Lekh-Lekha Going Forth, Genesis 12

לך לך GET THEE OUT (literally, go for thyself) — for your own benefit, for your own good: there I will make of you a great nation whilst here you will not merit the privilege of having children (Rosh Hashanah 16b). Furthermore, I shall make known your character throughout the world (Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 3)

And some say: Also, a change of one’s place of residence cancels an evil judgment, as it is written: “And the Lord said to Abram: Go you out of your county” (Genesis 12:1), and afterward it is written: “And I will make of you a great nation” (Genesis 12: 2). The Gemara explains: And the other one, i.e., Rabbi Yitzḥak, who does not include a change of residence in his list, holds that in the case of Abram, it was the merit and sanctity of Eretz Yisrael that helped him become the father of a great nation.

“Haran died in the presence of Teraḥ his father in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans” (Genesis 11:28).
“Haran died during the lifetime of Teraḥ his father” – Rabbi Ḥiyya grandson of Rav Ada of Yafo: Teraḥ was an idol worshipper [and a seller of idols]. One time, he went away to some place, and he installed Abraham as salesman in his stead. A person would come seeking to buy. He [Abraham] would say to him: ‘How old are you?’ He would say to him: ‘Fifty or sixty years old.’ He would say to him: ‘Woe to this man who is sixty years old and seeks to prostrate himself before something that is one day old.’ He would be ashamed and leave. One time, a certain woman came, carrying a dish of fine flour in her hand. She said to him: ‘Here, offer it before them.’ He arose, took a club in his hand, shattered all the idols, and placed the club in the hand of the largest among them. When his father came, he said to him: ‘Who did this to them?’ He said to him: ‘I will not lie to you, a certain woman came, carrying a dish of fine flour in her hand. She said to me: Here, offer it before them. I offered it before them. This one [idol] said: I shall eat first, and another one said: I shall eat first. This big idol, who was standing among them, got up and took the club and shattered them.’ He [Teraḥ] said to him: ‘What, are you mocking me? Are they sentient at all?’ He said to him: ‘Do your ears not hear what your mouth is saying?’
He [Teraḥ] took him and handed him over to Nimrod. He [Nimrod] said to him [Abraham]: ‘Let us bow down to fire.’ Abraham said to him: ‘Let us better bow down to water, that extinguishes fire.’ Nimrod said to him: ‘[All right,] let us bow down to water.’ He said to him: ‘If so, let us bow down to the clouds, that bear the water.’ He said to him: ‘[All right,] let us bow down to the clouds.’ He said to him: ‘If so, let us bow down to the wind, that scatters the clouds.’ He said to him: ‘[All right,] let us bow down to the wind.’ He said to him: ‘Better let us bow down to a person, who can withstand the wind.’ He said to him: ‘You are saying mere words. I bow down only to fire. I will cast you into it, and let that God to whom you bow down come and rescue you from it.’ Haran was there and he was conflicted. He said: ‘Either way [I will know what to do]; If Abraham is victorious, I will say: I am with Abraham, and if Nimrod is victorious, I will say: I am with Nimrod.’ When Abraham descended into the fiery furnace and was rescued, they said to him [Haran]: ‘With whom are you?’ He said to them: ‘I am with Abraham.’ They took him and cast him into the fire and his innards were scorched. He emerged and died in the presence of Teraḥ his father. That is what is written: “Haran died in the presence of Teraḥ…”

Rabbi Levi said: Twice “go you [lekh lekha]” is written, but we do not know which is more dear, whether it is the second or the first. From what is written: “[Go you] to the land of Moriah” (Genesis 22:2), we see that the second is more beloved than the first.
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: “Go you, from your land” – from your district; “and from your birthplace” – this means your neighborhood; “and from your father’s house” – this means from your father’s household. Why did he not reveal it [his destination] to him? It was to make it more endearing to him, and to give him a reward for each and every stride. That is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yoḥanan [elsewhere], as Rabbi Yoḥanan said: “He said: Take your son, your only one” (Genesis 20:2). He [Abraham] said to Him: ‘This one is the “only one” to his mother and that one is the “only one” to his mother.’ He said to him: “Whom you love” (Genesis 22:2). He said to Him: ‘Are their partitions in the innards?’ He said to him: “Isaac” (Genesis 22:2). Why did He not reveal it to him [immediately]? It was to make it more endearing to him, and to give him a reward for each and every statement.
As Rav Huna said in the name of Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Yosei HaGelili: The Holy One blessed be He withholds [information at first] and keeps the eyes of the righteous directed toward Him, and only then does he reveal to them the particulars of the matter. So: “to the land that I will show you”; “upon one of the mountains that I will say to you” (Genesis 22:2); “proclaim the proclamation that I speak to you” (Jonah 3:2); “Go out to the valley and I will speak to you there” (Ezekiel 3:22).

“I will make you a great nation, I will bless you [vaavarekhekha], I will render your name great, and you shall be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2).
“I will make you a great nation” – he said to Him: ‘Did you not [already] produce seventy nations from Noah?’ He said to him: ‘That nation in whose regard it is written: “For who is a great nation [to whom God is so close]?” (Deuteronomy 4:7), I will produce from you.’
Rabbi Berekhya said: “I will give you” and “I will place you” are not written here, but rather, “I will make you [ve’e’eshkha]” – from when I make you into a new creation, you will procreate.
Rabbi Levi bar Ḥavyat and Rabbi Abba son of Rabbi Ḥiyya said: Three “greatnesses” and four “blessings” are written here. He apprised him that there would be three patriarchs and four matriarchs.
Rabbi Ḥiyya said: Because travel causes three results: it minimizes procreation, minimizes resources for expenditures, and minimizes one’s reputation. It minimizes procreation – “I will make you a great nation,” minimizes resources for expenditures – “I will bless you,” minimizes one’s reputation – “I will render your name great.” As people say: From house to house – a robe; from place to place – a soul. However, you will lose neither soul nor property.
Rabbi Berekhya said in the name of Rabbi Ḥelbo: It means a coin with his image went out into the world.
There are four people whose images appeared on coins that circulated in the world. Abraham – “I will make you a great nation” – his image circulated on coins. What was the image on his coins? It was an elderly man and an elderly woman on one side, and a young man and a maiden on the other side. Joshua – “The Lord was with Joshua; his fame was throughout the land” (Joshua 6:27) – his image circulated on coins in the world. What was it? It was a bull on one side and an aurochs on the other side, after: “A firstborn bull is his majesty, and his horns are the horns of an aurochs” (Deuteronomy 33:17). David – “David’s renown circulated in all lands” (I Chronicles 14:17) – his image circulated on coins in the world. What was the image on his coin? It was a [shepherd’s] staff and satchel on one side, and a tower on the other side, after: “Your neck is like the tower of David” (Song of Songs 4:4). Mordekhai – “For Mordekhai was great in the king’s palace, and his renown spread in all the provinces” (Esther 9:4) – his image circulated on coins. What was the image on his coin? It was sackcloth and ashes on one side, and a golden crown on the other side.
Rabbi Yudan said: [God said to Abraham:] ‘I will institute a blessing for you in the eighteen benedictions, but you do not know whether Mine precedes yours, or whether yours takes precedence.’ Rabbi Aḥuya said in the name of Rabbi Ze’eira: Yours precedes Mine, when one recites first: Shield of Abraham, and only then, He revives the dead.
Rabbi Abahu said: “Look now heavenward [hashamayim]” is not written here, but rather, “look now hashamaima” (Genesis 15:5). The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘I created the world with the letter heh. I will add the letter heh to your name and then you will procreate.’
Rabbi Yudan said: Your letters will have the numerical value of “I will bless you [avarekhekha]” – two hundred and forty-eight.
Rabbi Levi said: No person [so much as] priced a cow from Abraham before he was blessed, nor did any person price a cow for him until he was blessed by Abraham.
How so? Abraham would pray for barren women and they would be remembered, and for the ill, and they would gain relief. Rav Huna said: It was not only when Abraham would go to the ill person, but even if the ill person would merely see him, he would gain relief.
Rabbi Ḥanina said: Even ships that set sail in the Great Sea were saved due to the merit of Abraham. But were they not laden with libation wine? This is astonishing. The explanation is that [there is a saying:] Vinegar lowers the price of wine. Wherever the wine of idol worshippers is available, the wine of Jews is sold at lower prices.
Rabbi Yitzḥak said: He [God] did this for Job, as well, as it is stated: “You blessed his handiwork” (Job 1:10). A person never took a penny from Job and needed to take from him a second time.
“And you shall be a blessing [berakha]” – read it as “a pool [berekha].” Just as a pool purifies the impure, so, you draw the distant near and purify them for their Father who is in Heaven.
Rabbi Berekhya said: “I will bless you” is already written; why does the verse state [further]: “And you shall be a blessing”? The explanation is that He said to him: ‘Until this point I was required to bless My world, from now on, the blessings are passed to you; whomever you deem worthy to bless, bless him.’

And since YHV"H, Blessed, showers all types of flow and emanation in the name Adona"y and in it there are all the treasuries of the King and every type of His riches, and to it they will enter, they will assemble and they will hide, and from there they will extend to fill the needs of every creature, and it is a resemblance of a pool that a river continues into, and from the pool there is enough water to satisfy the watering of the garden and drinking and all the rest of the needs, we name in the Torah the name Adona"y as a nickname of blessing, because the word blessing (brachah ברכה) comes from the word pool (berichah בריכה). And this is the name with which our father Ya'akov, peace be upon him, blessed his sons, [the name which] he inherited from Yitzchak our father, and Yitzchak from Avraham. And Hashem, Blessed, passed this name to Avraham our father, peace be upon him, to open the gates of Adona"y and to give all that he and the rest of the children of the world need, and He passed to his hand this blessing ברכ"ה. And this is the secret of "And I will bless you and make your name great and you, be a blessing." (Genesis 12:2); and He did not say "and you will be blessed", rather, "you, be a blessing," because behold the blessing is given in your hand, get according to your desire for all the children of the world, and this is "and through you all the families of the land will be blessed" (Genesis 12:3). That is to say, whoever wants to take whatever it is from this blessing only takes from your hand, since it is handed over to you and it is yours. And therefore our sages of blessed memory said that the first one to call Y"Y, Blessed, Adona"y, was Avraham our father, peace be upon him, when he said: "Adona"y YHV"H what will You give me" (Genesis 15:2) because from it he asked his needs to the Great Name. And after Avraham, Yitzchak inherited it, and here it is: "And it was, after the death of Avraham, E-lohim blessed Yitzchak his son" (Genesis 35:11). And it was over this blessing that Esav and Yaakov fought among themselves, and this is the blessing of the firstborn [בכורה] that Esav sold Yaakov, and Yitzchak reviewed and maintained the transaction when he sent him to Padan-Aram, and here it is: "Get up, go towards Padan-Aram, and E-l Shadda"y will bless you and will give you the blessing of Avraham, to you and to your seed with you" (Genesis 28:2). Behold this blessing became one with the inheritance, [given] only to Yaakov and his seed, when he said: "to you and your seed with you." And therefore when Yaakov was about to separate from this world, he opened this blessing for the 12 tribes, so that each tribe would get its part of this blessing as inheritance, and this is the secret of "All these are the tribes of Israel, 12 in number, and this is what their father said to them and he blessed them, each according to his blessing he blessed them" (Genesis 49:28). What is "each according to his blessing"? Lest you say that he blessed each according to his [Ya'akov's] own ideas!? It is not so, rather, for each and every tribe he gave the appropriate portion from this pool, and it was not from his own awareness, rather from the awareness of the blessing itself. And Moshe our teacher, pbu"h, blessed Israel before they entered the land from this blessing, and this is the secret of "This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before he died" (Deuteronomy 33:1). And it is found that the name Adona"y is the secret of this blessing, and this is the blessing that enriches those who cling to it without sadness/toil or worry, and this is the secret of "the blessing of Y"Y enriches, and he will not add sadness to it" (Proverbs 10:22). And since the name Adona"y is a resemblance of a treasury to receive the flow of all the blessings and all types of emanation, and it is a resemblance of a pool and a receptacle, therefore it comes from the expression of the sockets [adney] of the enclosure, through which the posts enter (see Exodus 27: 10 and Exodus 38:31). And you find that 100 sockets were made for the Mishkan. as it is written "100 sockets to the 100 talents, a talent a socket" (Exodus 38:27). And these 100 sockets/adney that were in the Mishkan are the resemblance of the 100 pools that are filled from the Great Pool that is called Adona"y. Therefore a person is obligated to bless 100 blessings every day (Menachot 43b) in order to continue from each and every one, and because 100 blessings ברכות come from the name Adona"y from those בריכות pools and if one of those blessings are missing, the person injures and blemishes [oneself]. And the secret is dependent on the secret 1-10-100/2-20-200 [אי"ק בכ"ר a subtype of a gematria called atbash], which is the secret of kohen-levi-israel (added on the Ramat Hasefer edition: Israel gives 10 - ma'aser - to the Levi, who gives 1 to the Kohen - trumat hama'aser; so Israel is 100, Levi 10 and Kohen 1), which is the secret nefesh-ruach-neshamah. And according to this principle David said: "Bless, o my soul, Y"Y" (Psalms 103:1). He hung the blessings on the soul in the secret of the three Upper Arrangements, and the soul needs to bless 100 blessings , which corresponds to Israel, and from that 10, which are the tithe, to ruach which corresponds to Levi, and from the ten of ruach, Levi gives one to neshamah, which corresponds to Kohen. And so you have found that if the soul of a person does not bless 100 blessings every day, a blessing does not reach neshamah, since 10 do not make it to Ruach, which is the secret of Levi'im, which take ma'aser from Israel, and in turn give one to the Kohen from the ten that they took, and this is the secret of the portion of the tithes of Levites and Kohanim that is written in the Torah, and therefore it says: "and to the Levites you will say: 'When you receive from the Israelites their tithes, which I have assigned to you as your share, you shall set aside from them one-tenth of the tithe as a gift to Y"Y'" (Numbers 18:26). And the secret of one tenth of the tithe is the secret of אי"ק 1-10-100, if there is no 100, there is no 10 and there is no 1. And therefore a person needs to be quick to bless 100 blessings, and one that is lacking makes a defect. And those 100 blessings are the resemblance of the 100 sockets of silver through which the flow of Adona"y spreads to all sides, to 100 pools (blessings on the Ramat HaSefer edition).

Now this is the line of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot. Haran died in the lifetime of his father Terah, in his native land, Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves, the name of Abram’s wife being Sarai and that of Nahor’s wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren, she had no child. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan; but when they had come as far as Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah came to 205 years; and Terah died in Haran.