Halakhah su Genesi 15:24

And you ought to know that at the intellectual meal which is for the soul alone, prepared for the righteous in the world of souls or in the life of the world to come, the righteous are not all equal in this, but there is a hierarchy of status, one above the other. And thus they interpreted “sove’a’ semahot“¹⁵³An expression in Ps 16:11: “You will teach me the path of life. In your presence is perfect joy – sove’a’ semahot.” – “perfect joy” in a midrash in Sifre:¹⁵⁴Sifre Devarim 10. “The faces of the righteous in time to come will be like the sun, the moon, the horizon, the stars, lightning, flowers, and the menorot of the Temple.” And likewise they said in Seder Eliahu Zuta,¹⁵⁵Chavel says he couldn’t find this tradition in Seder Eliahu Zuta, but it is in b. Baba Batra 75a. “The righteous have seven huppot in the Garden of Eden, as it is said, ‘The Lord will create over the whole shrine and meeting place of Mt. Zion cloud by day, and smoke with a glow of flaming fire by night, etc.”¹⁵⁶Is 4:5: “The Lord will create over the whole shrine and meeting place of Mt. Zion cloud by day, and smoke with a glow of flaming fire by night. Indeed, over each ‘glory’ (kavod) will hang a huppah.” Cf Is 4:1: “In that day seven women shall take hold of one man…” You can see where the midrash gets the idea of seven wedding huppot in the future to come. So Rashi explains in a comment to b. Baba Batra 75a: “Indeed over each glory (or honor ) will hang a huppah: (1) “the cloud by day,” (2) “smoke”, (3) “glow”, (4) “fire”, (5) “flaming”, (6) “over each glory”, and (7) “huppah.” But “over each glory” doesn’t seem to belong to this count, but rather the “sukkah which will serve for shade by day” which follows immediately in the next verse (Is 4:6), making seven. It was this that was referred to when the Holy One Blessed be He promised Abraham Our Father in the “Covenant between the pieces” when He said to him, “Count the stars,” and “So shall your offspring be,”¹⁵⁷Gen 15:5. that is to say, just as the stars are arranged by levels, each star’s light greater than its neighbor, with some below it and some above, so in time to come your offspring will be arranged in levels, based on their light of Torah and wisdom, each one greater than the other, each one above the other. And thus in the light of the world to come, the level of the righteous will be one above the other, some of them worthy of the “glass that does not reflect”¹⁵⁸That is, the least obstructed view of God. See the Second Gate (pp. 492-3)., others “the glass which does reflect,” some that go up inside, that is, have permission to, and others who do not go up inside. And all of this they described in a midrash in Tractate Sukkah,¹⁵⁹B.Sukkah 45b. “The row [of righteous men immediately] before the Holy One, blessed be He, consists of eighteen thousand, for it is said, ‘It shall be eighteen thousand round about,'”¹⁶⁰Ez 48:35. which Rashi explained as “eighteen thousand of the righteous surrounding the Shekhinah.”¹⁶¹Rashi’s comment to B.Sukkah 45b. And the explanation of his explanation is that they do so at each of the four winds of the world, and if so, each wind has four thousand five hundred righteous people, and this is what “eighteen thousand round about”¹⁶²Ez 48:35. refers to.

And from the fundamentals of this Torah that we said that God gave to His people through Moshe, His prophet, is to know that the Lord God in the Heavens that gave the Torah to Israel is the First Being - such that there is no beginning nor end to His being, may He be blessed - and that He made exist and created from His will and His power all that was created, ex nihilo. And [likewise] that He keeps in existence everything that He created the whole time that He wishes, but no longer - [not] even an instant. And that He is not prevented from doing anything. And [also from the fundamentals is] to believe that He is one without any conjunction; to believe that in a man fulfilling that which is written in [the Torah], his soul will merit great enjoyment forever; and to believe that God oversees the actions of people and knows all the details of their deeds and repays everyone according to his action. And also from the fundamentals of the Torah is to believe that the true explanation of the Torah is the traditional received explanation that is in our hands from the early Sages of Israel. And anyone who explains about it something that is the opposite of their intention is [expressing] a mistake and a completely void thing. As our Sages received the explanation of the Torah from our teacher, Moshe - peace be upon him - who received it from God, blessed be He, when he stood on the mountain forty days. And even though it was possible to learn [it] in less time than this due to the power of the Teacher, God wanted to hint to the learners that they learn it with deliberation. And this true explanation that we wrote is the explanation that is written in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds (Gemara), which [was] composed [by] our early Sages, who received it one generation after another from our teacher Moshe, peace be upon him. And the Babylonian is lengthier and more elucidated, and [so] we rely upon it more. And it is made up of six orders, and there are sixty tractates in it, according to the division of the contents. Their mnemonic is 'there are sixty queens.' And there are five hundred and twenty-two chapters. And the true explanation of the Torah is likewise elucidated from other books that some of our early Sages composed. And [these books] are called Sifra, Sifrei, Tosefta and Mekhilta. All of these are books that all of Israel believe and [they] rely upon the words of theirs which are there without a disagreement. And about those that there is a disagreement, they have already also explained the ruling that we should take from them. Everything is nicely elucidated without any doubt or confusion to those that understand. And anyone whose heart troubles him about these matters is not included in the holy (Jewish) people - since we would never agree about the truth from the simple understanding of the verses of the Torah without their explanations and their true tradition. As there are several verses in the Torah that appear to contradict one another. But the one who knows their explanation understands and sees that the ways of God are straight: Behold it is written in the Torah (Exodus 12:40), "And the inhabitation of the Children of Israel [which they dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years]." And [yet] we found that Kehat the son of Levi was from those that went down to Egypt; and if you count the days of his life and the years of the life of Amram, his son, and the eighty years of Moshe - as he was eighty in his standing in front of Pharaoh to speak to him to take out the Children of Israel from Egypt - they all only add up to three hundred and fifty years. However the explanation of this is that the tally of four hundred and thirty begins from the time that it was stated to Avraham, "that your seed will be a stranger" (Genesis 15:13). And the explanation of the verse is thus: "And the inhabitation of the Children of Israel which they dwelt in Egypt" and other lands - meaning that they began to be exiled - "was four hundred and thirty years." As from the time that it was stated to Avraham, "that your seed will be a stranger," did the distress begin for him - and [so] the beginning of the tally is from there. And do not let its stating, "the Children of Israel," be difficult for you - as behold they said in the Midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 63:3), "Avraham is called Israel, as it is stated, 'And the inhabitation of the Children of Israel.'" And that which it states, "the Children of Israel" is meaning to say the Children of Israel and Israel (referring to Avraham); but Scripture expressed it in this language since the distress began to the father with the proclamation of the exile of the children. And that which it is stated, "Egypt," is also not specific, but rather meaning to say in exile. And that which it expressed it all with the [word,] Egypt, is because the core of the exile was there; and everything goes according to the core, and it is always called by it. And so [too,] is it written in the Torah (Deuteronomy 10:22), "With seventy souls did your forefathers go down to Egypt." But when you count their enumeration, you find [only] sixty-nine souls. But rather the explanation (Bava Batra 123b) comes that Yocheved was born 'betwixt the walls' (of Egypt, though she was conceived before they arrived), and [so] was not counted in the enumeration. And likewise, one verse (Exodus 12:15) states, "Seven days shall you eat matsot" and one verse (Deuteronomy 16:8) states, "Six days." And many like this would not be elucidated without the traditional explanation that is in our hands, that was given to us from our teacher, Moshe.

The claim of the community of Israel to the Land of Israel in its entirety as its historic homeland is predicated upon God's covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15:7-21). However, with regard to three specific geographic areas—the Cave of Machpelah, the Temple Mount and Shechem—title to the land is based upon more conventional grounds. These particular sites are described in Scripture as having become the property of our ancestors by right of purchase long before they acquired title to the rest of the Land of Canaan. The uniqueness of these areas is underscored by the sages of the Midrash.¹Bereshit Rabbah 79:7. Why, impliedly queries the Midrash, is the narrative concerning Abraham's purchase of the sepulchre in the field of Machpelah spelled out in such minute detail (Genesis 23:3-17)? Why does the Bible so carefully identify the individual from whom David purchased the Temple Mount (II Samuel 24:18-25)? Why does the Torah relate that Jacob pitched his tent in Shechem and that he purchased the plot of land upon which he pitched his tent for the sum of 100 kesita (Genesis 33:19)? Answers the Midrash: "So that the nations of the world will not be able to taunt Israel saying, 'These [lands] are in your possession by virtue of theft.' " These historical facts are recorded for a specific purpose, viz., so that for all of posterity the gentile nations will never be in the position of being able to taunt the community of Israel with the claim that Israel lacks clear title to those historic sites.

Blessed be the One who keeps His promise to Israel, blessed be He; since the Holy One, blessed be He, calculates the end [of the exile,] to do as He said to Abraham, our father, in the Covenant between the Pieces; as it is stated (Genesis 15:13-14), "And He said to Abram, 'you should surely know that your seed will be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation for which they shall toil will I judge, and afterwards they will go out with much property.'"

4. Rashi, I Chronicles 27:24, seemingly ignoring the sources cited in both Berakhot 62b and Yoma 22b, posits two entirely different verses as sources for this prohibition. The passages "If a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall your seed also be numbered" (Genesis 13:16) and " 'Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to count them'; and he said unto him, 'So shall your seed be' " (Genesis 15:5) are interpreted by Rashi, not simply as blessings, but as prohibitions against counting the progency of Abraham. In his commentary on I Samuel 15:4, Rashi cites yet a third verse, "I will surely do you good and make your seed as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude" (Genesis 32:13) which he renders as "which shall not be numbered for multitide.⁹Cf., Meshekh Ḥokhmah, Parshat Naso, s.v. be-haftorah.

If a Seifer Torah is found to be defective due to an error, if the error is a serious one we are not permitted to read from it, and another Seifer Torah must be taken out [of the ark] (see Chapter 79: 10). What constitutes a serious error? For example, [if there is] one letter too many, or one missing, or even if one letter is exchanged [with another] and as a result the pronunciation is changed, for example [if the word] tomim (twins)¹Genesis 25:24, 38:27. [is written with an added aleph, and would now be read] te'omim, or the word migresheihen²Numbers 35:3, 35:7. [with a nun at the end] [would be written] migresheihem [ending in a mem], even though the meaning of the word is the same, [i. e., their ground], nevertheless, since the pronunciation is not the same, it is considered a serious error. Likewise, if the error is such that the word could be pronounced, as though it were written correctly, but it was written in a way that changes its meaning; for instance, in the [weekly] portion Terumah³Exodus 25:10. [in the phrase] amah vacheitzi rochbo, the word rochbo (with a vav at the end) was instead written rochbah (with a hei at the end) although (even with the erroneous spelling) the beis can be pronounced with a cholam -o- (vocalized rochbo) nevertheless, since, as it is written [now] it is an error, because the meaning of the word is changed, it is also considered a serious mistake. And if the error is of the kind that it changes neither the pronunciation nor the meaning [of the word],⁴If massoretic rules regarding exceptions in the size or shape of certain letters are not complied with in the writing, no other Seifer Torah has to be taken out. (Mishnah Berurah 143:27) for example, if instead of the correct [spelling] of the word avosam with a vav after the beis, it is found [written] without a vav, or vice versa, or, if instead of the correct [spelling of a word] with an auxiliary yud [to indicate the plural], as for instance, if the word avoseichem is found written without a yud, or vice versa, or any similar case, we do not take out another Seifer Torah, (because [nowadays] our Sifrei Torah are not so exact that we can say [with certainty] that the other one will be more fit.) But if a Yud is missing that is part of the root [of the word], if, for instance, [in the verse] mah lach Hagar al tire'i,⁵Genesis 21:17. [what's the matter Hagar? Do not fear]. the word (tire'i) [would be written] without a yud after the tav, or if [in the verse] al tira Avraham [do not fear, Avraham]⁶Genesis 15:1. the word tira would be written [without a Yud], then another Seifer Torah should be taken out.

Insofar as the Negev and the southern territories are concerned, the Mishnah, Gittin 2a, indicates that Ashkelon was the southern boundary of Erez Yisra'el. Rambam maintains that those who ascended from Egypt conquered no territory south of Ashkelon and that Ashkelon was always the southern boundary. However, most other authorities maintain that in the time of Joshua territories south of Ashkelon were also captured and that the Mishnah, in speaking of Ashkelon as the southern border, refers only to areas regained in the time of Ezra and gives the boundary which existed in the time of the Second Commonwealth. According to these authorities, at least some of the areas south of Ashkelon fall into the category of territory captured by those who ascended from Egypt but not retaken by the returnees from Babylonia. There is considerable evidence in support of this view. I Kings 8:65 speaks of the south of Israel as being populated by Jews "until the river of Egypt." Targum Yonatan (Genesis 15:18) translates the words "nahar mizrayim" as the "Nile of Egypt." Radbaz, Hilkhot Terumot 1:7, dismisses this view and declares the river to be Wa'ad al Arish. This is also the opinion of Sa'adia Ga'on.¹⁴See Tevu’ot ha-Areẓ, chap. 1, p. 27. Sa'adia Ga'on states that Ma'aleh Akrabim of Numbers 34:4 is identical with the area known as Aqaba. I Kings 9:26 speaks of Solomon's dominion as extending to Eilat; II Kings 14:22 and II Chronicles 26:2 speak of the rebuilding of Eilat by Uzziah. It is, however, generally assumed that these territories were not resettled by those who returned with Ezra.

Our patriarch Avraham experienced moral anguish over the enemy soldiers that he killed in the war that he successfully waged against the four Mesopotamian kings (see Bereishit Rabbah 44:5 and Rashi to Bereishit 15:1). However, this emotion did not prevent him from carrying out his moral obligation to wage war vigorously and properly against the four Mesopotamian aggressors.