창세기 22:20의 주석

אחרי הדברים האלה AFTER THESE THINGS [IT WAS TOLD ABRAHAM] etc. — When he returned from Mount Moriah Abraham was pondering and he said, “If my son had really been slain, he would have died without children! I must marry him to one of the daughters of Aner or Eshcol or Mamre”. The Holy One, blessed be He, therefore had the announcement made to him that Rebecca, the one fit to be his (Isaac’s) consort, had been born. This is what is meant by “after these things or words” — namely, “after the words” that expressed the thoughts aroused by the Binding of Isaac (Genesis Rabbah 57:3).

BEHOLD, MILCAH, SHE ALSO HATH BORN CHILDREN. Since Milcah was the daughter of his brother Haran,³⁹⁰Above, 11:29. this was a tiding to Abraham that his older brother Nahor³⁹¹Ibid., Verse 28. had been visited with many children from the daughter of his dead brother Haran.³⁹²Abraham was older than Nahor for Scripture says, Abram, Nahor, and Haran, (ibid., Verse 27). Since Nahor was older than Haran, Ramban refers to him as “the older” brother.
Now from the text of Scripture it would appear that Abraham had no knowledge of any of them except on that day. If they were visited with children in their younger days, it would be impossible for them not to have been heard until this time for the distance between Mesopotamia and the land of Canaan is not great. Now when Abraham left Haran he was seventy-five years old,³⁹³Ibid., 12:4. and Nahor was also elderly and his wife too was not young.³⁹⁴And if Nahor and his wife had had children many years ago, Abraham would have heard of it previously. Indeed, we must say, G-d performed a miracle for them in that they were visited with children in their old age. This is the sense of the verse, Milcah, she also. In the words of our Rabbis, it is said³⁹⁵Yalkut Shimoni Numbers, 746. See the complete quote in my Hebrew commentary, p. 127. that Milcah was visited with children as was her sister Sarah.³⁹⁶Iscah, Milcah’s sister (above, 11:29), is another name for Sarah. (Rashi, ibid.)

She also gave birth. Avraham was told that if he did not wish to take Rivkah for his son, Re’umah also had a daughter — Ma’achoh — who was fitting to be Yitzchok’s wife.

ויהי אחרי הדברים האלה, ויגד. After these events Abraham was told, etc.. The reason that the Torah recorded this whole paragraph as well as the words "after the events," something totally unrelated to what the Torah spoke about previously, is to tell us that now Rebeccah, Isaac's soul-mate, had been born. We have already explained why Rebeccah was born only at that point in time. Isaac, whose soul had originated in the female emanations, had not acquired a soul from the male emanations until after the עקדה, the binding on the altar. ובתואל ילד את רבקה, Bethuel fathered Rebeccah. This is the principal line of the whole paragraph. Why did the Torah have to bother to list all the other descendants of Nachor including those from his concubines? The Torah reminds us that ever since the spiritual poison of the original serpent permeated Adam, purity could no longer exist in isolation. The birth of even the most perfect human being is invariably accompanied by the birth of impure people who lie in wait for the pure. By telling us of the other descendants of Nachor, the Torah indirectly extols the virtue of Rebeccah, mother of all that is holy, who, despite the environment she grew up in, shone forth with her many virtues.

ויהי, after the binding of Yitzchok.

ויהי אחרי, “it was after;” according to Rashi the words הדברים האלה refer to the עקדה, to the episode of the biding of Yitzchok immediately preceding this paragraph. Although as a general rule the word אחרי, as opposed to the word אחר, refers to matters not immediately before what had been related last, in this instance it could mean either.

ויגד לאברהם לאמר הנה ילדה מלכה גם היא, “Avraham was informed that ‘here Milkah too has given birth, etc.’” Nachmanides explains that this news concerning his older brother being blessed with children which Avraham is reported to have received at this time was reported now as both Nachor and Milkah were already quite advanced in years when they were blessed with offspring. They too were beneficiaries of such a miracle in their old age. The miracle occurred due to their sister Sarah’s merit. This is why the Torah wrote the extra words גם היא, “she too,” when reporting that Milkah had born children. If all this is so, how does Nachmanides explain that Nachor’s concubine gave birth? Surely, even granting that Sarah’s merit may have sufficed for G’d to work a miracle for her sister, why would G’d trouble Himself to perform a miracle for Nachor’s concubine so that the Torah wrote the words “she gave birth also?” The Torah reports that Milkah bore eight sons. These eight sons corresponded to the eight sons born to Yaakov by his two major wives Leah and Rachel. The four sons born to his concubine corresponded to the four sons born to Yaakov by Zilpah and Bilhah. The Torah compares Nachor’s family to that of Avraham The point of informing us about all these details is to relate to us that Rivkah who became the mother of Yaakov, the founding father of the Jewish nation, was born to a member of Avraham’s family. All of this was related to stress that members of Nachor’s family were suitable to intermarry with the descendants of Avraham. who cleaved to the Lord G’d as testified by Moses in Deut. 4,4 “and you who have cleaved to the Lord your G’d are all alive as of this day.”

The words of the thoughts that came about as a result of the akeidah. The Re’m writes: I do not know what brought Rashi to depart from the simple meaning of Scripture, that אחרי הדברים האלה refers to the words spoken previously — the angel’s words promising “I will make your descendants as numerous” — as indicated by the word האלה (these). And after these words, Avraham was informed of Yitzchok’s destined mate. Rashi instead follows the Midrash of, “[After] the words of the thoughts that came about as a result of the Akeidah.” [But these “words”] are not mentioned in Scripture at all! Continues the Re’m: [Rashi says,] “Therefore, Hashem announced to him that Rivkah, Yitzchok’s destined mate, had been born.” It is implied that this was immediately [after the akeidah. But is it not written אחרי, which Rashi states in many places that it always means “after a long time”? The answer is: It is called “after a long time” if it is not immediate and without delay.

In dem הנה liegt, dass diese Nachricht eine Antwort auf eine Erkundigung war: Es hat ja auch Milka, Saras Schwester, geboren (und da könntest du leicht eine Ebenbürtige finden, wenn du Isaak verheiraten wolltest). Abraham scheint das לך לך -bisher so vollständig erfüllt und sich in Folge dessen von seinen Ver וגוי אביך ומבית wandten so fern gehalten zu haben, dass er erst dann von ihrer Vermehrung und Ausbreitung erfährt, als er sich nach einer Schwiegertochter umsieht.

ויהי אחרי הדברים האלה, “It was after these events, etc.;” according to Rashi, the event that had occurred on Mount Moriah; when returning from that experience, Avraham reflected and realised that if he had indeed slaughtered his son, how could he now get married so that G-d’s promised to him could be fulfilled. If you were to point out that in Genesis 15,1, Rashi had interpreted the line: אחר הדברים האלה, by commenting that wherever we find this construction in the Torah it means that what follows followed immediately after the events recorded previously, whereas here three years elapsed until Avraham sent Eliezer to get his son a wife, we have to make a distinction between the use by the Torah of the word: אחר and אחרי. When the latter word is used it means that the events now described did not necessarily occur immediately following those described previously.

גם היא SHE ALSO — She also had a number of families equal in all respects to those which Abraham was to have — namely, twelve, and just as in the case of Abraham, of the twelve tribes born of Jacob) eight were the children of the principal wives and four those of the hand-maids, so here, also, eight were sons of the principal wife and four were sons of the concubine (Genesis Rabbah 57:3).

גם היא, in addition to the children born by his concubine.

גם היא, just as Sarah had born a son, so Milkah bore these children to Nachor your brother. It would appear that Milkah had stopped bearing children for a while already, but she had not been barren as had Sarah. Therefore Avraham was given the news that more children had been born for Nachor by his wife Milkah. This whole paragraph describing the children born to Nachor, both by his wife and his concubine Re-umah, has been written in honour of Avraham and to tell us among other facts that Rivkah had been born.

הנה ילדה מלכה גם היא, “Milkah also gave birth to several children.” According to Nachmanides the use of the introductory word הנה suggests that up until that moment Avraham had been unaware that Milkah had born any children. If Milkah had already born children while a young woman, it is difficult to imagine that Avraham would not have heard about this. After all, they did not live that far apart from one another. When Avraham had emigrated he had been 75 years old, whereas at this point he was 137 years old. Nachor obviously had also aged in the interval, and Milkah apparently had not been blessed with children until late in life. Nachor’s family had also become the beneficiary of G’d’s miraculous intervention in their lives. Milkah had shared the good fortune of her sister.