GEN817 Whoever has within him these three qualities, is of the disciples of Abraham our Father; but [if he has] three ‘other” qualities, he is of the disciples of the wicked Balaam. [If one has] as good eye, an humble temperament, and a lowly spirit, [he is] of the disciples of Abraham our Father; [if he has] an evil eye, a haughty temperament, and an insatiable spirit, [he is] of the disciples of Balaam the wicked. What difference lies between the disciples of Abraham our Father and those of Balaam the wicked? The disciple of Abraham our Father eat [enjoy the fruits of their virtue] in the world-to-come; for it is stated, “There is inheritance enough to bestow upon My friends, and their treasuries will I fill.” Proverbs 8:21 But the disciples of Balaam the wicked inherit Gehinnom (purgatory) and descend into the pit of destruction; for it is stated, “and Thou, O God, wilt bring them down into the pit of destruction; men of blood and deceit shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in Thee.” Psalms 55:24. . .  Pirkei Avot V:22  Did [Abraham] bear the Holy One an abiding dedicated love? Most certainly: as we learned from an earlier mishnah (4) his was a religious devotion that withstood ten trials, until the Almighty Himself called him “Abraham My friend.” Isaiah 41:8. Was he involved in controversy and conflict only “for the sake of Heaven”? We know how the Midrash interprets Scripture’s title, Abram ha’-ivri (the Hebrew): all the world was at ever ehad, on one side and he at ever aher, on the other side; all the generations worshiped idols, and Abraham arose and separated himself; he would not be like them. [this verse].  From childhood on, he was a non-conformist, working with all his energy to establish and spread his vital, undaunted faith.  SINAI3 198-9

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GEN822 He who acts but does not go, attains reward for action.  Pirkei Avot V:17 …  [this] can denote the type who “acts” in specific areas of Judaism, but will not “go” the whole way, to accept it fully; he will not join the organized observant community. Such are Jewish intellectuals who have written in recent years on Jewish themes. Such are certain “big givers” whose interest in Judaism is limited to charity. Further, the text may mean: If someone does “act,” observing mitzvoth, raising money for a Torah school, and so on, yet does not “go” to the House of Study, he will most certainly be rewarded for “doing,” but the lack of Torah study in his life remains his loss.  … R. El’azar interpreted: “Why was Abraham our father punished to have his children forced into slavery by Egypt for 201 years? – because he forced Torah scholars into [military] service, as it is stated: he led forth חניכיו, his disciples [those whom he educated] born in his house …” [this verse. Talmud, Nedarim 32a] He needed them to give battle and save his captured nephew Lot. But however meritorious his action, he temporarily disrupted the sacred study of Torah. The loss remained.  SINAI3 172-3

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GEN827 If some give their tithes and some do not, a famine comes through drought; some go hungry and some have enough. Pirkei Avot V:10-11.  … A man could always find a way to circumvent his [tithe] obligation.  Only hashgahah, the watchful eye and care of Divine Providence, could know; only hashgahah could act. And so, if the crime became general, a general punishment would ensue to fit the crime; rainfall would decrease or come sporadically; there would be some drought; and the sinners would go hungry while others had food enough.  Thus the Israelite had to learn one lesson, willy-nilly: let him withhold his tithes from the Levite or needy, and eventually a drought would deprive him of all his crops. You save nothing by shutting your first on the share that belongs to charity. One way or another, Heaven will take its due.  The practice of giving a tenth of the harvest did not begin in Jewish history with the Torah’s commandment. Of themselves, the Patriarchs sensed a sacred obligation. When Abraham returned victorious from his battle with the four kings to save his captured nephew Lot, he have “a tenth of all” [this verse] the war booty to Melchizedek of Salem, who was “cohen to God most high.”  Genesis 14:18 as interpreted in Pirke d’R. Eli’ezer xxvi. SINAI3 117-8

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GEN829 If one has as good eye, an humble temperament, and a lowly spirit, he is of the disciples of Abraham our Father. Pirkei Avot V:22  When a man has a “lowly spirit,” he will reject luxuries and excesses, preferring only life’s bare necessities; hence, what he has is generally ample for his needs.  Such a man was Abraham.  Having vanquished the four kings to save his captured nephew Lot, he set free a multitude of other captives from Sodom and their goods – war booty. As the victor, Abraham was entitled to it all as the spoils of war, and the King of Sodom offered it to him. “I have lifted my hand,” he replied, “ to the Lord God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, [in a vow] that nothing, from a thread to a shoelace, would I take of all that is yours …” [this verse]. He had no desire to “make a killing” or strike it rich, so that he could climb upward on the pyramid of status. The wide worlds of Solomon come to mind: “A beneficent spirit will feel enriched”; “The tzaddik (righteous one) eats [but] enough to satisfy his spirit.” Proverbs 11:25, 13:25.  SINAI3 201

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GEN843 With ten trials was Abraham our Father proved. Pirkei Avot V:4  “For ten years he was imprisoned: three years in Cutha, and seven in Kardu … Then he was taken and cast into the fiery furnace. But the supreme king of glory stretched forth His right hand [so to speak] and rescued him from the fiery furnace; for Scripture sates [that He later told him] I am the Lord who brought you forth out of ur casdim, the fire of the Chaldees.” [this verse. Ramban to Genesis 11:28 sees in הוצאתיך, “brought you forth,” a connotation of freeing from prison.] Why was he imprisoned? In other sources [Ma’ase Abraham in Beth haMidrash I pp. 25-27; Sefer haYashar, Noah] we find the answer: With all the zeal, passion, and perseverance that a secular world attributes to Socrates, Abraham worked relentlessly to make others share his truth. He could not and would not let his fellow-man continue blindly in future idol worship. We know the Midrash’s story in which he smashed all his father’s idols. According to another account, he set fire to Nimrod’s idols Midrash haGadol, Genesis 11:28. But people fight against a new, disturbing truth. And when one of the key fighters was King Nimrod himself, Abraham found himself in prison soon enough. SINAI3 26-7

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GEN846 Ten plagues did the Holy, Blessed One bring upon the Egyptians in Egypt, and ten at the Sea.  Pirkei Avot V:5 … in the detailed study of the plagues lies a more fundamental purpose.  The liberation from Egypt is the very bedrock of our faith. As the Book of Kuzari [R. Judah haLevi, Kitab al Khazari I § 25] notes, the Almighty began the Ten Commandments, the blazing overwhelming charge from Sinai for all eternity, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”  Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6.  He did not begin, “I am the Creator of the world and your Creator.” As their liberator from cruel slavery and a terrifying enemy, the Almighty was known to the Israelites, in their immediate experience. On such knowledge they could life in faith. God as Creator was an abstract, general concept that would not move them to fervor. We in turn celebrate the Passover seder every year, to retell and relive the liberation of the Egyptians, that it may become imbedded in us the more firmly as a solid foundation for our faith. At Rosh Hashanah, the traditional anniversary of the creation, we do not have a seder to recount the glories of a Creator who brought the world into existence. Rather, in the Sh’ma that we recite morning and evening, the third paragraph concludes, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God.” Numbers 15:41 And for this reason, at the seder we are commanded to dwell on every detail, to tell at the greatest length about the liberation. Our purpose is not to lose ourselves in an evening of fond reminiscence and maudlin nostalgia about wonders and glories in our past. We simply reaffirm that our maker is a trustworthy liberator. He made a promise to Abraham: “Know, O know that your descendants will be alien in a land not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them four hundred year; but also that nation which they will serve shall I judge, and afterward they shall come out with great wealth.” [this verse]. The Haggadah affirms that He kept His word. SINAI3 52-3

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GEN849 See [[GEN1159]] Genesis 24:1 blessed SINAI3 377

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GEN864 Or, “whole.” See [[GEN876]] Genesis 17:10 circumcised SINAI3 37

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GEN876 With ten trials was Abraham our Father proved. Pirkei Avot V:4   “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be whole. [Genesis 17:1] Said the Holy, Blessed One to him: Until now you have not been whole before Me.  Circumcise yourself; then you will walk before Me and be whole.” The physical act of surgery involved, was trial enough for a man of such advanced age. But circumcision is more: it is a sign of the Covenant between the Israelite and the Almighty. [this verse] When a Jewish slave refused to go free from servitude at the end of his six year term, Scripture decrees that he had to have an ear-lobe pierced, as a physical sign of his permanent servitude.   [Exodus 21:6; Deuteronomy 15:17. The Hebrew term for such a slave is eved nirtzah, a “pierced slave” (see e.g. Talmud Kiddushin 17b); it has been suggested, however, to translate it as a “willing slave,” giving nirtzah the meaning it has as the last of the guide words to the Passover seder.] So must the Jew bear an indelible sign testifying that he is a lifelong servant of the Almighty.   After a lifetime of loyalty to the Almighty, Abraham did not question this Divine command, but obeyed – at ninety-nine.   This test too has been bequeathed to the Jewish people to inherit the name, every Jew enters the Covenant of Abraham and imposes it on his children in turn, accepting the ineradicable sign of the corps of Heaven’s own willing servants. In the ranks of Abraham, we bear this testimony that we accept the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. SINAI3 37

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GEN881 If one has as good eye, an humble temperament, and a lowly spirit, he is of the disciples of Abraham our Father. Pirkei Avot V:2   … the Almighty promised Abraham that at last Sarah would bear him a son. The Patriarch’s only reply was, “O that Ishmael might live before thee!”  In his humility, Abraham was ready to be satisfied with whatever he had.   One Sage learned directly from Abraham.   At the wedding-feast for his son, Rabbi Gamaliel II personally poured cups of wine for his colleagues.   He offered a cup to R. Eli’ezer, and that Sage would not take it; he offered it to R. Joshua, and that Sage accepted it.   Said R. Eli’ezer, “What is this, Joshua? Is it right that we should sit reclining and Gamaliel the son of Rabbi [Judah haNasi] should stand and serve us?”  Replied R. Joshua, “Let him serve. Abraham, the world’s most outstanding citizen, attended upon ministering angels.  Think you they looked like ministering angels to him? They appeared to him as nothing but idolatrous Arabs. Then shall we not surely allow Gamaliel the son of Rabbi to serve us?” Said R. Tzadok to them, “You have overlooked the glory of the Omnipresent [God] and concerned yourselves with the glory of a flesh-and-blood mortal. The Holy, Blessed One, who spoke and the world became, makes winds blow, clouds rise, rain fall, and plants sprout, and thus He sets a meal-table for every single person. Shall then Gamaliel the son of Rabbi not attend upon us?” Talmud Kiddushin 32, Midrash Sifre, Deuteronomy §38.   SINAI3 202

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