אל תירא אברם אנכי מגן לך, “do not worry Avram, I will be your shield.” One may understand G’d’s promise to Avram in this verse as including three separate assurances:

1. He should not be afraid on account of the kings whom he had slain. The words: “do not be afraid,” are only addressed to someone who is already afraid. Avram was afraid that the sons of these kings would want to avenge their fathers and attack him. This is why G’d said; “I will be a shield for you.” The second assurance concerned Avram’s having a son of his own. This is alluded to in the words שכרך הרבה מאד, “your reward will be very great.” Actually, all G’d had to say was שכרך רב, “your reward is great.” The addition of two letters ה which were not really called for indicated that by means of the two letters ה which would be added both to the name אברם and to the name שרי, Yitzchak would be able to emerge as their son. This was an assurance concerning reward in this life. The third assurance was an assurance concerning the hereafter, and it is alluded to by the addition of the word מאד, “very much,” to the promise of much reward. We find something similar in Job 35,15 ולא ידע בפש מאד, “and he does not know that it may be long drawn out.” Elihu had attacked Job for denying that G’d personally supervises the fate of individuals. He accused him of recounting his afflictions day after day, whereas he had no idea of the serenity in store for the righteous in the hereafter. Seeing that of these three assurances, only the first one was explicit whereas both the promise of children and that of an afterlife were only allusions, Avram related only to the visible, and did not understand the allusion which was included in G’d’s words. This is why he felt constrained to ask G’d: “what can You give me?” He meant: “seeing that I have no children I am comparable to a bush in the desert (Jeremiah 17,6), i.e. something that has no future”. In his reference to Eliezer, Avram meant that not only did he not have a biological heir, but his heir-apparent Eliezer was not even from his home-town Charan but from Damascus. At this point G’d began to tell Avram in detail what He had previously only hinted at. Firstly, He told him that Eliezer would not be his heir but that someone who was his biological son would inherit him. When G’d added the words הוא יירשך, “he will inherit you,” this was really superfluous and meant that the ”הוא“ of the world i.e. G’d Himself, would be his heir.” He meant that he, Avram, would be the heir of G’d inasmuch as the name הוא is one of the attributes of G’d. This is a familiar concept from Exodus 34,9 ונחלתנו, “and make us Your heritage.”

Nachmanides adds that the words (verse 4) והנה דבר ה' אליו לאמר may be understood as G’d interrupting Avram in mid-sentence and assuring him that he was wrong, that Eliezer was not going to be his heir.

ויוצא אותו החוצה, “He led him outside.” It is not usual for people to be able to view the stars from inside their houses until they have stepped outside. The reason the Torah needs to use this description of what transpired when G’d spoke to Avram is because up until now the level of prophetic visions he had enjoyed was the one called “Bet El.” David (Psalms 45,14) had referred to that level of prophecy, i.e. intimacy with G’d, as כבודה בת מלך פנימה, “the glory (entourage) of the King’s daughter consists of her remaining inside.” Now that Avram was going to experience prophecy of a higher level, G’d had to mention that He took him beyond the level of “Bet El”, i.e. outside or beyond that level. This is the meaning of the word ויוצא. Our sages in Shabbat 156 understand these words to mean that G’d removed Avram’s fate from the influence of the horoscopes, i.e. astrological limitations, when He said to him: הבט נא השמימה, “look skywards”, please.” Whenever we encounter the expression הבט it means “looking down.” If Avram had been on earth and had looked at the sky, the stars, the expression הבט would have been inappropriate. Therefore, the Torah wanted to tell us that G’d had placed Avram in a position above the stars and had told him to look down at the sky. He could henceforth trample the limitations imposed on a person due to his horoscope.

My own opinion is that our verse represents the true meaning of Isaiah 41,2 צדק יקראהו לרגלו, “the horoscope (planet) Jupiter He summoned at his feet.” This is the source of the Talmudic statement that the fate of the Jewish people is not dependent on any constellation of stars or planets (Shabbat 156). We have similar statements in the Midrash at the end of Song of Songs. In Song of Songs 8,14 ברח דודי ודמה לך לצבי, our sages understand this line as comparing Avraham, G’d’s beloved, to a roe, and the words על הרי בשמים at the end of that verse as a reference to heaven by reading the word בשמים instead of as besamim, as bashamayim.” This too is understood as meaning that horoscopic considerations do not apply to the fate of the Jewish people. We must distinguish between the fate of the Jewish nation as a whole which is not subject to horoscopic influences and that of the individual Israelite whose fate is subject to horoscopic influences. The discipline of astrology is a most important discipline, and our sages have never disputed its significance.

וספור הכוכבים אם תוכל לספור אותם, “and count the stars if you are able to count them.” G’d meant that just as Avram was unable to count the number of the stars so his own descendants would be innumerably many.

An additional meaning in that message was that the cumulative wisdom possessed by the Jewish people would be beyond comprehension. Just as there are stars which give off more light than others, so there would be Jews who would possess more wisdom than others with which to enlighten their peers.

Still another meaning included in that message to Avram was the promise that the degree of reward for which different Jews would qualify in the hereafter would also vary in proportion to the intensity of the light radiated by different stars. There is a reward for the souls and it is apportioned in accordance with the achievements of these souls while imprisoned in a body. Our sages in Sifri on Deut.1,10 explained the words ככוכבי השמים לרוב, “as numerous as the stars in the sky,” as referring to seven different groups of righteous souls in the hereafter. Each group differs from the next group in the level of reward G’d has accorded to it. Some radiate the kind of light radiated by the sun; others the kind of light radiated by the moon, and so on.

והאמין בה', “and he believed in G’d.” He believed the message that G’d had indeed decided that this would occur.

ויחשבה לו צדקה, “and Avram considered this as an act of kindness by G’d.” He believed that G’d would indeed carry out His promise as He was so fair and just. He did not expect G’d to do what He had said He was going to do as a reward for his good deeds. This is the view of Nachmanides concerning the meaning of these words.

It is possible to explain the words: “He considered it for him as an act of righteousness,” as G’d being the speaker and Avraham the one concerning whom G’d said it.

אני ה' אשר הוצאתיך מאור כשדים, “I am the Lord Who has taken you out of Ur Casdim, etc.” According to Nachmanides G’d referred to the time commencing with His saving Avram miraculously from the furnace of Nimrod. Ever since Avram had enjoyed G’d’s goodwill and He had intended to give the land of Canaan to him. What G’d said here did not mean that He was now going to give the land to Avram but that the reason He had saved Avram from Ur Casdim was in order to eventually give it to him. In view of all this, Avram was concerned that the promise of inheriting the land should not be subject to conditions which his descendants might not be able to meet. Although G’d had repeatedly referred to Avram’s descendants as receiving the land, he was afraid that some sin might prevent realisation of this promise and this is why he asked: “how will I know that I will indeed inherit it?” He had not meant to ask for a miracle or a physical sign. G’d did not respond to him as He had done when He showed him other signs. Avram was only interested in receiving an ironclad assurance that neither sins by his descendants nor repentance of their evil deeds by the Canaanites would invalidate G’d’s promise. G’d therefore concluded a covenant with him to confirm what He had said and that he or his descendants would definitely inherit the land of Canaan.

According to a comment in the Sefer Hayashar at the time Avram was born a certain star in the eastern sky “swallowed “ four other stars in four directions of the sky. At that time Nimrod’s advisors said to him: “at this moment a son has been born to Terach whose descendants will produce a nation which will inherit the whole earth as well as the hereafter. If you agree, let us give his father a house full of gold and silver and get his permission to kill the baby.” Thereupon Nimrod immediately sent an urgent message to Terach in which he referred to the baby who had been born to Terach on the previous evening, and demanded that it be handed over to be killed. In return he promised Terach a house full of gold and silver. Terach replied by citing a parable. He said: “I will explain to you how your offer looks to me. They told a horse ‘let us cut off your head and we will give you a house full of barley.’ The horse replied: “you are fools. If you cut off my head who is going to eat the barley? Similarly, if you are going to kill my son who will inherit all this gold and silver?” Having heard this explanation by Terach the king replied: “I infer from your words that a son has been born for you. Terach replied that this was true but that the baby was dead already. Thereupon the king told him: “the offer to pay you for him with a house full of gold and silver applies only if you deliver him alive. If you deliver him dead the offer does not apply.” Thereupon Terach hid the baby in a cave for the next three years. G’d provided two outlets for that cave. One became the source of fine flour, the other of oil. When Avram was three years old he left the cave. When he looked around he began to wonder who had created heaven and the earth and himself. At first he began praying to the sun all day long. Then, at night, when he saw the moon, he began to pray to the moon as he had concluded that the position of the moon in the sky was proof that the moon had created it and the stars as well as earth and himself. He considered the stars as servants of the moon. When the moon disappeared in the morning and the sun rose in the East he began to realise that the phenomena he had observed thus far had only been tools in the hands of someone mightier than either of them. He now went to his father Terach and asked him who had created heaven earth and himself? Terach answered him: “my god created all these phenomena.” Thereupon Avram asked his father to show him this god who supposedly was powerful enough to have created all these phenomena. Terach brought him one of his idols. Avram could not accept that this idol had any power at all. He went to his mother asking her similar questions. He asked his mother to cook a fancy dish so that he could offer it to one of the idols hoping it would be accepted as an offering. He placed the food in front of Terach’s biggest idol. The idol did not respond at all, neither by sign or movement of his eyes or other organs. At that point, Avram had some divine inspiration and he said of these idols פה להם ולא ידברו, עינים להם ולא יראו, “they have a mouth and are unable to speak, they have eyes but are unable to see” (Psalms 115,5). He seized the idols and burned them. He took the largest idol outside and placed the fire in his hand. When his father came home and wanted to know what had happened, Avram accused the biggest idol of having burned the others. Terach accused Avram of having burned his idols. Avram claimed to be innocent accusing the largest idols of having burned the others in a fit of fury. Thereupon his father said to him: “my son, you are foolish, how can any of these lifeless idols do such a thing? I myself have made these idols out of wood.” Thereupon Avram said to his father: “I wish you would hear yourself talk. If they have no power why did you tell me that they have created heaven and earth?” Terach then went to Nimrod and told him that his son had burned both his own and Nimrod’s idols. Nimrod sent for Avram and asked him why he done such a thing. Avram denied having done anything and blamed the largest of the idols for having burned the others. Thereupon Nimrod also challenged him by saying: “since when do these idols possess a spirit of life enabling them to act?” Avram then told Nimrod more or less the same as he had told his father, adding: “why do you reduce the god who has created heaven and earth to a wooden image and you worship such an image?” Thereupon Nimrod told Avram that he personally had created heaven and earth and that both heaven and earth were under his control. Thereupon Avram said to Nimrod: “You are able to create? when I came out of the cave I saw the sun rise in the east and set in the west. If you can make the sun rise in the west and set in the east I will worship you. If you are unable to do this, the one who gave me the power to burn the idols will also give me the power to kill you.” Upon hearing this Nimrod consulted with his advisors and asked them what to do with Avram? Thereupon the advisors told him: “this is the one concerning whom we have told you that he will become the founder of a nation which will take over the entire universe including the hereafter. Now the only thing you can do is to do to him what he has done to those idols which he burned.” Upon hearing the advice of his councilors Nimrod immediately threw Avram into a fiery furnace. At that point, G’d was filled with mercy for the boy and He saved him. This is the meaning of His words to Avram: “I have taken you out of the fire of the Casdim.”

במה אדע כי אירשנה, “how will I know that I will inherit it?” Avram meant: “by means of which merit will I inherit it?” G’d answered: “by means of the merit of the sacrifices you are about to offer.” This is the meaning of the verse קחה לי “take for Me” (verse 9). When G’d said this He again appeared to Avram as the attribute of א-דני, but in this instance it was followed by the letter ה [the name “Hashem” with the vowels of the name “elohim.”] to show that the attribute of Mercy was also involved to some extent. This amounts to the name שדי. You know that we must not pronounce the Ineffable Name as it is spelled. Hence the sages in charge of vocalisation adjusted the vowels in a manner that make them suitable for reading. We must use either the form “elohim,” or the form “adonai,” when pronouncing G’d’s name. A scriptural reminder that this is so is found in Chabakuk 2,2 וה' בהיכל קדשו הס מפניו כל הארץ, “and the Lord is in the Sanctuary of His Holiness; silence in His presence everyone on earth!” This verse is a reminder that only inside the Holy of Holies may the Ineffable Name be pronounced as we would read it had we not been cautioned not to read it as it is spelled.

ואת הצפור לא בתר , “and he had not cut the bird in half.” The reason Avram had cut up the four-legged animals but not the birds was that the former represent the idolatrous Gentile Nations, and these have been compared to animals as it says (Psalms 22,13) סבבוני פרים רבים, “many bulls surround me.” It is also written in Daniel 8,20 האיל אשר ראית, “the ram that you saw ....are the kings of Medes and Persia.” In verse 21 of the same chapter the king of Greece is described as הצפיר השעיר, the “he-goat.” On the other hand, in Song of Songs 5,2 and 2,14 the Jewish people are compared to doves. Seeing that Israel will continue to exist indefinitely, Avram did not cut up the birds representing it.

וירד העיט על הפגרים, “The bird of prey descended on the carcasses.” This was a hint that in the future the Gentile Nations would try and prevent the Israelites from performing sacrificial service in the Temple.

והנה אימה חשכה גדולה נופלת עליו, “and here a great darkness was falling upon him.” Here Avram received a hint of the four exiles the Jewish people would endure in the course of their history prior to the final redemption. Bereshit Rabbah 44,17 interpreted each of the following words as referring to a specific exile. The word אימה is an allusion to Babylon; the word חשכה alludes to Medes; the word גדולה refers to Greece; the word נופלת עליו is a reference to the exile under the Romans.

Nachmanides wrote: Avram found himself afraid in his soul and this fear was followed by darkness. Later on the darkness increased still further until finally, he felt as if the darkness was physically falling upon him. The reason for all this was that while G-d had covenanted with Avram that He would give the land to his descendants as an eternal inheritance, He had made some reservation to this promise. The reservation was that four different kingdoms would at one time or another enslave the Jewish people and rule over them in their own land. This would be in retribution for sins committed by the Jewish people in the future. Afterwards G-d informed Avram of an exile that would precede the fulfillment of the promise that they would inherit the land of Canaan, the exile in Egypt. This exile was one that represented a punishment for himself because he had asked Sarai to tell a lie about their relationship. Thus far Nachmanides.

ידוע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך וגו, “You shall surely know that your descendants will be strangers, etc.” According to the plain meaning of the text the verse means that Avram’s offspring would spend 400 years in a land which would not be theirs, that they would be enslaved and oppressed by the owners of that land. G-d deliberately refrained from telling Avram how many of these years would be spent in relative freedom and how many in oppressive slavery.

Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra wrote that the four hundred years would commence on the day G-d spoke to him. If so, G-d would have predicted to the day when the Exodus would take place. [Rabbi Chavell saw several editions of Ibn Ezra, some of which had the line “and he did not tell him the date of the redemption.” The present edition of Mossad Harav Kook has the version we have quoted.]

ארבע מאות שנה, “four hundred years.” The reason for this number in connection with the exile in Egypt is not clear. Not a single one of the commentators gives us any insight into this number.

You will find that the number 400 is prominent in matters concerning the עין רע, “the evil eye.” The numerical value of the words עין רע is 400. The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the letter ת is equal to 400. As such it embodies all the letters in the alphabet. Similarly, עין רע is an all inclusive destructive concept. Seeing that the letter ה was added to Avram’s name (Avraham), a letter which represents the attribute of Justice, the evil eye gained power over him, and the attribute of Justice decreed exile on his descendants for four hundred years, corresponding to the עין רע, the eye of Satan. We may now understand the words ידוע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך, “you must surely know that your descendants will be strangers” [they will be subject to a hitherto unknown attribute of G-d in their lives. Ed.], i.e. the ones who will be born as the result of the two letters ה which will be added to both your and Sarai’s name respectively, and which represent the attribute of Justice, will be subject to the evil eye. As a result of such a development ועבדום וענו אותם ארבע מאות שנה, they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. You will encounter this number again in connection with Efron, עפרן, whose name equals 400 and who demanded 400 shekel from Avraham before he allowed him to bury Sarah in the cave of Machpelah. What we learn from this is that עפרן also represented the “evil eye.” You will also find this in connection with עשו, who based his success in life on that of his father Yitzchak who represented the attribute of Justice. He too possessed עין רע, an evil eye. Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 76,8 claims that the reason Yaakov (Genesis 32,15) instructed the attendants of the herds and flocks he sent to his brother Esau as gifts to place a substantial distance between one flock and another was to satisfy Esau’s evil eye which could never get enough of anything. This may be the reason that Esau had taken precisely 400 men with him when he set out to meet (and maybe to kill) Yaakov.

וגם את הגוי אשר יעבדו, “and also the nation whom they will serve I will judge, etc.” Nachmanides writes as follows in his commentary on this verse: The word וגם introduces the thought that although “I have decreed exile on the Israelites and therefore the people who have enslaved them may be perceived as merely executing My will, I will judge that people for what they will do and I will not let them go free because in what they did they carried out My plan.” The reason for all this has already been recorded in Zechariah 1, 14-15 קנאתי לירושלים ולציון קנאה גדולה, וקצף גדול אני קוצף על הגוים השאננים אשר אני קצפתי מעט והם עזרו לרעה, “I am very jealous for Jerusalem- for Zion- and I am very angry with those nations that are at ease; for I was only angry a little, but they overdid the punishment.” The author quotes more verses of a similar nature. At any rate, the Egyptians had not received instructions from G-d to serve as His taskmaster against the Jews, nor had their inhuman treatment of the Israelites been what G-d had intended. The Egyptians had tried to destroy the Jewish people not to discipline them. This is why they were punished for their excess cruelty. This is why G-d told Avram: דן אנכי, “I am going to judge.” G-d promised hat He was going to investigate if what the host-nation does conformed to His will or if they had added to G-d’s decree of their own will. This is also what had impressed Yitro (Exodus 18,11) when he said כי בדבר אשר זדו עליהם, “for with the matter that they had sinned, He (G-d) judged them.” Seeing that the Egyptians had used water to drown the Jewish babies, something which most certainly had not been part of G-d’s plan, He punished them by means of water (when He drowned them in the sea of reeds).

You should know that if G-d had decreed that Reuven should be killed and such a decree had been recorded and sealed in front of G-d on Rosh Hashanah (in other words that the decree had become irreversible), the human executioner of said Reuven will not be considered free of the charge of murder even though what he did resulted in G-d’s decree being carried out. Such an executioner is a murderer and will be punished by G-d as such. If however, said human executioner had heard from the mouth of a prophet that a decree of death had been passed by the celestial court on a certain person and he made himself the executioner of that decree in order to carry out G-d’s will, he will not only not be considered a murderer but he will be credited with having done a good deed. We find a classic example of this when Jehu killed the surviving family of Achav (Kings II 10,17, and 10,30). We read there: יען אשר הטיבות לעשות הישר בעיני ככל אשר בלבבי עשית לבית אחב, בני רבעים ישבו לך על כסא ישראל. “Because you have acted well and done what was pleasing to Me, having carried out all that I desired upon the House of Achav, four generations of your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel.” If the person doing something similar had not heard the decree of G-d against his intended victim and he had committed the act out of feelings of personal hatred or in order to commit robbery, he is subject to being punished for the same deed that someone who had heard G-d’s decree would be rewarded. We have an explicit verse in Isaiah 10,5-6 in which the prophet spells this out. “Ha, Assyria, rod of My anger in whose hand, as a staff is My fury! I send him against an ungodly nation, I charge him against a nation that provokes Me. To take its spoil and to seize his booty and to make it a thing trampled like the mire of the streets.” The prophet goes on to say in verse 7: “But he (Assyria) has evil plans, his mind harbours evil designs, etc.” It is clear that the prophet draws a line of distinction between a conqueror who does what he does because he wishes to fulfill the designs of his Maker, and the conqueror who is merely motivated by dreams of personal glory, vengeance, and other base motives. The same applied to Nebuchadnezzar. All of the prophets had declared that G-d had decreed destruction on Jerusalem and that Nebuchadnezzar and all his people had been chosen to be the instrument by means of which G-d’s decree would be carried out. This is what we read in Jeremiah 32,28-29: הנני נותן את העיר הזאת ביד הכשדים וביד נבוכדרצר מלך בבל, “here I am about to deliver the city of Jerusalem into the hands of the Chaldaens and Nebuchadrezzar the King of the Babylon and they will put the city to fire.” Nonetheless we find that Nebuchadrezzar was punished just as Sancheriv had been punished for exiling the Ten Tribes (compare Jeremiah 50,18). כה אמר ה' הנני פוקד אל מלך בבל ואל ארצו כאשר פקדתי אל מלך אשור, “so says G-d: ‘I will deal with the King of Babylon and his country just as I have dealt with the King of Ashur.” Thus far Nachmanides’ comment on our verse.

You have to appreciate that when G-d concluded this “covenant between the pieces” with Avram, Avraham was only 70 years old. Although we have been told at the beginning of chapter twelve that Avram was 75 years old when he moved to the land Canaan, this had been his second departure from Charan. The first time he had left Charan was when he was seventy, and the next time when he was seventy-five. The Torah is not bound to record events in chronological order. Thirty years elapsed between the covenant mentioned in this chapter and the birth of Yitzchak. At the time when Yitzchak was born (21,5), Avraham was one hundred years old. The decree of four hundred years exile applied from the birth of Yitzchak. So we have a total of 430 years between the time this covenant was concluded and the Exodus from Egypt. This is the meaning of Exodus 12,40 “the duration of the stay of the Jewish people in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.”

A Midrashic approach to our verse (Bereshit Rabbah 44,21-22) views the repetition of the words ידוע תדע as follows: The first ידוע means “know that I will scatter them.” The second תדע means “know that I will gather them in” (after they have been in exile). The message is: “Just as the exile will not be accidental but will be orchestrated by Me, so I will also be the One who will orchestrate the ingathering of the exiles.” The words וגם את הגוי אשר יעבודו refer to the other four exiles which the Jewish people will experience after the exile in Egypt, the four exiles we already alluded to earlier. G-d’s message is that what will happen to the four empires who will exile the Jewish people will be similar to what will happen to the Egyptians. The words דן אנכי are an allusion to the Ten Plagues with which G-d would smite the Egyptians, the letters in the word ד-ן are the first letters of the words דם נגע, ‘blood, plague.” The word נגע appears in the Torah in connection with the tenth plague (Exodus 11,1).

ודור רביעי ישובו הנה, “and the fourth generation will return here.” According to Rashi our verse refers to the time frame beginning with the exile in Egypt until the Israelites would inherit the land, a period of four generations. These four generations consist of 1) Yehudah, 2) Peretz, 3) Chetzron, 4) Kalev. The latter entered the land of Canaan as a resident at the age of 80.

According to Nachmanides the words “the fourth generation will return here,” refer to the Emorite The cumulative sins of the Emorites who were in the land at the time G-d concluded the covenant with Avram would be sufficient for G-d to dispossess them by that time. We know that G-d allows up to three or four generations of people to continue in the evil footsteps of their ancestors until He intervenes and brings retribution upon them. According to Nachmanides the period of four generations commenced only at that time. The word ישובו would allude to a possible repentance by the Emorite in which event G-d would not dispossess them. When the Torah singled out the “Emorite,” this was only an example of what would be in store for all the Canaanite tribes. Seeing that the Emorite was the strongest tribe amongst the Canaanites, the Torah singled out that tribe for special mention. The prophet Amos 2,9 describes the Emorites as “stout as the oak.”

The words עד הנה mean: “until the measure of their sin is full.” Actually, the Torah should have written: יבואו הנה “they will come here.” The reason the Torah chose to write ישובו הנה ‘they will return here,” is to point out that they will be considered as if they had already been settled in the land of Canaan previously seeing that Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov and his children had lived in Canaan before descending to Egypt. Remember that Yitzchak had never left the land of Canaan. Concerning Yaakov the Torah had written וישב יעקב בארץ “Yaakov settled in the land.” This is why now the Torah wrote that the fourth generation would return “here.” They would return to what had already been their land. Another message contained in these words may be an allusion to the sanctity of the land, the land in which there is found the “gateway to heaven” (Genesis 28, 17). This means that the Sanctuary of the terrestrial regions is on the soil of the land of Canaan. This is the point from which the souls ascend to the celestial regions. This is also where they enter the terrestrial regions. It is appropriate therefore to describe the land of Canaan as the place to which the souls return. The righteous and pious people therefore experience an urge to die near that location in order for their souls to immediately find the path to the celestial regions.

Another way of reading the words עון האמורי, “the guilt of the Emorite,” instead of עון הכנעני, “the guilt of the Canaanite,” is that the word אמורי is an allusion to “speech.” G-d may have alluded to Avram’s mistake in asking במה אדע כי אירשנה, “how do I know that I will inherit it?”

והנה תנור עשן, “and here there was a smoking furnace.” At first glance one would think the Torah should have written עשן תנור, “the smoke of a furnace,” instead of תנור עשן. This is the way the Torah describes a similar phenomenon at the time the Jewish people received the Torah at Mount Sinai. At that time the Torah wrote ויעל עשנו כעשן הכבשן, “its smoke (that of the mountain) rose like the smoke from a furnace” (Exodus 19,18).

However, — using a kabbalistic approach — it is possible that the Torah wanted to inform us of the force which had passed between these pieces and accepted Avram’s sacrifices. It also wanted to inform us that that particular force was composed of both male and female elements. The male element was the active one, the one which initiates an activity, whereas the female element was the passive one, the one that specializes in receiving, in accepting something. All activities are enhanced and assume a more important dimension due to the presence of the female element. This is the reason the word שכינה, “G-d’s benevolent presence,” is a word in the feminine gender. Onkelos translates the verse (Exodus 33,14) פני ילכו [usually translated as “My (benevolent) presence will go, will accompany,” Ed] as “שכינתי תהך,” (feminine) instead of as “שכינתי יהך.” (masculine). In other words, he considers the word פנים which is masculine as feminine in that instance. The name of that force (known as מט'ט in Kabbalah) is well known.

The word תנור alludes to it when you exchange the letters in that word on the basis of reversing the letters of the alphabet, i.e. ת=א, ש=ב, ר=ג. The word תנור would then be טרו'ן instead. This word is derived from מטטרון, the force designated by G-d to “run” His universe. The “furnace” is the receptacle which receives the fire, and as such it symbolises the female force. On the other hand, the words לפיד אש in our verse represents the masculine force. This is the reason the Torah used the masculine form when describing this לפיד אש, ”torch of fire,” as עבר בין הגזרים, “having passed between these pieces.” This was not the same force as that represented by the furnace. The Torah should have written עברו (pl) instead of עבר if these forces had been identical in gender. This is also the deeper meaning of the words כרת ה' את אברם ברית, “G-d concluded a covenant with Avram.” The idea is that G-d made the שכינה which represents the covenant “pass” between the pieces.

Remember that it is this force which the Torah described in chapter 12,8 when Avram is first reported as having built an altar to G-d as “the G-d who had appeared to him.” [This is unlikely; we have other examples where the vowel under the letter א in the word נראה points to a feminine attribute of G-d such as in Genesis 48,3 or Exodus 3,16 so that to consider the word “hanir-eh” in Genesis 12,8 as a reference to a feminine attribute of G-d does seem very forced. Ed]

ביום ההוא כרת ה' את אברם ברית לאמור לזרעך נתתי את הארץ הזאת, “on that day G-d concluded a covenant with Avram, saying; ‘to your descendants I have given this land.’” After G-d had previously already twice mentioned giving the land to Avram and to his descendants, i.e. in 12, 7 where it is phrased as “I will give,” and in 1,15 “to your descendants I shall give it,” G-d now phrases the promise as something that had already been fulfilled, i.e. “I have given it” (past tense). He mentions the gift He had already given to Avram in the past. The word נתתי means the same as נשבעתי, “which I have sworn.” When G-d gives something by way of a promise it is as if the promise was equivalent to an oath. We have numerous examples of this in Scripture. I myself have explained this already in connection with Genesis 9,13 where G-d spoke about the rainbow He had placed in the sky. After this gift, i.e. the oath on the occasion of this covenant, there followed the practical part of the covenant, the passing between the parts of the animals which had been sacrificed. We have another example of such a procedure in Jeremiah 34,18 ואת העגל אשר כרתו לשנים ויעברו בין בתריו , “and the calf which they had cut in half so as to pass between the halves.” This covenant was in the nature of a חרם, “consecration,” a warning to remain true to this oath as if to say to the party who would default: “may your fate be similar to that of the animals which lie before you cut in half if you do not honour the agreement we have just now concluded.” This is also why Onkelos translates ברית simply as קים, “something that remains in effect.” The “something” is the oath preceding the sacrifice confirming it. This is also what Avimelech said to Yitzchak (Genesis 26,28) תהי נא אלה בינותינו, בינינו וביניך ונכרתה ברית עמך, “let there be an oath between us, between us and between you, and let us conclude a covenant with you.” The “covenant” was to confirm the oath mentioned previously. Of course, such a “covenant“ is not applicable to G-d (seeing it would be frivolous to assume that G-d would not honour His oath). However, the general tenor of a covenant is applicable to G-d’s promise. It is as if by passing between these cut up pieces of the animals G-d had said: “just as it is impossible to reconstitute these cut up animals, so it is impossible for Me to retract from My oath to give your descendants this land.”

מנהר מצרים עד הנהר הגדול, “from the river of Egypt as far as the great river.” Three times G-d mentions the gift of the land in this paragraph: The first time it is mentioned when Avram enters the land of Canaan when G-d said “to your descendants I will give this land” (12,7). At that time G-d did not go into details about the nature of the gift. There was no point in doing so seeing Avram, who had entered the land from the North had only progressed as far as Shechem.” The second time (13,14) G-d said to Avram: “raise your eyes and look from the place where you are standing to the north, to the south, to the east and to the west; for the entire land you can see I will give to you and to your descendants.” Normally, people to not look into the distance and it would not be much of a promise if all the land which G-d promised to Avram’s descendants would be what his physical eyes (unaided by binoculars) could see, even if he stood on a hill at that time. What G-d meant was that Avram should concentrate with his spiritual eyes on all the four directions of the globe. On this occasion G-d added the words עד עולם, “forever,” adding that his descendants would become as numerous as the dust of the earth which defies all attempts to count it. Now, on the third occasion when G-d refers to the gift of the land, He spelled out the boundaries of the land, namely from the river separating Egypt from the land of Canaan as far as the river Euphrates. In this instance, G-d no longer spoke of this gift as something in the future, but He said: “I have given it.” According to Nachmanides we have to understand this verse as “the covenant applies to the gift G-d had already given to Avram and the Jewish people.”

The reason the Torah describes the river Euphrates as “the great river,” although it was mentioned only as the fourth and last of the rivers emanating from Gan Eden (2,14) is because it borders on the land of Israel. We have a popular parable which illustrates the point. “A commoner is liable to describe the valet of a king as ‘king,’ because such a person is continuously in the king’s presence” (compare Rashi on our verse). Seeing that the land of Israel is holy, a choice piece of real estate, the site of the Holy Temple to which is applied the term הבית הגדול, “the great house” (Chronicles II 2,4), the description “great” as applied to the river Euphrates which borders this land is not a misnomer. Although G-d spoke here about the land being given to “your descendants” at a time when neither Ishmael nor Yitzchak had as yet been born, Ishmael, the son of a slave woman, is not included as a recipient of that promise. Ishmael did not constitute Avram’s principal “descendant” anymore than did the sons he begat after Sarah had died. The principal descendant is the son of the major wife of a husband, not that of concubines or minor wives. G-d had spelled this out after Ishmael had already been born when He said to Avraham (21,12) “for your descendants will be known through Yitzchak.”