פירוש על בראשית 13:10

כי כלה משקה THAT IT WAS WELL WATERED — a land of water-streams.

AS THE GARDEN OF THE ETERNAL, LIKE THE LAND OF EGYPT. The verse states that the whole land of the Plain was adequately irrigated from the Jordan by working with the foot, just as was done with the garden of G-d, concerning which it is stated, And a river went out of Eden to water the garden,¹⁰³Above, 2:10. and as is the way in the land of Egypt, concerning which it is stated, And thou didst water it with thy foot.¹⁰⁴Deuteronomy 11:10. The verse mentions both places: it says that the land of the Plain was as adequately irrigated as the garden of the Eternal, which is the most perfect place on this earth, and it also mentions, like the land of Egypt, a place well known for pasture.
Our Rabbis have said,¹⁰⁵Sifre Ekev, 38. The Sifre is a Tannaitic Midrash on the book of Numbers and the book of Deuteronomy. “As the garden of the Eternal for trees; Like the land of Egypt — for herbs.” Their intent was to explain that there were large rivers in the Plain, which watered the trees of the gardens, as was the case in the garden of G-d, and that there were also ponds in it, as in the land of Egypt, from which vegetable gardens were watered. Lot chose this part, for a land which is so irrigated is unlikely to suffer from a drought and is good for pasture.

וישא לוט את עיניו, from the mountain where they were staying, as we know from 12,8. Seeing that this was a high point in the country, it afforded Lot an opportunity to survey much of the rest of the country all around him. As a result, he observed כי כלה משקה, that the Jordan valley was very well irrigated. When the Torah uses the word כלה after having already said כל when describing the valley, this is a way of emphasising the word כל still further. We find a similar construction in Isaiah 14,18 כל מלכי גוים כולם, “all the kings of the nations, all of them.”

A land of water streams. Rashi is answering the question: משקה is a causative verb [meaning “to cause to be watered”]. In what way is the causative form appropriate here? Furthermore, the verse is speaking about streams, not about people watering fields. Thus Rashi explains: “A land of water streams,” and they are called משקה because people use them to water the fields.

(10-11) Lot fand das ganz vernünftig, scheint schon lange auf eine solche Gelegenheit gewartet zu haben. Das Wandern in unwirtsamen Gegenden konnte einem Manne wie ihm nicht behagen. Er sucht vor allem eine reiche üppige Gegend, die gegen Hungersnot und Misswachs schützt, und fand sie. וישא לוט את עיניו er ließ sich, unbeirrt von allen für einen Abraham maßgebenden Rücksichten, bei der Wahl nur von seinem sinnlichen Auge leiten.

כי כלה משקה, “for all of it was well irrigated.” Some commentators understand the verse: וירא את כל ככר הירדן, to mean that the river Jordan irrigated the entire region bountifully.

לפני שחת ה' את סדום ואת עמורה BEFORE THE LORD DESTROYED SODOM AND GOMORRAHH that land was

ככר, a valley; the word occurs in a similar sense in Kings I 7,46 בככר הירדן יצקם, “he had them cast in the valley of the Jordan.” This particular valley was very close to the city of Sodom and prior to that city’s destruction it was known as being “like a garden of G’d.” (19,25) The “garden” people used as the metaphor to describe is was the “garden of Eden.” We know that that garden had been irrigated by four rivers. Alternately, the comparison made here is to Egypt which is thoroughly irrigated by the river Nile.

That plain was... Rashi is explaining that “Before Adonoy destroyed Sedom and Amorah is read with, “It was like Adonoy’s garden....” It is not read with the preceding phrase, “It was abundantly watered.” [Rashi knows this] because otherwise, what would it be telling us? The verse had already written, “Lot raised his eyes and saw...” and this was before Hashem destroyed Sedom. Perforce, it is read with, “It was like Adonoy’s garden...” (Re’m)

ככר, wohl nicht Kreis, sondern wie ת"א: Ebene. Wurzel wahrscheinlich: כרה, graben (vergl. יין von בבל ,ינה von בלל), verwandt mit כרע: knieen, sich niedrig machen, ירה: werfen, גרה wovon גרון Kehle, Schlund: allmälig in die Tiefe ziehen. ככר: iTalebene, das Flussgebiet, die durch Flüsse gegrabene Niederung. Für die Be- deutung Kaufen, Aneignen, bietet נהל eine sprechende Analogie, das auch Flusstal und Erbe bedeutet. Die Talebene des Jordans war ganz "Getränk", oder vielmehr, wenn partic. Hiphll, ganz d. h. überall tränkend, führte überall das gehörige Nass den Feldern und Pflanzungen zu. — כלָה femin. משקֶה mascul. Insofern der Boden das Nass empfängt, ist er femin,; insofern er es aber weiterspendet, mascul.

'כגן ה, “as if it were a garden planted by Hashem Himself, not unlike Egypt which was also irrigated by the river Nile. (Compare Genesis 2,10)

'כגן ה LIKE THE GARDEN OF GOD in respect of trees,

באכה צוער, all the way to the town of Tzoar. The letter ה at the end of the word באכה, is used in the same way as the same letter in Samuel I 1,26 הנצבת עמכה, “who was standing next to you.” There are other examples of this type in the Holy Scriptures. The letter כ at the beginning of the word ככר is not something that has been added, as many commentators believe, but is similar to that same letter in Leviticus 27,2 בערכך, describing proximity to the priest in that instance, and proximity to the river in this instance. (compare Ibn Ezra on that verse) The Jordan valley was thoroughly irrigated all the way south to Tzoar.

For trees. Rashi inferred this from (2:9): “Adonoy Elohim made grow out of the soil every tree ... in the middle of the garden,” which shows that “garden” refers to trees. And Rashi explained like the land of Egypt “for זרעים” because it is written in Devarim 11:10: “For the land to which you are coming ... is not like the land of Egypt ... where you sowed your זרעים.” This shows that Egypt is a land of זרעים. (Re’m) [Without Rashi’s explanation that “garden” refers to trees, while “Egypt” refers to זרעים,] the verse’s comparisons [to two different places] seem both to relate to the same point. If so, only the better of the two need be mentioned — and if Scripture wishes to mention both, the better one should be mentioned last. It should say, “It was like the land of Egypt, [and was even] like God’s garden.” [Thus the verse’s is difficult to understand,] for if it was as good as Hashem’s garden, surely it was as good as the land of Egypt! Therefore, Rashi explains that the comparisons relate to two different points. (R. Yaakov Kenizal)

כגן ד׳ (כ״ר) כגן ד׳ לאילנות ,כארץ מצרים לזרעים hinsichtlich der Baumkultur, כארץ מצרים hinsichtlich der Bodenfrucht. Es ist nicht ganz unwahrscheinlich, dass sich die Gartenpracht auf Sodom, und der Getreidereichtum auf Amora bezieht. Die Namen der untergegangenen Städte vergegenwärtigen eigentlich alle Reiche der Natur, die dem Menschen ihre Schätze bieten.

כארץ מצרים LIKE THE LAND OF EGYPT in respect of seed (vegetables) (Genesis Rabbah 41:7).

סדום erinnert an שדה, das מ findet sich auch in שדמות ,שדמה, wieder. עמורה bezeichnet עומר, die Garbe: Korn. אדמה den Mineralreichtum. צבוים, Plural von צבי, die lebendige Welt. Die Herren von Sedom und Amora konnten auch auf die Jagd gehen. Es war also ein Reichtum an allem.

באכה צער means AS THOU GOEST עד צוער to Zoar. The Midrashic explanation (Horayot 10b; Genesis Rabbah 41:7) explains it to Lot’s discredit — just because they (the people of Sodom and Gomorrah) were addicted to lewdness did Lot choose their locality.