RISE,

WALK THROUGH THE LAND, THROUGH ITS LENGTH AND ITS BREADTH FOR I WILL GIVE IT TO

YOU.

(Bereishit 13:17)

We learned: R. Elazer said in the name of R. Yosi:

Once I entered Alexandria, Egypt. There I found an old man,

who said to me: "Come and I will show you what my fathers did to your

fathers; they drowned some of them in the sea; some they slew by the sword;

some they crushed at the construction sites".

Our Rabbi Moses was punished on this

account, for it says: It has been worse for this people since I came to

Pharaoh to speak in Your name (Shemot 5). The Holy One, Blessed Be He said to

him: Woe for those lost and not recovered! How many times did I reveal myself

to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Shaddai,

and they did not question Me or ask Me What is Your name?

I said to Abraham: Rise,

you (Bereishit 13). He

great expense, 400 silver shekels, yet he did not doubt Me.

I told Isaac: Dwell in

this land and I shall be with you and bless you (Bereishit 26). His servants sought water to drink, but did

not find it until they entered a quarrel, as is written: The shepherds of Gerar quarreled with the shepherds of Isaac saying, "The

water is ours" (Bereishit

26) yet he did not question Me.

I said to Jacob: The land upon

which you lie, I will give to you (Bereishit

28). He wished to set up his tent, but did not find a place until

he paid one hundred ksita, yet he did not

question, he did not ask What is Your name?

However, at the start you asked: What

is Your name? And now you say You

have not saved Your people (Shemot 5).

Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh – you shall see the war against

Pharaoh, but you will not see the war against the thirty-one kings [i.e., the

conquest of the Land].

(Sanhedrin 111a).

The Right to Inherit does not Grant You Rights to

Property which is not Yours!

Shlomo Fox

Micah ends his

prophecy with the verse: Give truth to Jacob, loving-kindness to Abraham,

(Micah 7:20)

Abraham is

called Ethan, as we read in Psalms: A maskil of Ethan

with which You will establish Your faithfulness."

Some say that

the root of the name Ethan is the Aramaic it – there is; Abraham is the

one who said "There is" a sovereign in the castle, that the world is

ruled by the attribute of loving-kindness.

In the circumcision

ceremony, the father recites the blessing "… Who commanded us to enter

him into the covenant of our father Abraham" – enter him into the covenant

of loving-kindness. Circumcision is not only a physical covenant, but also a

covenant demanding that one behaves with loving – kindness.

It is said regarding

the consolation of mourners: "He told him [Resh

Lakish told his spokesman, Yehudah bar Nahmani, when they came to console R. Hiyya

bar Abba, whose son had died]: Get up and address those who console the

mourners. He began speaking: Our brothers who exercise loving-kindness, sons of

those who exercise loving-kindness, who hold fast to the covenant of our Father

Abraham, for it is said: I have come to know him in order that he command

just and right] (Bereishit 18:9); our

brothers, the Master of Compensation shall compensate you, Blessed are You, who

makes compensation." (Ketuvot 8b).

Rabbi Hutner said (in Pahad Yitzhak, Sukkot 5712): "Special

qualities imply special duties"; Abraham's virtue of loving-kindness obligates

all who enter into his covenant.

In our

parasha, God repeatedly promises the Land to Abraham's seed.

And the

I will give this land." (Bereishit

12:7; also – 12: 13, 15; 17:15; 18:17, 18)

Although the

land is promised to him, when the king of Sodom offers the vanquished kings'

property to Abram, he does not take the booty but rather gives it to his

allies: And the king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the souls,

men who went with me; Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre they shall take their share" (Bereishit 14: 21-24).

Abram receives

God's promise that his seed will go forth with great possessions after being

exiled to a land that is not theirs for four hundred years: And he

afterwards they will go forth with great possessions (Bereishit 15: 8, 13-14).

The quarrel

between Abram's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen

looks like a conflict over pasture-lands, and it brings about a separation.

And there

if [you go] right, I will go left" (Bereishit

13:7-9).

Abraham

separates from Lot, apparently ending the connection

between them. However, Midrash Tanhuma (Lekh Lekha) notes

Abraham's humility – the moment he hears of his nephew's distress, he

immediately sets out to his aid: And Abram heard that his kinsman had been

Dan (Bereishit 14:14).

What was the quarrel about?

Bereishit

Rabbah (40:7)

explains:

And there

of Lot's cattle –

R. Brekhiah said in the name of R. Yudah:

Abraham's animals would go out muzzled, but Lot's

would go out unmuzzled.

Abraham's

herdsmen asked them [Lot's herdsmen]: Is theft

allowed?

Lot's herdsmen told them: The Holy One blessed be He said

to Abraham: To your seed I will give this land (Bereishit 12:7), but Abraham is a sterile mule – he does not

produce children. Lot is his heir, and we are

eating that which belongs to us!

The Holy One blessed

be He told them: This is what I said to Abraham: To

your seed I will give this land – when? When the Seven

Nations are removed from it. [Now it says], and the Canaanites and the Perizzites were then dwelling in the land,

etc.. Now

they have rights in the land.

Abraham

instructed his shepherds to avoid letting the animals graze in pastures that

belonged to others, while Lot's herdsmen were

sure that, as Abraham's sole heirs, the Land and everything in it was their

inheritance.

Rabbi Y. ibn Shu'ib (Spain

1280-1340) adds to this and explains that the quarrel between Abram and Lot led to the conquest of parts of the Land by other

nations.

The NeTziV Mi'Volozhin sharpens this

point In his commentary, Ha'Amek

Davar:

And there

was a quarrel. The quarrel between the herdsmen was a disgraceful incident,

and it caused desecration of the Name. In Sifri on

parashat Ki Tetze we learn:

If there be a quarrel between men, etc. If the guilty one is to be flogged. Peace does not

arise from a quarrel, and so it says And

there was a quarrel between the herdsmen, etc. Who caused Lot

to leave the righteous man [Abraham]? This says that it was the quarrel [which

cased him to leave]… And so it was in the case of Lot,

that the herdsmen uttered words not worthy of being heard. The meaning of the Sifri's dictum, "Peace does not arise from a quarrel"

is that it [the things said in a quarrel] are not like [proper] criticism, for

criticism brings peace and love. Not so with the quarrel: and the Canaanites

and the Perizzites were then dwelling in the land.

It involved desecration of the Name, since they knew the greatness of Abraham

and his house, and how they were sanctified to the Lord's Name. It got to the

point where Abraham could not take any more, and so Lot

left Abraham.

Here the NeTziV is true to the line he took in the introduction to

his commentary on Bereishit. There he said that

Bereishit is called Sefer HaYashar ["The Straight Book"] in reference

to the way the Patriarchs related to the nations of the world: they were honest

and went beyond the strict demands of justice. That is why, as soon as the

nations of the world became aware of it, the quarrel between Abraham and Lot was perceived as a case of desecration of the Name.

A different

tack is attributed to Rabbi Bunem of Pishcha: Abraham separated from Lot

because he feared his negative influence.

The Talmud

discusses how it was that Abram dared to go to war against the kings who had

captured Lot. Weren't his fighters wary? How

did he prepare his troops? Was their victory a miracle or did it result from their

devotion to their cause?

Nedarim 32a states:

and he armed his trained men, those born in

his house – Rav said: He armed them with Torah. Shemuel said: He loaded them with gold. (Midrash Tanhuma explains: He took

silver and gold, and loaded them with it. He told them, "You know that we

are going to battle; we are going to save lives. Do not set your eyes upon

wealth, if [you want to battle] for the sake of silver and gold, here it is").

 three hundred and

eighteen – R. Ami bar Abba said: Eliezer was worth all of them together. Some

say: [The name] "Eliezer" is numerologically equivalent [to 318].

So – we have seen various

explanations; the preparations included Torah study or the distribution of

wealth, or pep-talks, or the distribution of arms, and there is also an opinion

that most of the fighters left for home, except for Abraham's devoted servant,

Eliezer.

From Aggadah

to Halakhah

In the course of

discussing the laws of sukkah, the Talmud (Sukkah

31a)

mentions an incident that illustrates the law stating that the use of stolen skhakh [the material used to cover a sukkah] does

not invalidate a sukkah, since the thief is only required to return the

monetary value of the branches used for skhakh,

and is not required to take down the sukkah:

Our rabbis taught:

A stolen sukkah, and one who sets up a sukkah in the public domain, R. Eliezer

disqualifies [such a sukkah], but the Sages say it is usable… However, if he

stole branches and used them as cover – all agree that he only has to pay the

value of he branches…

That old woman appeared

before Rav Nahman.

She told him: The Exilarch and all the sages in Exilarch's

house are sitting in a stolen sukkah!

She shouted, but Rav

Nahman paid her no attention.

She told him: A women

whose father has three hundred and eighteen servants

cries out before you and you pay no attention to her!?

Rav Nahman told them:

She bleats, but she has no claim beyond the cost of the branches, that is why

the sukkah is not considered stolen, but rather usable.

Why did the Exilarch ignore the old woman and say, "She bleats"?

How does that make theft

permissible? What does the woman mean to say by mentioning her father's wealth?

Why did the Exilarch's men steal branches? And, in

connection with our discussion: Why did Rav Nahman and the sages of the house

of the Exilarch behave like Lot's

herdsmen, who did not use muzzles?

Besides offering a

technical halakhic explanation, the author of the commentary Arukh la'Ner [R.

Yaakov Etlinger (1798-1871), a leader of Orthodox Jewry

in Germany] explains that the servants which the woman had claimed worked in

her father's house were none other than the servants of our Father Abraham. It

is known that before going to battle, he "loaded them with money" so

that they would not be anxious to take other people's property. If so, the

woman is asking "Why didn't the Exilarch do so,

instead leaving his servants to steal?" It might be said that the halakhah

expresses "How great is the power of the possibility of repentance!"

In this spirit, the law

allows for repentance, allowing the thief to repent without returning the branches

themselves, but rather only their monetary equivalent. None the less, it is difficult

to understand why scholars behaved in this fashion. Why did they act like Lot's shepherds – "For the land is ours"?

The Rebbi

from Slonim (Netivot Shalom, Va'yeitze) distinguishes between

three different levels of blessing received by Abraham: star, sand, and

dust:

And He

be your seed." (Bereishit

15:5)

That I

and your descendants will inherit the cities of their enemies. (Bereishit 22:17)

And I will

counted. (Bereishit

13:16)

The stars of

heaven symbolize great individual servants of God who are unassociated with

each other; each shines alone, and they remain disunited.

The sand

that is on the seashore holds back the sea's waves

which threaten to flood all of creation. Each individual grain of sand is insignificant;

it is only their unity which grants them the tremendous strength needed to

protect all of creation from the waves. So it is with Israel; the power of the individual

is as slight as a grain of sand, but when the grains are united, the power of their

unity protects creation.

The dust of the earth

enjoys the quality of adherence, and that power contains the power of

growth. This distinguishes it from the stars of heaven and from the

sand that is on the seashore; these two enjoy certain virtues, but the lack

the power of growth, and all of creation persists thanks to the power of growth

belonging to the dust of the earth.

We ask to be

called the children of Abraham, and that pretension obliges us to behave as did

Abraham and his herdsmen. If we receive the blessing of being like the stars

of heaven or the sand that is on the seashore, our function

lacks any connection or duty towards the other. However, if we are blessed with

being like the dust of the earth that brings growth and fruitfulness,

then that blessing obliges us to behave in a manner that will not cause thorns

and thistles or wormwood and hemlock to grow; certainly not to let crab grass

take over, as Nogah Reuveni

said: Ezrah means crabgrass, as the Psalm (37:35) states: I saw a wicked man,

powerful, well-rooted as an ezrah who is fresh. It

is our duty and merit to care for the other and his property.

May the way of

Abraham – father to many nations – the quality

of loving-kindness – guide us; may we maintain his ways and his instructions to

his herdsmen. The land is promised to us on the condition that we unite and

judge ourselves and our neighbors with loving kindness, and act in loving

kindness.

Shlomo Fox

teaches at Hebrew

Union College,

at Beit Shmuel, and at Kolot.

He is he educational director of the IDF project of Beit Morasha.

Thoughts of Remembrance and

Reflection

The significance and character of

memory change with the years. The shock and mourning of the days immediately

following Rabin's murder are unlike the longer-term residues which that

difficult event left in Israeli society and its influence on the years

following the murder.

On the one hand, the murder

sharpened feelings of enmity and alienation that existed between rival

ideological groups. On the other hand, there were also serious attempts at

dialogue between groups and individuals who sensed the dangers threatening

Israeli society. Those attempts gave rise to batei

midrash and discussion groups that brought

together people holding different world views.

Since then, Israeli society has

found itself exposed to murderous terror attacks, to disappointment with

governmental corruption and failed diplomatic moves, to the disengagement and

the second Lebanese war. All of these seriously challenged the solidarity

between different parts of the nation, as well as challenging faith in the

leadership. The assassination became a kind of sign warning of the loss of

innocence, the loss of our way, and of the dangers involved in violent and

antidemocratic struggle.

Is there, none the less, a

the memory of the murder in 5767?

I think that the story of the

quarrel between Abram's herdsmen and Lot's

herdsmen can serve to clearly delineate the options available to Israeli

society.

The quarrel over values between

the herdsmen of Abraham's school and the herdsmen of Lot's house was solved

through the separation of the two "brothers" from each other, but it

is well known how sadly Lot's experience in Sodom ended.

It could be that when there is no

agreement regarding the way to go forward, the option of separation is

preferable to the "liquidation" of the rival, but it also does not

represent the final realization of the Zionist dream. Apparently, we must take

on the challenge of finding room for bitter ideological rivals within a single

society.

Yevamot

14b describes the disagreements on crucial points of law between the House of Shamai and the House of Hillel, and describes it thusly:

Even though the

House of Shammai and the House of Hillel disagreed

regarding the cases of tzarot, of sisters, of

an old bill of divorce, of a possibly married woman, of one who stays in

an inn with his divorced wife, of money and its equivalent, of a penny and its

equivalent [all of these are cases involving laws of marriage and divorce], the

House of Shamai did not avoid marrying women from the

House of Hillel, and vice-versa. This teaches you that they treated each other

with affection and neighborliness, to fulfill that which is said: Love

truth and peace (Zechariah 8).

I think that the way to lend

relevant and constructive significance to the memory of the murder is by being

attentive and respectful to ideological rivals, by resolving through democratic

means those issues which require resolution, while always struggling for truth

and peace.

Pinchas

Leiser

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