Pensamento Judaico sobre Êxodo 24:14

And He informed him also that in leaving the land of Israel he required greater protection than when he was in the land. This is to be inferred from the verse (Genesis 28:16): "And I will be with you, and I will protect you wherever you go, and I will return you to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." Every "until" in Scripture denotes one of two things: either the cessation of something at a particular time, as in (Exodus 24:14): "And to the elders he said: 'Wait for us here until we return to you,'" the implication being that they should not wait after their return (this being the sense of "until" in the preponderant number of instances in Scripture), or (in a case where something should more likely obtain beyond that particular time), the obtaining of that thing even up to that time (and needless to say, beyond that time, when it is more likely to obtain). Of this second variety is (Genesis 49:10): "The staff shall not depart from Judah, nor the scepter from between his feet, until Shiloh comes," in which the meaning is that even when the kingdom "hovers" between the tribes and it be dictated that the tribe of Judah have no kingship whatsoever, still, so long as there is a king in Israel, Judah's punishment will not be so great as to divest him entirely of the staff of kingdom — until Shiloh, the anointed king [Messiah] comes, at which time the kingdom will even more obviously not depart from him. And of this variety, likewise, is the "until" in "for I will not leave you until I have done…" For the meaning cannot be: I will not leave you until then, but afterwards I will leave you. The meaning, rather, is as follows: G-d informs Jacob that the union between the righteous and the Blessed One being stronger in the chosen land than outside it, it should follow that He leave him [now that Jacob is leaving the land], but his going being for the purpose of fulfilling his father's command, viz. (Genesis 28:6): "Do not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan," the Blessed One will protect him and be with him [even there], for one who cleaves to good people inclines his heart to service of the L-rd and one who does not do so causes his seed to be removed from Him.