From: Yeshivat Har Etzion Office
To: yhe-parsha@etzion.org.il
Subject: PARSHA -03: Parashat Lekh Lekha
YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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PARASHAT LEKH LEKHA
"By What Shall I Know?"
Question and Covenant
By Rav Chanoch Waxman
I.
We tend to think of a divine covenant, a treaty with
God, as something good - not just good, but wholly good.
It is a gift from God, granted to the forefathers and
passed on to future generations. We expect our covenants
to include the promise of nationhood, possession of the
land of Israel, the promise of divine caring and perhaps
some form of religious responsibility. However, we do
not expect them to include suffering.
The "covenant between the pieces" ("brit bein ha-
betarim") shatters this expectation. In the very first
formal covenant granted to Avraham by God, God promises
suffering, and much of it.
"And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell
upon Avram; and behold a horror of great darkness
fell upon him. And He said to Avram, Know surely
that your children shall be strangers in a land that
is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall
afflict them four hundred years." (Bereishit 15:12-
14)
The covenant between the pieces is primarily a
formal guarantee of God's promise of the land of Israel
to Avraham's descendants (see 15:18-21), a clearly
positive event. Yet as part of the process of
contracting this covenant, Avraham is gripped by fear and
horror, a premonition and foreshadowing of his children's
suffering. As part of the covenant itself, Avraham is
promised not just the land, but also exile and suffering.
This seems strange and contradictory.
To rephrase this in more analytic terminology, Why
does the covenant include the promise of suffering? Why
does God choose the moment of the formal treaty, the time
of a great gift to Avraham, to inform him of the horrible
future? In fact, why does Avraham need to know at all
about the future exile in Egypt?
This series of questions leads us to the classic
formulation of the problem. Above, I phrased the problem
primarily in literary and dramatic terms: a problem of
the inclusion of suffering, or the informing of Avraham.
But if we shift for a moment to the theological and
philosophical plane, we may phrase a crucially different
question. What is the cause of the suffering? Why does
God decree it?
II.
I have always been convinced that Chapter Fifteen
itself provides some crucial clues for resolving these
problems. Shortly before the instructions for the
gathering of the animals, the splitting of the animals
and the arrangement of the animals to be used in the
covenant ceremony (15:9-11), God appears to Avraham and
declares His intention to grant the land to Avraham as an
inheritance (15:7). Avraham's response is immediate and
pointed. "And he said, Lord God, by what shall I know
(ba-meh eida) that I shall inherit it?" (15:8). A few
verses later, after the "ceremony preparation" section
mentioned above (15:9-11), we confront the section of
"suffering" (15:12-14). Let us look carefully at part of
the text again.
"And He said to Avram, Know surely (yadoa teida)
that your children shall be strangers in a land that
is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall
afflict them four hundred years." (Bereishit 15:12-
14)
In delivering the decree of suffering, God utilizes
the key word of Avraham's question. God's statement,
"Know surely," a translation of a double usage of the
word for "know," echoes Avraham's request for knowledge.
Avraham asks for knowledge, and God grants it to him.
Apparently, the inclusion of suffering in the covenant
between the pieces is somehow related to Avraham's
request.
III.
The overarching structure of Chapter Fifteen may
well support this point. Let us take a look at the
beginning of the chapter.
"After these things, the word of God came to Avram
in a vision, saying, Fear not Avram: I am your
shield; your reward shall be very great." (15:1)
The preface of the sentence, "After these things,"
refers to the events of Chapter Fourteen, namely the war
(see Rashi 15:1), and clearly signals an organic
connection between the war story of Chapter Fourteen and
the covenant story of Chapter Fifteen. The linguistic
and thematic connection between God as the shield (magen)
of Avraham here (15:1) and God as the deliverer (migen)
of Avraham's enemies into his hands (14:20) further
strengthens this reading.
Finally, on the thematic plane, the last scene of
the war story (14:17-24) depicts a meeting between
Avraham, the victor in the war, and the King of Sedom,
the representative of the coalition of five Canaanite
kings defeated by the four Mesopotamian kings and
subsequently saved by Avraham. The scene takes place in
a location known as the "Valley of the King" (14:17) in
the presence of Malki-zedek, a priest of "the most high
God." According to the standard way these things work,
Avraham, the savior of the Canaanite principalities,
should be accepted as ruler by the Canannites, here in
the "Valley of the King" in front of the representative
of the high God. At the very least, some sort of tribute
should be paid to Avraham and something akin to a noble-
vassal relationship sealed by a formal treaty should be
established. The King of Sedom plays his role perfectly.
He offers Avraham all the booty of the war as the first
part of a treaty initiative. However, Avraham refuses
all reward. Only food for his allies is required. He
turns down all reward, all formal relationship with Sedom
and its coalition, and any hint of treaty and sovereignty
(14:23-24).
In point of fact, Avraham turns down reward and
treaty not just with Sedom, its allies and locality, but
implicitly with a far vaster grouping and area. A
careful reading of Chapter Fourteen yields the following
conclusion. The four kings, who originate in
Mesopotamia, travel across the eastern bank of the
Jordan, carrying out numerous battles along the way.
Near the southern end of the Dead Sea, they smite the
five kings and then continue north towards Damascus
through the west bank of the Jordan. They are on their
way home. No more battles ensue. Their power and
control is unchallenged; they are the rulers of the
entire land of Canaan. In a certain sense, Avraham's
defeat of the kings and his rescue of the Canaanites
constitutes military hegemony over the entire region. It
generates the possibility of reward, treaty and control
over the entire area.
In the very next verse, "After these things" (15:1),
God appears to Avraham and promises him great reward -
not reward and treaty received from kings of flesh and
blood, but reward and treaty received from the King of
Kings, God Himself. The first verse of Chapter Fifteen
in fact constitutes a preface to the covenant between the
pieces, a story of reward and treaty.
The interpretation of the covenant between the
pieces as a reward for "treaty refusal" forces us to
take a look at the structure of Chapter Fifteen. At
first glance, the structure seems to dictate against this
interpretation. The architecture breaks down as follows:
1) 15:1 - God's promise of reward;
2) 15:2-6 - Avraham's lament for children and the sign
of the stars;
3) 15:7 - God's statement that He has brought Avraham
from Ur Kasdim to give him this land as an inheritance;
4) 15:8 - Avraham's question, "How will I know?"
5) 15:9-11 - the ceremony preparations;
6) 15:12-16 - the promise of suffering;
7) 15:17-21 - the ceremony, treaty and conditions.
On some accounts (Ibn Ezra), the chapter should be
divided into two halves, the first consisting of sections
one and two above (the promise of reward, the lament for
children and sign of the stars), and the second half
consisting of the remainder of the chapter (the story of
the covenant between the pieces). If this is correct, it
seems hard to interpret the covenant between the pieces
as a response to the treaty refusal of Chapter Fourteen.
In fact, I have implicitly argued for adifferent
interpretation of the structure of Chapter Fifteen. The
entire chapter constitutes a single unit focused on the
covenant between the pieces from the very start (see
Ramban). Section two, the lament for children and the
sign of the stars, constitutes a digression, a textual
and thematic interruption by Avraham. While God is
concerned with granting the treaty, Avraham is concerned
by his childlessness. God grants Avraham a sign and
quickly returns to the topic at hand, the land and the
treaty (section three).
On this account, the structure of the chapter
consists of God's attempt to contract the covenant
between the pieces and a series of digressions initiated
by Avraham. Theoretically, if Avraham had not spoken in
response, the action could have consisted of sections
one, three, five, and seven - no sign of the stars, no
question of "how will I know" and no promise of
suffering. All of this, sections two, four and six,
constitutes a series of questions and responses,
digressions initiated by Avraham. They are secondary to
God's central agenda in Chapter Fifteen.
Once again, this time from a structural-thematic
perspective, we arrive at the same conclusion. The
promise of suffering connects to Avraham's speech. The
knowledge comes to Avraham as a result of his request for
knowledge.
IV.
In commenting on Isaiah's accusation that "Your
first father sinned" (Isaiah 43:27), Rashi pithily
states: "By saying, 'By what shall I know?'" Apparently,
in explicating Isaiah, Rashi expresses the opinion that
Avraham's statement in Bereishit Chapter Fifteen, "God,
by what shall I know that I shall inherit it?" (15:8),
constitutes a sin. This does not seem unreasonable. God
has already repeatedly promised the land to Avraham and
just stated that He brought Avraham from Ur Kasdim to
give him the land to inherit. Avraham's response seems
to be something along the lines of, "How do I really know
that?" Avraham's reply appears brazen and skeptical.
If so, we may be inclined to interpret the
"knowledge" of 15:12-14, the promise of suffering and
exile, as almost a measure-for-measure punishment for
Avraham's query. Avraham expresses skepticism, a lack of
trust, and desires immediate knowledge, perhaps even
immediate concrete fulfillment of the prior promises.
The problem is precisely the long path, the delays and
the difficulties. God greets Avraham's demand with a
different type of knowledge, the knowing that an even
longer path, more difficulty and suffering lie ahead.
This is in fact the opinion held by the amora Shemuel
(Nedarim 32a): the exile in Egypt constitutes a
punishment for Avraham's demand.
Although this reading does explain the connection
between Avraham's request (15:8) and the inclusion of the
promise of suffering (15:12-14) argued for above, it
seems a bit extreme. Does Avraham's crime justify a four-
hundred-year punishment of his descendants? For that
matter, Avraham's request may not even be a crime. Many
Biblical interpreters have read the question as an
expression not of mistrust but rather of uncertainty.
How does Avraham know that he will not sin in the future?
How does he know that his descendants will not sin? How
does he know that the current inhabitants will not
repent? Avraham's question rises from the depths of his
self-doubt, not his mistrust of God. Avraham's asks for
certainty, not out of impatience but out of confusion and
concern. His desire for knowledge and guarantee is
reasonable and legitimate (Ibn Ezra, Ramban, Seforno,
Abarbanel).
If so, we have not yet arrived at an understanding
of the connection. If we refrain from reading Avraham's
request as a brazen expression of mistrust, we cannot
interpret the inclusion of suffering as a measure-for-
measure punishment. We still do not understand the
inclusion of suffering in the covenant between the
pieces.
V.
The imagery of affliction and suffering resurfaces
in a striking fashion in Chapter Sixteen. The core scene
of the chapter is of course familiar. Pregnant with
Avraham's child, desperate to escape the suffering and
affliction inflicted on her by Sarai, Hagar flees to the
wilderness. There, alongside a spring, she is found,
informed and instructed by an angel of God.
In describing Sarai's persecution of Hagar, the text
(16:6) utilizes the same term for affliction utilized
previously in the promise of suffering (15:13). Both "va-
te'aneha" (16:6) and "ve-inu" (15:13) are variants of the
verb stem ayin, nun, heh, the term for affliction and
suffering. Similarly, the angel tells Hagar to return to
her mistress to suffer (ve-hitani) under her rule (16:9),
a second usage of the term for affliction. Finally,
Hagar is instructed to name her son Yishma'el, meaning
"God hears," for God "has heard your affliction/suffering
(anyeikh)" (16:11).
Interestingly, affliction is not the only linguistic
and thematic echo of Chapter Fifteen found in Chapter
Sixteen. In between being ordered to return to the
clutches of her mistress (16:9) and being instructed to
name her child Yishma'el (6:10), Hagar is promised that
her "seed" (zarekh) will be "much" multiplied (harbeh
arbeh). Her descendants will be uncountable. But this,
of course, is the promise and language of first half of
Chapter Fifteen. Avraham is promised "much" (harbeh,
15:1), and told in the "sign of the stars" that his
descendants will be uncountable (15:5).
Finally, the name Hagar, which appears seven times
in the chapter (16:1,3,4,8,15,16), and the title,
"Egyptian maidservant" or "maidservant," constitute a
linguistic pun and thematic parallel to the status of
"ger" (stranger) and "eved" (servant or slave) promised
to Avraham's descendants (15:13). Hagar is a stranger in
both name and fact. After all, she is from Egypt, a
different land. She serves and slaves far from her
place. This is exactly the promise made to Avraham. It
almost need not be mentioned that she is Egyptian, a
slave for residents of Canaan. The descendants of those
Canaan residents will of course be strangers and slaves
in Egypt.
If we add it up, factoring in the promise of place
and future nationhood made to Hagar's descendants at the
end of the angel's instructions (16:12), the joint
paradigm of both Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen includes
four elements: 1) the status of stranger-servant-slave,
2) affliction and suffering, 3) multiplication of seed
bordering on the uncountable, and 4) future nationhood.
What are we to make of this parallel?
The key to deciphering the meaning of the parallel
may lie not in the overlap between the chapters but in a
central addition to the paradigm that occurs in the story
of "Hagar and the Angel." As pointed out above, in
between step three, multiplication of seed, and step
four, future nationhood, and as a transition between the
two stages, the angel informs Hagar that she is pregnant
and will bear a son. He is to be named Yishma'el, "for
God has heard your affliction/suffering (anyeikh)"
(16:11). God hears the suffering of the oppressed. In
fact, on both the textual and logical levels, God's
sensitivity and response to the suffering of the
oppressed constitutes an intermediate stage between the
negative and positive parts of the paradigm. God's
"hearing" of the downtrodden leads Him to multiply them
and give them nationhood and place. The paradigm in fact
contains a fifth and key element: God's "hearing."
Our paradigm is in fact the paradigm of "Oppression
and Redemption," or perhaps more accurately, Exodus.
This is confirmed not just by the parallel to the
covenant between the pieces, which obviously anticipates
the redemption from Egypt, but also by a quick glance at
the book of Shemot. At the beginning of Shemot, we are
repeatedly told that the Egyptians enslaved and
"afflicted" the children of Israel (Shemot 1:11-14).
Nevertheless, "the more they afflicted them (ya'anu), the
more they multiplied" (1:12). The connection is obvious.
Just as in the story of "Hagar and the Angel," and
counter to the expected, the downtrodden grow and
multiply.
Similarly, the beginnings of redemption from
Egyptian affliction parallel the Hagar-Angestory. As a
preface to Moshe's first meeting with God (at the burning
bush, 3:1-4:17), the Torah tells us that the children of
Israel groaned and cried from the burden of their work
(2:23). God "hears" (2:24) and the redemption begins to
unfold.
A careful tracking of the points above should bring
us to a relatively counter-intuitive conclusion. The
redemption from Egypt is not the first or only time that
God has redeemed. It is not the sole example of this
paradigm in history. God has also redeemed Hagar-
Yishma'el. They too have suffered and been granted by
God, in His mercy and justice, multiplication, redemption
and nationhood. In fact, this claim is confirmed by the
prophet Amos. In comforting and, ironically,
simultaneously chastising the Israelites, Amos states:
"Are you not as much to me as the children of the
Kushiyyim, O children of Yisra'el? says God. Have I
not brought up Yisra'el out of the land of Mizrayim?
And the Pelishtim from Kaftor, and Aram from Kir?"
(Amos 9:7)
Apparently, Israel is not the only nation to have been
redeemed and given place and nationhood. The same has
happened to the Pelishtim, Aramim and the Yishmaelim.
The point seems to be that the "Oppression and
Redemption" paradigm, involving suffering and God's
response, does not necessarily involve any particular
merit on the part of the sufferer and redeemed. Neither
the Philistines, the Aramites, Hagar, Yishma'el or the
Yishma'elites are particularly virtuous characters
according to the Bible. The very introduction of the
paradigm, the story of "Hagar and the Angel," informs us
that Yishma'el, despite his inspired name and origins,
will become no more than "a wild ass of a man" (16:12),
one whose "hand will be against every man, and every
man's hand against him" (ibid.). The paradigm is a
manifestation of God's normal or natural mode of running
the world, what we traditionally term "general
providence," rather than the product of any special
tampering with God's standard rules for history.
VI.
Let us briefly turn to the conclusion of Chapter
Sixteen. At the end of the chapter, the Torah informs us
that Avraham named his son Yishma'el (16:15). I have
always been bothered by this formulation. How does
Avraham know to name the boy Yishma'el? After all,
Avraham is conspicuously absent from the core scene of
the chapter, "Hagar and the Angel" (16:7-14). The
revelation and instructions are delivered to Hagar, not
to Avraham. The simple answer is that Hagar reports the
events to Avraham upon her return (Ramban). If so,
Avraham's acceptance of her bizarre story and the
consequent naming of Yishma'el constitute a crucial
turning point in Avraham's character and conscience.
On the simplest level, the naming reflects the
recognition that it was wrong to abuse Hagar. God now
grants His instructions to a wretched maidservant, not to
Avraham, the normal address. On a deeper level,
believing Hagar and naming the child Yishma'el reflects
learning and internalizing the lesson of the paradigm
sketched above. God cares for the wretched and
oppressed. He multiplies them and gives them nationhood.
This is God's way, without condition, and without the
requirement of special righteousness on the part of the
oppressed.
To close the circle, the story of Chapter Sixteen,
the conception and birth of Yishma'el, is also a story
about God and Avraham. It is about teaching Avraham the
ways of God, the paradigm of "Oppression and Redemption."
If so, the "promise of suffering," the inclusion of exile
and affliction in the covenant between the pieces, and
the events of Chapter Sixteen, the learning of God's
ways, jointly provide an answer to Avraham's confusion
and original question of "How do I know?"
Avraham is uncertain, after all; he or his
descendants may be undeserving of nationhood. By what
virtue will they inherit the land? God's response is two-
tiered. First, He reveals to Avraham the fact, perhaps
as punishment, perhaps for the eventual benefit of the
Children of Israel, or perhaps as part of the normal ebb
and flow of history and human free will, that his
descendants will suffer and be afflicted in a foreign
land. But this is only the first stage. Affliction
triggers God's unconditional action. God hears the
oppressed, brings them to their own place and grants them
nationhood. Hence, God will similarly redeem Avraham's
descendants. Even if Avraham sins, even if his
descendants sin, God's rules of history, caring and
redemption are immutable and unchangeable. God will
grant Avraham's descendants nationhood and bring them to
their land.
Hence, we have arrived at an alternate explanation
of the connection between Avraham's request for knowledge
and the inclusion of suffering in the covenant between
the pieces. The connection is not necessarily one of sin
and punishment. Rather, it is about the ever-evolving
relationship between God and Avraham and the learning of
God's ways. It is about learning the lesson of the
"Oppression and Redemption" paradigm, divine rules of
history and divine caring for the oppressed. This lesson
began in the covenant between the pieces and is
continued, expanded and repeated in Chapter Sixteen.
VII.
In the above, I have attempted to explain the
inclusion of "the promise of suffering" in the covenant
between the pieces. Why does Avraham need to know? On
the assumption that the knowledge he receives stems from
his request for knowledge, I have explained the inclusion
as either a product of a sin-punishment dynamic or,
preferably, part and parcel of Avraham's ongoing
education in the ways of God, a response to his
uncertainty rather than his sin.
Along the way, I have argued for a particular
reading of Chapters 14-16, the core of Parashat Lekh
Lekha. On the one hand, Chapter Fifteen, the covenant
between the pieces, constitutes a response to Avraham's
refusal of reward and treaty in Chapter Fourteen. On the
other hand, through the ongoing dialogue between God and
Avraham in the chapter, through the process of working
through Avraham's desires and anxieties, it introduces a
new paradigm, the model of "Oppression and Redemption,"
repeated and elaborated in the ensuing chapter, the story
of Hagar and Yishma'el.
Finally, I have also maintained that the redemption
from Egypt, the story of the first part of Shemot,
constitutes an occurrence of the "Oppression and
Redemption" model. The Children of Israel are strangers
in a foreign land, enslaved and afflicted. They
multiply, are heard by God, and eventually are brought to
their land, to full nationhood. We might be inclined to
draw the conclusion that this is all there is to the
redemption from Egypt. It is a normal process, driven by
God's response to suffering, part of the standard way
that God runs the world. But this would be an error.
The redemption of the Jewish people involves far more
than just mercy and justice for the oppressed.
Let us take a look at the verse that prefaces the
encounter at the burning bush, the first stirrings of
redemption.
"And God heard their groaning, and God remembered
His covenant, and Avraham and Isaac and Jacob ...
and God knew." (Shemot 2:23-4)
God not only hears, but also remembers the covenant and
the forefathers. The redemption of the Children of
Israel is not just about the iron rule of Oppression and
Redemption. It is not just about God caring for the pain
and hearing the suffering of the afflicted. It is also
about the covenental relationship between God, the
forefathers and their descendants. It is not just
universal but also particular. It is not just normal but
also supra-normal.
In the language of our discussion, it is not just
about the link between Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen of
Bereishit, the paradigm of Oppression and Redemption.
Rather it is also about the link between Chapter Fifteen
and Chapter Fourteen of Bereishit. It is a reward for
the unique action of Avraham, who, forsaking all material
and temporal compensation, received instead a unique
relationship with God, a covenant with the divine.
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