Kommentar zu Bereschit 15:17

ויהי השמש באה AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE SUN WENT DOWN —Similar syntactical constructions are (42:35) ויהי הם מריקים שקיהם “And it came to pass when they were emptying their sacks”, and (2 Kings 13:21) ויהי הם קוברים איש “and it came to pass when they were burying a man” — as much as to say, and this thing happened (i. e. after ויהי supply the words דבר זה: “And this thing happened: the sun set etc.”)

AND BEHOLD, A SMOKING FURNACE, AND A FLAMING TORCH. It appeared to Abraham as if the furnace was all smoke and in its midst a flaming torch was burning, similar to a great smoke, with a fire flashing up.³³²Seen by the prophet Ezekiel (1:4). In the actual verse the word “cloud” appears instead of the word “smoke.” The “smoke” mentioned here is the cloud, and thick darkness mentioned at the giving of the Torah,³³³Deuteronomy 4:11. and “the flaming torch” in its midst is “the fire” mentioned there: And thou didst hear His words out of the midst of the fire;³³⁴Ibid., Verse 36. and it is further written: And the appearance of the glory of the Eternal was like devouring fire, etc.³³⁵Exodus 24:17. Thus the Divine Glory passed between the parts of the sacrifices, and this is the covenant which He made with Abraham forever. This is the meaning of the verse, the Eternal made a covenant with Abraham,³³⁶Verse 18. as the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself carried through “the covenant of between the parts.” The student versed in the mysteries of the Torah will understand.

ויהי השמש באה, the word באה is accented on the first syllable, seeing that here it is a verb in the past tense.

This is similar to ויהי הם מריקים שקיהם ... Rashi is answering the question: Why is it written ויהי, masculine? שמש is feminine, as it is written באה, thus it should say ותהי השמש. Rashi answers that it means, “This thing happened (ויהי דבר זה), that the sun set.” So ויהי refers to [the implied phrase] דבר זה, similar to (Bereishis 42:35) ויהי הם מריקים שקיהם , which means: “This thing happened (ויהי דבר זה), that they were emptying their sacks.”

והנה תנור עשן ולפיד אש, “and suddenly Avram experienced as vision of a furnace and a fire, stroke of lightning;” the construction of this verse is somewhat lopsided, as the correct syntax should have been: ואש לפיד, “and fire in the form of a bolt of lightning.”

השמש באה THE SUN CAME — i.e. set.

ועלטה, a form of intense darkness. G'd hinted by the use of this intense darkness that there would be other exiles, and that the redemption from the exile in Egypt would not be the final redemption of the Jewish people. The description of the sun having set followed by עלטה, implies that there would be no light at all, no moon and no stars would be visible in the sky.

אשר עבר, “after G-d had informed Avram about the experiences of Avram’s descendants during the next 400 years or so,” G-d’s ”agents,” the fire and furnace, consumed the parts of the sacrifices that Avram had prepared.

ועלטה היה THERE WAS THICK DARKNESS — darkness during the day-time

והנה תנור עשן ולפיד אשת, the word עשן is an adjective used in the same kind of meter as חכם סכל, which means חכם וסכל, "a wise man who acts foolishly." We would translate it here as "a smoking furnace." The point is that within the overall vision, Avram saw another furnace belching smoke, within the general atmosphere of intense darkness. This latter picture was an allusion to G'd's anger which coats Israel with its some during the long years of exile, the final exile which is the worst of them all. This is also what David had to say concerning this long and most difficult exile, when he exclaimed in Psalms 80,5 עד מתי עשנת בתפלת עמך, "for how long will You remain smoking angrily at the prayers of Your people?"

'והנה תנור עשן וגו BEHOLD A SMOKING FURNACE — He foreshadowed to him that these Monarchies would descend into Gehinom (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 28).

ולפיד אש, a reference to the flame of fire traversing between the cut up carcasses of the sacrificial animals. This vision contained two separate allusions. First and foremost it part in concluding this covenant with Avram, a symbol of two humans walking between two parts of something which represents each party's portion of the covenant, treaty, pact. [the mutuality of a covenant could be demonstrated by each party to it keeping as a memento one half of a hundred dollar bil cut in half, ownership of which proves that one is a party to the treaty. Ed.] We find another example of this kind of confir4ming a pact, a covenant in Jeremiah 34,18 העגל רשר כרתו לשנים ויעברו בין בתריו, "the calf which the cut in two so as to pass between the halves." [the occasion was the solemn promise not to enslave again the Jewish slaves whom their owners had agreed to release in response to the prophet's (G'd's) demand with Nevuchadnezzar already at the gates of Jerusalem. Ed.] Following up on this symbolic phenomenon, we read here in verse 18 "on that day G'd had concluded a covenant with Avram, etc." In that verse we have the word לאמור, which introduces a second aspect of this covenant, i.e. that during all the many years that the exiles will last, G'd on His part will remember this covenant with the Jewish people, the descendants of Avram, and not totally abandon them. This same flame of fire which originally signified the concluding of the covenant will eventually consume those who defied the bond between Israel and G'd by cruelly suppressing them and trying to wean them away from their G'd. This will occur during the wars of Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38,22) etc.

באה IT (SHE) CAME — The accent is on the first syllable, consequently it must signify that it (the sun) had already set. If, however, the accent were on the last syllable, on the א, it would signify that there was darkness whilst it was setting (i. e. the former is a perfect, the latter a participle). It is impossible to explain it thus here (that it means the sun was setting) because it has already been stated (v. 12) “And it came to pass that when the sun was setting”, and the passing of the smoking furnace took place after this — consequently the sun had set already when it passed. This is the difference in the case of every word (verb), feminine gender, whose root has two letters, as בא ,קם ,שב: when the accent is on the first syllable, it is the perfect tense, as is this word באה here, and like (19:9) “And Rachel (באה) came”; (37:7) “And my sheaf קמה arose”; (Ruth 1:15) “Behold, thy sister-in-law (שבה) has gone back”; but when the accent is on the last syllable it is a present tense (participle), denoting an action being done now and continuing to be done, as for instance, (29:6) “She is coming (באה) with the sheep”; (Ester 2:14) “In the evening she used to come (באה) and in the morning (שבה) she used to return”.