven out in stages, as was spelled out in greater detail in Exodus 23,30.

ויבן שם מזבח, in response to this promise, Avram erected an altar there in honour of the G’d Who had appeared to him.