פירוש על בראשית 20:13

'ויהי כאשר התעו אותי וגו AND IT CAME TO PASS WHEN GOD CAUSED ME TO WANDER etc. — Onkelos translates it in his own way, but it can be explained in another manner that is also appropriate: When the Holy One, blessed be He, brought me forth from my father’s house to be a nomad, wandering from place to place, I knew that I would traverse places where there are wicked people ואמר לה זה חסדך AND so I SAID UNTO HER THIS IS THY LOVINGKINDNESS [WHICH THOU SHALT SHOW UNTO ME].

כאשר התעו אותי, He exiled me from my home by ordering me “go forth for yourself from your homeland.” (12,1). This is the true meaning of Deut. 26,5 ארמי אובד אבי. Yaakov’s troubles stemmed from having been exiled from his father’s home, at the behest of his father, whereas Avraham’s exile was at the behest of G’d. Both the expression התעו אותי and אובד אותי are repeats of the same expression similar to Psalms 119,176 תעיתי כשה אובד, “I wandered without destination, lost like a sheep.” Lost sheep were my companions, their shepherd having misled them.

התעו אותי אלוקים, on account of the various alien gods which I despise I have been forced to leave my father’s house and to travel to areas I did not know, not to places of my own choice. This is why he described himself as תועה, someone who wanders, does not have a fixed destination.