Halakhah sa Genesis 15:13: Sefer HaChinukh, Mishneh Torah, Repentance & Mishneh Torah, Leavened and Unleavened Bread

And from the fundamentals of this Torah that we said that God gave to His people through Moshe, His prophet, is to know that the Lord God in the Heavens that gave the Torah to Israel is the First Being — such that there is no beginning nor end to His being, may He be blessed — and that He made exist and created from His will and His power all that was created, ex nihilo. And [likewise] that He keeps in existence everything that He created the whole time that He wishes, but no longer — [not] even an instant. And that He is not prevented from doing anything. And [also from the fundamentals is] to believe that He is one without any conjunction; to believe that in a man fulfilling that which is written in [the Torah], his soul will merit great enjoyment forever; and to believe that God oversees the actions of people and knows all the details of their deeds and repays everyone according to his action. And also from the fundamentals of the Torah is to believe that the true explanation of the Torah is the traditional received explanation that is in our hands from the early Sages of Israel. And anyone who explains about it something that is the opposite of their intention is [expressing] a mistake and a completely void thing. As our Sages received the explanation of the Torah from our teacher, Moshe — peace be upon him — who received it from God, blessed be He, when he stood on the mountain forty days. And even though it was possible to learn [it] in less time than this due to the power of the Teacher, God wanted to hint to the learners that they learn it with deliberation. And this true explanation that we wrote is the explanation that is written in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds (Gemara), which [was] composed [by] our early Sages, who received it one generation after another from our teacher Moshe, peace be upon him. And the Babylonian is lengthier and more elucidated, and [so] we rely upon it more. And it is made up of six orders, and there are sixty tractates in it, according to the division of the contents. Their mnemonic is “there are sixty queens.” And there are five hundred and twenty-two chapters. And the true explanation of the Torah is likewise elucidated from other books that some of our early Sages composed. And [these books] are called Sifra, Sifrei, Tosefta and Mekhilta. All of these are books that all of Israel believe and [they] rely upon the words of theirs which are there without a disagreement. And about those that there is a disagreement, they have already also explained the ruling that we should take from them. Everything is nicely elucidated without any doubt or confusion to those that understand. And anyone whose heart troubles him about these matters is not included in the holy (Jewish) people — since we would never agree about the truth from the simple understanding of the verses of the Torah without their explanations and their true tradition. As there are several verses in the Torah that appear to contradict one another. But the one who knows their explanation understands and sees that the ways of God are straight: Behold it is written in the Torah (Exodus 12:40), “And the inhabitation of the Children of Israel [which they dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years].” And [yet] we found that Kehat the son of Levi was from those that went down to Egypt; and if you count the days of his life and the years of the life of Amram, his son, and the eighty years of Moshe — as he was eighty in his standing in front of Pharaoh to speak to him to take out the Children of Israel from Egypt — they all only add up to three hundred and fifty years. However the explanation of this is that the tally of four hundred and thirty begins from the time that it was stated to Avraham, “that your seed will be a stranger” (Genesis 15:13). And the explanation of the verse is thus: “And the inhabitation of the Children of Israel which they dwelt in Egypt” and other lands — meaning that they began to be exiled — “was four hundred and thirty years.” As from the time that it was stated to Avraham, “that your seed will be a stranger,” did the distress begin for him — and [so] the beginning of the tally is from there. And do not let its stating, “the Children of Israel” be difficult for you — as behold they said in the Midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 63:3), “Avraham is called Israel, as it is stated, ‘And the inhabitation of the Children of Israel.’” And that which it states, “the Children of Israel” is meaning to say the Children of Israel and Israel (referring to Avraham); but Scripture expressed it in this language since the distress began to the father with the proclamation of the exile of the children. And that which it is stated, “Egypt,” is also not specific, but rather meaning to say in exile. And that which it expressed it all with the [word,] Egypt, is because the core of the exile was there; and everything goes according to the core, and it is always called by it. And so [too,] is it written in the Torah (Deuteronomy 10:22), “With seventy souls did your forefathers go down to Egypt.” But when you count their enumeration, you find [only] sixty-nine souls. But rather the explanation (Bava Batra 123b) comes that Yocheved was born “betwixt the walls” (of Egypt, though she was conceived before they arrived), and [so] was not counted in the enumeration. And likewise, one verse (Exodus 12:15) states, “Seven days shall you eat matsot” and one verse (Deuteronomy 16:8) states, “Six days.” And many like this would not be elucidated without the traditional explanation that is in our hands, that was given to us from our teacher, Moshe.

But what is this that king David said: "Good and upright is the Lord; therefore doth he instruct sinners in the way. He guideth the humble in justice; and He teacheth the humble His way" (Ibid. 210.11)? This is a reference to the prophets who were sent to make the ways of God known, and to turn the people to repentance. Moreover, He endowed them with a power to study and understand, as it is the tendency of every man to pursue wisdom and righteousness as long as he is trained in the ways of wisdom. This is in harmony with what our Masters, of blessed memory! said: "He who comes to be cleansed receives aid"³Shabbat, 104a; Yoma, 38b. Minahot, 29a. G., as if saying: "He will find himself aided in the matter he strives after. Now, reverting back to the subject of predestination is it not written in the Torah: "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them" (Gen. 113), lo, here is a decree against the Egyptians to do evil? And it, moreover, written: "And this people will rise up, and go astray after the foreign gods of the land" (Deut. 31.16), lo, here is a decree against Israel to worship idolatry, then why visit retribution upon them? Because He did not decree that that particularly known person shall be the one to go astray. Forsooth, every individual of those who did go astray to worship idolatry, had he not done so to worship of his own free will, he would not have worshiped. And God made known no more than custom of the world. This is like to one who says: "Among this people will be righteous and wicked". Not because of this will the wicked one say that it had long since been decreed that he should be an evildoer, seeing that God made known to Moses that there will be wicked people among Israel. Or, this is like the subject of poverty, of which it is said: "For the poor shall never cease out of the land" (Ibid. 15.11). Likewise the Egyptians, if each and every one of those who vexed and wronged Israel had no desire so to wrong them, he had it in his power to refrain from doing it; for, He did not decree against a particular man, but made known to Abraham that in the end his seed will be enslaved in a land which is not theirs. But we have already stated that it is not within the power to comprehend the foreknowledge of the Holy One, blessed is He!

Blessed be the One who keeps His promise to Israel, blessed be He; since the Holy One, blessed be He, calculates the end [of the exile,] to do as He said to Abraham, our father, in the Covenant between the Pieces; as it is stated (Genesis 15:13-14), "And He said to Abram, 'you should surely know that your seed will be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation for which they shall toil will I judge, and afterwards they will go out with much property.'"