Tafsiran Kejadian 24:60: Rashi, Rashbam, Kli Yakar & Sforno

את היי לאלפי רבבה MAYEST THOU BECOME THOUSANDS OF MYRIADS —May you and your seed receive that blessing which was promised to Abraham on Mount Moriah, (Genesis 22:17) “I will greatly multiply thy seed … [and let thy seed possess the gates of their enemies]”. May it be God’s will that that seed may proceed from you and not from another woman”.

את היי לאלפי רבבה ויירש דרעך, may all these children originate from you, as it had been said to Avraham at the time of the binding of Yitzchok: “your descendants will conquer the gates of their enemies” (22,17) according to the commentary of Rabbi Joseph Karo.

“And may your offspring inherit the gate of those who hate him.” This same language was also said to Abraham — your offspring shall inherit the gate of his enemies — because this is the nature of all who perform acts of kindness: they have many friends, as it is written Many will entreat the favor of the generous person, and everyone is a friend to one who gives gifts (Proverbs 19:6). Abraham performed acts of kindness to all, both to those close and those distant, and so did Rebecca. Therefore, naturally, they will inherit the gate of their enemies, for they have many friends who stand by them in times of trouble. As our Sages said (Bava Kamma 17a), “Anyone who engages in Torah study and acts of kindness merits the inheritance of two tribes, etc.” And it concludes there that some say their enemies fall before them as casualties, like Joseph, as it is said His firstborn bull has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox, etc. (Deuteronomy 33:17). For Joseph too performed acts of kindness with his father’s entire household and with strangers during the years of famine. Similarly, David said Good is the man who is gracious and lends… his heart is firm, he will not fear, until he sees his desire upon his adversaries. He has distributed freely to the poor; his horn is exalted in honor (Psalms 112:5). For with his horn he will gore nations like Joseph. Therefore, they said to her, May you become thousands of myriads. Did they set a limit to their blessing? What is remarkable about this — any person who has children will, over time, produce this number and more? Rather, they certainly weren’t speaking about her direct descendants, as they were already confident in the power of the elder Abraham, who had already been blessed that his offspring would be like the sand of the sea. So what did they mean by saying to thousands of myriads — what is the purpose of the ‘lamed’ [to] in to thousands? They were saying, “May it be God’s will that you merit to do good and perform kindness for thousands of myriads, for you shall have great wealth, and through this you will have many friends, and because of this your offspring will inherit the gate of their enemies, for many will stand to help you when you go to war.” It’s possible they were giving her this as advice, and this explains the precise language of become to thousands of myriads. And from the use of the word “inherit,” we can learn that they were telling her, “Don’t worry about the expenses, but rather cast your bread upon the waters for thousands of myriads of people, and in the end you will receive a double inheritance in the gate of your enemies, for there are those who scatter yet end up increasing even more.”