Musar su Genesi 13:19

The first quality: Know that the love of Abraham, peace be upon him, was to teach all those who came into the world the service of the Creator, blessed be He, and proclaim His name always, as it is said (Genesis 13:4), “And Abraham called there on the name of the Lord.” It is also said (ibid., 12:8), “And he built an altar unto the Lord, Who appeared unto him.” And it is said (ibid., 21:33), “And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord.” These verses are to let you know that every place that Abraham went he would call on the name of the Lord and would occupy himself with service to Him. He was not restrained from doing so by the fear of the nations of the world.

And Abraham was very wealthy with livestock, silver, and gold, and he went on his journeys." We have explained earlier that "his journeys" are spiritual journeys, that he advanced to ever higher spiritual plateaus. The moral lesson here is that his growing material wealth did not interfere with his spiritual growth which continued unabated.

One must make great efforts to avoid personal strife. If a quarrel is in the offing, one must immediately strive to remove the cause of such quarrel, as our sages said in Sanhedrin 7 when commenting on Proverbs 17,14: פוטר מים ראשית מדון, "Starting a quarrel is like opening a sluice." Abraham demonstrated this virtue when he said to Lot: "let there not develop a quarrel between us." I detect a special meaning in Abraham employing the feminine form for the word strife, i.e. מריבה, although the Torah had already reported a "strong" quarrel, ריב, having occurred between their respective shepherds (Genesis 13,7). Abraham considered מריבה as a development of ריב. He considered the "fruit" of ריב to be מריבה. The latter word is akin to מתרבה, "constantly increasing." Since women produce children, he used the female form of the word ריב, i.e מריבה, in order to allude to the peculiarity of quarrels which keep increasing. He viewed ריב as something masculine, unable to give birth.

One must make great efforts to avoid personal strife. If a quarrel is in the offing, one must immediately strive to remove the cause of such quarrel, as our sages said in Sanhedrin 7 when commenting on Proverbs 17,14: פוטר מים ראשית מדון, "Starting a quarrel is like opening a sluice." Abraham demonstrated this virtue when he said to Lot: "let there not develop a quarrel between us." I detect a special meaning in Abraham employing the feminine form for the word strife, i.e. מריבה, although the Torah had already reported a "strong" quarrel, ריב, having occurred between their respective shepherds (Genesis 13,7). Abraham considered מריבה as a development of ריב. He considered the "fruit" of ריב to be מריבה. The latter word is akin to מתרבה, "constantly increasing." Since women produce children, he used the female form of the word ריב, i.e מריבה, in order to allude to the peculiarity of quarrels which keep increasing. He viewed ריב as something masculine, unable to give birth.

Nechemiah 9,6-8 is even more convincing. He says: "You made the heavens and the heaven's heaven, and all their host, the earth and everything upon it, the seas and everything in them… You are the Lord G–d who chose Abram, who brought him out of Ur .. and changed his name to Abraham.” Why does Nechemiah bother to mention that Abraham used to be called Abram? The reason is that he wanted to allude to the fact that heaven and earth were created for the sake of Abraham, and to make us take note that Abram's name had been changed. Once you appreciate this, you will also find a hint of this transformation already in the report of creation, i.e. Genesis 2,4. Just as Adam's abode was in גן עדן, and he was expelled from there only because of his sin, Abraham's true abode was the Holy Land, the land which according to Ezekiel 36,35 will become once more like גן עדן. We find that prior to the destruction of Sodom and the neighboring towns, the valley is referred to in the Torah as כגן ה' כארץ מצרים "like a garden of G–d, like the land of Egypt." There is, however, a difference between something described as גן, "garden," and גן עדן.

They commenced sinning by considering their personal standing in the community. What concerned them was that Joshua was among those who had been selected to be spies. We know of Joshua that he never moved from the tent of Moses, was his personal valet, etc. (compare Exodus 24,13, and 33,11). The spies reasoned that his inclusion could only be because he would lead Israel in battle to conquer the Holy Land, and that on account of this Moses had also sent him on this mission. G–d had done something similar when He had told Abraham to traverse the land of Canaan (Genesis 13,17), since it would be given to his descendants. Abraham was to be a model for his children, etc. This thought had occurred to the spies only after they had heard Eldad and Meidad prophesy about Moses dying and Joshua leading the Jewish people. This is the reason this portion follows the report of the selection of the seventy elders without an introduction about Israel having requested this mission, as reported in Deuteronomy. Rashi had pointed out already in Exodus 17,14, when G–d instructs Moses to “put it in the ears of Joshua,” that there will be an ongoing war between G–d and Amalaek, but that G–d will wipe out every vestige of Amalek. The reason it was necessary for Joshua to know all this first hand, was a hint to Moses that Joshua would one day become the leader. The eventual mission of the spies was already being prepared at that time.

This is why the Torah in 16,1 did not write בהקריבם, "when they brought close (their offering)" but בקרבתם לפני ה', when they came close to G–d. This "coming close" was of a spiritual, conceptual nature. Their death was an example of what the Psalmist meant when he said: "The death of His pious ones is something very precious to the Lord" (Psalms 116,15). Rabbi Abraham Saba, author of the Tzror Hamor, in his commentary on Genesis 13,5 already wrote that the experience of Nadav and Avihu paralleled the four sages – of whom Rabbi Akiva was one – who נכנסו לפרדס, entered the orchard, [euphemism for study of the mystical aspects of Torah. Ed]. The four were Rabbi Akiva, Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma and Elisha ben Avuyah (who emerged as an heretic). These four sages had already been preceded by Adam, Noach, Abraham and now the two sons of Aaron in their desire to probe the mysteries of the מעשה מרכבה. The word פרדס used in this story related in Chagigah 14 means a place in which grapes and pomegranates grow. Adam sinned regarding both the נגלה, revealed aspect of Torah legislation, as well as against the נסתר, hidden aspect of G–d's commandments. The Talmud describes him as קצץ בנטיעות, having mutilated the young saplings in the garden of religion, and having turned into an heretic. The same thing happened to his counterpart Elisha ben Avuyah. Noach too drank from the wine, became drunk, and as a result temporarily of unsound mind. Ben Zoma reportedly beheld something he was not spiritually prepared to understand and as a result suffered insanity.

Abraham planted an אשל, (another word for orchard); he entered and emerged spiritually whole. Abraham traversed the whole land of Canaan (Genesis 12,6) descended into the land of Egypt, a country filled with all sorts of impurities. He was saved from being affected by any of them, and the Torah reports him as having ascended again from Egypt "southward" (Genesis 13,1). [The term "southward" is geographically incorrect as the land of Canaan is situated north of Egypt. Ed.] All of Abraham's ascents were "southward," in line with the statement of our sages that he who wishes to acquire true wisdom should turn "southward." (Baba Batra 25b). Rabbi Akiva, too, entered the orchard spiritually whole and emerged whole.

On 13,5: וגם ללוט ההולך את אברם היו צאן ובקר ואהלים "Also Lot who went with Abram possessed sheep, cattle, and tents." In Bereshit Rabbah 41,4 Rabbi Tuviah comments that the tents mentioned refer to Ruth the Moabite and Naomi the Ammonite. This is also why later on in Genesis 19, 15 the angels urge Lot to take "your wife and your two daughters הנמצאות, i.e. "who will have an enduring existence, i.e. they will be two tents." Rabbi Yossi says the word הנמצאות, is equivalent to מציאות, finds. The two finds are Ruth and Naomi. Rabbi Yitzchak portrays G–d as saying "I have found My servant David." Where did G–d find him? In Sodom.

When Bereshit Rabbah 41,6 says that the facial features of Lot resembled those of Abraham, what they mean is that just as Abraham was a spiritual giant among men, i.e. אדם, so the numerical value of the letters in the name לוט add up to 45=אדם. We have repeatedly set out that the word אדם is an acronym for אדם-דוד-משיח. Lot wanted to take possession of the land of Israel prematurely, believing himself to be Abraham's heir, as explained by Rashi on 13,7. Since Abraham, however, had not yet acquired that land, seeing the Torah described it as belonging to the Canaanite and the Perisite at that time, this proved impossible. Lot thought that Canaan being cursed however, could not possibly claim legal title to the land. Actually, at that time Lot was also in the category of someone who is cursed since the word לוט is also an expression of לטותא, the Aramaic word for "curse." Even though his facial features may have resembled those of Abraham, he was like an ape i.e. only similar when compared to אדם but not a real אדם. Only at the coming of the Messiah will Lot's facial resemblance become translated into the equivalent of אדם.

We find a clear allusion to this in 13,9 where Abraham says to Lot: "Is not the whole land before you, separate yourself from me; if to the Left, I will go to the Right, and if to the Right, I will go to the Left." The meaning of the verse is that Abraham asks Lot why he quarrels needlessly, seeing there will be a time when he will have the entire land to choose from and does not now need to take things before they are ripe. When would that time come? At the time the kingdom of David will be established, seeing that David is descended from Ruth. That same Ruth had said to her mother-in-law Naomi "only death will part us" (Ruth 1,17). Abraham meant the same thing when he spoke to Lot about הפרד נא מעלי, "please separate from me." According to Rabbi Yitzchak Arama in his commentary on Ruth, the latter made a very significant statement, namely that when members of the other nations die, that does not create a disparity among them because all of them proceed towards an eternal void. Since every Jewish person however has a share in the world to come, death creates a disparity amongst them, seeing their shares in that World To Come are not the same. Bamidbar Rabbah 21,22 comments that any bridegroom who is "greater" than his fellow-bridegroom will be burned by the fire G–d provides for the wedding canopy of the other, [a penalty for being envious of somebody else's status, see Baba Batra 75. The whole discussion is about G–d bestowing honor on the righteous in the world of the future. Ed.]. Thus we see that not everyone's share in the World To Come is equal. Hence the division between people will occur when they die and move to different parts of a new world.