אחר הדברים האלה, after these events,” i.e. after Avram had successfully waged war against the armies under the leadership of Kedorleomer. He had suddenly become very worried that other nations would feel called upon to avenge this defeat of the pagans; we encounter a similar reaction by Yaakov, after his sons Shimon and Levi had killed the males of the city of Sh’chem, and his other sons had looted that town. (Genesis 34,30). G-d had reassured him telling him that not only would He protect him against any other attacks by kings for having saved Lot, but that he would also qualify for additional rewards. You are entitled to this because you demonstrated that you placed more faith in My promises than in those of the King of Sodom, plus in the fact that you went to such length to rescue your relatives.

ויאמר אברם, אלוקים וגו, “Avram then said: “G-d,!” [the name of G-d here is spelled as אדני, ] etc; “what are You going to give me, seeing that I am without biological heir;” [i.e. what good will these rewards do me if I cannot pass them on to biological heirs? Ed.] The reader is reminded that Avram had been promised biological heirs by this G-d in Genesis 12,7 when He had told him that He would give the land of the Canaanites to his biological descendants. At that time he had not questioned this promise because he had believed that with the help of prayer he would earn the merit of siring biological heirs. When he realised that in spite of this, many years had passed without this promise having been fulfilled, he had begun to feel that perhaps he had committed some sin that had prevented G-d from fulfilling this promise. This is why he pointed out that he was still without such heirs.

הוא דמשק אליעזר, “the heir apparent at this stage is only the servant Eliezer who was born in Damascus.” He was a grandson of the great pagan Nimrod.

והנה בן ביתי יורש אותי, “and here a member of my household is going to be my heir.” Avram points to the apparent contradiction to G-d having assured him that he would sire biological heirs. He implies that seeing that he is already aging, even if and when he would have son, the son would be too young to take over from him when he would die, so that he would have to leave his affairs in the hands of his servant. This servant would possess power of attorney for all practical purposes to do what he liked. G-d reassured him on that score saying that not only would he have a biological heir, but that son would be fully of age before Avram would die.

ויוצא אותו, it appeared to Avram in his dream as if G-d were now taking him out of his house to look at the sky.

ויחשבה, the letter ח in this word is vocalised by the semi vowel sh’va na, which has a dot above it. (not in our editions) [This indicates that the subject of this word is Avram, not G-d. Ed.]

ויחשבה לו צדקה, “Avram did not consider this promise by G-d as something that he was entitled to, but as something beyond what he had a right to expect.

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.

קחה לי עגלה, “please take for Me a female calf;” the purpose of this revelation was to inform Avram what type of animal sacrifice would be appropriate to atone for which kind of unintentionally committed sins, so that the descendants of Avram would continue to exist. This interpretation is based on Bereshit Rabbah 44,14.

עגלה משולשת, “a healthy and fat calf.” Compare Jeremiah 48,34 where the expression עגלה שלישיה occurs in the same sense. Compare also Talmud Gittin 56, עגלא תלתא. An alternate explanation for the word משולשת is: “three years old.” (Compare Ibn Ezra and Nachmanides)

ויקח לו את כל אלה, “He took all these animals for Him;” our sages in Bereshit Rabbah claim that G-d showed Avram even what the measurement of a tenth of an eyfah looked like, (part of meal offerings). This is based on Bereshit Rabbah 34,14 where similar expressions are quoted as occurring here and in Leviticus 2,8: והבאת...מאלה where that meal offering is discussed.

ויבתר אותם, Avram cut these animals in half. Some exegetes feel that all animal sacrifices were to be cut up in a similar manner. (no source mentioned) This opinion is based on the Torah writing in Leviticus 1,6: ונתח אותה לנתחיה, “the priest is to cut it up according to its components.” [The animal being offered as a burnt offering. Ed.]

ואת הצפור לא בתר, “but he did not cut up the bird.” Later on, after the Torah was given, bird offerings were also not cut up but the priest tore parts apart with his bare hands. (Levitcus 1,17.) [The Torah there adds that the tearing must not result in complete separation of one part from another. Ed.] Our author feels that the reason is that they would then seem as too small to be fit as gifts to the Lord.

A different explanation: The words ויבתר אותם בתוך, mean that he had cut them in half, i.e. in the middle. He had to allocate half of each animal to each party of the covenant, seeing that there were three of each of the mammals. He did not have to cut up the birds as there were only two, so that a whole bird could be allocated (symbolically) to each of the two parties of the covenant.

וישב אותם אברם, Avram chased the vultures away. This verse has been inserted in the Torah only in order to draw our attention to the great sensitivity of Avram. After all, the vultures were only doing what vultures were supposed to do. Avram chased them away temporarily, until the presence of the Lord had taken leave of him, and the covenant had been concluded.

ויהי השמש לבא, “when the sun was about to set;” in other words, it was still full daylight, not yet time to lie down and sleep.

ידוע תדע, G-d used the same words when punishing Avram that Avram had used when asking a question which was sinful. His descendants were ordained to endure exile as an example of matching the punishment to the crime. (Compare Tanchuma Kedoshim, 13) [only according to the exegetes who interpreted Avram’s question as demonstrating doubt in G-d’s promise. Ed.]

ועבדום, “they will serve the rulers of that and other lands.” The subject is Avram’s descendants. וענו אותם, They (the nations), will oppress them during that period.

את הגוי, the subject is the exile in Egypt.

The word: וגם, “and also,” is a hint of other exiles in the history of the Jewish people.

ואחרי כן יצאו ברכוש גדול, “as a reward for having endured all this they will leave for freedom with many possessions as compensation.”

ודור רביעי, “and the fourth generation;” Rashi makes the following calculation concerning this ambiguous statement: the generations mentioned commence with Yehudah, son of Yaakov, (Avraham’s greatgrandson), Peretz, Chetzron, Calev, son of Chetzron already entered and lived in the holy Land. If someone were to raise the point that already Chetzron had taken part in the Exodus from Egypt, i.e. he had been liberated from exile, Yaakov cannot be included as the fist generation, as he had already lived for 130 of his 147 years before taking up residence in Egypt. A different way of making the calculation meant in the above prophecy: “the fourth generation” of which G-d spoke does not refer to the fourth generation of Israelites, but to the fourth generation of the Emorites, [whose sin, as G-d had explained, had not yet reached the point that gave G-d justification to expel them from their homeland, Ed.] The length of a generation of Emorites is considered as being 100 years. Therefore it would take 400 years until G-d’s promise to Avraham could be fulfilled. The Torah, however, did not add the word דור, except for the fact that G-d, when meting out judgment, one does not do so in terms of multiples of hundreds of years, but in terms of generations. [We have examples of this in Exodus 20,5 as well as in Exodus 34,7. Ed.] We also find examples of this in Kings II 10,30. G-d had promised Yehu that even the son of the fourth generation would sit on the throne of the Kingdom of Israel. [The last one, Zecharyah, only ruled for 6 months. Ed.] [The “Kingdom of Israel,” is distinct from the kingdom of Yehudah. Ed.]

כי לא שלם עון האמורי, “for the cup of sin of the Emorite is not full;” if you were to ask why I cannot give the land of the Canaanites to the Israelites as soon as they have become a nation, the answer is that I am bound by judicial considerations of My own, namely to allow each nation an opportunity to become penitents.

עון האמורי, “the guilt of the Emorite;” the reason why this tribe is mentioned repeatedly as compared to other similarly sinful nations, is simply because Avraham lived on soil owned by the Emorites.

והנה תנור עשן ולפיד אש, “and suddenly Avram experienced as vision of a furnace and a fire, stroke of lightning;” the construction of this verse is somewhat lopsided, as the correct syntax should have been: ואש לפיד, “and fire in the form of a bolt of lightning.”

אשר עבר, “after G-d had informed Avram about the experiences of Avram’s descendants during the next 400 years or so,” G-d’s ”agents,” the fire and furnace, consumed the parts of the sacrifices that Avram had prepared.

את הקיני, ואת הקניזי, ואת הקדמוני, “the Kenite, the Kenizite, and the Kadmoni; according to Rashi, these tribes are identical to the Edomites, the Moabites and the Ammonites. The territories of these nations would become part of “greater Israel” at some time in the future, not in the time of Joshua. A scriptural reference to this can be found in Isaiah 11,14. According to our author, this is also hinted at in Numbers 24,21. The reason why the territory of Edom is included is because Amalek, Israel’s (G-d’s) arch enemy, is descended from Edom (Esau). Bileam in the passage referred to in Numbers 24, has called Amalek: “the first of the nations.” Since this was certainly not the original human society to develop into nationhood, and Bileam had been aware of this, Rabbi Chelbo in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, in Bereshit Rabbah 44,23, claimed that originally G-d had already meant to let Israel inherit the territories of ten nations. However, He would not translate the intention of handing them the territories of these last mentioned three nations into reality until the messianic era. Nonetheless, due to aggressive conduct by their inhabitants, they lost some portion of it already during the period when Moses conquered the territories of Sichon and Og.

ואת הרפאים, another word for the tribe known as Chivvi, mentioned as one of the seven Canaanite tribes.