Journey of Faith Explained
GEN 11
31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.
Rashi
And they went forth together—Terah and Abram went forth with Lot and Sarai.
32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
Rashi
And Terah died in Haran after Abram had left Haran and had come to the land of Canaan and had been there more than sixty years. For it is written (Gen 12:4) “Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran,” and Terah was seventy years old when Abram was born (Gen 11:26), making Terah 145 years old when Abram departed from Haran, so that there were then many years of his life left. Why, then, does Scripture mention the death of Terah before the departure of Abram? In order that this matter might not become known to all, lest people should say that Abram did not show a son’s respect to his father, for he left him in his old age and went his way. That is why Scripture speaks of him as dead (Bereshit Rabbah 39:7). For indeed the wicked even while alive are called dead and the righteous even when dead are called living, as it is said (2Sa 23:20), “And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a living man.”
In Haran—Until the time of Abram, the fierce anger of the Omnipotent was kindled.
GEN 12
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 3:4
To the land that I will show you—The Holy One, blessed be he, did not mention any specific place. This indicates that this was a trial within a trial, as in the case of a man who embarks upon a journey without being aware of his destination. What did Abraham do? He took his possessions and his wife and departed: So Abraham went, as the Lord had told him (ibid., v. 4). And I will make of you a great nation (ibid., v. 2). It is not written “I will establish you up as a great nation,” but I will make you a great nation; that is, I will create anew, as indicated by the verse And God made the expanse (ibid. 1:7); And God made the two great lights (ibid., v. 16). R. Phinehas the priest, the son of Hama said: When did the Holy One, blessed be he, make Abraham into a great nation? He did so when Israel accepted the law. Thus Moses proclaimed concerning them: For what great nation is there (Deu 4:8).
Rashi
Go (literally, go to you)—For your benefit, for your good: there I will make you a great nation whilst here you will not merit to have children (Rosh Hashanah 16b). Furthermore, I will make known your character throughout the world (Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 3).
From your country—Now had he not already gone out of there with his father and come as far as Haran? Rather, thus did he say to him, “Distance yourself more from there and leave your father’s house.”
That I will show you—He did not reveal the land to him immediately, in order to make it dear in his eyes and to give him reward for every command. Similarly (below 22:2): “your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.” Similarly (ibid.): “on one of the mountains that I shall say to you.” Similarly (Jon 3:2): “and call out against it the message that I will tell you.”
Rosh Hashanah 16b:7
And some say: Also, a change of one’s place of residence cancels an evil judgment, as it is written: “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go you from your county’ ” (Gen 12:1), and afterward it is written: “And I will make of you a great nation” (Gen 12: 2). The Gemara explains: And the other one, i.e., Rabbi Yitzḥak, who does not include a change of residence in his list, holds that in the case of Abram, it was the merit and sanctity of the land of Israel that helped him become the father of a great nation.
Therefore go out from their midst,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
then I will welcome you . . . 2CO 6:17
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
Rashi
And I will make of you a great nation—Since traveling is the cause of three things—it diminishes family life, it reduces one’s wealth and lessens one’s renown, he therefore needed these three blessings: that God should promise him children, wealth and a great name (Bereshit Rabbah 39:11).
And I will bless you—With wealth (Bereshit Rabbah 39:11).
So that you will be a blessing—Blessings are entrusted to you; hitherto they were in my power—I blessed Adam and Noah—but from now on you shall bless whomsoever you wish (Bereshit Rabbah 39:11). Another explanation: And I will make of you a great nation, this alludes to the fact that we say in our prayer “God of Abraham”; And I will bless you—that we say, “God of Isaac”; And make your name great—that we say, “God of Jacob.” One might think that we should conclude the benediction in which these invocations are recited by mentioning again the names of all the patriarchs—the text therefore states “so that you will be a blessing”: with you they will conclude, and not with them (Pesachim 117b).
7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. GAL 3:7, 14
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Rashi
In you . . . shall be blessed—There are many aggadoth but the plain sense of the text is as follows: A man says to his son, “May you become as Abraham.” This, too, is the meaning wherever the phrase “with you . . . shall be blessed” occurs in Scripture, and the following example proves this (Gen 48:20): “By you Israel shall pronounce blessings, saying, ‘God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.’ ”
40 And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker,
but he who is generous to the needy honors him. PRO 14:31
Berakhot 18a:12
Raḥava said that Rav Yehuda said: One who sees the deceased taken to burial and does not escort him has committed a transgression due to the verse: “Whoever mocks the poor blasphemes his Creator” (Pro 17:5). And if he does escort him, what is his reward? Rav Asi said: The verse says about him: “Whoever who gives to the poor gives a loan to the Lord, and the Lord will repay him” (Pro 19:17), and: “Whoever oppresses a poor man blasphemes his Creator, but he who is generous to the poor honors him” (Pro 14:31).
45 Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” MAT 25:40, 45
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. HEB 11:8
5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,
Bereshit Rabbah 39:14
And the people that they had made in Haran—Rabbi Elazar bar Zimra said: If all the inhabitants of the world were to assemble, to create even a single gnat, they would be unable to inject a soul into it, and yet you say: The people that they had made? The explanation is that this refers to the proselytes that they converted. If so, it should have said that they converted; why that they made? It is to teach you that anyone who draws an idol worshiper near and converts him, it is as though he has created him. Let it, then, say that he made? Rav Huna said Abraham converted the men and Sarah converted the women.
Rashi
And the people that they had acquired in Haran—Whom he had brought beneath the wings of the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God. Abraham converted the men and Sarah converted the women and Scripture accounts it to them as if they had made them (Bereshit Rabbah 39:14). The real sense of the text is: the slaves and maidservants whom they had acquired for themselves, as in Gen 31:1, “He acquired all this wealth,” and Num 24:18, “Israel acquires”—an expression for acquiring and gathering.
Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. ACT 7:4
6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
Rashi
Abram passed through the land—He entered it.
To the place at Shechem—To pray on behalf of Jacob’s sons, anticipating the time when they would come to fight against Shechem.
To the oak of Moreh—That is Shechem (Sotah 32a). He showed him Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, where Israel accepted the oath of the law.
At that time the Canaanites were in the land—He the Canaanite was gradually conquering the land of Israel from the descendants of Shem, for it fell in Shem’s share when Noah apportioned the land to his sons, as it is said (below 14:18): “And Melchizedek king of Salem.” Therefore, (below verse 7): Then the Lord said to Abram: To your offspring will I give this land. I am destined to restore it to your children, who are of the descendants of Shem.
Sotah 32a:10
How did the ceremony of the blessings and curses take place? When the Jewish people crossed the river Jordan they came to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, which are in Samaria alongside the city of Shechem, which is near the oaks of Moreh, as it is stated: “Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?” (Deu 11:30), and there it states: “Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oaks of Moreh” (Gen 12:6). Just as the oaks of Moreh mentioned there with regard to Abraham are close to Shechem, so too, the oaks of Moreh mentioned here are close to Shechem.
By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. HEB 11:9
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