WHEN SHE HAD LET HIM DRINK HIS FILL, SHE SAID:“I WILL

ALSO DRAW FOR YOUR CAMELS, UNTIL THEY FINISH DRINKING.”

(Bereishit 24:19)

 

The Needs of Man and his Animals, and the Quality of Mercy

 

Our Sages derived from the passage “And I shall give grass in your fields for your animals” (Devarim 1:15) that one must feed his animals before he eats. Know that this applies only when there is no danger or suffering, but should there be danger or pain, one should attend to alleviation of his own suffering before feeding his animals. When ‘the man’ [Avraham’s anonymous servant] requested, “Please, let me sip a little water” the saintly girl sensed that he was thirsty and suffering. Therefore she told him “Drink”, and when she estimated that she had given him enough to allay his suffering from thirst, “When she had let him drink his fill, she said: “I will also draw for your camels etc.” And the Torah says “until they finish drinking” – meaning “I will not [water them] according to my estimate; I will water them and not stop until I see that I set drink before them and they do not drink – this will be the sign that they have finished.” (Ohr HaHayyim, Bereishit 24:19)

 

 

 

“I AM A RESIDENT ALIEN AMONG YOU”

Pinhas Leiser

 

          The interesting combination “ger v’toshav” (The phrase “ger v”toshav” has been translated in many ways: “a resident alien”, “a sojourner settled”, “a stranger and a sojourner” and “a foreigner living here”) has always been a subject of concern for Biblical commentators. Two main lines of understanding may be discerned:

1. The possibility of understanding the conjunctive letter “vav” as additional

 elucidation. The word “toshav” makes clear that the subject is not just an alien having no connection to the place; he is an alien who is also a resident.

          This is Rashi’s line of interpretation, as based on the plain-reading of Scripture: “I am stranger from a foreign land, and I have settled among you” (Rashi, Bereishit 23:4)

Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, and Radak explain in similar fashion:

“A resident alien am I” – I came from a foreign land to dwell here, and I

settled in your midst; therefore I have not a place to bury my fathers” (Rashbam, ibid., ibid.).

            In other words, the combination of “ger” and “toshav” comes to explain what sort of stranger is being discussed, and thus supplies the reason for Avraham’s request. In this context, it is interesting to read the commentary of Rabbi Hayyim ben Attar (Ohr HaHayim):

“Ger v’toshav” – the reason behind his claim that he is a ger toshav can be understood according to the words of Rambam (“Laws of Acquisition and Gifts” 3:11): “… but it is permissible to give a gift to a ger toshav because you are obligated to support him, as is written (Vayikra 25:35) ‘A resident alien, let him live by your side’. You must know that all our holy Torah is logical, especially in matters pertaining to earthly supervision, and just as we treat the stranger who dwells with us, so must the logic of the inhabitants of the land make arrangements to provide livelihood to one who is a ger toshav among them, and give him gifts. This is Avraham’s argument; “I am a ger toshav, give me…” He was careful to say “alien”; it was not enough to say “resident” – so as to say that ‘even though I am an alien and not one of you, even so I am a resident.’ Another reason for saying “alien” is that he was wary about referring to himself as a resident in this world; this would have been contrary to the character of the righteous, therefore he first said “alien”. (Ohr HaHayyim, ibid., ibid.)

          Rabbi Hayyim ben Attar merges a Halakhic ruling with an ethical argument, one flowing from the Halakhic obligation to provide sustenance for the stranger who resides among us; he cites the parallel between the ger toshav – whom we are obligated to support – and Avraham’s status in Kiryat Arba; Avraham is a ger toshav, and he expects the consideration due him as both alien and resident.

         

          2. As against his first, textually supported, explanation, Rashi brings a Midrashic explanation which stresses the difference between the two concepts: “A midrash aggadah: Should you desire, I am a ger, and if not, I shall be a resident, and will rightfully take that which is lawfully mine, for The Holy One, Blessed Be He had said to him: “To your seed will I give this land.” (Rashi, ibid., ibid., according to Bereishit Rabba).

          This contrast describes Avraham’s request of the Sons of Het, which contains both a request and – should the request go unheeded – a suit. It is unclear why Rashi, in contrast to all the other commentators, chooses to bring this Midrashic commentary, which does not conform to the plain meaning of the text.

          But the plain text of the Bible also warrants scrutiny; Avraham introduces himself as a stranger and as a resident (the latter qualifying the type of stranger) even though the land had been promised to him and to his sons.

          It could be that beyond Avraham’s request of the Sons of Het, there is here a statement which expresses, in a deeper way, Avraham’s position. This spiritual and existential position, which characterizes Avraham – as well as King David in the book of Psalms – finds its expression in the midrash:

“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the Land of Egypt.” Do not wrong him with words, and do not oppress him… strangers are beloved, for everywhere He calls them as He calls Israel: the Children of Israel were called “servants”, as is written “For it is to Me that the Israelites are servants” and the strangers were called servants, as is written, “To love the name of the Lord, to be servants unto Him” …The Children of Israel were called “friends”, as is written, “And you, Israel, Yaakov my servant, etc., the seed of Avraham My friend” and the strangers were also termed “friends”, as is written, “And befriends the stranger” …Avraham called himself an alien, as is written, “I am a resident alien among you”; David called himself an alien, as is written, “I am an alien in the land” and “For we are sojourners with You, mere transients like our fathers, our day on earth are like a shadow, with nothing in prospect”, and it is written “For like all my forebears I am an alien, resident with You.” Beloved are aliens, for Avraham circumcised [himself] at the age of ninety nine years; had he done so at age twenty or thirty, aliens would have been able to convert only if younger than thirty, therefore the Omnipresent passed [the time] with him until he reached ninety nine years, so as not to lock the door before the coming converts, and in order to reward for the days and years, including reward for doing His bidding, as is written,, “The Lord was pleased, because of his righteousness, to render the Torah great and glorious.”

(Mekhilta, Parashat Mishpatim, Massekhet Nezikin, Parasha 18)

 

          This Midrash relates – on a Halakhic plane – to the prohibition of misleading the stranger with words (as appears also in Mishna, Bava Metsia 58b). It magnifies the attitude of The Holy One, Blessed Be He, to strangers, and moves on to a metaphorical depiction of two central Biblical figures as “sojourners”; even Avraham describes himself as an alien, and David, King of Israel, too, labeled himself “stranger”. Even David’s ‘glorious’ lineage, as listed at the end of the Scroll of Ruth, presents him as a descendant of Ruth the Moabite, the ultimate convert.

This description of Avraham and of David as “aliens” suits that which is written in the laws of Shmittah and Yovel, “And the land shall be sold into perpetuity, for the land in Mine, for you are sojourners and residents with Me.” (Vayikra 25:34).

          The underlying premise of the commandments of Shmittah and Yovel and of all land-related mitzvoth is that there is not – nor can there ever be – total mortal ownership of any kind of the land; the land belongs to The Holy One, Blessed Be He, and we are but “alien residents” in the land.

So are we to understand the first Rashi on the Torah, which rationalizes commencement of the Torah with “Bereishit” and not with the first commandment given the Children of Israel (“This Moon is for you the First of the Moons”). Rashi writes

“Bereishit” – said Rabbi Yitzhak, the Torah should have begun with “This Moon is for you” which is the first mitzvah with which the Children of Israel were commanded; why does it begin with “Bereishit”? Because (Psalms 111) “He revealed to His people His powerful works, in giving them the heritage of nations.” Should the nations say to Israel, “You are robbers; you conquered the lands of seven nations”, they can reply to them: “All the earth belongs to The Holy One, Blessed Be He, he created it and gave it to whom he thought right in His eyes; at His will he gave it to us. (Rashi, Bereishit, 1:1)

 

Rashi presents, at the beginning of his Torah commentary, the proper religious approach to all acquisition on earth, including earth itself; Man cannot have absolute ownership over the land: “At His will he gave it to them” – everything depends upon the will of The Holy One, Blessed Be He, and is therefore dependant upon the basic humility of the inhabitants of the land and upon the execution of His will by the dwellers. The Shelah (Rabbi Yeshaayahu Horowitz) describes the religious position as hinted at in the word “Canaan”;

One who dwells in the land of Israel must always remember the name Land of Canaan, which connotes servitude and submission to God… you will merit being strangers in your land, as David said: “I am an alien in the land” (Psalm 119:9), and then: “Hallelujah, O servants of the Lord” (Ibid. 113:1). The rule which derives from this is that the inhabitants of the land must live in humility, and, like sojourners, should not consider secure settlement to be the main principle. In the words of Chazal: “And Yaakov dwelt in the Land of Canaan” – He wished to dwell in tranquillity, said The Holy One, Blessed Be He: “Is it not enough for the righteous that which is prepared for them in the world to come? He will only be “in the land of his father’s sojourning”, “an alien am I”, and it will be “the Land of Canaan” and “his father’s sojourning” will be the secret of Yitzhak’s fear, the measure of the law, “terror all around” [Translator’s note: The Shelah relates the Hebrew “magor” – ‘terror – to the word “ger” – ‘alien’] … and this is the meaning of “you are but strangers resident with me”, and your indication is “It is a land which devours its settlers” – it destroys those who wish to dwell there in quiet and tranquillity and power, to eat its fruits and to enjoy it exclusively. (Shney Luhot HaBrit of Rabbi Yeshaayahu Horowitz, III, 11:31)

          It may be possible to understand Rashi’s homiletic explanation of the passage in our parasha in a similar vein: The promise is forever in effect, but we may say here that which Rashi said in explanation of the conflict between the shepherds of Avram and Lot: the promise cannot be realized by force, that is to say, despite the promise, Avraham now requests – in a his awareness of his existential alien-ness – the possibility of purchasing a gravesite. Conquest by power does not bestow everlasting holiness. The entire book of Bereishit is a manual of “The actions of the fathers is a sign for the sons.” May we be granted the ability to internalize the “signs” imparted by the religious and ethical behavior of our fathers, and not be led astray by illusions of mastery through power.

Pinhas Leiser, Editor of Shabbat Shalom, is a psychologist

 

 “And Avraham came to mourn for Sarah and to bewail her” – between mourning and lamenting ; respect for the deceased, respect for the living.

It is human nature to first cry privately, and then to publicly lament, as is written, “And the Lord… summoned to weeping and lamenting” (Isaiah 22:12), but because Avraham had come from a far-away place, and because a large crowd had already gathered around the house, Avraham first lamented for her publicly. There is another distinction concerning the deceased and his mourners; if the demise brought about a change in the mourner’s behavior, and his sorrow is greater than the praise for the deceased himself, then the weeping is primary and precedes lament. Such is not the case if, on the contrary, the death brings about breakdown of the mourner’s behavior, and his [the deceased’s] praise is greater, then the lament becomes primary, and precedes the weeping. Therefore, upon the destruction of the temple, The Holy One, Blessed Be He, called for weeping over the behavior of His world, for it led to disruption in the order of the Holy Service and many more developments not to His liking – and this exceeded his lament over the few righteous men who were killed during the destruction of the Bet Hamikdash, and therefore the text records weeping before lament. But such was not the case after Sara’s death; her death caused no change in Avraham’s way of life, and Yizhak, her son, who was the main objective, had already matured; and the lament for her was great because of her prominence, therefore Avraham first lamented her and only later wept for her. Therefore the [letter] kaf in the word ‘livekotah’ – ‘to weep for her’ – is diminished, in order to teach us that the weeping was but little, but the lament was great. (Haamek Davar, Bereishit 23:2)

 

“His lovingkindness and His truth”

          What love is in feelings, hessed – lovingkindness - is in deeds, love translated into action. Truth is, to a certain extent, a restricting, or at lease a limiting addition. Hessed v’emet -– lovingkindness and truth is an act of love where the love does not run too close to overlooking the truth. Human love is blind. It is inclined to accede to the wishes of the beloved one without considering the true worth of these wishes. God’s love is hessed v’emet, it only grants such wishes in which the truth is conserved, which truly do lead to happiness. Thus with Jacob, the care for his burial in general is an act of hessed, the limitation, the observing the condition “but not in Egypt”, is the emet. So, too, what the spies were to do Rehab was a hessed v’emet, a conditional act of kindness. “Truth” is the spice, which guards the lovingkindness, so that he not lose with his own hands the main ingredient: the truth.

So perhaps here too. To see their children married is the dearest wish of parents. If they try to accomplish it at all costs, without consideration of the true essentials (if it is not with a girl with an Abrahamitic disposition, well then we will take one from Aner, Eshkol, or Mamreh, or from Aram) then they are endeavoring to do hessed without emet. But Avraham wanted only hessed together with emet, and both were granted to him by God.             

(Rabbi Shimshon R. Hirsch, Commentary on Bereishit 24:27, translated by Isaac Levy)

 

 

“And do with me lovingkindness and truth” – Can there be such a thing as lovingkindness of falsehood, that he says “lovingkindness and truth?” …He said to him that if you do with me lovingkindness after my death, that will be lovingkindness of truth. (Bereishit Rabba, Parasha 96)

 

“Go to meet Moshe” – this illustrates the words: “Lovingkindness and truth meet; justice and peace kiss” (Psalms 88); “Lovingkindness” – this is Aharon, as is written, “And to Levi he said, your Urim and Tumim to your man of lovingkindness”; “Truth” – is Moshe, as is written, (Bemidbar 12) “In all My house, he is faithful” – here we have lovingkindness and truth meeting. (Midrash Tanhuma, Shemot, 28)

 

 

 

Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor), Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish Goldberg

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