ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף בראשית 13:16

ויאמר אברם…מה תתן לי? Abram said:…"what are You able to give me?" How could Abraham begin by saying: "You have not given me, etc.," when he had received G'd's promise that he would father children? Surely he did not doubt G'd's words? Why did Abraham say: הן לי לא נתתה, instead of: הן לא נתתה לי? [why did he stress the word לי?] What did Abraham have in mind when he said to G'd that בן ביתי יורש אותי, that "a member of my household will inherit me?" Seeing that he had no seed of his own, what difference did it make to him if a member of his household or someone else would inherit him?

Abraham remembered that the promise of seed he had received was phrased thus: "your seed will be as the dust of the earth" (13,16). When people are compared to the dust of the earth such a comparison normally applies to poor and insignificant people, i.e. "as the dust"; it implies that such people do not possess a holy soul, that they are closer to animals than to angels. When Abraham stressed the לי aspect of his future descendants, he referred to the fact that G'd had not promised him children or grandchildren of any stature. This is why G'd told him "to count the stars." The stars were meant to be symbols. G'd wanted Abraham to know that his descendants would all be important in their own right. They would be righteous people who could overcome the stars, i.e. their fates would not be subject to zodiac constellations, to מזל. Bereshit Rabbah 69,5 explains the simile of the "dust of the earth" to mean that just as dust cannot prosper without water, so Jacob's (Abraham's) descendants would not prosper without Torah which is for the spirit what water if for the body. The Midrash there lists other qualities of dust which make it seem as something valuable and important. Examination of various Midrashim on the subject of עפר, dust, shows that we never find dust treated as something valuable until after Abraham's descendants were compared to stars for the first time. This is the reason that the quotation from the Midrash we have cited was from פרשת ויצא and not from here. At any rate, Abraham was concerned about the comparison of his descendants to dust in G'd's first promise.

I will fulfill My covenant with you that you be “as many as the stars in heaven” [Deuteronomy 1:10] and “as the dust of the earth” [Genesis 13:16].

מי מנה עפר יעקב וגו׳ WHO HATH COUNTED THE DUST OF JACOB [AND THE NUMBER OF THE FOURTH PART OF ISRAEL] — Understand this as the Targum does: [who has counted] the infants of the house of Jacob, who are compared to the dust of the earth (Genesis 13:16). The words מארבע משריתא in the Targum mean; [who can count … even one] of the four (רבע “a fourth”) banners (companies of the tribes). — Another explanation of עפר יעקב is: Countless are the commandments which they practise in connection with dust: (Deuteronomy 22:10) “Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass [together]”; (Leviticus 19:19): “Thou shalt not sow thy field with two kinds of seeds”. There are also the ashes of the red cow (Numbers 19:9 ff.), and the dust used in the ordeal to which a woman suspected of infidelity is subjected (Numbers 5:17), and others similar to these (Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 12).

יסף עליכם ככם אלף פעמים MAY HE ADD TO YOU A THOUSAND TIMES AS MANY MORE AS YE ARE — What is the force of saying further: ויברך אתכם כאשר דבר לכם AND MAY HE BLESS YOU EVEN AS HE HATH SPOKEN CONCERNING YOU? But the explanation is: They said to him, “Moses, you are setting a limit to our blessings (only a thousand times)! The Holy One, blessed be He, has already made a boundless promise to Abraham (Genesis 13:16) “… if one can count [the dust of the earth, then can thy seed also be counted]"! Moses replied to them: This (a thousand times) is from me (it is my blessing); but may He bless you even as He hath spoken concerning you!" (Sifrei Devarim 11).

and there was wrath upon Israel because of this Because of the small segment that he counted, there was wrath upon Israel, because it entered his mind to count all Israel and to transgress the verse (Gen. 13:16): “...so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, etc.” and to transgress the verse (ibid. 15:5): “Look, please, toward heaven, etc.”