Commentaire de citation sur La Genèse 45:19

ויאמר ה' אל אברם לך לך מארצך וממולדתך ומבית אביך אל הארץ אשר אראך, in this instance the word ויאמר refers to something G’d had already said to Avram before he had even moved away from Ur Casdim, a move he made at the command of G’d. We know this from Genesis 15,7 where G’d reminds him that “I am the Lord Who has taken you out of Ur Casdim.” It is possible that G’d repeated this directive once more while Avram was in Charan. As to the meaning of the word lecha, i.e. “for your own good,” this does not have any special significance, being a commonly used figure of speech. One example would be Exodus 18,27 וילך לו where Yitro’s return to Midian is described in a similar way, and no one suggests that he did so “for his own good.” Another such example is found in Jeremiah 5,5 אלכה לי, “I am going,” where no one suggests that Jeremiah had ulterior motives in going to the wealthy people to speak to them in the belief that they knew the ways of the Lord. Still other examples of a similar construction are found in Numbers 22,34 אשובה לי or in Genesis 45,19 קחו לכם.

AND THOU SHALT RETURN UNTO THE ETERNAL THY G-D, AND HEARKEN TO HIS VOICE ACCORDING TO ALL THAT I COMMAND THEE THIS DAY, THOU AND THY CHILDREN. The meaning thereof is that you will return with all thy heart, and with all thy soul⁴⁸In Verse 2 before us. and you will take it upon yourself and upon your children throughout their generations to do according to all that I command thee this day, just as they did at the second redemption [i.e., the redemption from Babylon], as it is written, and they entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in G-d’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of G-d, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Eternal our G-d, and His ordinances and His statutes.⁴⁹Nehemiah 10:30. Or it may be that the expression that I command thee this day, thou and thy children is like “command you — to you and to your children,”⁵⁰The word thou is gramatically difficult, because the verse begins with the accusative thee, and follows with the nominative thou. Ramban offers two explanations: First, that the verse contains two separate thoughts: that you will return to G-d, and that you will accept upon yourself and your children all that He commands us. Second, that the nominative thou is equivalent to the accusative thee [“to you”], and the verse is thus expressing a single thought: “that I command thee this day — to you and to your children.” Ramban proceeds to cite Scriptural examples of similar usage — a nominative in place of an accusative. similar to the expression ‘v’atah tzuveitha’⁵¹Genesis 45:19. Here, too, the nominative v’atah (and you) is to be understood as lecha (“and to you”). [meaning lecha tzuveithi — “to you I ordered that the command be given”]. So also, and they dealt ill ‘othanu’⁵²Above, 26:6. Here likewise the literal meaning of othanu is “us,” but Ramban interprets it in the context of the verse as if it means “to us.” means lanu (“to us”).⁵³So also in the verse before us, atah (you) means lecha (to you). And in my opinion there is in this matter a great secret; for it alludes to that which the Rabbis said,⁵⁴Yebamoth 62a. “The son of David [i.e., the Messiah] will not come until all souls in the guf⁵⁵Here understood as “a storehouse of souls in heaven.” Ramban’s concept is that the final redemption will come when all souls will have been purified and no longer in need of a sojourn on earth. See my Hebrew commentary, p. 479. are exhausted.” I have already spoken of this matter.⁵⁶See Genesis 1:26 (Vol. I, p. 479).

ולך לך, this phraseology is quite common. We have encountered it in 12,1, in Jeremiah 5,5, in Exodus 18,27 as well as in Numbers 22,34 and again in Genesis 45,19. There are more such examples.

ונמלתם AND YE SHALL CIRCUMCISE — This word, in spite of the נ in it, is not Niphal but the same as ומלתם and the נ in it is an addition to the root, which only sometimes appears in it, as, for example, the נ of נושך and of ונמלתם ;(נושא is Kal like ונשאתם “and ye shall carry” (Genesis 45:19), but יִמּוֹל (Genesis 17:12 and Genesis 17:13) is a Niphal form — “shall be circumcised” — like יֵעָשֶׂה “it shall be done”, and יֵאָכֵל “it shall be eaten”.

ונצלתם render it as the Targum does: and ye shall empty out Egypt. Similar are: (Exodus 12:36) “And they emptied out (וינצלו) Egypt”; (Exodus 33:6) “And the children of Israel stripped themselves (ויתנצלו) of their ornaments” The נ in it is a root-letter. Menachem ben Seruk placed it (this word ויתנצלו) in section צ (taking the root as צל not as נצל) together with, (Genesis 31:9) “And God took away (ויצל) your father’s cattle”, and with, (Genesis 31:16) “which God hath taken away (הציל) from our father”, but his view cannot be sustained. For if the נ is not a root-letter, then seeing that it (the word ונצלתם) is vowelled with Chirik, it cannot be used in the sense of “and ye shall do something” (the active voice, which is required here since את מצרים can only be the object of the verb), but in the sense of “and ye shall have something done to you” (the passive — “Niphal”), as (Deuteronomy 28:63) “And ye shall be plucked up (וְנִסַּחְתֶּם) from off your land”; (Leviticus 26:25) “and ye shall be given (וְנִתַּתֶּם) into the hand of the enemy”; (Leviticus 17) “And ye shall be smitten (וְנִגַּפְתָּם) before your enemies”; (Ezekiel 22:21) “And ye shall be melted (וְנִתַּכְתָּם) in the midst thereof”; (Jeremiah 7:10) “And ye say, נִצַּלְנוּ” — which expresses the idea “we have had something done to us” (the Niphal: we have been delivered). Then again, every נ which sometimes appears in a word and sometimes is omitted, as e. g. the נ of נוגף and נושא and נותן and נושך, when the word expresses the sense “and ye shall do something” (the Kal), it is pointed with vocal Sheva (חטף a “snatched” sound), as, for instance, (Genesis 45:19) “and ye shall bear (וּנְשָׂאתָם) your father”; (Numbers 32:29) “And ye shall give (וּנְתַתֶּם) them the land of Gilead”; (Genesis 17:11) “And ye shall circumcise (וּנְמַלְתֶּם) the flesh of your foreskin”. Consequently I am of the opinion that this letter נ which is vowelled with a Chirik is one of the root letters, and the grammatical form of the noun of the same root is נִצּוּל which is of the strong (dageshed) forms, just as דִּבּוּר and כִּפּוּר and לִמּוּד. When, in the case of verbs formed from these roots one expresses the idea of “and ye shall do something” (active voice) the נ has the vowel Chirik (i. e. it is the Piel conjugation), as (Numbers 20:8) “And ye shall speak (וְדִבַּרְתֶּם) unto the rock”; (Ezekiel 45:20) “And ye shall atone (וְכִּפַּרְתֶּם) for the house”; (Deuteronomy 11:19) “And ye shall teach (וְלִמַּדְתָּם) them unto your children”.