בָּאתַ֣ר דְּנָה֩ חָזֵ֨ה הֲוֵ֜ית בְּחֶזְוֵ֣י לֵֽילְיָ֗א וַאֲר֣וּ חֵיוָ֣ה רביעיה [רְֽבִיעָאָ֡ה] דְּחִילָה֩ וְאֵֽימְתָנִ֨י וְתַקִּיפָ֜א יַתִּ֗ירָא וְשִׁנַּ֨יִן דִּֽי־פַרְזֶ֥ל לַהּ֙ רַבְרְבָ֔ן אָֽכְלָ֣ה וּמַדֱּקָ֔ה וּשְׁאָרָ֖א ברגליה [בְּרַגְלַ֣הּ] רָפְסָ֑ה וְהִ֣יא מְשַׁנְּיָ֗ה מִן־כָּל־חֵֽיוָתָא֙ דִּ֣י קָֽדָמַ֔יהּ וְקַרְנַ֥יִן עֲשַׂ֖ר לַֽהּ׃
Sesudah itu aku terus melihat dalam penglihatan-penglihatan malam, dan sesungguhnya, ada binatang keempat, yang menakutkan dan mengerikan serta sangat kuat. Ia mempunyai gigi-gigi besi yang besar; ia makan dan meremukkan, dan sisanya diinjak-injaknya dengan kakinya. Binatang itu berbeda dari semua binatang yang sebelumnya, dan ia bertanduk sepuluh.
Rabbeinu Bahya
A Midrashic approach (Tanchuma Tazria 9): Why has this paragraph not been introduced by the customary: “speak to the Children of Israel; if a person has such and such symptoms, etc.?” The absence of this introductory formula is to teach you that it is not the Lord who initiates afflictions as we know from Psalms 5,5 כי לא אל חפץ רשע אתה לא יגורך רע, ”for You are not a G’d who desires wickedness, evil cannot abide with You;” David does not belabour the obvious; he speaks about G’d having no desire to make any creature guilty of anything. We have proof of this also in Ezekiel 33,11: “as true as I am alive, says the Lord, G’d, I do not desire the death of the wicked.” On the contrary, what is it that G’d desires? He wants to find an excuse to justify His creatures’ actions as we know from Isaiah 42,21: ה’ חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר, ”The Lord desires His creatures’ vindication, that He may magnify and glorify (His) Teaching.” If our paragraph had commenced in the normal way some people might have misunderstood and thought that G’d derives satisfaction from having to afflict people even though they were guilty of something.
Another comment by the Midrash: the words “evil does not abide with You” which we quoted from Psalms 5,5 mean that the name of G’d is not associated with events of an evil nature but only with things positive. When G’d created light and darkness, He did associate His name with the light but not with the darkness. In Genesis 1,5 the Torah writes: “G’d called the light day, and the darkness He called night.” When G’d blessed the first pair of human beings, His name was associated with the blessing for both of them, as the Torah writes (Genesis 1,28: “G’d blessed them.” On the other hand, when G’d decreed a curse on man, (Genesis 3,16) The Torah writes: “to the woman He had said, etc.,” and we find similar language in connection with the penalty decreed on Adam. The Torah writes (Genesis 3,17): “and to Adam He had said, etc.” You may ask that when G’d cursed the serpent we also find this kind of language, i.e. (Genesis 3,14) “the Lord G’d had said to the serpent, ‘because you have done this, etc.’” Our sages answered this query in Tanchuma Tazria 9 by saying that there are indeed three occasions when G’d did associate His name with something evil, such as a curse. The first instance is the case of the מסית, someone who seduces others to worship idols; the first personification of such a seducer was the serpent who seduced Chavah in Gan Eden saying to her: “G’d knows that on the day you (pl) will eat from the tree your eyes will be opened and you will become just like G’d” (Genesis 3,5). The serpent implied that just as G’d had created worlds so she and Adam would be able to create worlds; the serpent implied that G’d had forbidden eating the fruit because He was jealous of potential competition. The serpent implied that just as a skilled craftsman is anxious not to reveal the secrets of his craft, so G’d wanted to keep the secret of how He had created the universe. Seeing that the serpent had used G’d’s name in its seduction of Chavah, G’d in turn associated His name with the punishment, the curse.
The second instance of G’d’s name being associated with something evil concerns people who deliberately transgress the decrees of the sages whose authority has been given to them by G’d and has been confirmed at Mount Gerizim. The prophet Jeremiah referred to the fact that such people are guilty of death when he wrote in Jeremiah 11,3: “Thus said the Lord: cursed be the man who will not obey the terms of this covenant which I enjoined your fathers when I freed them from Egypt, etc.” The sin of these people is that they place their trust in man instead of in G’d as the prophet said in Jeremiah 17,5: “Thus said the Lord: ‘cursed is he who trusts in man, who makes a mere flesh his strength and turns his thoughts from the Lord.’” In other words, when does the curse mentioned earlier apply? When someone turns his heart away from the Lord. When Noach blessed his sons Shem and Yaphet, he used the name of G’d in his blessing, saying: ברוך ה’ אלו-הי שם, “blessed be the Lord, the G’d of Shem,” etc. When he cursed Canaan (Genesis 9,26) he simply said: ארור כנען, “cursed be Canaan;” he did not mention G’d in that context. When the prophet Elisha prayed to G’d asking for deliverance from the Arameans (enemy of the Israelites at that time, Kings II 6,17) he invoked the name of the Lord in his prayer saying: “Lord open his eyes let him see” (a reference to his attendant who was afraid). When he then turned to cursing the Arameans (verse 18 of the same chapter), Elisha only said: ”please strike these people with a blinding light.” The name of G’d was not invoked in the prayer to bring a curse upon them. Even when the Israelites were sinful, G’d referred to them with respect and honor. When G’d legislated the kind of animals which were to be offered by the Israelites, -when, where and under what circumstances,- the legislation is introduced with the words: “if one of you wishes to offer a sacrifice to the Lord, etc.” When introducing the צרעת legislation, however, the name of G’d does not appear. Clearly, even when the legislation presupposes sins by the afflicted, the Torah still does not wish to involve G’d directly, as the One who initiates the “curse.” This is why the verse starts merely with the words: “when someone develops a white spot on the skin of his flesh, etc.”
What sins cause such afflictions? In retribution for illicit sex. (Tanchuma Tazria 11) This is also what happened in Jerusalem whose inhabitants were struck by this disease because their sexual mores had deteriorated so much (Isaiah 3,16) ”because the daughters of Zion are so vain and walk with their heads thrown back, with roving eyes, and with mincing gait, making a tingling with their feet...the Lord will uncover their heads.” The word used there is שפח which is the equivalent of צרעת as we know from Leviticus 14,5.
The words אדם כי יהיה בעור בשרו שאת או ספחת, are equivalent to what we read n Chabakuk 1,7 איום ונורא ממננו ושפתו ושאתו יצא, “they are terrible and dreadful; they make their own laws and are overbearing.” The prophet speaks about Adam who was the direct creation of G’d, created in His likeness, who was composed of particles from all the corners of the globe and whose dominion before his sin therefore extended over all parts of the globe. At that time Adam was able to see with his eyes from one end of the earth to the other. Adam’s wife, Chavah was created from his very body, she who caused his mortality. Seeing that she gave Adam to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge she made him mortal.
Another Midrashic explanation: The words “terrible and dreadful” which we quoted from Chabakuk refer to Pharaoh who ruled over the whole earth as we know from Psalms 105,20. The words: “they make their own laws, etc.” refer to Moses who grew up in the very house of this wicked Pharaoh and eventually deprived him of his rule after bringing ten plagues upon him. Moses used to take a look at his holy staff to see which kind of plague was appropriate to smite Pharaoh with; he would then inflict this plague upon him; hence the prophet speaks about something “terrible and dreadful.”
Yet another interpretation of that verse in Chabakuk relates the adjectives in that verse to the principal characteristics of the four host nations who had control of the Jewish people in exile at different times. [The Midrash broadens its perspective of allegorical meanings; the interested reader is referred to the original text seeing that our author does not contribute to the understanding of this Midrash except quoting its text. Ed.]
Another comment by the Midrash: the words “evil does not abide with You” which we quoted from Psalms 5,5 mean that the name of G’d is not associated with events of an evil nature but only with things positive. When G’d created light and darkness, He did associate His name with the light but not with the darkness. In Genesis 1,5 the Torah writes: “G’d called the light day, and the darkness He called night.” When G’d blessed the first pair of human beings, His name was associated with the blessing for both of them, as the Torah writes (Genesis 1,28: “G’d blessed them.” On the other hand, when G’d decreed a curse on man, (Genesis 3,16) The Torah writes: “to the woman He had said, etc.,” and we find similar language in connection with the penalty decreed on Adam. The Torah writes (Genesis 3,17): “and to Adam He had said, etc.” You may ask that when G’d cursed the serpent we also find this kind of language, i.e. (Genesis 3,14) “the Lord G’d had said to the serpent, ‘because you have done this, etc.’” Our sages answered this query in Tanchuma Tazria 9 by saying that there are indeed three occasions when G’d did associate His name with something evil, such as a curse. The first instance is the case of the מסית, someone who seduces others to worship idols; the first personification of such a seducer was the serpent who seduced Chavah in Gan Eden saying to her: “G’d knows that on the day you (pl) will eat from the tree your eyes will be opened and you will become just like G’d” (Genesis 3,5). The serpent implied that just as G’d had created worlds so she and Adam would be able to create worlds; the serpent implied that G’d had forbidden eating the fruit because He was jealous of potential competition. The serpent implied that just as a skilled craftsman is anxious not to reveal the secrets of his craft, so G’d wanted to keep the secret of how He had created the universe. Seeing that the serpent had used G’d’s name in its seduction of Chavah, G’d in turn associated His name with the punishment, the curse.
The second instance of G’d’s name being associated with something evil concerns people who deliberately transgress the decrees of the sages whose authority has been given to them by G’d and has been confirmed at Mount Gerizim. The prophet Jeremiah referred to the fact that such people are guilty of death when he wrote in Jeremiah 11,3: “Thus said the Lord: cursed be the man who will not obey the terms of this covenant which I enjoined your fathers when I freed them from Egypt, etc.” The sin of these people is that they place their trust in man instead of in G’d as the prophet said in Jeremiah 17,5: “Thus said the Lord: ‘cursed is he who trusts in man, who makes a mere flesh his strength and turns his thoughts from the Lord.’” In other words, when does the curse mentioned earlier apply? When someone turns his heart away from the Lord. When Noach blessed his sons Shem and Yaphet, he used the name of G’d in his blessing, saying: ברוך ה’ אלו-הי שם, “blessed be the Lord, the G’d of Shem,” etc. When he cursed Canaan (Genesis 9,26) he simply said: ארור כנען, “cursed be Canaan;” he did not mention G’d in that context. When the prophet Elisha prayed to G’d asking for deliverance from the Arameans (enemy of the Israelites at that time, Kings II 6,17) he invoked the name of the Lord in his prayer saying: “Lord open his eyes let him see” (a reference to his attendant who was afraid). When he then turned to cursing the Arameans (verse 18 of the same chapter), Elisha only said: ”please strike these people with a blinding light.” The name of G’d was not invoked in the prayer to bring a curse upon them. Even when the Israelites were sinful, G’d referred to them with respect and honor. When G’d legislated the kind of animals which were to be offered by the Israelites, -when, where and under what circumstances,- the legislation is introduced with the words: “if one of you wishes to offer a sacrifice to the Lord, etc.” When introducing the צרעת legislation, however, the name of G’d does not appear. Clearly, even when the legislation presupposes sins by the afflicted, the Torah still does not wish to involve G’d directly, as the One who initiates the “curse.” This is why the verse starts merely with the words: “when someone develops a white spot on the skin of his flesh, etc.”
What sins cause such afflictions? In retribution for illicit sex. (Tanchuma Tazria 11) This is also what happened in Jerusalem whose inhabitants were struck by this disease because their sexual mores had deteriorated so much (Isaiah 3,16) ”because the daughters of Zion are so vain and walk with their heads thrown back, with roving eyes, and with mincing gait, making a tingling with their feet...the Lord will uncover their heads.” The word used there is שפח which is the equivalent of צרעת as we know from Leviticus 14,5.
The words אדם כי יהיה בעור בשרו שאת או ספחת, are equivalent to what we read n Chabakuk 1,7 איום ונורא ממננו ושפתו ושאתו יצא, “they are terrible and dreadful; they make their own laws and are overbearing.” The prophet speaks about Adam who was the direct creation of G’d, created in His likeness, who was composed of particles from all the corners of the globe and whose dominion before his sin therefore extended over all parts of the globe. At that time Adam was able to see with his eyes from one end of the earth to the other. Adam’s wife, Chavah was created from his very body, she who caused his mortality. Seeing that she gave Adam to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge she made him mortal.
Another Midrashic explanation: The words “terrible and dreadful” which we quoted from Chabakuk refer to Pharaoh who ruled over the whole earth as we know from Psalms 105,20. The words: “they make their own laws, etc.” refer to Moses who grew up in the very house of this wicked Pharaoh and eventually deprived him of his rule after bringing ten plagues upon him. Moses used to take a look at his holy staff to see which kind of plague was appropriate to smite Pharaoh with; he would then inflict this plague upon him; hence the prophet speaks about something “terrible and dreadful.”
Yet another interpretation of that verse in Chabakuk relates the adjectives in that verse to the principal characteristics of the four host nations who had control of the Jewish people in exile at different times. [The Midrash broadens its perspective of allegorical meanings; the interested reader is referred to the original text seeing that our author does not contribute to the understanding of this Midrash except quoting its text. Ed.]
Da'at Zekenim
ותרדמה נפלה על אברם, “and a deep darkness (sleep) had fallen upon Avraham. During this sleep G–d showed Avraham that his descendants would endure the enslavement to several kingdoms at different times as well as the collapse of these kingdoms (empires). When he was told to קחה לי עגלה משולשת, “take for Me a three year old calf,” (verses 8) this was a reference to the fourth (and last) of these empires, which would subjugate the Jews more cruelly and for longer than any other. This has been confirmed by a vision experienced by Daniel, (Daniel 7,7) with the words: דחילה ואמתני, “excessively terrifying and awesome.” The עז משולשת , “three year old goat,” represents the Greek empire. (Daniel, 8,5 וצפיר העזים בא מן המערב, “and the-goat came from the west across the surface of the whole earth.) The three year old ram, איל משולש, represents the empire of the Medes and Persians; mentioned in Daniel 8,8, i.e. וצפיר העזים הגדיל עד מאד, “and the he-goat grew exceedingly.” The תור, in our verse refers to the empire of the Ishmaelites. The word here has to be understood as the aramaic,תר ,שור, “ox or bull”. (The author on a Targum, unfamiliar to this editor) The גוזל in our verse refers to the Jewish people. It appears in that sense in Song of Songs, 2,14, as well as in the same Book, 6,9).
Rabbi Acha claims that the word משולש and משולשת is a metaphor for anything that is exceedingly strong. He quotes as support for his view Kohelet 4,12: והחוט המשולש לא במהרה ינתק, “and the threefold cord will not tear easily.” Rabbi Mesharshia, interpreting the word משולשים, understands the rule of the empires while the Israelites are under their domination as occurring during three different periods in history. The first time each of these empires states, or Kingdoms, dominates the Israelites on their own. unaided by other powers. The second time, two of those powers combine in subjugating the Israelites On the third occasion, during the period ushering in the messianic age, they all combine in their assault, as a result of which the Messiah will appear. He quotes Psalms 2,2; יתיצבו מלכי ארץ ורוזנים נוסדו יחד על ה' ועל משיחו, “all the kings of the earth and its regents will take a combined stand against the Lord and His messiah.” Rabbi Yoshua, in referring to the phrase: ויבתר אותם בתוך “he divided them in the middle,” understand the subject in that phrase as being the respective swords of Avraham’s opponents, thus breaking their power in half. He adds that if Avraham had not succeeded in doing this, the earth as we know it could not have continued to function. Concerning the Torah writing that Avraham did not divide the צפור, this is why that bird represents the Jewish people, and no other species of birds has ever been called tzipor, a young turtle dove. וירד העיט על הפגרים, “when the vultures tried to descend on the cadavers, (Avraham chased them away).” The word עיט here is a metaphor for David (the King) he has been compared to a coloured vulture. Compare Jeremiah 12,9: העיט צבוע נחלתי לי ,העיט סבב עליה, אספו כל חית השדה התיו לאכלה, (normal translation from beginning of that verse: “My own people acts towards Me like a bird of prey or hyena; let the birds of prey surround it, go gather the wild beasts bring them to devour.” The metaphoric interpretation our author cites and which is also mentioned by Rashi, understands the עיט, as being coloured, as it is so different from all other birds and stands out therefore. The gentile nations view the Jewish people as different and therefore cannot abide it. They gather together in order to commit genocide of the Jewish people. This enables us to understand why Avraham in his dream is described as “reviving, וישב”, the corpses of the slain Jews, so that we would have here a first hint that Jews will be resurrected in due course (as described in Ezekiel chapter 37). (Compare Psalms 147,18, where the expression yashev occurs in such a positive way.) Another explanation credited to Rabbi Eleazar, feels that our verse proves that the power of any of the aforementioned kingdoms which excel in persecuting Jews will not last for more that a single day in G–d’s calendar, as such a “day” is a thousand years in our calendar. (Compare Psalms 90,4: כי אלף שנים בעיניך כיום אתמול כי יעבור, “for one thousand years in Your eyes are as yesterday that has passed.”) A colleague of Rabbi Eleazar concurred with him, adding that additional proof could be cited from Lamentations 1,13, נתנני שוממה כל היום, “He made me desolate all day long.” The power of this last empire would gradually evaporate in the west, symbol of the day coming to an end, and the ascent of the Jewish people would commence in the evening as predicted in Zachariah 14,7: והיה לעת ערב יהיה אור, “and it will be that at evening time there will be light.” Another thing that can be predicted based on Avraham’s dream and its wording is that there will be a total of four eras of suppression of the Jewish people; the expression אימה חשיכה, refers to the suppression of the Jewish religion in the time of the Seleucids, Antiochus, who tried to eradicate us spiritually by forbidding us to practice our religion, whereas the empire following the decline of the Greeks, the Medes produced Haman who tried to eradicate us physically. The word נופלת, refers to the Babylonian empire during the heyday of which the first Temple was destroyed and most of our people (that had not been exiled when the ten tribes were exiled by the Assyrians), were exiled. The word עליו refers to the suppression of our people by the Ishmaelites, who will be overcome by the Messiah, descendant of David, as predicted in Psalms 132,18: שם אצמיח קרן לדוד, ערכתי נר למשיחי, “there I will make a horn sprout for David, I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one.” Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah is on record as having said that these empires were created by G–d only to serve G–d as firewood to heat up the fires in hell. This is why the Torah wrote here: והנה תנור עשן ולפיד אש, “and behold there was a furnace and a flaming torch (verse 17),” and we find a reference to this phenomenon also in Isaiah 31,9: נאום ה' אשר אור לו בציון ותנור לו בירושלים, “says the Lord Who has a fire in Zion and a furnace in Jerusalem.” This is the way in which G–d illustrated to him that there is such a region we call gehinom, (hell). He also showed him the Torah and the animals used for the sacrificial service in the Temple, indicating to him that as long as his descendants would observe both, they would never have to be afraid of gehinom. Nonetheless, He showed that even the Temple would be destroyed one day, so that the sacrificial service would not be able to be performed. He asked Avraham if he preferred that his descendants descend to gehinom at a time like that, or if he preferred that they endure slavery and persecution while alive on earth. Avraham was in a quandary how to answer such a question. This is why we read in Deuteronomy 32,30, that even the gentiles came to the conclusion that the sudden and drastic decline of the fortunes of the Jewish people could only have come about because their צור, (Rock), metaphor for the patriarch Avraham in this case, had “sold them out.” (had chosen persecution and exile for his descendants rather than gehinom.) According to Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, an ancient kabalistic text chapter 28 the word צור in Isaiah 51,1: הביטו אל צור חצבתם, “look at the tzur from which you have been hewn,” is also a reference to the patriarch Avraham. [My edition of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, while quoting Isaiah 31,9 in the sense that our author quoted Rabbi Eliezer ben Azaryah having done, does not refer to Isaiah 51,1 at all. Most of the other text quoted here has been taken from that chapter in Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer. Ed.] [In the event that any of my readers finds it strange that the 400 years of bondage etc. in Egypt are not referred to in Avraham’s dream at all, 1) he was told about this while awake, 2) in Egypt the Israelites had not been a people in the sense of having their own land and a political union known as “state.” This only began at the time of the Exodus, and specifically when Joshua conquered the land of Canaan. Ed.]
Rabbi Acha claims that the word משולש and משולשת is a metaphor for anything that is exceedingly strong. He quotes as support for his view Kohelet 4,12: והחוט המשולש לא במהרה ינתק, “and the threefold cord will not tear easily.” Rabbi Mesharshia, interpreting the word משולשים, understands the rule of the empires while the Israelites are under their domination as occurring during three different periods in history. The first time each of these empires states, or Kingdoms, dominates the Israelites on their own. unaided by other powers. The second time, two of those powers combine in subjugating the Israelites On the third occasion, during the period ushering in the messianic age, they all combine in their assault, as a result of which the Messiah will appear. He quotes Psalms 2,2; יתיצבו מלכי ארץ ורוזנים נוסדו יחד על ה' ועל משיחו, “all the kings of the earth and its regents will take a combined stand against the Lord and His messiah.” Rabbi Yoshua, in referring to the phrase: ויבתר אותם בתוך “he divided them in the middle,” understand the subject in that phrase as being the respective swords of Avraham’s opponents, thus breaking their power in half. He adds that if Avraham had not succeeded in doing this, the earth as we know it could not have continued to function. Concerning the Torah writing that Avraham did not divide the צפור, this is why that bird represents the Jewish people, and no other species of birds has ever been called tzipor, a young turtle dove. וירד העיט על הפגרים, “when the vultures tried to descend on the cadavers, (Avraham chased them away).” The word עיט here is a metaphor for David (the King) he has been compared to a coloured vulture. Compare Jeremiah 12,9: העיט צבוע נחלתי לי ,העיט סבב עליה, אספו כל חית השדה התיו לאכלה, (normal translation from beginning of that verse: “My own people acts towards Me like a bird of prey or hyena; let the birds of prey surround it, go gather the wild beasts bring them to devour.” The metaphoric interpretation our author cites and which is also mentioned by Rashi, understands the עיט, as being coloured, as it is so different from all other birds and stands out therefore. The gentile nations view the Jewish people as different and therefore cannot abide it. They gather together in order to commit genocide of the Jewish people. This enables us to understand why Avraham in his dream is described as “reviving, וישב”, the corpses of the slain Jews, so that we would have here a first hint that Jews will be resurrected in due course (as described in Ezekiel chapter 37). (Compare Psalms 147,18, where the expression yashev occurs in such a positive way.) Another explanation credited to Rabbi Eleazar, feels that our verse proves that the power of any of the aforementioned kingdoms which excel in persecuting Jews will not last for more that a single day in G–d’s calendar, as such a “day” is a thousand years in our calendar. (Compare Psalms 90,4: כי אלף שנים בעיניך כיום אתמול כי יעבור, “for one thousand years in Your eyes are as yesterday that has passed.”) A colleague of Rabbi Eleazar concurred with him, adding that additional proof could be cited from Lamentations 1,13, נתנני שוממה כל היום, “He made me desolate all day long.” The power of this last empire would gradually evaporate in the west, symbol of the day coming to an end, and the ascent of the Jewish people would commence in the evening as predicted in Zachariah 14,7: והיה לעת ערב יהיה אור, “and it will be that at evening time there will be light.” Another thing that can be predicted based on Avraham’s dream and its wording is that there will be a total of four eras of suppression of the Jewish people; the expression אימה חשיכה, refers to the suppression of the Jewish religion in the time of the Seleucids, Antiochus, who tried to eradicate us spiritually by forbidding us to practice our religion, whereas the empire following the decline of the Greeks, the Medes produced Haman who tried to eradicate us physically. The word נופלת, refers to the Babylonian empire during the heyday of which the first Temple was destroyed and most of our people (that had not been exiled when the ten tribes were exiled by the Assyrians), were exiled. The word עליו refers to the suppression of our people by the Ishmaelites, who will be overcome by the Messiah, descendant of David, as predicted in Psalms 132,18: שם אצמיח קרן לדוד, ערכתי נר למשיחי, “there I will make a horn sprout for David, I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one.” Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah is on record as having said that these empires were created by G–d only to serve G–d as firewood to heat up the fires in hell. This is why the Torah wrote here: והנה תנור עשן ולפיד אש, “and behold there was a furnace and a flaming torch (verse 17),” and we find a reference to this phenomenon also in Isaiah 31,9: נאום ה' אשר אור לו בציון ותנור לו בירושלים, “says the Lord Who has a fire in Zion and a furnace in Jerusalem.” This is the way in which G–d illustrated to him that there is such a region we call gehinom, (hell). He also showed him the Torah and the animals used for the sacrificial service in the Temple, indicating to him that as long as his descendants would observe both, they would never have to be afraid of gehinom. Nonetheless, He showed that even the Temple would be destroyed one day, so that the sacrificial service would not be able to be performed. He asked Avraham if he preferred that his descendants descend to gehinom at a time like that, or if he preferred that they endure slavery and persecution while alive on earth. Avraham was in a quandary how to answer such a question. This is why we read in Deuteronomy 32,30, that even the gentiles came to the conclusion that the sudden and drastic decline of the fortunes of the Jewish people could only have come about because their צור, (Rock), metaphor for the patriarch Avraham in this case, had “sold them out.” (had chosen persecution and exile for his descendants rather than gehinom.) According to Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, an ancient kabalistic text chapter 28 the word צור in Isaiah 51,1: הביטו אל צור חצבתם, “look at the tzur from which you have been hewn,” is also a reference to the patriarch Avraham. [My edition of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, while quoting Isaiah 31,9 in the sense that our author quoted Rabbi Eliezer ben Azaryah having done, does not refer to Isaiah 51,1 at all. Most of the other text quoted here has been taken from that chapter in Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer. Ed.] [In the event that any of my readers finds it strange that the 400 years of bondage etc. in Egypt are not referred to in Avraham’s dream at all, 1) he was told about this while awake, 2) in Egypt the Israelites had not been a people in the sense of having their own land and a political union known as “state.” This only began at the time of the Exodus, and specifically when Joshua conquered the land of Canaan. Ed.]
Rashi
from the forest Heb. מיער. The “ayin” is suspended (as though it were written with an “aleph”). If Israel is worthy, the enemies are like the beasts of the river, which have no strength to climb out upon the dry land; but when retribution is decreed upon them, he (sic) grows strong as the beast of the forest, which destroys and kills. The boar of the forest is Esau, as is written (Dan. 7:7): “It devoured and broke in pieces and the rest it trampled with its feet.” And it (the swine) has some signs of purity. Esau, too, has the merit of his fathers.
Rashi
Now what does the one seek Now what does the one member of the couple seek to find accusations against his wife, who is his mate, who is the seed of God? What does he claim of her that he disgraces her? This is the wording of Jonathan’s translation, except that Jonathan renders: Now what does the one seek except seed of God? The explanation is correct except for the fact that the word הָאֶחָד is pointed with “zakef” mark, and the mark of the “zakef” separates the word מְבַקֵּש from joining וּמָה הָאֶחָד. It connects it to זֶרַע אֱ-לֹֹהִים. He had a different spirit His intention was not like your intention. He did not cast his eye upon her. He had a different intention. They said to him, “Now what did the one seek?” What was his intention? He said to them: To have seed of the Lord. Jonathan’s translation appeals to me, because neither in Scripture nor in the Mishnah do we find שְׁאָר being used as an expression of “other” - except where a person can explain it as an expression of residue, as in (Dan. 7: 19), “which devoured, broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet.” In the language of the Mishnah (Sanh. 8b), “And others liable to death” - outside of those delineated. But in the expression for which אַחֵר is used, שְׁאָר is not used.
Rashi
and their hoofs he shall break until they are finished. Daniel (7:7) stated a figure similar to this: “It devoured and broke in pieces, and the residue it trampled with its foot.”