וַֽיהֹוָ֖ה אָמָ֑ר הַֽמְכַסֶּ֤ה אֲנִי֙ מֵֽאַבְרָהָ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֖ר אֲנִ֥י עֹשֶֽׂה׃
여호와께서 가라사대 나의 하려는 것을 아브라함에게 숨기겠느냐
Kedushat Levi
Genesis 18,17. “and the Lord had said: ‘shall I conceal from Avraham….seeing that I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is just and right in order that the Lord may bring about for Avraham what He has promised him;”
Why does the Torah write twice: למען, “in order that, etc,” in this verse? There are numerous additional details in this verse which I do not wish to dwell on at this time due to their requiring lengthy answers.
Basically, the root of the problem G’d is addressing here is that the verse addresses the righteousness of Avraham seeing that all of Avraham’s devoted service to G’d originated in his love for G’d and his outstanding intellect. Due to his outstanding intellect, he realized that whatever he had done was very little compared to the vast amount of loving attention and miracles G’d had already showered upon him at various times in his life. As a result, Avraham did not for a moment consider that he had reciprocated sufficiently for what G’d had done for him. When pondering this dilemma, Avraham realized that the only way in which he could improve the quality of his service of the Lord was by being instrumental in getting others to follow his example. As long as he was not able to accomplish this to the extent he hoped for, he decided to view his service to G’d as being performed also on behalf of the entire Jewish people. He knew that it is within the power of someone given the title אב, “father,” or better, “patriarch,” to act as the High Priest of others in his service of the Lord. Having realized this, he not only intensified the performance of the Torah’s commandments that his intellect had convinced him would be part of the text of the Torah when it would be revealed, but he even understood what kind of safeguards the sages would surround Torah laws with in order to insure that Biblical laws would not be violated by the Israelites in the future.
When the sages tell us that Avraham even observed the halachah of ערוב תבשילין, (Yuma 28) precautionary preparation of food for the Sabbath following immediately after a festival, they merely wanted to illustrate that these laws were based on application of intelligence, and the sages’ ability to divine the reasons behind the basic legislation. How else would Avraham have been inspired to think of this? The sages chose this example to illustrate Avraham’s performance of the commandments, as when we nowadays, perform this commandment, we include in our benediction a statement that includes all of the people in our town as being included in our having performed this commandment. This Rabbinic ordinance has remained an illustration of how easy it is to include others in the performance of G’d’s commandments by having them in mind and acting as a branch of the tree planted by the first Jew, Avraham.
Why does the Torah write twice: למען, “in order that, etc,” in this verse? There are numerous additional details in this verse which I do not wish to dwell on at this time due to their requiring lengthy answers.
Basically, the root of the problem G’d is addressing here is that the verse addresses the righteousness of Avraham seeing that all of Avraham’s devoted service to G’d originated in his love for G’d and his outstanding intellect. Due to his outstanding intellect, he realized that whatever he had done was very little compared to the vast amount of loving attention and miracles G’d had already showered upon him at various times in his life. As a result, Avraham did not for a moment consider that he had reciprocated sufficiently for what G’d had done for him. When pondering this dilemma, Avraham realized that the only way in which he could improve the quality of his service of the Lord was by being instrumental in getting others to follow his example. As long as he was not able to accomplish this to the extent he hoped for, he decided to view his service to G’d as being performed also on behalf of the entire Jewish people. He knew that it is within the power of someone given the title אב, “father,” or better, “patriarch,” to act as the High Priest of others in his service of the Lord. Having realized this, he not only intensified the performance of the Torah’s commandments that his intellect had convinced him would be part of the text of the Torah when it would be revealed, but he even understood what kind of safeguards the sages would surround Torah laws with in order to insure that Biblical laws would not be violated by the Israelites in the future.
When the sages tell us that Avraham even observed the halachah of ערוב תבשילין, (Yuma 28) precautionary preparation of food for the Sabbath following immediately after a festival, they merely wanted to illustrate that these laws were based on application of intelligence, and the sages’ ability to divine the reasons behind the basic legislation. How else would Avraham have been inspired to think of this? The sages chose this example to illustrate Avraham’s performance of the commandments, as when we nowadays, perform this commandment, we include in our benediction a statement that includes all of the people in our town as being included in our having performed this commandment. This Rabbinic ordinance has remained an illustration of how easy it is to include others in the performance of G’d’s commandments by having them in mind and acting as a branch of the tree planted by the first Jew, Avraham.