Inner Dimension Lech Lecha (Copy)

ה׳ said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

[Then in the vision, God] took him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them”—continuing, “So shall your offspring be.”

ויוצא אתו החוצה AND HE BROUGHT HIM FORTH OUTSIDE — Its real meaning is: He brought him outside his tent so that he could look at the stars. Its Midrashic explanation is: Go forth from (give up) your astrological speculations — that you have seen by the planets that you will not raise a son; Abram indeed may have no son but Abraham will have a son: Sarai may not bear a child but Sarah will bear. I will give you other names, and your destiny (מזל planet, luck) will be changed. Another explanation: He brought him forth from the terrestrial sphere, elevating him above the stars, and this is why He uses the term הבט ‘‘look”, when He said “look at the heavens” — for this word signifies looking from above downward (Genesis Rabbah 44:12).

As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great dark dread descended upon him.

And [God] said to Abram, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years;

(12) As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great dark dread descended upon him. (13) And [God] said to Abram, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years; (14) but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth.

(3) He shall sense the truthaHe shall sense the truth Lit. “His sensing [shall be]”; meaning of Heb. uncertain. by his reverence for GOD:
He shall not judge by what his eyes behold,
Nor decide by what his ears perceive.

Rabbi Alexandri says that the term hariḥo teaches that God burdened the Messiah with mitzvot and afflictions like millstones [reiḥayim]. Rava says that hariḥo teaches that the Messiah will smell [demoraḥ] and then judge on that basis, sensing who is right, as it is written: “And he shall neither judge after the sight of [lemareh] his eyes, nor decide after the hearing of his ears; and with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide equity for the meek of the earth” (Isaiah 11:3–4).

As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great dark dread descended upon him.