Берешит 25:8 Комментарий: Chizkuni, Ramban, Rashbam & Kli Yakar

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.

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.