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GENESIS — 15:2 glorify

GEN835 One important facet of Judaism that many people overlook, however, is the importance of making things beautiful. While this may seem somewhat superficial, it is actually an important part of our religion. For instance, it says in Genesis 15:2, “This is my God and I shall glorify Him.” The Rabbis who wrote the Mechilta, a commentary on Exodus, understood this to mean that one should always perform the mitzvot with as much beauty as possible, as an act of devotion to God. Therefore, it is actually incumbent upon us to make things in our lives more beautiful. (By Adam Goodkind)

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GENESIS — 15:3 childless

GEN836 … when Abraham took upon himself the mission of teaching mankind about the existence of God, he was not confident that his efforts would succeed until he had a natural son who, bound by the ethics of kibbud ov, [honor owed a father -AJL], would carry over his teachings to the later generations.  After years of childlessness, Abraham fully well realized that his disciples, Eliezer or Lot, would not be able to carry on after his death. Their resolve would not be able to withstand the pressures of the pagan culture. And so wearily and tragically Abraham complained to God, “What can you give me? For I go childless.” [this verse] It was only after a divine promise of a son that Abraham was consoled. And only after the birth of Isaac, God declared, “and Abraham will become a great and strong nation, all the nations of the world will praise themselves in him. For I know him, that which he will command his children and his family after him they shall keep the way of God to do righteousness and justice. Genesis 18:18-19.  Only the special authority which a father could expect from a son would assure the transmission of Abraham’s noble ideas for the coming generations.  BUILD 243-5

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GENESIS — 15:6 merit

GEN839 Great is tzedakah [righteousness or charity] by which the Holy One Blessed be He, is praised when He will bring salvation to the Jews, as it is written Isaiah 63:1: “I speak with tzedakah, might to save.” Great is tzedakah, which confers honor and life upon its practitioners, as it is written Proverbs 21:21: “He who pursues tzedakah and lovingkindness will find life, tzedakah, and honor.” Great is tzedakah, through which the Holy One Blessed be He, is destined to redeem Israel, as it is written Isaiah 1:27  “Zion will be redeemed through justice, and those who return to it, through righteousness” Shabbat 139a. Great is tzedakah, through which our father Abraham was praised s it is written [this verse] and Genesis 18:19: “For I have known him that he might command his children and his household after him to heed the way of Hashem, to do tzedakah and justice.”  TZADIK 313-5.   

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GENESIS — 15:6 reckoned

GEN840 (Continued from [[1037]] Leviticus 25:35 live with BOROJMV 126). The Tur’s [Jacob b. Asher, D. 1340, Arbaah Turim (The Four Pillars), “Yoreh Deah” (He Teaches Knowledge), Ch. 251] ruling [regarding help priorities] returns to the traditional hierarchy, almost equating our connection to parents and then to adult children with the obligation to first help ourselves.  We are told to help others only after we have taken care of “our” own needs.  “Should it happen that his parents have been taken captive and he does not have the means to ransom them all, he should follow this priority: He should ransom his father and leave the sons, then ransom the sons, then his brothers, then his other relatives, then his neighbors, then other people from the city, and after these, [He should ransom] captives from other lands.” Even when lives are in danger, perhaps particularly when that is so, we should follow the classic tzedakah priority list.  Though we may empathize with the downtrodden of the whole universe, we must first use our means to save those who gave us life and only then reach out to others with our remaining funds. We pray that God spares us from such heart-rending choices! But should they occur, the Tur gives us tradition to guide us. “Should anyone’s extended household include poor orphans, it is a mitzvah and a good thing to employ them as servants; even though this means over-staffing has home, it will surely be “accounted to him as tzedakah [this verse]. Translated into English, the phrase “even if it means over-staffing” maybe too literal. In fact, the Tur directs us to hire this needy person, even if we have little use of the services. So, for example, this holds if we have one domestic and don’t need two. This hiring has little to do with household needs, but everything to do with the needs of the orphan, whom we thus help. BOROJMV 126

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GENESIS — 15:6 trust

GEN841 Trust is impossible without belief, as is written Psalms 9:11: “And those who know Your name will trust in You.”  For those who know His great name and recognize His greatness and strength and believe in Him wholeheartedly – they can trust in Him, for trust and belief go together.  If there is no belief, there is no trust; and if there is no trust, there is no belief.   And belief is the apex of Torah, as it is written Exodus 20:2-3: “I am Hashem your God…you shall not have any other gods.”  TZADIK 205

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GENESIS — 15:7 assign

GEN842 Premodern rights do not hang in the air.  They are elements of a larger scheme of natural justice, which situates humanity in creation vis-à-vis God’s law, as articulated in Scripture and as implicit in the human frame and condition.  … Conceptually, we find a case in point with the Torah’s legislation for all Israelites’ undisturbed possession of their ancestral land: The communal right to the land God promised the nation, through their earliest ancestor, is institutionalized as a right of possession by all Israelites and their heirs, severally [this verse], 15:18, 24:7; Exodus 6:4, 34:24, Leviticus 25:18, 25:23-38.  In the vignettes of the Prophets, that right is transmuted into an arcadian vision paradigmatic of the reign of universal justice, when “nations shall not take up sword against nation … but every man shall sit, unmolested under his own vine or fig tree” Micah 4:3-4.  JHRHV 55

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GENESIS — 15:7 brought

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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GENESIS — 15:10 cut

GEN844 In a Jewish covenant, brit, the verb lichrot, to cut off, is used to describe the forging of a britNehemiah 9:8.  To forge a special covenant with Abraham (in addition to the brit milah), God commanded Abraham to cut the pieces of three animals in half [this verse].  What is the significance in cutting off in forming a brit? Only when each party “cuts off” something of himself, gives up some of his own identity, can this new unit, a new creation, emerge.   AMEMEI 159

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