Comentario sobre Génesis 15:2

הולך ערירי I GO CHILDLESS — Menachem ben Seruk explained it (ערירי) as meaning heir, and another example of it is (Malachi 2:12) ער ועונה “son and grandsonערירי — (״ then would mean “without child or heir” being an example of a word that has two opposite meanings, just as you say (Job 31:12) “and it would תשרש all my increase” — meaning it would tear up its roots, and the same word might also mean to take root. So, too, the meaning of ערירי is “without a child” although ער means “a child”. old French désenfanté; English childless. It, however, seems to me that the word ער in ער ועונה is of the same derivation as the same word in (Song 5:2). ולבי ער “and my heart awaketh”, whereas ערירי has the meaning of destroyed (a childless person being “demolished” so far as his memory in future generations is concerned; cf. Rashi on Genesis 16:2). Similarly (Psalms 137:7) ערו ערו “Rase it, rase it”; (Habakkuk 3:13) ערות יסוד “destroying the foundation”, and (Jeremiah 51:58) ערער תתערער “shall be utterly destroyed” and (Zephaniah 2:14) כי ארזה ערה “for the cedar-work thereof shall be destroyed”.

AND ABRAM SAID, O LORD ETERNAL, WHAT WILT THOU GIVE ME? “Behold, Thou hast saved me from the kings, but Thou hast not assured me against extinction. Thou hast only said that Thou wilt give me great reward, but what can my reward be without children?”
Now it had not occurred to Abraham that this great reward would be in the World to Come for there is no necessity for such a promise; every servant of G-d will find life in the hereafter before him. But in this world there are righteous men, unto whom it happened according to the work of the wicked.²²¹Ecclesiastes 8:14. It is for this reason that the righteous have need of assurance. Moreover, very great²²²Thy reward shall be ‘very great.’ implies that he will merit both worlds²²³“Both worlds,” literally “two tables,” a Rabbinic figure of speech (Berachoth 5 b) signifying access to the best of this world and also of the hereafter. with all the best therein without any punishment whatever as befits the really righteous people. Moreover, an assurance is given for that which a person fears. [Hence, he needed no assurance concerning the hereafter. But he feared being childless; therefore G-d] rejoined and explained that His assurance included that he should not fear this either, as He will make his children as the stars of heaven for multitude.²²⁴Deuteronomy 1:10.
You may ask: Has it not been told to Abraham already, For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth,²²⁵Above, 13:15-16. and so, how could Abraham now say, Since I go childless…lo, my household slave will be mine heir?²²⁶Verses 2-3 here. And why did he not believe in the first prophecy, as he would believe in this [second one which G-d will now relate to him?] The answer is that the righteous ones have no trust in themselves, fearing they might have sinned in error. Thus it is written At one instant I may speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and plant it; but if that nation turn and do evil before Me, then I repent of the good.²²⁷Jeremiah 18:7-10, with some changes. Now when Abraham saw himself advanced in years and the first prophecy concerning him had not yet been fulfilled, he thought that his sins had withheld that good from him.²²⁸See ibid., 5:25. And perhaps he now feared that he would be punished for the people that he killed in the war, as our Rabbis have said.²²⁹Bereshith Rabbah 44:5. They have expressed a similar thought in Bereshith Rabbah:²³⁰Ibid., 76:2. “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed.²³¹Genesis 32:8. From this we derive the principle that there is no assurance for the righteous ones in this world, etc.”

?מה תתן לי, a reference to the reward in this life.

ויאמר אברם א-רני ה' מה תתן לי, the first attribute for G’d is spelled with the letter א-ד, an attribute, adjective, whereas the second name of G’d is the name used to describe the Essence of G’d, what we call Hashem for short. The adjective precedes the noun it describes in order to make clear that the adjective (G’d’s attribute) is in a construct mode of the noun (Essence) and not vice versa. It is not possible to convert the name of G’d the Essence into an adjective mode. If, nonetheless, we encounter such formulations on occasions, when it appears as if G’d’s name (the Essence) has been used as if it were an adjective, this merely reflects the way in which human beings use such terms, i.e. the fault is man’s not the Torah’s.

מה תתן לי, “what can You give me?” Seeing that You have saved me from the Kings but have not given me assurances regarding my having children. Although You promised me a great reward, what is the meaning of any reward as long as I do not have any children to whom I can pass on this reward? The thought that the “great reward” G’d had promised would refer to another dimension entirely, his life in the hereafter, did not occur to Avraham at that time. The reason it did not occur to him was that he had been convinced that anyone serving the Lord would have a share in the hereafter. He knew that if the lives of the righteous do not seem to be substantially different from that of the wicked, this is a condition which exists only in this terrestrial life. Furthermore, the wording הרבה מאד implies that the reward will not be marred by any punishment in respect of sins committed so that he will be “eating at both tables,” using the expression coined by our sages.

The reason why we have two verses in both of which G’d is reported as speaking (separately) although no mention is made of Avram making any response in between, is that the first verse commencing with ויאמר was not a verbalised version of what G’d “said,” but describes what he thought. Such constructions are not unique, other examples occurring in Genesis 27,41 ויאמר עשו בלבו, “Esau said in his heart, etc.” It is reported as Esau having said something, else how could his mother have heard it? Solomon, in Kohelet 2,1 also uses the word אמרתי when describing something he thought rather than something he had actually said.

אדנ׳ יְֶדוִד, eine Bezeichnung Gottes, die überhaupt nicht viel vorkommt und hier zum erstenmale steht. In der תורה findet sie sich nur noch dreimal, einmal noch in Abrahams Mund: במה אדע כי אירשנה (Kap.15, 18), und zweimal bei Moses: אתה החלות להראו׳ und ,(5. B. M. 9, 26)(B. M. 3, 24 .5) אל תשחת עמך ונחלתך

'ויאמר אברם, אלוקים וגו, “Avram then said: “G-d,!” [the name of G-d here is spelled as אדני, ] etc; “what are You going to give me, seeing that I am without biological heir;” [i.e. what good will these rewards do me if I cannot pass them on to biological heirs? Ed.] The reader is reminded that Avram had been promised biological heirs by this G-d in Genesis 12,7 when He had told him that He would give the land of the Canaanites to his biological descendants. At that time he had not questioned this promise because he had believed that with the help of prayer he would earn the merit of siring biological heirs. When he realised that in spite of this, many years had passed without this promise having been fulfilled, he had begun to feel that perhaps he had committed some sin that had prevented G-d from fulfilling this promise. This is why he pointed out that he was still without such heirs.

ובן משק ביתי AND THE STEWARD OF MY HOUSE — Explain it as the Targum has it, “the man of my household”, meaning the man by whose orders all my household is fed. Similarly, (Genesis 41:40) “And according to thy word shall all my people be fed (ישק)” — so that it signifies my administrator.

WHAT WILT THOU GIVE ME, SINCE I ‘HOLECH’ (GO) CHILDLESS? They²³²Jonathan and R’dak. Jonathan translates: “For I pass from the world.” R’dak expressly says that Abraham feared that he might “die” childless. have explained the word holech as meaning “I die childless,” even as is the meaning of that word in the verse, For man is ‘holech’ (going) to his eternal home.²³³Ecclesiastes 12:5. Now just as holech here refers to death, so in the words of Abraham it has the same connotation.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that at first he [Abraham] complained: “What can my reward be since I have no children and I go as a vagrant and vagabond alone in a strange land, like a tamarisk in the desert,²³⁴Jeremiah 17:6. no one going out, and no one coming in²³⁵Joshua 6:1. in my house except Eliezer, a stranger that I brought to me from Damascus, not from my family, and not from my country.” Then Abraham said, “Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed²³⁶Verse 3 here. as Thou hast promised me, and lo my household slave, the one mentioned, will be mine heir, as I am old without child, and my time will come to die childless. I am thus punished, having lost the reward which Thou hast promised me at first.”

ערירי, “I have no son who can take my place.” Compare Jeremiah 22,30 כתבו את האיש הזה ערירי כי לא יצלח מזרעו איש יושב על כסא דוד, “record this man as without succession; one who shall never be found successful, for none of his offspring will be accepted to sit on the throne of David.” (the subject of this curse is כניהו son and heir of Yehoyakim)

?מה תתן לי, Avram’s question did not relate to what G’d would give him as a reward in the hereafter, rather he wondered what meaningful reward there could be for him on earth seeing he had no children. Any reward in this life in the absence of children to leave it to, he considered meaningless. His reward would only be consumed by others, not related to him.

ואנכי הולך ערירי, “seeing that I am going childless.” He meant that he would die leaving behind no biological heir. According to Nachmanides he first complained about the meaninglessness of any reward in the absence of that of having children, which meant that he was wandering on the face of the earth without a permanent abode in a land which was not his birthplace. He described the only person that had constant social intercourse with him as being his servant Eliezer who himself was a stranger in those parts, having come there from Damascus, a long way off. After having said this he had added: “here You have not granted me seed as You have promised me,” so that my heir will be this Eliezer. At this stage Avraham did not believe that G’d’s promise meant that he would have children would materialise, so that G’d felt impelled to repeat in a clear manner that he would have physical heirs, genetically his, and that his descendants would be at home in this land, in fact inheriting all of it in due course. [any question about Avraham doubting G’d’s promise is predicated on the assumption that the Torah reports in chronological sequence, so that what we read here occurred after he left his father’s home on his journey to the land of Canaan as his new home. If this vision occurred before he had already moved to the land of Canaan, Avraham’s remonstrating with G’d is quite easy to understand. Ed.] At any rate, righteous people do not believe in themselves, always fearing that some sin on their part will invalidate promises made to them. Although, in the event, only half his lifetime had passed by this time, he considered himself as aging and past the stage where he could sire children easily. He feared a son born too close to his death. Some commentators are convinced that Avraham did not believe G’d’s promises now any more than he had on previous occasions, but that he was afraid that if such an heir would be born only near the end of his father’s life his servant would have to become his heir in practice, at least, until his son would be of age. G’d reassured him on this score, saying that the son who would inherit Avraham would not only be his genetically, but would be adult and take over all that was his.

Der שם אדנות — Abraham war der erste, der Gott אדון nannte — kommt stets im Munde eines ׳עבר ד, eines נביא vor. Der Mensch, der sich als Werkzeug Gottes begreift und sich in seinem Dienste weiß, nennt Gott seinen sHK, und zwar nicht אדני, sondern יָ—, nicht bloß "auch mein Herr" unter vielem andern, was mich beherrscht, sondern "meine Herren": er hat und kennt keine anderen Einflüsse, Rücksichten, Beziehungen, über ihn gebietende Mächte, als Gott, den er deshalb: "seine Herren" nennt.

הוא דמשק אליעזר, “the heir apparent at this stage is only the servant Eliezer who was born in Damascus.” He was a grandson of the great pagan Nimrod.

If, however, I had a son, my son would be in charge of my affairs. דמשק OF DAMASCUS — According to the Targum he was of Damascus, but according to the Midrashic explanation (Genesis Rabbah 44:9) he bore this designation because he had pursued the kings as far as Damascus. In the Talmud (Yoma 28b) they explained it as an abbreviation of דולה ומשקה “One who drew up and gave to drink to others of the edifying waters of instruction given by his Teacher.

ובן משק ביתי הוא דמשק אליעזר, he is only a slave, known only in his home town. There can be no question but that similar actions performed by a slave who is in constant fear of his master’s disapproval, even if in fact the same as those performed by the master’s son, are different in quality, and in effect from one another. The same chores performed by the son are motivated by love instead of by fear.

ערירי, “childless,” as rendered by Onkelos. If a member of my household will inherit me, even if it is my servant who is faithful to me, and a willing disciple, You have said to me “to you and to your descendants I will give it.”

יְֶדוִד ist die tiefste Zusammenstellung selbst nach dem einfachen Verständnis der Gottesnamen, welches das allgemeine Erbteil unseres VolksBewusstseins ist. Es ist geschrieben als מדת הרחמים und lautet als מדת הדין, lehrt somit, dass, wenn Gott äußerlich in seinem Ernste und seiner Gerechtigkeit erscheint, dieser Ernst und diese Strenge selbst nur als verhüllte Liebe zu begreifen, ברגז רחם תזכור, sein Ernst nur Werkzeug der Liebe sei, und im ernstesten Walten Bausteine für die segenreiche Zeit gelegt werden. Es ist derselbe שם הויה, nur als שם אלקים gelesen. Wenn also Abraham der Erscheinung Gottes gegenüber, die die Ahnung einer ernsten trüben Zukunft in ihm wach gerufen, und ihm gleichzeitig seine bleibende schützende Gnade zugesichert, mit diesen Worten אדני יְֶדוִד entgegentritt, so spricht er damit aus: "Du, mein Herr, in dessen Dienst ich stehe, der du strenge bist und doch die Liebe, ich brauche nichts zu verstehen, bedarf keines Aufschlusses, du bist ׳ד, auch wenn du als אלקי׳ erscheinst", und hat damit sein ganzes Inneres, seine ganze bedingungslose Hingebung ausgesprochen. Dies schickt Abraham voraus und fügt dann hinzu: מה תתן לי, was willst du mir denn noch Segen geben, für mich habe ich keinen Wunsch mehr; ja, wenn ich ein Kind noch hätte, dem mein Segen zu gute kommen könnte, allein ich gehe ja kinderlos hin. — Abraham hatte die Zusicherung der fortdauernden Liebe zunächst persönlich verstanden, wie ja auch am Schlusse diese Zusicherung eine zunächst persönliche Bedeutung enthält אתה תבא אל אבתיך .usw בשלום

ובן משק ביתי, he will become my heir, if I will not have a biological heir. He is, after all, completely at home in my house.

מֶשֶק rad. שקק, wie מֶכֶס von שקק .כסם verstärktes שוק: iSehnsucht haben, hungrig, lüstern sein, nach etwas schmachten, Grundbedeutung: starke, sehnsüchtige Be- wegung nach etwas hin, שוק: Markt, wo alles zusammenströmt, שוק, die starken Bewegungsmuskeln, daher משק: die Sehnsucht. בן משק ביתי wie בן תשוקת ביתי der berechnende Erbe, derjenige, der auf mein Haus lauert, das ist nicht Elieser, der wartet nicht auf Abrahams Tod, der ist selbst schon ein bejahrter Mann; die auf meine Erbschaft lauernden Erben, das sind die Verwandten Eliesers, Eliesers Damaskus! Diese Verwandtschaft hatte ja Abraham kürzlich kennen gelernt, hatte die Könige bis Damaskus verfolgt — "gib mir darum nichts, was du mir gibst, gibst du mir für die damaskenischen Verwandten Eliesers".

משק, the root of the word is שקק, is grammatically parallel to such words as מכס, whose root is כסס, the meaning of the word is מן השוק, i.e. someone who comes and goes, not someone whose roots are in my house. The root occurs in that sense in Proverbs 28,15 דוב שוקק, “a prowling bear.” Both the roots כסס and שקק describe similar activities.

דמשק אליעזר. It is possible that the letter י at the end of the word דמשק, i.e. דמשקי is missing here. If so, the meaning is “Eliezer, the man from Damascus, etc.” It would be similar to שבט המנשה being described in Deut 29,7 as שבט המנשי. We also have variations such as משפחת הימנה whereas in the same verse we have משפחת הישוי, with the letter י at the end instead of the letter ה. (compare Numbers 26,44) Onkelos also translates it in this sense when writing דמשקאה “from Damascus.” It is also possible that the servant’s name was Damessek when he came to Avram, and that his master changed his name to Eliezer, seeing that this is a Hebrew name. He was referred to by either name on different occasions. In that event, Avram was saying that if my heir were to be at least somebody belonging to my family it would not be so bad, but I will not even have an heir from my family, but a stranger from Damascus. Seeing that Avram felt that badly about such a prospect, he repeated, i.e. he continued harping on this subject still further in verse 3 saying: