Kommentar zu Bereschit 12:8

ויעתק משם AND HE REMOVED FROM THERE — supply the word אהלו “his tent”.

AND HE CALLED UPON THE NAME OF THE ETERNAL. Onkelos explained it as meaning that he prayed there, just as in the verse, I called upon Thy name, O Eternal, out of the lowest dungeon.⁶¹Lamentations 3:55.
The correct interpretation is that Abraham loudly proclaimed the name of the Eternal there before the altar, informing people of Him and of His Divine essence. In Ur of the Chaldees he taught people but they refused to listen. Now, however, that he had come to the land concerning which he had been promised, And I will bless them that bless thee,⁶²Verse 3 here. he became accustomed to teach and to proclaim the Deity. Scripture likewise tells of Isaac — when he went to the valley of Gerar where he was promised, Fear not, for I am with thee⁶³Further, 26:24. — that he built an altar there and invoked the name of the Eternal⁶⁴Ibid., Verse 25. since he had come to a new place where they had not heard of His fame or seen His glory, and he proclaimed His glory among these nations.⁶⁵See Isaiah 66:19. Now a similar statement is not made concerning Jacob, [i.e., that he proclaimed the name of the Eternal before the peoples of the land of Canaan], for since he begot many children — all of whom were worshippers of G-d — and he had a great community, which was called “the congregation of Israel,”⁶⁶Exodus 12:3, et al. it was through them that the Faith was proclaimed and became known to all people. Besides, the Faith had been proclaimed throughout the entire land of Canaan since the days of his ancestors. In Bereshith Rabbah⁶⁷39:24. the Rabbis similarly say, “And he called upon the name of the Eternal. This teaches us that he caused the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, to be in the mouth of all people.”

בית אל מים והעי מקדם, between two large cities, in order to attract large crowds who could hear him preach.

ויעתק משם ההרה. He moved on from there to the hills. Seeing that the word ויעתק is transitive, the object seems to be missing in this verse. Rashi says that the object is Abraham's tent. This seems inadequate. Perhaps we have an allusion here that Abraham moved a rock [simile for G'd] from the place where G'd had appeared to him. This would correspond to something the sages said in Berachot 5 about the verse in Job 18,4: "Will earth's order be disrupted for your sake? Will a Rock be dislodged from His place?" The lesson here would be that whenever Israel moves from a place it has offered prayers to G'd, G'd moves with Israel. This concept was introduced by Abraham and Israel draws on Abraham's merit to this day in this respect.

ויעתק משם ההרה, he folded his tent to set out to go to the more mountainous regions east of Bet El, to examine that part of the land, and pitching his tent anew in the area between Bet El and Ai. When arriving there he again built an altar proclaiming the supremacy and uniqueness of the Lord G’d. The ending ה in the word אהלה means the same as the ending ו, i.e. as if the Torah had written אהלו. Avram in “proclaiming” the name of the Lord, issued invitations to the local population to visit this altar, pointing out that this altar was exclusively for serving the Lord and sacrificing to Him. Perhaps the repetition of the words בשם ה' indicates that the people whom Avram invited to his altar were already very close to becoming monotheists. According to Bereshit Rabbah 39,16, quoted by Rashi, he prophesied that at that site or near it, some of his descendants would fall in battle, due to the sin of Achan and members of his family. (Joshua 7,5).

ויקרא בשם ה', “He proclaimed his belief in the Lord of heaven.” Onkelos translates this as Avraham simply offering a prayer there to his G’d. According to the plain meaning of the words Avraham did much more than that. He proclaimed his faith loudly for all the people to hear. We find that his son Yitzchok did something similar (Genesis 21,33). It is noteworthy that we do not find a reference in the Torah to Yaakov doing something similar. The reason is that Yaakov had many sons and that his family itself was a constant reminder to the people around them of their belief in the only G’d, the G’d in heaven, the Creator of mankind.

This refers to his tent. Rashi is answering the question: Why does it say ויעתק, a term that is used in conjunction with a living being? The proper term is יציאה, as in v. 5: ויקח אברם ... ויצאו ללכת ארצה כנען. Or the term נסיעה, as in v. 9: ויסע אברם.... Thus Rashi explains that ויעתק is referring to his tent, i.e., he moved his tent, [not himself].

עתק. Vergleichen wir die verschiedenen Bedeutungen dieser Wurzel, so ergibt sich als Grundbedeutung: die gewaltsame, (unerwartete, widernatürliche, ordnungswidrige etc. etc.) Versetzung eines Gegenstandes in eine ihm ursprünglich nicht gehörige räumliche, zeitliche, sittliche, soziale Stellung. Daher צור יעתק, das Verrücken von Felsen; עתיק, das in eine andere Zeit Hinüberragende, sehr alte. Daher auch der eigentliche Ausdruck für Tradition: העתקה, das Hinübertragen von Wahrheiten aus einer Zeit in die andere: עתק ,אשר העתיקו אנשי חזקיה: die Ungebühr und עתוק (Hiob 21, 7) die die Grenzen des Gebührenden überschreitende Stellung der Reichen. ויעת wie hier kommt nur bei Jizchak (Kap.26, 22) vor, der eigentlich gedacht hatte. dort zu bleiben, dann aber, wegen der vielen Streitigkeiten, nach dreimaligem Brunnengraben sich nur schwer zum Weiterziehen entschloß. Wir sind also berechtigt, auch hier nicht ein gewöhnliches Weiterziehen, sondern ein solches zu verstehen, bei welchem ein Widerstand, ein Widerwille, überhaupt etwas zuvor zu überwinden gewesen. Wir haben daher nicht an das Fortrücken des Zeltes zu denken, denn ein Zelt abzubrechen und fortzubringen bietet keine ungewöhnlichen Schwierigkeiten. Vielmehr ist das nicht ausgedrückte weil selbstverständliche Objekt: seine Leute. "Abraham hatte einige Energie nötig, seine Leute zum Aufbruch nach dem Gebirge zu bewegen". Abraham suchte noch immer die Isolierung. לזרעך, nicht לך war dies Land verheißen. Es mögen die Seinen sich in der fruchtreichen freundlichen Ebene behaglicher gefühlt haben, er folgte seiner Pflicht, die ihn ins einsame und vereinsamende Gebirge wies, und vermochte die Seinen, ihm dorthin zu folgen. Bedeutsam zeichnen die Weisen das Verhältnis der drei "Väter" zu einander: אברהם קראו הר ,יצחק שדה ,יעקב בית Abraham nannte die Offenbarungsstätte Gottes, den Kreis, in welchem der Mensch Gott zu finden habe: הר, Berg. Er, der Vereinzelte, Einzige in Mitte der Menschen, in dem gesellschaftlichen Kreis der Menschen fand er Gott nicht mehr; sollte er den Spuren des göttlichen Waltens folgen und sich zu Gott erheben, so musste er die freie Bergnatur aufsuchen, wohin die Spuren des menschlichen Waltens noch nicht gereicht. Jemehr die Geschichte der Väter fortschritt, fanden sie in ihrem eigenen Geschicke den Offenbarungsfinger Gottes. Jizchak nannte ihn שדה, Feld, also nicht mehr die freie, sondern die bereits dem Menschen für seine Nahrungszwecke zugewandte Natur. Jizchak schaute schon in diesen — wenngleich immerhin noch äußerlichen — aber doch schon das Menschendasein nahe berührenden Verhältnissen die Gänge der besonderen Gotteswaltung (ויזרע וגו׳ וימצא וגו׳ מאה שערים). Jakob brauchte nicht mehr das Haus zu verlassen, um Gott zu finden, er fand ihn da, wo Gott auf immer von uns gefunden werden will, er war Familienvater; nicht auf Bergen, nicht in Hain und Flur, in seinem Hause schaute er Gott, sein Familienleben war die Offenbarungsstätte Gottes: קראו בית, der Stein, auf welchen der Mensch sein müdes Haupt niederlegt, ward ihm "Gotteshaus!" — הר, Wurzel הרר, verwandt ,חרר ערר ,ארר, alles Wurzeln von Isolierungsbegriffen. Vielleicht heißt Berg הר, weil er die Kontinuität der Erdoberfläche unterbricht und als isoliertes und isolierendes Erdstück in die Höhe steigt.

ויט אהלה, “he pitched his tent;” Rashi already comments on the peculiarity of the word אהלה, being spelled with the letter ה at the end, when the pronoun ending for “his” should have been the letter ו. He gives as the reason that the Torah wished us to know that Avraham pitched his wife’s tent before he pitched his own. (based on B’reshit Rabbah). This raises the question why the same word is similarly misspelled in Genesis 9,21 when the subject was Noach’s tent? What are we to deduce from that? We may answer that the reason why the Israelites of the Kingdom of Jerobam, i.e. the ten tribes who had seceded from the Kingdom of David, were exiled, shortly after Solomon had died? According to tradition as spelled out in the Book of prophets, the decree to exile them was sealed because they indulged in debauchery caused by indulging in too much wine too many times. Noach having become too drunk occurred in his wife’s tent, or near its entrance. (Compare Amos 6,6, on the subject of these tribes’ drunkenness) Compare also Ezekiel 23,4: where the word אהליבמה for the capital of that kingdom which had really been Shomron, was changed to indicate that G–d had no place in that kingdom and in its rulers’ considerations. Both the word אהלה and אהליבמה are used by the prophet to describe the disloyal Jews in each kingdom. [The reader is referred to the commentary by Rabbi M. Eiseman in the Art Scroll edition of the Book of Ezekiel, even Jerusalem‘s name being changed in that chapter, as except during the reign of King Chizkiyahu things were not much better in the Kingdom of Yehudah. Ed.]

ויעתק משם, “he moved on from there;” we find the same expression having a similar meaning in Job 9,5, i.e. המעתיק הרים, “He Who moves mountains.”

מקדם לבית אל means ON THE EAST OF BETHEL. Consequently Bethel lay to his west, and that is what it states בית אל מים BETHEL ON THE WEST.

Means east of Beis-Eil. Rashi is saying that מקדם is connected to ההרה, and is explaining where the mountain was. It does not refer back to, “From there he moved,” stating from where he traveled. Rashi proof is because it is written: “Beis-Eil was to the west and Ai was to the east.” If מקדם refers to where he traveled from, why was Beis-Eil described as being to the west? On the contrary: before he traveled, Beis-Eil was to his west. But now that he traveled from the east [of Beis-Eil] in a different direction [of Beis-Eil], it would no longer be to his west. Thus, we must say that מקדם is connected to ההרה. And this is why Rashi then says, “Whereby Beis-Eil is located to his west.” I.e., it is now understandable for Beis-Eil to be described as being to the west. We need not ask: If it means “east of Beis-Eil” why is it not written בקדם. For מקדם, too, conveys that the mountain was east of Beis-Eil. The מ of מקדם is like the מ in, “Adonoy Elohim planted a garden in Eden, to the east (בעדן מקדם)” (2:8). And there it means, “East of Eden.”

The message in this verse may also be that whenever Abraham put up his tent henceforth, he first dismantled the altar he had built and rebuilt it at the site he would erect his tent.

Dem ויעתק steht höchst bedeutsam das אהלה, mit feminalem ה geschrieben, gegenüber. Während er dort, wo es die ganze Stellung seines Hauses betraf, vielleicht selbst Sara gegenüber seine Autorität geltend machen mußte, war hier, im Hause, sein Haus eigentlich Saras Haus. Nach außen der Mann, im innern das Weib; das Haus ganz dem götllichen Willen als Leitstern unterzuordnen, des Mannes Autorität; in allem übrigen häuslichen Walten das Weib voran: das der Grundzug des innigen jüdischen Familienlebens, dessen Ursprung im Zelte Abrahams wurzelt. — Auch dort, im Gebirge, konnte er in Städte ziehen; allein er mied die Städte und blieb zwischen Bethel und Ai. Bethel war die Stätte, die zuerst eigentlich von Jakob in Besitz genommen wurde. Ai das erste Stück Land, das später Abrahams Enkel wirklich in Besitz nahmen, (es aber auch — wie schon zu Abrahams Zeit die ganze Umgegend trümmerreich gewesen zu sein scheint, worauf der Artikel העי hinweist — Trümmer bleiben ließen; er überschritt die Trümmer, ging aber nicht nach ביתאל). Schon רמב"ץ weist darauf hin, dass diesem ersten und den ferneren Zügen Abrahams sich die spätere Geschichte seines Volkes analog gestaltete.

מקדם לבית אל, “from the eastern side of Bet El, westward.”

אהלה HIS TENT — This word is written with a ה suffixed instead of the usual ו so that it may read אָהֳלָהּ “her tent” to intimate that first he pitched a tent for his wife and afterwards one for himself (Genesis Rabbah 39:15).

He first pitched his wife’s tent. You might ask: How does Rashi know? Perhaps it was the reverse! The answer is: Since it says in Yevamos 63b, “A man is obligated to honor his wife more than himself,” Avraham surely pitched hers first.

ויקרא בשם ד׳ gegenüber einer Welt, deren ganze Lebensrichtung in das נעשה לנו .aufging שם

ויבן שם מזבח AND HE BUILDED THERE AN ALTAR — He perceived by the gift of prophecy that his descendants would once stumble (fall into sin) there through Achan’s transgression (see, Joshua 7): therefore he prayed there for them (Genesis Rabbah 39:15).

He prophetically saw that his descendents were destined. Rashi is answering the question: Why did Avraham build another altar? He already built one for the tidings of children and Eretz Yisrael. It seems that Hashem showed him specially this trouble, because it was like putting a qualification on the gift of Eretz Yisrael to his descendants (v. 7). If his descendants will sin as Achan did, they will fall into the hands of the Canaanites. (Kitzur Mizrachi)