G-d Promise & Yaakov's Conditions?

R. Berechiah maintained that the Holy One, blessed be He, fulfilled all but one of Jacob’s requests.

Jacob said: If God will be with me,
and He replied: Behold, I am with thee (ibid., v. 15).

Jacob said: And will keep me,

and He responded: I will keep thee whithersoever thou goest (ibid.).

He said: So that I come back to my father’s house in peace,

and the Holy One, blessed be He, replied: And I will bring thee back (ibid.).

But when Jacob said: And will give me bread,

He did not reply.

The Holy One, blessed be He, said: If I assured him concerning bread, what else would he ask of Me? Therefore, He did not promise him bread.

The sages insisted, however, that He also replied to his plea for bread, since it is said:

I shall not forsake thee (ibid.).

The word forsake is employed in Scripture only in reference to bread, as is written: Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread (Ps. 37:25).

אם יהיה אלוקים עמדי, “if G’d will be with me, etc.” He referred to G’d’s personal promise to him that He would not become a victim of the way of the righteous who are forever fearful of not possessing sufficient merit, and therefore consider any assurance to them by G’d as only conditional, i.e. אם.

Another view of this line is the reason why Yaakov prefaced this line with the word אם, “if,” is not that he conditioned his continued righteous way of life on G’d’s protection, but that seeing it was based on a dream, he could not be sure that this was a divine revelation rather than wishful thinking on his part. Divine promises experienced in a dream may be just that, a dream without substance.

Still another interpretation of this verse is that it was an oath. “Just as I am certain that G’d will be with me and that I will return safely to my father’s house, so I am certain that after that I will erect a house of G’d on this site.”

Nachmanides states that the word אם does not necessarily have to mean a conditional “if.” An example of such a different meaning of the word אם is found in Numbers 36,4 ואם יהיה היובל לבני ישראל, where it means: “and when the Jubilee year will arrive for the Children of Israel, etc.” Yaakov refers to what he will do as soon as G’d’s promise to him has been fulfilled.

Jacob prayed to the Holy One Blessed be He and said: From Abraham there came forth Yishmael. From Isaac there came forth Esav — May no "base matter" come forth from me as it did from my fathers! And thus is it written (Bereshith 28:20) "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, etc." Now would it occur to anyone that Jacob our father would say (Ibid.) "If G-d will be with me … and He will give me bread to eat and a garment to wear and I return in peace to my father's house, and (only then) He will be a G-d to me!" (Obviously,) He will be a G-d to me in any event. How, then, is "and He will be a G-d to me" to be understood? That His name repose upon me, that no "base matter" issue from me from beginning to end.

(1) אם יהיה אלהים עמדי IF GOD WILL BE WITH ME — if He will keep for me these promises which He has made me that He would be with me, even as He said to me (v. 15), “Behold, I am with thee” (Genesis Rabbah 70:4),

(2) ושמרני AND IF HE WILL KEEP ME — even as He said to me (v. 15) “And I will keep thee whithersoever thou goest”, (Genesis Rabbah 70:4)

(1) ושבתי SO THAT I RETURN — even as He said (v. 15) “I will restore thee again into this land” (Genesis Rabbah 70:4),

in peace: Perfect from sin, that I will not learn from the ways of Laban.

and the Lord will be my God: that His name will rest upon me from beginning to end, that no disqualification should be found among my seed, as it is written: “[I will do] that which I have spoken concerning you.” And this promise He promised to Abraham, as it is said (17: 7):“to be a God to you and to your seed after you.” (“Your seed” [means that they should be] of pure lineage, that no disqualification should be found in him.) [from Sifrei Va-etchanan 31]

And God will be for me the Lord: This is not a condition as Rashi says.

Rather it is a vow and its substance is "IM [If] (When) I return to my father's house, I will serve the proper Name of G-d in the chosen land at the place of this stone, which will be for me a house of the Lord, and here I set aside he Tithe.

And there is in this matter a secret from that which they said (Ketubot 110) "whoever dwells in the land outside of Israel is like one with no G-d."

אם יהיה אלוקים עמדי, "If the Lord will be with me, etc." The word אם in this case is not to be understood as something conditional but is similar to the אם כפר יושת עליו in Exodus 21,30, or the אם in Exodus 22,24: אם כסף תלוה את עמי. In both those instances the meaning is "when," i.e. something that will definitely occur (compare Baba Kama 4,5 and Mechilta on Parshat Yitro)

(Alternatively) Jacob also included the attribute of Justice in his vow. So far G'd had spoken to him only in His capacity as Hashem, the attribute of Mercy. He undertook to tithe his acquisitions provided that also the attribute of Justice would prove to be with him. This is why he chose the expression אלוקים and not השם when formulating his vow.

והיה ה׳ לי לאלוקים. "Then Hashem will be my Lord." This sounds, G'd forbid, as if until now Hashem had not been Jacob's G'd. Rashi explains that Jacob meant that G'd would not find any of his children as morally unfit. I do not know where such a thought is alluded to in Jacob's words. [actually Rashi quotes a Sifri in Parshat Va-Etchanan section 31. Ed.] Besides such a promise, i.e. that his children would be morally fit, is at best a conditional promise [seeing that the matter lies within the will-power of the children, Ed.]. When would the stone then be able to serve as a monument for this encounter Jacob experienced during his dream?

The proper explanation of what Jacob said is that he was prepared to conduct himself in such a way that G'd would consent to associate His name with him even during his lifetime. He had previously done this with Abraham after the latter's death and with Isaac only after he had become blind and therefore beyond the reach of the evil urge (compare verse 13).

The words לי לאלוקים are clear evidence of Jacob's intention. This was a tremendous undertaking by Jacob. You will find in Genesis 33,20 that G'd reminded him of that undertaking and that Jacob then fulfilled this vow by erecting a monument in G'd's honour.

R. Simeon the son of Yohai said: The Holy One, blessed be He, never associates His name with righteous men during their lifetimes. He waits until they have died, as it is said: As for the holy that are in the earth, they are the excellent in whom is all My delight (Ps. 16:3).

When are men regarded as truly holy? Only after they have been buried in the earth. During their lifetimes, however, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not associate His name with theirs. And why not? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, is not certain whether or not the evil inclination within them will ultimately lead them astray. When they are dead, however, He does couple His name with theirs.

Nevertheless, we find that the Holy One, blessed be he, did couple his name with that of the righteous Isaac during his lifetime, when he said to Jacob: I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac (Gen. 28:43).

R. Berechiah and the rabbis discussed this matter. The rabbis maintained that He considered Isaac’s ashes as though they were heaped upon the altar, Even though the sacrifice of Isaac was not completed, the Akedah was proof that Isaac would never succumb to the evil inclination.

while R. Berechiah insisted that he was considered as dead because he had already lost his sight. Because of his blindness he remained secluded within his home, and the result was that the evil inclination departed from him. Hence it is written: And it came to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim (Gen. 27:1).

ושבתי בשלום אל בית אבי, “and I shall return in peace to my father’s house, etc.” We notice that every detail which formed part of Yaakov’s vow and whatever he mentioned was fulfilled for him.

When he asked G’d ושמרני בדרך, “and He will watch over me on the journey,” G’d most certainly watched over him and protected him.

As to his request for לחם, bread or food, this was a reference to the women whom he married. The term לחם to describe someone’s wife is used by Joseph (Genesis 39,6) when he told the wife of his master Potiphar that the only thing in his household Potiphar had withheld from him was הלחם אשר הוא אוכל, “the bread which he eats.” Another instance where לחם, bread, is used to describe someone’s wife, is found in Exodus 2,2 where Yitro tells his daughters to invite Moses so that “he may eat bread.” He did not mean to invite him merely to eat bread but to let him marry one of his seven unmarried daughters.

As to Yaakov’s request for clothes to wear, this was part of his wealth when he had large flocks of sheep which provided him with wool.

His request to return to his father’s home safely and in good health was answered when we read in 33,18 ויבא יעקב שלם, “Yaakov arrived home safely.” As to Yaakov fulfilling his part of the bargain and making אלוקים his G’d [ to make the attribute of Justice the yardstick by which G’d would measure him; Ed.] this is referred to in the Torah in 33,20 where we read: ויקרא לו קל אלוקי ישראל, “Yaakov called G’d the G’d of Israel.”

אם יהיה אלוקים עמדי, to remove from me all the pressures which I am under, pressures which prevent man from giving his attention to matters which should receive his attention, i.e. to G’d and what He expects from man. What troubled Yaakov was what our sages in Eyruvin 41 described as the three problems which are liable to unbalance someone’s mind as well as his relationship to his Creator. They are: gentiles, evil spirit, and excessive poverty.ושמרני, from wicked gentiles who would force him to change his lifestyle;

"If He will give me bread to eat" so that I will not be forced to violate both my own integrity and that ordained for me by my Maker.

"and I will return in peace" from all the problems besetting man, i.e. a reference to what the Talmud had called רוח רעה.

Then Hashem will be Elokim, then G’d will be a judge, and He can examine to see if I did not fulfill my vow to the best of my ability. The letter ו at the beginning of the word והיה, [where we would perhaps have expected Yaakov to use an ordinary future tense such as יהיה, Ed.], may be in lieu of the word הנה, meaning that Yaakov would already from now on act on the assumption that G’d would provide him with the necessities he had asked for and therefore he was willing to be judged by the attribute of Justice, not relying on the attribute of Mercy.

Genesis 28,20. “If G’d will be with me, etc.;” ‎Nachmanides’ comment that seeing G’d had already promised ‎Yaakov in verse 15 that He would be with him, why did Yaakov ‎question this with the word: ‎אם‎, “if?” is well known. The answer ‎given by Nachmanides is that Yaakov was afraid that G’d’s ‎promise would be invalid if he became guilty of a sin before it ‎could be carried out. (compare Bereshit Rabbah 76,2 that ‎promises made to tzaddikim concerning happenings in this ‎life are never absolute.) [If they were they would tie G’d’s ‎hands if the tzaddik were to become a rasha. ‎Ed.]‎
The answers given by the Midrash or quoted as such by ‎the commentators, appear to contradict the specific promise for ‎events in this life made to Yaakov in verse 15. I quote: ‎‎(translation) “Remember, I am with you; I will protect you ‎wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not ‎leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Surely, ‎after such a promise, how could Yaakov have had any doubt that ‎what G’d had promised would occur in this lifetime on earth? Part ‎of this promise implies that G’d the good, Who only does good, ‎will assist the recipient of this promise to conduct himself in a ‎manner that will ensure that G’d will feel obliged to honour His ‎promise.

‎
However, we must remember two points. 1) The Torah had ‎reported G’d’s promise as being part of a dream,” i.e. ‎ויחלום‎. The ‎Torah did not preface the dream as a vision, i.e. ‎וירא אליו ה'‏‎; ‎Yaakov was not at all sure that what appears here as a solid ‎promise was not a figment of his imagination. 2) We have ‎discussed once before the fact that G’d wishes us to pray to Him ‎for our needs, (that is why Rivkah did not become pregnant till ‎after 20 years of marriage when both her husband and she prayed ‎for this). Seeing that Yaakov is not on record as having actively ‎asked G’d to assist him in what was a pretty desperate situation, ‎G’d, by spelling out this promise, wished to provoke Yaakov into ‎finally praying to Him for His help. (Compare also Bereshit ‎Rabbah 45, Sarah being angry at Avraham for not having ‎including her in his prayer when he said to G’d, (complainingly) ‎‎“here I walk on this earth childless.” (Genesis 15,2) G’d dispenses ‎largesse without waiting to be asked, to those of His creatures ‎whom He has not equipped with a mouth to articulate their ‎requests. Man, who has been so equipped is expected to use his ‎powers to address his Creator in prayer.‎

According to B’rachot 17 the reason why our matriarchs ‎were originally barren is summed up in Isaiah 46,12 ‎שמעו אלי אבירי ‏לב הרחוקים מצדקה‎! “Listen to Me, you who have lost heart, who ‎are far from righteousness.” According to one interpretation of ‎the above verse in the Talmud, some people are granted their ‎livelihood because they use their intelligence to ask G’d for it. ‎Others believe in their own strength, ‎זרוע‎, their ability to work for ‎a living, and secure it through this means. The people who are ‎devoid of intelligence will be provided for by G’d, as they are too ‎dim witted or physically unable look out for themselves. This is ‎the meaning of ‎שומר פתאים ה'‏‎, “the Lord looks after the fools.” ‎‎(psalms 116,6) Examples of such people are children having to eat ‎at their father’s table. When the father of such children sees that ‎they have become capable of fending for themselves, he no longer ‎supports them. The same holds true of our Father in heaven, ‎when He sees that we could fend for ourselves but prefer to have ‎Him provide for us. The righteous are supposed to support ‎themselves by using their arms, (to do work) not violence. Those ‎who possess intelligence and do not use it to appeal to their ‎Creator are not supported by G’d’s charity, ‎צדקה‎.‎

‎ This is what G’d meant when He told Yaakov in his dream: ‎כי ‏לא אעזבך עד אשר עשיתי את אשר דברתי לך‎, “for I will not ‎abandon you until I have done what I have said (I would do) ‎for you.” What G’d meant was that as soon as Yaakov would ‎return to the land of Israel, he would have to fend for himself, ‎using the intelligence etc., that G’d had endowed him with. He ‎implied that at that time he would have to accompany his ‎activities with the appropriate prayers asking G’d to let his efforts ‎be crowned with success. If he were to neglect to do so, he would ‎not become the founding father of the twelve tribes making up ‎the Jewish people. Seeing that you had not reached spiritual ‎maturity until that time, I intervened overtly on your behalf ‎during the preceding years.

‎When we look at Yaakov’s situation from this angle, it is ‎neither fear nor lack of faith when Yaakov says ‎אם יהיה אלוקים ‏עמדי וגו'‏‎, “if G’d will be with me etc.” It is a declaration by Yaakov ‎that as soon as he will safely return to his homeland he is ‎prepared to do everything humanly possible, including prayer, of ‎course, to ensure his success in the task that G’d has set him. He ‎indicates by promising to tithe his income he will continue to ‎view his success as an act of charity by G’d. Although he will do ‎what is in his power, he will view success as G’d manifesting His ‎love for him.

Tzaddikim, even when earning their livelihood ‎by their own efforts, will continue to view their success as not ‎due to their own intelligence or hard work, but as a gift from G’d. ‎The matriarchs, whose success is not measured in terms of their ‎earning power, but in terms of the fruit of their wombs, therefore ‎were meant to turn to G’d in prayer in order for what other ‎women considered as their natural right, i.e. to produce children, ‎to be granted to them also.‎

Perhaps this is how we must understand Bereshit ‎Rabbah 76,2 on Genesis 45,28 according to which any ‎assurance given by G’d to tzaddikim does not refer to events ‎that would occur in this life. On Deuteronomy 3,23 Rashi ‎comments that although the righteous, if they wanted to, could ‎ascribe any success that they enjoyed in this life as due to merits ‎they had accumulated, they prefer not to do so. When they ask ‎G’d for something, they make a point as describing G’d’s granting ‎their request as a ‎מתנת חנם‎, a “free gift.” These explanations were ‎needed, as seeing that we have a tradition that G’d does not even ‎go back on a conditional promise, how could the Midrash say that ‎no promises of G’d apply in this world. The meaning of the words: ‎כי לא אעזבך עד וגו'‏‎, therefore must mean that there comes a time ‎in Yaakov’s life when he is expected to no longer have to rely on ‎G’d’s promises.‎