창세기 12:2의 주석

ואעשך לגוי גדול AND I WILL MAKE OF THEE A GREAT NATION —Since travelling is the cause of three things—it decreases (breaks up) family life, it reduces one’s wealth and lessens one’s renown, he therefore needed these three blessings: that God should promise him children, wealth and a great name (Genesis Rabbah 39:11).

AND BE THOU A BLESSING. You will be the blessing by whom people will be blessed, saying, “G-d make thee as Abraham.” To this He added that all families of the earth²³Verse 3 here. will cite him in blessing, not just the people of his country alone. It may be that the expression, And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed,²³Verse 3 here. means that they will all be blessed on his account.
Now this portion of Scripture is not completely elucidated. What reason was there that the Holy One, blessed be He, should say to Abraham, “Leave your country, and I will do you good in a completely unprecedented measure,” without first stating that Abraham worshipped G-d or that he was a righteous man, [and] perfect?²⁴Above, 6:9. As was the case with Noah. Or it should state as a reason for his leaving the country that the very journey to another land constituted an act of seeking the nearness of G-d.²⁵Psalms 73:28. This may indeed be an illuminating personal remark shedding light on Ramban’s journey, towards the end of his life, to the Land of Israel; the very journey constituted to him a religious experience of “seeking the nearness of G-d.” The custom of Scripture is to state, “Walk before Me,²⁶Genesis 17:1. and hearken to My voice, and I will do good unto you,” as is the case with David²⁷See I Kings 2:4. and Solomon,²⁸Ibid., 3:13-14. as well as throughout the Torah: If ye walk in My statute;²⁹Leviticus 26:3. And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Eternal thy G-d.³⁰Deuteronomy 28:1. And in the case of Isaac, it says, For My servant Abraham’s sake.³¹Genesis 26:24. But there is no reason for G-d to promise [Abraham a reward merely] for his leaving the country.
However, the reason [for G-d’s promising Abraham this reward] is that the people of Ur of the Chaldees did him much evil on account of his belief in the Holy One, blessed be He, and he fled from them to go to the land of Canaan, tarrying for a time at Haran, whereupon the Eternal told him to leave these places as well and to fulfill his original intention that his worship be dedicated to Him alone and that he call upon people [for the worhip of] the Name of the Eternal in the Chosen Land. There He would make his name great, and these nations would bless themselves by him, not as they treated him in Ur of the Chaldees, where they abused and cursed him, put him in prison or in the fiery furnace. He further told Abraham that He will bless those who bless him, and if some individual will curse him, he will be cursed in turn.
This then is the meaning of this portion of Scripture. The Torah, however, did not want to deal at length with the opinions of idol worshippers and explain the matter between him and the Chaldeans in the subject of faith, just as it dealt briefly with the matter of the generation of Enosh³²Above, 4:26. See also above in Seder Noach, Note 280. and their thesis concerning the idol-worship which they instituted.

והיה ברכה, a true blessing by G’d is when G’d rejoices in our deeds and actions. Our sages (Berachot 7) illustrate this when they quote a conversation between the High Priest Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha who, while offering incense on Yom Kippur, had a vision of the angel Katriel sitting on the throne of G’d. The latter said to him: “Yishmael, My son, bless Me.” He said to him: (in the words attributed as being G’d’s own ‘prayer’) “may it be Your will that Your mercy will subdue Your anger and may Your mercy exile Your justified attribute to punish Your people for their sins, and may Your mercy prevail so that You deal with Your children by applying the attribute of Mercy.” When G’d’s representative, the angel Katriel heard this, he touched the High Priest on the head, which the latter took as a sign that the blessing uttered by an inferior creature for a superior should not be dismissed as worthless.” [I have stuck more closely to the text of the Talmud than did the author here. Ed.] G’d here blessed Avram, with becoming the one who would preach monotheism including awareness of the benevolence of G’d which He extends to all of His creatures.