Pemikiran Yahudi Kejadian 14:13: Akeidat Yitzchak, Guide for the Perplexed & Gevurot Hashem

Bereshit Rabbah 76, which tells about the two people who had been reassured by G'd, -Jacob and Moses,- refers to the fact that both of them seem to have harboured feelings of fear immediately prior to their respective encounters with Esau or Og. The truth is that neither one of them had really been afraid, they had only acted as if they had been afraid. One cannot order someone to become fearless. Fear is a natural attitude, not subject to legislation. However, when a person adopts a posture of fear, he can be instructed by G'd to abandon such a posture. So Jacob and Moses were told to adopt a posture of confidence also vis a vis their own people and to inspire them in this manner. The Talmud, of course, ascribes Og's confidence to the fact that he had been able to survive the deluge. He was believed to have been able to have done so due to his own merit already in the days of Abraham. Later on he had been instrumental in activating Abraham's pursuit of the kings who had taken Lot prisoner. The reason the Torah lists the measurements of Og's bedstead, is to explain why he had survived the deluge. It had not been due to any special merit but had been due to his size. He was one and a half times the height of the giant Goliath.

THE Hebrew shakan, as is well known, signifies “to dwell,” as, “And he was dwelling (shoken) in the plains of Mamre” (Gen. 14:13); “And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt (bishekon)” (Gen. 35:22). This is the most common meaning of the word. But “dwelling in a place” consists in the continued stay in a place, general or special; when a living being dwells long in a place, we say that it stays in that place, although it unquestionably moves about in it, comp. “And he was staying in the plains of Mamre” (Gen. 14:13), and, “And it came to pass, when Israel stayed” (Gen. xxxv 22).

Another reason for the redemption of Israel, they said in Shir Hashirim Rabbah (4:12) about the verse a locked garden (Song of Songs 4:12): “Rabbi Huna said in the name of bar Kappara: By virtue of four matters, Israel was redeemed from Egypt: That they did not change their name, they did not change their language, they did not speak slander, and not one of them was steeped in licentiousness. They did not change their name: Reuben and Simeon descended [to Egypt]*; Reuben and Simeon ascended*. They did not call Reuben Rufus, they did not call Simeon Luleyani, [...] They did not change their language. There, it is written: The survivor came and told Abram the Hebrew (Genesis 14:13), and here it is written: The God of the Hebrews [has called upon us] (Exodus 5:3), and it is written: That it is my mouth speaking to you (Genesis 45:12), in the sacred tongue.* They did not speak slander, as it is stated: Speak now in the ears of the people, and let them ask each man from his neighbor (Exodus 11:2). You find that this matter had been entrusted to them for twelve months, and not one of them was found to have informed on his counterpart. Not one of them was steeped in licentiousness, as it is stated: The son of an Israelite woman went out, and he is [the son of] an Egyptian man (Leviticus 24:10–11), to apprise in praise of Israel that not one of them was found except for this one.”(Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4:12:1)¹Translation of the midrash adapted from The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah, 2022.