3.11.11

Parshah Back Story

ויבא הפליט ויגד לאברם העברי והוא שכן באלני ממרא האמרי אחי אשכל ואחי ענר והם בעלי ברית-אברם: יד וישמע אברם כי נשבה אחיו וירק את-חניכיו ילידי ביתו שמנה עשר ושלש מאות וירדף עד-דן: טו ויחלק עליהם | לילה הוא ועבדיו ויכם וירדפם עד-חובה אשר משמאל לדמשק:

"And there came one who had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he lived in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshkol, and brother of Aner; and these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them to Dan. And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and defeated them, and pursued them to Hobah, which is on the left side of Damascus."
(Parshat Lech Lecha, 4th Aliyah)
Until now I never realized that this is the first interaction between Abraham and Eliezer/Og. And that Og was avenging his race when he and Avraham took down the four kings who wiped them out. It's also curious why Avraham doesn't consider Lot as his inheritor rather than Eliezer in the next Aliyah.

And especially: I'd love to see a perush with alternative explanations for what HaShem means when He says Avraham will be inherited by someone who is born of his "innards." There has to be a hint in the text for Yitzhak. Here's my take on it. I once had an insight (I wish I remembered the whole flow of it) that the word kaf-heh pronounced 'koh' which HaShem uses here to describe Avraham's children: "Thus will be your children," describes self-sacrifice in the name of HaShem. This would be a direct hint at the future Akeida. (binding of Yitzhak) Now, if only I could remember how it is that 'Koh' hints at this.

Comments


Related posts

Blog Widget by LinkWithin