Kommentar zu Bereschit 28:14
וְהָיָ֤ה זַרְעֲךָ֙ כַּעֲפַ֣ר הָאָ֔רֶץ וּפָרַצְתָּ֛ יָ֥מָּה וָקֵ֖דְמָה וְצָפֹ֣נָה וָנֶ֑גְבָּה וְנִבְרֲכ֥וּ בְךָ֛ כָּל־מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥ת הָאֲדָמָ֖ה וּבְזַרְעֶֽךָ׃
Deine Nachkommen sollen wie der Staub der Erde sein, und du sollst dich ausbreiten gen Westen, gen Osten, gen Norden und gen Süden, und mit dir und deinen Nachkommen sollen sich alle Geschlechter auf Erden segnen.
Rashi on Genesis
ופרצת means AND THOU SHALT BECOME STRONG, like (Exodus 1:12) “the more they became strong".
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Rashbam on Genesis
ונברכו, an expression meaning “refining and improving thereby.” It means that these nations will be improved through intermarriage with your family.
כל משפחות האדמה. The word is in a passive, weak mode as I have already explained on the same phrasing in Genesis 12,3
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Sforno on Genesis
והיה זרעך כעפר הארץ, ופרצת, after your descendants will have multiplied so that they are as the dust of the earth, numerically speaking, you will spread out. The expression is to be understood as similar to Isaiah 51,23: ותשימי כארץ גוך וכחוץ לעוברים, “so that you made your back like the ground, like a street for passers by.” Precisely when the Jewish people will have reached a seeming low point in their collective experience (downtrodden by the Egyptian taskmasters, or in later exiles) they will expand and become powerful in a measure never before seen on earth. ימה וקדמה צפונה ונגבה, when that time arrives Bileam’s prophecy in Numbers 24,17 וקרקר כל בני שת, “it will smash the foundation of all mankind.” The final redemption of the Jewish people will come after they have suffered the low point in their history. (Compare Sanhedrin 95: “if you see a generation experiencing so many persecutions and setbacks that it appears a raging river is inundating them, wait for the ending for the prophet Isaiah in his description of the redemption writes of it immediately after having described the very opposite in chapter 59, 19-20”)
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