Chasidut su Genesi 22:14
וַיִּקְרָ֧א אַבְרָהָ֛ם שֵֽׁם־הַמָּק֥וֹם הַה֖וּא יְהוָ֣ה ׀ יִרְאֶ֑ה אֲשֶׁר֙ יֵאָמֵ֣ר הַיּ֔וֹם בְּהַ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה יֵרָאֶֽה׃
Abramo chiamò quel luogo Adonai irè [il Signore provvederà]: ond’è che dicesi oggidì: Nel monte del Signore è chi provvede.
Kedushat Levi
Deuteronomy 28,8. “the Lord will ordain blessings for you for your barns.”
Seeing that it is G’d’s custom to dispense largesse and blessings for His people Israel, the method G’d employs to do this varies according to circumstances. It may be גלוי, manifest, i.e. it becomes immediately clear to all the onlookers that an act of great benefit for the Jewish people has been performed by G’d. Often this takes the form of a miracle being performed. On the other hand, when G’d uses covert means to dispense His largesse for His people, it may often not appear to be such at the outset, although in the course of time it will prove to have been planned as such by G’d already much earlier than the effect being felt.
When Moses speaks about G’d ordaining (nature) to bestow its blessings on the Jewish people, he refers to blessings due to the Jewish people themselves having roused themselves spiritually, as a result of which their barns filled with produce at harvest time. Moses refers to something, whose benefit to the recipient does not become apparent (at the time when he ploughs and sows) but only after most of a year has passed at harvest time. When G’d asked Avraham to offer him his beloved son, Avraham was not immediately aware of the great benefits that would result from this. [At the time he may have considered the “test” by G’d as having been masterminded by the attribute of Justice rather than the attribute of Mercy. Ed.] It was only after the successful conclusion of that “test,” that he recognised in it the hand of Hashem rather than the hand of elokim. Compare Genesis 22,14.
Seeing that it is G’d’s custom to dispense largesse and blessings for His people Israel, the method G’d employs to do this varies according to circumstances. It may be גלוי, manifest, i.e. it becomes immediately clear to all the onlookers that an act of great benefit for the Jewish people has been performed by G’d. Often this takes the form of a miracle being performed. On the other hand, when G’d uses covert means to dispense His largesse for His people, it may often not appear to be such at the outset, although in the course of time it will prove to have been planned as such by G’d already much earlier than the effect being felt.
When Moses speaks about G’d ordaining (nature) to bestow its blessings on the Jewish people, he refers to blessings due to the Jewish people themselves having roused themselves spiritually, as a result of which their barns filled with produce at harvest time. Moses refers to something, whose benefit to the recipient does not become apparent (at the time when he ploughs and sows) but only after most of a year has passed at harvest time. When G’d asked Avraham to offer him his beloved son, Avraham was not immediately aware of the great benefits that would result from this. [At the time he may have considered the “test” by G’d as having been masterminded by the attribute of Justice rather than the attribute of Mercy. Ed.] It was only after the successful conclusion of that “test,” that he recognised in it the hand of Hashem rather than the hand of elokim. Compare Genesis 22,14.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Kedushat Levi
An alternate approach to the paragraph commencing with: וירא והנה באר בשדה, “he looked, and here there was a well in the field, etc.;” The Talmud Pessachim 88 draws attention to Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov each using a different simile when trying to condense their concept of G’d. Avraham saw G’d in terms of a הר, “mountain,” i.e. something far above our level towering above man. Yitzchok perceived him as שדה, a field, covering huge expanses of earth, but sharing earth with man. Yaakov perceived Him as בית, i.e. an intimate term, viewing G’d as if He were at home with human beings. A major difference between Yaakov’s concept of G’d and that of his forefathers, is that the former did not view G’d as being “at home” permanently on earth, whereas Yaakov did perceive Him as constantly accompanying man, much as a house is the symbol of a permanent presence. [The scriptural verses this is based on are: Genesis 22,14 בהר ה' יראה, “on the Mountain of Hashem, He may be seen.” Genesis 24,63 ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה, “Yitzchok went out into the field to meditate.” In Genesis 28,19 the Torah quotes Yaakov as naming the site ביתאל, “house of the Lord”. Yaakov felt that the time had come when G’d could have a permanent home on earth. However, this had been a vision brought about by his dream/prophetic insight. After awakening he realized that down on earth, where greed, envy and jealousy were still prevalent, to wit the huge rock making the water of the well inaccessible accept when all the interested parties were assembled simultaneously, that the time was not yet ripe for G’d to feel at home in such an environment. By removing the rock, Yaakov wanted to demonstrate to the shepherds that a better future could be in store for mankind. I have reworded the thought expressed by the author somewhat, and have omitted the comparison to the portion of קן צפור in Deut. 22,6. Ed.]
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Sha'ar HaEmunah VeYesod HaChasidut
I called this book, Beit Yaakov (The House of Jacob) based on what is mentioned in the Talmud (Pesachim, 88b), “Said Rabbi Elazar, what is the meaning of the verse (Isaiah, 2:3), ‘And many people shall go and say, Come, let us ascend the mountain of God, to the house of the God of Yaakov, and He will teach us his ways…’ The verse says, ‘the house of Yaakov,’ but not the house of Avraham or the house of Yitzchak. That is to say, not like Avraham, who is associated with a mountain, as it is said (Bereshit, 22), ‘as it is said to this day, God is seen on the mountain.’ And not like Yitzchak, who is associated with the field, as it is said (Bereshit, 24), ‘and Yitzchak went to meditate in the field.’ Yet as Yaakov, who is called a house, as it is said (Bereshit, 28), ‘and he called the name of the place, Beit El, the house of God.’ “
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy