Komentarz do Rodzaju 25:8

OLD AND FULL OF YEARS. He witnessed the fulfillment of all the desires of his heart and was sated with all good things. In a similar sense is [the verse written in connection with Isaac’s life], and full of days,¹⁷²Further, 35:29. which means that his soul was sated with days, and he had no desire that the future days should bring something new. This is as it is said of David: And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches and honor.¹⁷³I Chronicles 29:28. This is a story of the mercies of the Eternal¹⁷⁴Isaiah 63:7. towards the righteous ones, and of their attribute of goodness by virtue of which they do not desire luxuries, just as it is said of them, Thou hast given him his heart’s desire,¹⁷⁵Psalms 21:3. and not as it is said of other people, He that loveth money shall not be satisfied with money,¹⁷⁶Ecclesiastes 5:9. and as the Rabbis have commented thereon:¹⁷⁷Koheleth Rabbah 1:34. “No man leaves the world having amassed half of his desires. If he has a hundred, he desires two hundred. If he succeeds in acquiring two hundred, he desires to make of it four hundred, as it is said, He that loveth money shall not be satisfied with money.”¹⁷⁶Ecclesiastes 5:9. In Bereshith Rabbah the Rabbis have said:¹⁷⁸62:3. “The Holy One, blessed be He, shows the righteous in this world the reward He is destined to give them in the Coming World, and their souls become full and they fall asleep.”¹⁷⁹I.e., they die without pain. The Sages were stirred by this and they explained the verse which says, and full of years, with this vision [of the reward that G-d shows the righteous before they die].

בשיבה טובה, as G’d had foretold him in 15,15. He promised that the oppression which Avraham’s descendants would be subjected to would not commence while he was still alive.

ויגוע וימות, whenever the Torah speaks of גויעה this refers to an easy, painless kind of death not preceded by lengthy illness.

זקן ושבע ימים, “in a ripe old age.” He had seen all his aspirations fulfilled. The Torah here describes an attitude to life by the pious who do not demand more than has been granted to them by G’d’s grace without their pleading for this.

זקן ושבע ימים, “old and content.” Seeing that the Torah had told us previously that Avraham had been blessed by G’d in all that mattered, and that he had been the recipient of material wealth and honour of every conceivable kind, the Torah tells us that because of this he died without any regrets, did not feel that there were things he had not been able to achieve. This was in pronounced contrast to the fate of the average person of whom we are told in Kohelet Rabbah 1,34 that “when a person dies, half his aspirations in life for acquisitions went unfulfilled.” If he had once made the acquisition of say 1 million his objective, he had raised this objective as soon as he had realised it, so that when he died he had felt cheated by life. The author of Kohelet called this syndrome אהב כסף לא ישבע כסף, “he who loves silver will never get enough of it (Kohelet 5,9).”

שיב ,שיבה, nicht unwahrscheinlich verwandt mit שגב stark werden, eine Höhe erreichen, die anderes überragt. Was שגב räumlich ist, wäre שיב zeitlich. — זקן ושבע ireif und satt, hatte die dem Menschen erreichbare geistige und sittliche Voll- kommenheit, und in seinem äußeren Geschicke die Erfüllung seiner Wünsche erreicht. — Tiefer und inniger die Weisen, Worte, die den Tod in einer Weise zeichnen, wie sonst wohl noch kein menschlicher Gedanke den Tod gedacht, geschweige denn ein Mund ausgesprochen: "Wenn ein צדיק stirbt, so lässt ihn Gott die seiner harrende Seligkeit blicken, und dieses Seligkeitsgefühl ist so überwältigend, dass an seiner Fülle der Fromme "satt" wird, einschläft und stirbt". —

ויגוע, “he expired; according to Rashi thisexpression denoting someone’s passing is reserved for use with the righteous. [This Rashi is not found in our editions of Rashi at this point at all. Ed.] This raises the question of why this term has been applied to the death of almost all of mankind during the deluge, the people who had perished there having been clearly described as everything but “righteous.” (Compare Genesis 7,21) [There the Rashi is not found either. Ed.] The answer is that what Rashi meant was the combination of the term גויעה and אסיפה, “i.e.simultaneous death and transfer of the soul to the domain where the ancestors enjoy the benign radiance of G-d’s spirit.” [afterlife, in plain English.] Even though the combination of these two terms also occurs where the Torah records the death of Yishmael (25,17), our sages see in this proof that the latter had become a penitent prior to his death.

ויאסף אל עמיו, he was attached to the bundle of souls who are part of the life after death, all of whom the righteous of the various generations who were like him in lifestyle, [as in those regions biological relationships are irrelevant, and the term “his people” is applied to other common denominators than on earth. Ed.] The reason why the Torah employs the term עמיו his peoples” in the plural is that there are all kinds of different spiritual levels among the righteous souls, not all attained the same level of righteousness while on earth although all of them share the experience of enjoying eternal life. (compare statements in Baba Batra 75 on that subject.)

בשיבה טובה, having seen children and grandchildren and having been treated with respect and dignity all his life. According to a Midrash quoted by Rashi, it means that he lived to see his son Ishmael return to the fold as a baal teshuvah.

ויאסף אל עמיו, “and he was gathered to his people.” Seeing that essentially, death is a separation of phenomena namely the different raw materials which combine to make up the body, which were previously integrated, the Torah informed us that the soul was gathered into his people, i.e. did not disintegrate. The soul returned to the distinguished environment around G’d’s throne of glory. The soul itself is also known as כבוד, “honour” or “distinction.” We find this term applied to the soul in Psalms 30,13 למען יזמרך כבוד ולא ידום, ”in order that [my] soul sing hymns to You endlessly;” as well as in Isaiah 58,8 כבוד ה' יאספך, “the place where the כבוד of G’d is gathered in.” The choice of the term עמיו, “his people,” is analogous to expressions used in the Bible for the soul such as Exodus 31,14 where the Torah decrees a form of death of the soul with the words ונכרתה הנפש ההיא מקרב עמיה, “and such a soul shall be cut off from amongst its people,” (its fellow-souls, obviously( Innocent souls are gathered together forming a family, a nation. The same thing applied here.
The expression ויגוע to describe the death of the body here may be in order to illustrate that what happened to the body of Avraham was no different than what happened to all the bodies of the animals and the people who died during the deluge where the Torah described their death (Genesis 7,21) as ויגוע כל בשר הרומש על הארץ, “all flesh which moved on the earth died, etc.” Compare also Genesis 6,17 when the deluge had been predicted, and the Torah wrote כל אשר בארץ יגוע, “everything on earth will die.” The author refers to a statement by our sages that the term גויעה for death is used only in connection with the righteous and the obvious problem of the verses quoted from the Torah’s report of the deluge where the sinners died. He says that what was meant by that statement is to be understood as a combination of גויעה plus אסיפה.

זקן ושבע, satisfied with the number of his years he had been granted to live on earth.

Dabei bezeichnet ףoא das Aufnehmen des Verirrten in den bergenden Schutz, des Hinausgewiesenen in die ursprüngliche Heimat — 5) ואספתו אל תוך ביתך. B. M. 22,2) עד האסף מרים (vier. B. M. 12, 15) “הֵאָסֵף" demnach das Jenseits die eigentliche wirkliche Heimat des Menschen und das Diesseits die prüfungsvolle Fremde der Wanderjahre, aus welcher, nach zurückgelegter Wanderschaft, der Geist wieder heimkehrt und Aufnahme findet in dem seiner harrenden Kreis der Seinen.

ויאסף אל עמיו, to join the members of his family who had preceded him in death. The Torah applies this expression to one’s family regardless of whether they were righteous people or sinners.

Eigentümlich ist es nun: es steht niemals האסף אל אבותיו, immer: האסף אל עמיו, mit alleiniger Ausnahme Richter 2, 10 von dem zeitgenössischen Geschlechte Josuas, sonst heißt es immer האסף אל עמיו - שכוב עם אבותיו. Begraben wird man zu seinen Eltern, da kommt das Kind zu Vater und Mutter. Dort oben gibt es kein "Kind" da ist alles verwandt, da ist nicht "Vater und Mutter" was sie geben, das bleibt zurück. Dort oben findet der Geist nur gleichgeartete Menschenseelen, die von dem einen Vater in die hieniedige Hülle gehaucht waren. Und diesem, sowie die Hülle fällt, Hinaufgesammelt-werden zu den ihnen verwandten Geistern, steht gegenüber: das הכרת הנפש מעמיה. Nur die Seele wird in diesen Kreis aufgenommen, die hienieden der Bestimmung nicht untreu geworden, die sie mit dem ihr angehörenden Verein von Seelen teilt. Vielleicht steht daher Richter 2, 10 nicht absichtslos: וגם כל הדור ההוא נאספו אל אבותיו im Gegensatz zu dem darauf folgenden Geschlechte, von dem es Raw Hirsch on Genesis 25: 12 heißt: ויעזבו את אלקי אבותם. Das mit Josua zu Grabe gegangene Geschlecht war den Überlieferungen seiner Väter treu geblieben, sie konnten jenseits bei den עמים, die auf Erden אבותם waren, aufgenommen werden. Nicht so das darauf folgende Geschlecht, das der von den Vätern überkommenen Bestimmung untreu geworden. —