פירוש על בראשית 12:4

וילך אברם, Abram went, etc. In view of verse 5 which describes Abraham's journey in detail, this entire verse seems superfluous.

וילך אברם, he came as far as Charan where he left his father behind, and proceeded to the land of Canaan.

ואברם בן חמש שנים ושבעים שנה בצאתו מחרן, “Avraham was 75 years of age when he emigrated from Charan.” The reason why the Torah recorded Avraham’s age at this stage was to show that he left his father in order to obey G’d’s instructions. According to the ancient historical text known as סדר עולם, Avraham undertook two emigrations, this being his second. He had gone to the land of Canaan the first time at the age of 70 where G’d had made the promises to him that are recorded in chapter 15. This is based on the Torah saying in Exodus 12,40 that the total period the Israelites spent in Egypt amounted to 430 years. Seeing that in chapter 15 G’d spoke about a period of 400 years during which his descendants were to be either strangers or strangers and slaves in a foreign country, it follows that until the birth of Yitzchok when Avraham was 100 years of age the fulfillment of that prophecy could not have commenced. Seeing that Avraham was in the land of Canaan for a brief period at that time, the countdown for the realization of this prophecy could begin from that time on. Furthermore, at the time when Avraham defeated the kings who had taken Lot prisoner he was 74 years of age. This is arrived at by the fact that he was 48 years old at the time when these city-kingdoms were founded and populated. For 12 years the political situation had remained stable with the kings of these cities paying annual taxes to Kedorleomer. Thus Avraham was 60 years old at the time when the city-kingdoms rebelled and refused to continue paying their taxes. 14 years later the four kings, including Kedorleomer, mounted the punitive expedition as a result of which Lot was taken prisoner. This means that Avraham was 74 years at the time. As the Torah reports him as 75 years of age at the time of his emigration in our chapter, he must have been in the land of Canaan previously, a time when G’d made the covenant between the pieces with him, as described in detail in chapter 15. In other words, Avraham departed from Charan twice. The difficulty with all this is that we read in the same סדר עולם that during the 5 years preceding his emigration from Charan Avraham had been in Charan. If so, he had been in Charan at the time when the war broke out, not as described in 14,13 in Eloney Mamre (Kiryat Arba nowadays). One can possibly answer this apparent contradiction by justifying the text in סדר עולם that Avraham spent those five years in Charan, and that the words והוא שוכן באלוני ממרא האמורי “he was living at Eloney Mamre,” in 14,13 refer to the פליט, the escapee who had brought him the news that his nephew had been taken prisoner. In order to make this plausible, consider why the Torah bothered to add that in Eloney Mamre there were in addition to Mamre also his brother Aner and Eshkol, all of whom had a mutual defense treaty with Avraham. Surely, the reason is to explain why the escapee brought the news to the three brothers in Eloney Mamre of whom he knew that they were allies of Avraham. These brothers in turn would relay to Avraham what they had heard about the fate of his nephew. In fact, the escapee may have chosen refuge in Eloney Mamre believing that Kedorleomer would not dare harm allies of Avraham. The weakness with this supposed scenario is that the author of סדר עולם lists as the year when Avraham left Charan permanently the same year in which these wars had been fought. If that were so, what difference would it make if Avraham was 70 years of age the first time he left Charan or not. Who needs to know? [furthermore, a more serious flaw in the sequence listed in סדר עולם is the question of when Lot took up residence in Sodom, and when did the falling out with Avraham which led to his being taken captive? Ed.] If, as stipulated, Avraham was only 70 years old at the covenant between the pieces which was reported in chapter 15, there is no alternative but to conclude that the Torah’s reports are not chronologically sequential. Another difficulty is found in the opening words of chapter 15: אחר הדברים האלה, “after these events.” If the events in this chapter occurred prior to the events related in either chapter 12 or chapter 14 what do these opening words mean? G’d reassures Avraham, (if we assume that the events of chapter 15 occurred subsequent to the events related in chapter 14) that in spite of his victory over the four kings, a victory due to G’d’s manifest assistance, his merits had not been used up so that he had reason to worry about G’d protecting him in the future.) We would have to say that the wordsאחר הדברים ,האלה, refer to the entire sequence previously related and that only the short paragraph concluding withוהאמין בה' ויחשביה לו צדקה (15,6) are related out of chronological order. That particular conversation between G’d and Avraham had taken place prior to the conquest of Sodom by the four kings.