פּירוש אויף בראשית 24:7

'ה אלהי השמים אשר לקחני מבית אבי THE LORD, GOD OF HEAVEN, WHO TOOK ME FROM MY FATHER'S HOUSE — Here he did not say “[The God of heaven] and the God of the earth”, whereas above (v. 3) he said, “And I will make thee swear etc. … [and the God of the earth]’’. But, in effect, Abraham said to him: Now He is the God of heaven and the God of the earth, because I have made him (i. e. His Name) a familiar one in peoples’ mouths: but at the time when He took me from my father’s house He was God of heaven only and not God of the earth for people did not acknowledge Him and His Name was not commonly known on earth (Genesis Rabbah 59:7).

ה' אלוקי השמים, “the Lord, the G-d of heaven;” Rashi comments that Avraham did not add that this “G-d” was also the “G-d” of the earth. The reason was that the time frame Avraham spoke about was before he had preached monotheism to his peers, none of whom had until then recognised Him as their G-d. If that approach to G-d’s stature were correct, we would have to ask how G-d could have been referred to as the G-d of heaven in Genesis 1,1, when, according to tradition the heaven as we understand it was created only on the second day of the six days of creation? [In our daily prayers, אדון עולם, we commence by stating that that the Master of the universe was “king” before any creature had been created? In other words, the title “King” is not dependent on this King already having subjects over whom to rule. Ed.] The same point has been made by Isaiah 43,10: “before Me no god was formed and after Me none shall exist.” The point that the prophet makes is that G-d’s existence is dependent on His having loyal subjects. Only He is eternal. This is also the reason why the first blessing in our thrice daily amidah, שמונה עשרה, does not contain a reference to G-d as “king,” as do other blessings. It would be inappropriate to commence with the sequence: מלך העולם אלוקי אברהם וגו', “the King of the universe, the G-d of Avraham, etc.” seeing that in the chapter of the Torah whereAvraham is introduced He could not truthfully have been described as the “King” of the whole universe. When Avraham in our verse credited G-d with having taken him out of his father’s house, etc., he thereby “crowned” G-d as “king” also on earth, he being His first subject. Nonetheless this was a far cry from being recognised as king of mankind.

אלוקי השמים, “the G–d in heaven, etc.;” we must note that Avraham did not, at this stage, describe G–d as also being the G–d acknowledged on earth. He described the situation as it was, i.e. that up until this time the G–d of Israel, or even the G–d of creation had not been acknowledged as such on earth. This fact is reflected in our central daily prayer the עמידה, consisting of 18 (+1) benedictions we do not refer to G–d as “King” in the opening benediction which describes Him as the G–d of Avraham and that of the other two patriarchs. [Whenever we recite a benediction before eating even a morsel or drinking a mouthful of water, we do add the fact that He is the King of the universe. Ed.] (Compare Sifrey on parshat Ha-azinu, section 313).