Halakhah sobre Génesis 15:5

And you ought to know that at the intellectual meal which is for the soul alone, prepared for the righteous in the world of souls or in the life of the world to come, the righteous are not all equal in this, but there is a hierarchy of status, one above the other. And thus they interpreted “sove’a’ semahot“¹⁵³An expression in Ps 16:11: “You will teach me the path of life. In your presence is perfect joy – sove’a’ semahot.” – “perfect joy” in a midrash in Sifre:¹⁵⁴Sifre Devarim 10. “The faces of the righteous in time to come will be like the sun, the moon, the horizon, the stars, lightning, flowers, and the menorot of the Temple.” And likewise they said in Seder Eliahu Zuta,¹⁵⁵Chavel says he couldn’t find this tradition in Seder Eliahu Zuta, but it is in b. Baba Batra 75a. “The righteous have seven huppot in the Garden of Eden, as it is said, ‘The Lord will create over the whole shrine and meeting place of Mt. Zion cloud by day, and smoke with a glow of flaming fire by night, etc.”¹⁵⁶Is 4:5: “The Lord will create over the whole shrine and meeting place of Mt. Zion cloud by day, and smoke with a glow of flaming fire by night. Indeed, over each ‘glory’ (kavod) will hang a huppah.” Cf Is 4:1: “In that day seven women shall take hold of one man…” You can see where the midrash gets the idea of seven wedding huppot in the future to come. So Rashi explains in a comment to b. Baba Batra 75a: “Indeed over each glory (or honor ) will hang a huppah: (1) “the cloud by day,” (2) “smoke”, (3) “glow”, (4) “fire”, (5) “flaming”, (6) “over each glory”, and (7) “huppah.” But “over each glory” doesn’t seem to belong to this count, but rather the “sukkah which will serve for shade by day” which follows immediately in the next verse (Is 4:6), making seven. It was this that was referred to when the Holy One Blessed be He promised Abraham Our Father in the “Covenant between the pieces” when He said to him, “Count the stars,” and “So shall your offspring be,”¹⁵⁷Gen 15:5. that is to say, just as the stars are arranged by levels, each star’s light greater than its neighbor, with some below it and some above, so in time to come your offspring will be arranged in levels, based on their light of Torah and wisdom, each one greater than the other, each one above the other. And thus in the light of the world to come, the level of the righteous will be one above the other, some of them worthy of the “glass that does not reflect”¹⁵⁸That is, the least obstructed view of God. See the Second Gate (pp. 492-3)., others “the glass which does reflect,” some that go up inside, that is, have permission to, and others who do not go up inside. And all of this they described in a midrash in Tractate Sukkah,¹⁵⁹B.Sukkah 45b. “The row [of righteous men immediately] before the Holy One, blessed be He, consists of eighteen thousand, for it is said, ‘It shall be eighteen thousand round about,'”¹⁶⁰Ez 48:35. which Rashi explained as “eighteen thousand of the righteous surrounding the Shekhinah.”¹⁶¹Rashi’s comment to B.Sukkah 45b. And the explanation of his explanation is that they do so at each of the four winds of the world, and if so, each wind has four thousand five hundred righteous people, and this is what “eighteen thousand round about”¹⁶²Ez 48:35. refers to.

4. Rashi, I Chronicles 27:24, seemingly ignoring the sources cited in both Berakhot 62b and Yoma 22b, posits two entirely different verses as sources for this prohibition. The passages "If a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall your seed also be numbered" (Genesis 13:16) and " 'Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to count them'; and he said unto him, 'So shall your seed be' " (Genesis 15:5) are interpreted by Rashi, not simply as blessings, but as prohibitions against counting the progency of Abraham. In his commentary on I Samuel 15:4, Rashi cites yet a third verse, "I will surely do you good and make your seed as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude" (Genesis 32:13) which he renders as "which shall not be numbered for multitide.⁹Cf., Meshekh Ḥokhmah, Parshat Naso, s.v. be-haftorah.