창세기 15:7의 Musar

The eighth quality: The pious man would not worry about the laughter of those who scoff and the shame of those who would shame him. Our sages have said that from his earliest youth, our father, Abraham, peace be upon him, began to cleave to the service of God, blessed be He. Though the men of his generation reviled him, he did not pay any attention until finally they cast him into the fiery furnace¹⁹Our Hebrew Text reads: Holeechuhu. However, the British Museum MS Add. 27, 174 reads Hishleechuhu as does the Cracow edition p. 5a.. And the Creator, blessed be He, saved him, as it is said (ibid., 15:7), “I am the Lord that brought thee forth out of Ur of the Chaldees.”

We now understand why the promise of the land of Israel to Abraham and his descendants is repeated three times in our פרשה, each time including a dimension not previously revealed. The first promise was made at the ברית בין הבתרים. At the beginning of the story of creation the eventual four exiles of the Jewish people had been hinted at according to the view of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish in Bereshit Rabbah 2,4. He understands the words והארץ היתה תהו as a reference to the Babylonian exile; the word בהו refers to the exile of the Medes; the word חשך refers to the exile under the Greeks, and the words על פני תהום refer to an exile that has no limit, whereas the words ורוח אלוקים מרחפת, refer to G–d's spirit, i.e. the era of the Messiah. In our portion, too, G–d hinted to Abraham during the covenant of the pieces that his descendants would undergo four periods of exile, as indicated by the words: אימה, חשיכה גדולה נופלת עליו "fear, great darkness, descending upon him"(15,12). The word אימה refers to Babylonia, the word חשיכה to the exile under the Medes; the word גדולה refers to the exile under the Greeks, and the word נופלת refers to the exile under the Romans, all according to Bereshit Rabbah 44,17.

As there are 70 ways to explain the Torah, we are are permitted to approach these problems from a different angle. We will do so by referring to a different Midrash. Commenting on Song of Songs 4,8: תשורי מראש אמנה, Tanchuma Beshalach 10 states that the redemption of the Jews was triggered by G–d's knowledge that they would compose the song of gratitude and extol G–d's virtues as recorded in our portion. In turn the merit that enabled Israel to proclaim this song originally was Abraham's for he had expressed faith in G–d as reported in the Torah (Genesis 15,7) that he believed the promise that he would have children and that their children would inherit the land of Canaan.