Комментарий к Берешит 13:8

אנשים אחים BROTHERS — i. e. kinsmen. The Midrashic explanation is: that they resembled each other in their facial features (Genesis Rabbah 41:6).

ביני ובינך, in the future. When either one of them would select for his herds a certain grazing area.

אל נא תהי מריבה, Let no quarrel develop between me and you. Abraham told Lot that what had started as an argument between their respective shepherds was bound to lead to a quarrel between the two of them even though Lot claimed that he would never allow this to happen. After all, he respected his uncle too highly as the senior member of the family. The substance of the shepherds' arguments concerned the fact that Lot allowed his shepherds to graze on privately owned land, counting on G'd's promise that the land would belong to Abraham's family in the future. Seeing that Abraham had no children and was genetically unable to father children, Lot viewed himself as Abraham's heir. Abraham alluded to this by the superfluous comment that they were brothers.

ויאמר...ביני ובינך, if our shepherds keep on quarrelling it will not be long before we start quarrelling ourselves.

Relatives. Rashi is answering the question: They were not brothers, only relatives. [Why does it call them אחים?] And according to the Midrashic explanation, that they were called brothers because they looked similar, אחים means כאחים (like brothers).

Nicht בינינו, sondern ביני ובינך. Diese Wiederholung des בין geschieht vorzüglich da, wo die Trennung oder Verbindung, die durch ein drittes vermittelt wird, beiderseitig ist. So vom ביני ובין בני ישראל :שבת, ein doppeltes Erkennungszeichen: so lange Israel den Sabbat hütet, bekennt es damit, dass es Gottes sei, und erkennt Gott es als das Seinige an. Die Entweihung des Sabbats zerreißt beiderseitig das Band. So auch hier: unser Streit ist gegenseitig: mir gefällt manches nicht an dir, und dir auch manches nicht an mir, daher kommt auch der Streit zwischen unseren Leuten. Wo aber keine Einigkeit, da bringt Trennung Frieden. — אנשים אחים, nicht schlechtweg אחים. Gehen wir auch als Männer auseinander, haben nicht eine Lebensrichtung, so sind wir doch Verwandte.

אל נא תהי מריבה, the result of competing aspirations to the same grazing land.

Another reason Abraham referred to their being brothers may be understood in light of our sages' comment on Psalms 50,20 [I have not found that commentary. Ed.]. The Psalmist describes a brother who lives with another brother as maligning him. Applied to our context this means that Abraham was afraid that if the local inhabitants would take Lot to court for stealing from them, his own reputation as the elder brother (uncle) would become tarnished. He could not allow this to happen.

ובין רועי ובין רועיך, now that we dwell here.

Abraham may also have hinted to Lot that the very fact that their principals were brothers made Lot's shepherds take that relationship for granted. Familiarity breeds contempt; had the two not been related, Lot's shepherds would have given Abraham the respect due him as an elder and as a person whom G'd had obviously favoured.