ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף בראשית 20:5

לבב בכל לבבך: das ganze innere Sinnen (siehe Bereschit 20, 5) נפש die lebende und strebende Individualität (daselbst 1, 20). מאד: die ganze Summe von Mitteln und Kräften, das "Vermögen" (daselbst 1, 31). Der jüdischen Wahrheit ist es nicht wahr, daß Gott nur mit dem Geiste und der Gesinnung verehrt sein will. בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך lautet unsere Anforderung. Unsere Verehrung im Geiste und der Gesinnung, unsere Liebe, haben wir durch Einsetzung unseres ganzen auch leiblichen Seins und Wollens und unseres Vermögens zu betätigen. Eine Liebe, die nicht einmal das kleinste physische Verlangen zum Opfer zu bringen vermag, ist eitel Schaum und Traum. Ja, der rechten Liebe ist es Bedürfnis, sich im Opfer teuerster Verlangen zu betätigen. Der Nachdruck unseres Satzes liegt aber auf dem כל. Ist ד׳ אלהינו ד׳ אחד, stammt alles, was wir sind und wollen und haben, unser Geist, unser Leib und unser Vermögen von der einen gebenden und nehmenden Liebe des einzig Einen, und nur von Ihm, so sind wir ja mit jeder Seite unseres Wesens und jeder Fuge einer jeden Seite sein, sein בכל לבב ובכל נפש ובכל מאד, sein mit allem, was wir sinnen und wollen und haben; jeder Gedanke, jede Empfindung, jede Kraft und jedes Gut ist ein Band, das uns mit ihm verknüpft, das wir als Pfand seiner Liebe besitzen und als Opfer unserer Liebe ihm weihen – das Bewusstsein der Gotteinheit eint auch unser ganzes Wesen mit aller Mannigfaltigkeit der scheinbaren Gegensätzlichkeit in Geist und Leib und Geschickesbeziehungen zu einer einzigen Einheit des Seins und Wollens; wir sind immer und mit allem dieselben, haben immer und mit allem daßelbe Ziel, dieselbe Aufgabe, daßelbe einzige Verlangen: in der ganzen Mannigfaltigkeit unseres Lebens unsern Gott zu "lieben", nicht unsere, sondern Seine Wünsche zu erfüllen, Seiner Nähe würdig zu bleiben, Seiner Nähe uns immer würdiger zu machen. Gott, dem einzig Einen, gibt der Mensch sich einheitlich hin, und diese Hingebung an den einzig Einen macht ihn selbst harmonisch Eins. —

ויאמר אליו אני ה, :He said to him: “I am the Lord;” everything from the opening line of the chapter, “it was after these events” had been said to Avram at night, in a dream. This is clear from the word: במחזה, “in a vision,” (verse 1). In verse five Avram is told: “and count the stars;” from that point on we have the paragraph known popularly as ברית בין הבתרים, “the covenant between the cut up pieces.”From then on we have a revelation Avram experienced in daylight, as the paragraph concludes with the words: “it was when the sun was about to set;” (verse 12) This revelation by daylight had preceded the passagecommencing with chapter 15,1 by five years. This is clear from when G-d told Avram that “your descendants will be strangers and slaves for 400 years in a land that is not their own.” In Exodus12,41 the Torah reports that the Israelites had dwelled in Egypt for 430 years, i.e. that the prophecy made to Avraham had now been fulfilled. According to this,Avraham did not have any child by Sarah (i.e. Yitzchok) until 30 years after this first revelation. The Torah had stated specifically that Avraham was 100 years old when his son Yitzchok was born (Genesis 20,5). In other words, Avram was 70 years old when he left Charan for the first time and when G-d first told him about the future including his descendants until they would be freed from slavery. When G-d addressed Avram for the second time and told him to sever his relationship with home and hearth and birthplace in Genesis 12,1, he was 75 years old. According to the well known historic record known as seder olam, Avram was 48 years old at the time of the Tower and the dispersal of mankind. This was followed by the 13 years that the region known as the land of Canaan served and subsequently rebelled against Kedorleomer, a rebellion which lasted 13 years. (Not the 13th year as usually assumed). According to this calculation 26 years had elapsed at that time from when the Tower had been destroyed. If you add these years to the 48 years Avram had lived before that traumatic event was 74 or 75 years old. This is referred to when the Torah stated that Avram was 75 years old when he left Charan permanently. Immediately after Avram had defeated the kings mentioned in chapter 14, G-d appeared to him and ordered him to leave Charan and to proceed towards the Land of Canaan, his father’s original destination when he had left Ur Casdim. The reason why the two paragraphs here were inserted in the Torah as if they had occurred almost simultaneously was so that the promise that Avraham would have biological offspring would appear in direct connection with the promise that Avraham’s descendants would inherit the land of Canaan as their ancestral heritage when the time would be ripe for that. The Talmud in B’rachot 7, states specifically that these two visions referred to distinctly different subjects. The newsworthy development in Avram’s personality in the intervening between G-d having spoken to him five years earlier at the covenant between the “pieces,”is that for the first time a human being addressed the Almighty with the title adonav. My Master (Verse 8). If you were to think that all that is written here in this chapter is part of a single revelation, and a single subject, up to verse 1 in chapter 16, why did the Talmud not consider verse 2 in chapter 15 in which Avram addressed him by the same title, as the first time in history that this had ever occurred? Clearly what Avram said in verse 8 had preceded what is quoted as having said in verse 2. Furthermore, if these paragraphs had been written in chronological order, how could Avram have dared ask G-d for a sign that His promise would come true without his being accused as having been lacking in faith? G-d, after all, had already clearly stated that his heir would be his biological heir (verse 4). It is therefore clear beyond doubt that in this chapter we are dealing with two different revelations, each one dealing with a different subject. Having said all this, it is easy to understand that G-d referred to the fact that it was He Who had taken him out of Ur Casdim in order to give to his descendants (equated with him) this land that he is to proceed to. Avraham’s question that seeing that he had no heir as yet, surely he by himself could not “inherit” this land, (verse 7) was quite logical. After all he had no assurance that he would not die before G-d’s promise having a chance at being fulfilled. It also explains why G-d, in verse 15, tells him not to worry, but that he would die at a ripe old age. [The only person ever having been given such a promise by G-d, I believe. Ed.] This promise by G-d is evidence of what had prompted his question, certainly was not lack of faith. Some people accept Rashi’s interpretation that Avram, while certainly not doubting G-d’s promise or ability to deliver on His promise, was concerned that seeing that all of G-d’s promises are based on certain underlying conditions, and he was afraid that some of these might not be met so that G-d would not be bound by His promise. We have evidence of fulfillment of G-d’s promises being delayed after the sin of the spies, when G-d swore an oath that all the adults involved in that sin would not set foot in the Holy Land. (Numbers 32,1011) According to the exegetes claiming that Avram did not doubt G-d’s promise, but wished to know by what merit it would be fulfilled, why would he have been punished for having asked such a question? We would have to answer that the words: ידוע תדע, understood by some as the punishment, i.e. the delay in the fulfillment of G-d’s promise, was not a punishment at all, but a direct answer, meaning that until the time came when in the desert the Israelites would regularly offer up sacrifices, they would indeed not yet have earned that merit. This merit coupled with the suffering during exile in Egypt combined, would suffice to make G-d replace the Canaanites and give the land to the Israelites.

וינגע ה' את פרעה, “Hashem afflicted Pharaoh with a painful plague;” the reason why the Torah offers no further details about the nature of this plague, as opposed to when Avimelech was struck with impotence and the women in his country were afflicted in their birth canals, is because shortly after the episode with Avimelech the Torah reported that Sarah conceived and became pregnant (Genesis 21,1). Had the Torah not spelled out that Avimelech had become totally impotent, people might have attributed Sarah’s pregnancy to her having stayed in Avimelech’s Palace. The episode with Pharaoh had occurred perhaps a s long as 20 years earlier, so that no one could have fabricated such a story. To the question why Pharaoh was punished, seeing that Avram had deceived him by saying that she was his sister, as we know from the Torah quoting him, Sarai had described herself as Avram’s wife even if he had not said so. This is the meaning of the words: על דבר שרי אשת ברם “on account of what Sarai, Avram’s wife had said.” Pharaoh had ignored her. Gentiles do not have to be warned not to violate the commandments they have accepted to observe, as we pointed out in connection with Genesis 20,5. (The second Avimelech and Rivkah)