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 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 

 Cornell University Library 
 BS1197 .J15 1885 
 
 Tzeenah ureenah : "Go ye and see" : a 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 282 849 
 
 
a Cornell University 
 y Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029282849 
 
A RABBINICAL COMMENTARY 
 ON GENESIS. 
 
List of Numerical Values of the Hebrew Lefi-ers. 
 
 « Aleph, I. 
 2 Beth, 2. 
 i Gimel, 3. 
 1 Daleth, 4. 
 n He, s. 
 1 Vau, 6. 
 t Zain, 7. 
 n Cheth, 8. 
 
 D Teth, 9. 
 
 • Yod, 10. 
 3 Caph, 20. 
 
 ? Lamed, 30. 
 O Mem, 40. 
 3 Nun, 50. 
 D Samech, 60. 
 V Ain, 70. 
 
 S Pe, 80. 
 V Tzaddi, 90. 
 p Koph, 100. 
 T Resh, 200. 
 CSchin (or Shin), 
 
 300. 
 n TaUj 400. 
 
 As illustrations of the manner in which additional meanings 
 are extracted from words because of the numerical value of 
 the letters composing them, see examples on page 79 relating 
 to Eliezer; and on page 90, where Abram is re-named 
 AbraHam. 
 
T V : T V : 
 
 TZE^NAH UREi;NAH:— "GO YE AND SEE." 
 
 A RABBINICAL COMMENTARY 
 
 ON 
 
 GENESIS. 
 
 SCransIstiir from t^e |abKO-^alis^, fait^ |(ot£S nnlr |n:l>kis. 
 
 BY 
 
 PAUL ISAAC IJERSHON, 
 
 Author of " Treasures of tke Talmud," etc., etc. 
 
 SHit^ Introbutforg ^rtfate 
 
 BY THE 
 
 VEN. ARCHDEACON F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., 
 
 Chaplain in ordinary to Her Majesty, and Cation of IVestniinster. 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 
 
 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 MDCCCLXXXV. 
 
 All Rights reserved. 
 

 -7 
 
 /^^^-f-V/ 
 
 :n»3 3»n3 rra D'na vh^i^ -nu n^ns iT'a iTisT 
 
 "What is (here) written, Is written; and what Is (here) not written, 
 (infer) from what is written." — Soieh, fol. iib. 
 
 Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. 
 
"13 Y his previous writings — Genesis with a Tahnudic Com- 
 ^-^ mentary, The Treasures of the Talmud, and The Tal- 
 mudic Miscellany — Mr. Hershon has placed within the reach 
 of Enghsh readers such a knowledge of Rabbinic literature 
 as it would have been previously impossible for them to 
 acquire without long and laborious researches. In those 
 works he has translated large sections of the Gemara, and 
 of .later Jewish writings, and his inexhaustible diligence has 
 selected those passages which throw the greatest amount of 
 light upon the habits of thought which led to the elaboration 
 of the Talmud. An increasing multitude of students has 
 recently become convinced of the importance of these studies 
 for the elucidation of the New Testament, and for the solution 
 of many problems in the history of early Christianity. 
 
 In the translation which he now lays before the reader, 
 Mr. Hershon once more furnishes abundant specimens of the 
 singular methods of exegesis which prevailed for centuries 
 in the schools of Tiberias, of Babylonia, and of medieval 
 Europe. 
 
 The reader will here find Halachoth, or inferential and 
 traditional developments of legal precepts; and Haggadoth, 
 or the many fanciful forms adopted for the conveyance of 
 homiletic teaching and legendary lore. He will also be alile 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 to judge of the value or worthlessness of the Kabbalistic 
 devices, — Gematria, Notarikon, and T/iemurah, — which, by the 
 application of anagrams, acrostics, or numerical interchanges, 
 were used to develop a multitude of supposed mysteries, of 
 which the existence would certainly never have been suspected 
 by ordinary students of Holy Writ. 
 
 This little volume will alone suffice to give an insight into 
 the character of those voluminous books of commentary 
 known as the Midrashim. Rabbi Jacob, of Frankfort, the 
 author of the Tze'enah Ureenah, did not intend his com- 
 mentary to be regarded as an original contribution to the 
 interpretation of Scripture. It is avowedly a compilation 
 from ancient sources, like the Glosses and Catena of mediseval 
 scholars; and this constitutes its sole value and importance. 
 Had it been original it would certainly have not become 
 so popular, nor would it have been so readily accepted as 
 orthodox. The intention of the Rabbi was to select from the 
 Talmud and the Midrashim whatever he considered likely 
 to be useful and interesting to his Hebrew readers. The 
 extraordinary vitality of his work, and the immense sway 
 maintained by the Amoraim of the Talmud over the minds 
 of many succeeding generations, receives a very striking illus- 
 tration in the fact that this commentary should, after many 
 previous editions, have been reprinted at Wilna so late as 
 the year 1877. Indeed it retains its popularity among the 
 Jews to the present day, and any one who wishes may pur- 
 chase it in Duke Street, Aldgate, in the original language. It 
 is in fact a standard work in constant demand. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 But while the following pages are full of interest both to 
 the historic student, and to all who know how much we have 
 yet to gain from the study of "comparative religion," it is 
 only a very small fraction of this' commentary which can be 
 regarded as really exegetical. It is melancholy to see how 
 completely the true lessons of Scripture are missed in chapter 
 after chapter, and how much that is fantastic and frivolous 
 is offered in lieu of moral and spiritual edification. Perhaps 
 if our eyes were opened we might see that the same remark 
 applies to many Christian commentaries. No age has had a 
 monopoly in hewing out for itself cisterns — broken cisterns — 
 that hold no water, while its children might have drunk of 
 the wells of living water which spring up to eternal life. 
 
 If I were to allow myself to' point out passages that bear 
 illustratively on the history alike of Christian theology and of 
 general human thought, I should have a long task before 
 me. The book will doubtless fall into the hands of many 
 scholars who can perform that task far better for themselves. 
 I must however say one word as to the value of some of 
 Mr. Hershon's own footnotes, and may point in particular 
 to the curious note on p. 138, which gives a little flash of 
 insight into the more recondite speculations of Kabbalistic 
 theosophy. The reader will also study with interest the 
 learned remarks of the translator on pp. 285 and 302. 
 ■Whether he agrees with them or not, they will be found to 
 be suggestive and worthy of attentioru 
 
 Needless as I feel these few words of introduction to be, 
 I write them at Mr. Hershon's request, because I am glad to 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 acknowledge how much I, among others, have been aided 
 by his thorough knowledge of the Talmud, and by the self- 
 denying labour with which he has placed that knowledge at 
 the disposal of all who wished to obtain a clearer insight into 
 Jewish theology and Jewish thought. 
 
 F. W. Farrar. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE Tzehtak Ureenah (" Go ye and see "^ takes its title 
 from Canticles iii. ii, with which, however, it has no 
 closer connection, the work being, in fact, a popular comment- 
 ary on the Pentateuch, for the use of Jewish families. It is 
 divided into fifty-two Sections, technically called Parashayoth, 
 designed to be read in the home circle, a Section on every 
 Sabbath all the year round. The compilation is said to be 
 the work of Rabbi Jacob, who published it at Frankfort, in 
 the year 1693, and it has ever since enjoyed an uninterrupted 
 popularity among the communities called Polish Jews. This 
 translation is made from a copy published at Wilna as recently 
 as 1877, printed in the Judffio-Pohsh dialect. The work can, 
 however, be easily purchased in London, where there are now 
 • many thousand Polish Jews, sufficient at all events to support 
 two newspapers — the Zukunft and the Hashulamit — both 
 printed in Jewish jargon, like the original of this translation. 
 I have selected the Book of Genesis, which occupies about 
 200 large 8vo pages of small print in the original, as being 
 a fair specimen of the whole, which extends to nearly 700 
 pages. 
 
 In most cases the verses follow consecutively the Biblical 
 order, though there are curious exceptions to this rule, the 
 result, apparently, of carelessness rather than design. The 
 major portion of the text receives some commentary, some- 
 times of considerable, length, always of varied character, and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 often of startling novelty. Genesis being familiar to every 
 English reader, the Rabbinical glosses and discussions upon 
 the text can be followed without difficulty, and they are 
 sufficiently curious to excite the interest, if not the admiration, 
 of every Bible student. 
 
 In some other respects, also, the present work has advantages 
 over its predecessors relating more directly to the Talmud. 
 The Tzeknah Ureenah is more modern, more intelligible, and 
 far less discursive than the generality of Jewish works of a 
 similar kind. It need hardly be said that it is based on the 
 Talmud, or on writings which have themselves been inspired 
 by that famous book. Indeed, this is the case with all 
 Jewish literature dating subsequent to the sixth century of the 
 present era. There is probably not a strictly Jewish book — 
 that is to say a book for Jews written by a Jew— that is not 
 dominated by the Talmudic spirit, the Talmud being freely 
 drawn upon for matter, and appealed to as authority. It is 
 this circumstance that renders the Babylonian Talmud — intrin- 
 sically of little value — a work of immense importance on 
 account of the influence it has had in moulding the character 
 of the Jewish people and in shaping their destiny. All denials 
 notwithstanding, the Talmud is not only the foundation, but 
 the very material of which modern Judaism is built; and 
 modem Judaism finds its expression in such works as the 
 Tzeenah Ureenah. 
 
 It is commonly alleged by the Jews, when confronted with 
 the extravagancies, puerilities and malignities of their sacred 
 Talmud, that they know nothing of the original, that it is 
 antiquated, and is no longer binding on them. In one sense 
 this is true, for only the learned can read it, and none but 
 experts can understand it ; but in a practical sense the asser- 
 tion is false, seeing that their devotional books, including 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the Liturgies, are impregnated with the Talmud from begin- 
 ning to end. Thus even were the Talmud destroyed, which 
 the Church has attempted on more than one occasion, its 
 influence would still be exerted from every Jewish book-shelf, 
 though the Talmud itself would not be there. In this way their 
 household sayings, their national proverbs, their anti-Gentile 
 maxims, their sectarian prejudices, and their grotesque super- 
 stitions are kept alive among the Jews although the book from 
 which they are culled has been, in a certain sense, nominally 
 dead nearly a thousand years. 
 
 Some proofs of this statement will be found in the following 
 pages, a study of which will greatly assist the Gentile reader 
 in mastering the mysteries of the Talmud, the Midrashim, and 
 the Kabbalah. It will also enlighten him as to the true char- 
 acter of the modem schools of Jewish Biblical criticism — if 
 indeed Rabbinical commentary of any kind can be called 
 criticism. Such as it is, however, the Tzeenah Ure'enah is 
 modern, and it cannot be repudiated, as its ancient progeni- 
 tors so often are. It occupies an honoured place in the family 
 library of every Orthodox Jew — at all events of the Polish 
 Jew, the ruling spirit of Judaism at the present day— whose 
 religious views must be greatly influenced by such works as 
 this. 
 
 The original work has no divisions, paragraphs or references, 
 
 except Parashayoth, or Sections ; and Genesis is divided into 
 
 ■ twelve such sections ; ^ the other four books of the Pentateuch 
 
 have ten Sections each. For the convenience of a more fas- 
 
 ' The first Parashah, or Sedrah, or Section, of the first book of the 
 Pentateuch comprises Gen. i.-vi. 8, and is technically called n'B'NIi, 
 i.e." The Beginning." The second Section is called PIJ, Noah, and consist 
 of chap. vi. g-xi. 32. The third, from xii. l.-xvii. 27 is called "]? "I?, i.e. 
 "Get thee out." The fourth, xviii.-xxii. is called XT1 "And he ap- 
 peared," and so on. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tidious public,- 1 have separated the text from the commentary, 
 and the chapters and verses of the Biblical texts are marked. 
 Where the Judseo-Polish rendering of the Hebrew text differs 
 from the English Authorised Version, I have often, but not 
 invariably, followed my original, to show the liberties which 
 the compilers are in the habit of taking with the Hebrew, even 
 when the readers are exclusively Hebrews. References to the 
 Talmud have been furnished in footnotes wherever I recog- 
 nised the passage as being taken from that source. Explana- 
 tory notes have also been added where the meaning or 
 allusions would otherwise be unintelligible to the Gentile 
 reader. In all other respects the text is given in its integrity. 
 The idiom of the original has been followed as closely as 
 possible, and only a few comments omitted which were of too 
 coarse a nature for the English reader. Where an addition is 
 made to explain the sense, it is generally indicated by paren- 
 theses. 
 
 In placing this work before the English reader, I take the 
 opportunity of sincerely thanking the literary gentlemen who 
 have aided me materially in getting it ready for press ; and 
 more especially do I desire heartily to thank the Venerable 
 Archdeacon Farrar for the kind advice and encouragement 
 he has occasionally given me during the past ten or eleven 
 years, and for his valuable preface to this Rabbinical Com- 
 mentary, which opens up a new way and " a clearer i?tsight 
 into Jeivish theology and Jewish thought." 
 
 P. I. Hershon. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY 
 
 On 
 
 GENESIS. 
 
 TN THE BEGINNING God created the heaven and the ^ 
 -*- earth. At the creation of heaven and earth, the earth was 
 desolate and void, and God's throne of glory hovered in the 
 air over the water. Why does the Torah i commence with the 
 (letter ^) Beth ? ^ Because Beth is (the first letter of the word) 
 Blessing,^ and therefore has God commenced (the Torah) with 
 the Beth. 
 
 Then the (letter) Aleph flew before the Holy One, blessed 
 be He ! and said : " Begin the Torah with me, for / am the 
 first letter of the alphabet ! " The Holy One, blessed be He ! 
 replied : " I shall begin the Decalogue on Mount Sinai 
 with the (letter) Aleph: I am the Lord thy God."5 And 
 the Torah commences with the terra In the Beginning ; to 
 teach us that the world was created for the sake of the Torah, 
 which is called " the Beginning of his way." ^ 
 
 Rabbi Isaac asks : Why has the Torah (at all) recorded how 
 God created the world? The Torah is only (a book of) Precepts, 
 and it ought to have commenced with Precepts. But (the ex- 
 planation is this). When the seven Nations will subsequently 
 
 ' The Law of Moses is generally called Torah ; sometimes spelt Thorah. 
 ' For the placing words thus in parenthesis, see Introduction. 
 ' It is not the first but the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. 
 •• nD"l3 Blessing. ^ Exod. xx. 2. ""^xh^ 'H 'SJS. 
 
 « Prov. viii. 22. 13"n n'-EJ'XI. 
 
 B 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTAR V. 
 
 say to Israel, " Ye are robbers ! for ye take from us the Land 
 of Israel ; " Israel will answer them : " God created the world ; 
 at first He gave it to you, and now He gives it to us." i 
 
 Our sages have said : For the sake of three things has God 
 created the world. For the sake of the Torah (the Law of 
 Moses), which is called " Beginning of His way ; " and for the 
 sake of the Sacrifices which were offered in the temple, which 
 is called " Beginning" ^ for the temple was created l/e/ore the 
 world ; ' and for the sake of Tithes, which are also "Beginning" 
 (i.e. first, firstfruits) of corn.* And because the Torah makes 
 here (indirect) allusion to the temple, it therefore also indi- 
 cates the destruction of the temple, for it says : 
 
 2 And the earth was desolate and void. The earth will be 
 desolate, for the Shechinah will depart (from the earth) at the 
 destruction of the temple, and hence it is said : 
 
 And the Spirit of God hovered upon tlie face of the water, 
 which intimates to us, that even although we be in exile (when, 
 with the destruction of the temple, the Shechinah will depart), 
 yet the Torah (or the law) shall not depart from us; and 
 therefore it is added : 
 
 T, And God said. Let there be light. This shows us that after 
 the captivity God will enlighten us, and send us the Messiah, 
 respecting whom it is said : " Arise, shine, for thy light is 
 come." ^ 
 
 And God said. Let there be light, and there was light. God 
 has created two lights, the sun and the moon, and these shine 
 upon the world. But God has created yet another hght for 
 the righteous, when the Messiah comes. This hght is very 
 great, and because the world was not worthy He reserved it for 
 the righteous (in the world to come).^ 
 
 Rabbi Shimon says: Five times (does the word) "light" 
 occur in this chapter, according to the number of the books in 
 the Pentateuch, for the Torah (or the Law of Moses) is likened 
 
 ' See Tal. Misc., Ii6, 38. ' Jer. xvii. 12. 3 ^^^ ^ . 
 
 ^Deut.xviu.4. lOnn^K-KT Msa. Ix. ,. ^ Ckas^sct:,^!^^ 
 
GENESIS I. 1-4. 
 
 to light.i The first time "Let there be light" is for the book 
 of Genesis, for with light God has created the world. The 
 second time " Let there be light " is for the book of Exodus, in 
 which it is recorded how the Israehtes came out of the Egyptian 
 captivity, out of darkness into light; for at the redemption it 
 is stated : " All the children of Israel had light in their dwell- 
 ings."^ The third time (ver. 4) it is said: "And God saw 
 the light that it was good." This is for the book of Leviticus, 
 in which sacrifices are spoken of, when man was obliged to 
 repent in order that he might be enlightened. The fourth time 
 it is said: "God divided the light;" this is for the book ot 
 Numbers, in which it is said that Israel were separated from 
 their evil works, and that the temple travelled with them in 
 the wilderness and enlightened them. The fifth time it says : 
 " And God called the light day." This is for the book of 
 Deuteronomy, where only precepts and Halachas shine as a 
 light, and thus it is shown to us that there are Jive lights : the 
 first is that by which the world was created ; the second is 
 the Redemption, which is hkened to a light ; the third is 
 when one repents and thus becomes enlightened ; the fourth is 
 the temple ; and the fifth is the Torah,. or the law and the 
 commandments. The text, " Let there be light," teaches us 
 that with light God has created the world, and as soon as God 
 uttered " Let there be light," the world began to be created. 
 
 Let there be (y'hee ^ in the original). This word (y'hee) has 
 the numerical value * of twenty-five, and shows that the world 
 was created on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul (about 
 September), for the Gemara says that Adam was created on 
 New Year's day ^ (about October), and that was the sixth day 
 of the creation. 
 
 All things were created before Adam in order that man 
 
 ' 11X mini Prov. vi. 23. 2 Exod. x. 23. ^ *nv 
 
 * For the numerical value of letters, see Tal. Misc., 318, i, and also List 
 of Numerical Values at end of Introduction. 
 
 '' The Gemara nowhere says that Adam was created on New Year's day. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 should not be proud of himself, for he should bear in mind 
 that the cattle and the beasts were better than he, because they 
 (had the precedence and) were created before him. 
 
 Another explanation why man was created after every (other) 
 creature is, in order that man should find everything ready 
 prepared for his use. 
 
 5 And God called the light day, and the darkness He called 
 night, and it is evening and morning one ^ day. 
 
 6 And God said. Let the heavens strengthen themselves be- 
 tween (the upper and lower) waters. On the first day the 
 heavens were weak, and God rebuked them. On the second 
 day, on God's rebuke, they strengthened themselves. 
 
 Between the waters (A.V. in the midst of the waters). The 
 heavens made a distinction (or separation) between the waters, 
 for there are also waters above the heavens as they are (here 
 below) on earth. And the waters are as high above the 
 heavens, as the distance is from heaven to earth.^ The waters 
 above heaven are suspended in the air by the command of 
 God. The lower waters pleaded, " Why should we be here 
 below on earth, we wish also to be on high above the heavens ! " 
 But God pacified them by the promise that no sacrifice should 
 be offered on the Altar without salt^ and salt comes from (sea) 
 water. 
 
 It is mentioned of each day of the creation, " That it was 
 good ; " but the second day, this term, " That it was good," is 
 omitted. It is because the creation on the second day was not 
 quite perfect, and a thing not perfect is not good. The waters 
 created on the second day were perfected on the third, and 
 therefore on the third day it is mentioned twice " That it was 
 good ; " once when the waters were perfected, and once when 
 the creation of the earth was further completed. 
 
 1 It is said nnS and not tlE^XI. 
 
 ^ The distance between heaven and earth is about 500 years' iourney. 
 See Gen. ace. to the Talm., p. 10, 4. 
 ^ Lev. ii. 13. 
 
GENESIS I. 4-14. 
 
 Some sages say : Because hell was created on the second 
 day, is why " That it was good " was omitted from the record 
 of that day. 
 
 Other sages say : " That it was good " is omitted, because 
 on that day the waters began to quarrel among themselves, and 
 from a quarrel no good can come, for he who quarrels falls into 
 hell, as it happened unto Korah.i We have it recorded in the 
 Talmud, " That an Arab said to Rabbah bar bar Channah, 
 Come and I will show thee the spot where Korah and his party 
 were swallowed up. On our arrival there (says the Rabbi), I 
 noticed smoke issuing from two fissures. I tied a quantity of 
 moist wool to the head of a spear, and inserted it into the 
 fissures, and when I took it out again it was singed. Listen, 
 said the Arab. I did so, and I heard them cry : Moses is true, 
 and his law is true, and we are liars." ^ Therefore let every 
 man be warned not to quarrel. 
 
 Some other sages say : That no (new business or) trade 
 should be commenced on Mondays ; because it is not men- 
 tioned of the second day, " That it was good." ^ 
 
 The moon said : " Why should the sun shine equally with 
 me?" She wanted' to shine more (than the sun). Therefore 
 has God diminished her size and her light. On the sixth day 
 Adam sinned and was driven out of the garden of Eden. 
 Now it can be seen that quarrelling commenced from the 
 second day. 
 
 9 Let the waters be gathered together. On the third day God 
 said : " Let all the waters be gathered together unto one place 
 that the dry land may appear," and all the waters immediately 
 gathered themselves unto one place, and this is the Great Sea. 
 
 14 Lei there be lights. On the fourth day God said : "Let 
 
 ' Num. xvi. 33. 
 
 ' The translation of this legend is borrowed from Gen. ace. to the Talm., 
 p. 371, 59, being a more correct one than in the Judaeo-Polish. 
 
 2 Observed by the orthodox Jews to this day. Good or bad omens are 
 looked upon as Divine oracles. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 the lights be in heaven" for though the light was created on the 
 first day, yet they were not suspended in heaven till the fourth 
 day. It was then that God suspended in heaven the sun and 
 the moon, and the constellations, and the stars, that their lights 
 should be for signs; the sun and moon being signs when 
 prayers should be performed. In the morning the sun is a 
 sign of the time when to put on the phylacteries and to read 
 the Sh'ma ; i and in the evening, when the stars appear (at 
 least two stars), it is the time for the evening prayer. The sun 
 and the moon were given for us to indicate when to celebrate 
 the festivals, for we reckon all festivals by the (appearance of 
 the) moon ; also by their means it is known when it is day or 
 night, and when the year terminates. 
 
 Rabbi Azariah said : The sun only was originally created to 
 give light; but God (on second thought) said: "If the sun 
 alone should shine, men will hold that the sun is God ; " there- 
 fore God created the moon also, in order that people should 
 not hold that the sun be God. Both sun and moon were 
 equally great lights ; but the moon having said : " Why should 
 we both equally shine, let me shine alone ? " God said to her : 
 " Because thou wishest to exalt thyself to shine alone, thou art 
 to become less." 
 
 Rabbi B'chai (in his Commentary on the Pentateuch), in 
 section Phineas,^ states, that at the sacrifice offered on the new 
 moon 5. (beginning of the month), the term "unto the Lord" 
 occurs more than at all other sacrifices. The reason is this : 
 God created the sun and moon of equal light. Now the moon 
 receives light from the sun, for the moon is black in herself, 
 and shines by the light of the sun. The fact is this ; the moon 
 said before God : " Lord of the universe ! hast Thou no power 
 
 ' The six verses in Deut. vi. 4-9 are called the Sh'ma, which means 
 "Hear." This Sli'ma is incorporated into the prayers repeated by every 
 Jew thrice each day. 
 
 ^ Tliis section comprises Num. xxv. lo.-xxxi. i. 
 
 ^ Num. xxviii. 11, etc. See Gen. ace. to the Talm., p. 45, 16. 
 
GEIVESTS I. 14-20. 
 
 (to make me) that I should be able to shine without the (bor- 
 rowed light of the) sun ? I am of equal use in the world as 
 the sun ; and people may say, God forbid, Thou hast no 
 power to make my light separate and apart ! " God in anger 
 replied, " Wilt thou teach Me what to do, and how to do it ? 
 Because thou hast dared to speak against Me, the light which 
 thou hast even from the sun shall also be lessened ! But be- 
 cause thou hast spoken d, propos, shall My children Israel bring 
 a sacrifice (unto the Lord) every new moon." 
 
 And the sun was and is to shine by day, and the moon by 
 night, otherwise men would not know when it is day and when 
 night, and they would work continually without rest, and would 
 soon die in consequence of over work. " Therefore," said God, 
 " people ought to know when it is day, and when night, in order 
 that they should at night rest from their labour. Moreover," 
 God said, "the night is required for studying the Torah (i.e. 
 law), for people are quiet then and one can well study (with- 
 out interruption)." God has also intimated that if one repents, 
 He is well pleased with him ; as we find it in the case of the 
 moon, God has ordained a sacrifice to be offered on each new 
 moon, of which it is specially said : "A sin offering unto the 
 Lord."^ 
 
 20 Let the waters bring forth abundantly. On the fifth day 
 God said : " Let the waters bring forth abundantly, and out 
 of the waters let there be created a living body, and fowls that 
 have wings, and also the great leviathan." And the Holy One, 
 blessed be He ! blessed the fish more than all other creatures, 
 because all people catch fish, for they belong to nobody, and 
 therefore has God blessed them that, in spite of their being 
 caught so much, they should multiply. 
 
 The beasts also have no owner, and are public property, and 
 are largely caught, yet has not God blessed them, because the 
 serpent, which God wished to curse, also is a beast, and if He 
 
 Num. xxviii. 15- 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 had blessed the beasts the serpent also would have shared in 
 the blessing. 
 
 21 Great whales. The great fish ; for there are great fish of 
 many hundreds of miles in extent, as is recorded in the Talmud 
 in the treatise Bava-Bathra.i Rabbah bar bar Channah said : 
 Once we sailed in a ship, and noticed a fish floating on the 
 surface of the sea, which had upon its back an accumulation 
 of sand, and reeds were growing out of it. Thinking it was 
 dry land we disembarked, and began to bake and cook upon 
 it. When the fish found that our operations were becoming too 
 warm to be pleasant, he turned himself over, and if our vessel 
 had not been near we should all have been drowned. 
 
 Rabbi B'chai writes : Because God had blessed the fishes, 
 therefore they remained alive during the Deluge, when all other 
 living creatures were utterly destroyed. 
 
 26 Let us t?iake man. God said this on the sixth day, and 
 by this He teaches us, that a man, when he is about to under- 
 take doing anything, should consult other people. In creating 
 man, however, God alone made him, without the aid of any 
 one else, as the text says : 
 
 2"] So God created man. He alone made him on earth as 
 He (alone) made the angels in heaven ; alike in understanding 
 and in simihtude. And God said that man should — 
 
 28 Have domitiion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of 
 the air, and over every living thiug that inoveth upon the earth. 
 Rabbi B'chai writes : Because the text says : ^'■And God blessed 
 them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply," two 
 blessings were pronounced upon man. One was, that his food 
 should be blessed in his body, which is daily weakened but 
 strengthened again by food, for by reason of two causes the 
 moisture in man dries up ; one cause is, the heat within him 
 and the other is, the wind that blows upon him. Both these 
 causes dry up his fluids, but food and drink restore them again 
 in the same proportion as they are dried up ; for by God's 
 ' Fol. 73 n. 
 
GENESIS I. 20-28. 
 
 blessing the food disperseth throughout all the members of his 
 body. The second blessing was, '^ Be fruitful and multiply" 
 which means, that man should beget children to serve God and 
 to know their Creator. 
 
 And the Holy One, blessed be He ! said : " Man may eat 
 fruit and everything sown on the earth ; but cattle, beasts 
 and the fowls may not eat fruits, nor anything sown, except 
 (simple) grass." But man was not to eat the flesh of any other 
 creatures, for they have a soul like that of man ; and though 
 they are not quite like, yet there is a high value in souls. 
 After the Deluge, the cattle, the beasts and the fowls having 
 corrupted their ways, God permitted man to eat flesh ; for 
 Noah was a righteous man in the days of the Deluge, and 
 through his merit all creatures were saved in the ark, therefore 
 God said unto Noah: "Thou mayest eat flesh," for only the 
 soul of man was created for (the sole purpose of) studying the 
 Torah (the Law) and to comprehend the power of God, and to 
 perform His commandments. 
 
 The Midrash Rabbah, in this section writes : Rabbi Simmon 
 says : When God was about to create man, the angels met 
 together, and some of them said, that he is not to be created, 
 because he is pure falsehood ("all men are liars "i); and 
 some of them said, he is to be created, because he will do 
 justice (or give alms) and exercise benevolence. Others again 
 said, he is not to be created, because he has no peace and is 
 disposed to quarrel. God then took (the angel of) Truth and 
 cast him down from heaven to earth, and said, " Man is better 
 than ye are ! for ye are pure understanding and good inclina- 
 tion itself; ye have no evil propensity, therefore ye must always 
 be pious ; but man upon earth has (a Yetzer-harrah), ^ an evil 
 imagination which prompts him to evil, and when he becomes 
 pious he is a greater wonder than ye angels are. As to what 
 ye say, that he is full of falsehood, that he will quarrel and will 
 sin, I will do this : I will cause him to die, and his fear of 
 
 > Ps. cxvi. II. 2 J,-,,-, -,,{,. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 death will cause him to be pious. I will then receive his holy 
 soul again, and will purify it in hell, and then it shall return to 
 its first place under the throne of glory, and thus I shall not 
 lose him finally." 
 
 Therefore, says Rabbi Simmon, has God cast down truth 
 from heaven,! for truth signifies (by the rule of Notricon) 
 coffin, bier, shrouds ; for the first letter of truth is Aleph, which 
 is the initial letter of Aron, which signifies coffin ; the second 
 letter of truth is Mem, the initial letter of Mittah, which means 
 bier ; and the third letter of truth is Thau, the initial of Tach- 
 richim, that is shrouds.^ This explains that man is to die ; he 
 is then dressed in shrouds ; he is put in a cofin ; he is carried 
 on a bie7- to the grave. Therefore has God said : " Man will 
 be pious ; because he must die he will not be proud." With 
 reference to this, our sages have said : 
 
 3 1 And behold it was very good. The death of man is very 
 good ; for the righteous have the real life after their death, 
 under the throne of glory, and with reference to this. Scripture 
 says : " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death unto His 
 pious ones." ^ That is to say, God would not have created 
 even the pious had there been no death ; for even the pious 
 must also sin, but through death he is purified and comes to 
 his rest. 
 
 After this the angels said unto God : " Lord of the universe ! 
 Why wilt Thou disgrace Thy glorious and express image by 
 casting it down to the earth, where it will be lost?" That is 
 
 = Ps. Ixxxv. 12 {A.V. II) nOSn pXD riDX, i.e. truth shall spring 
 out of the earth. Rabbi Simmon knew it from the Tahnud that S<3'b 
 NDbyn NDdp, there was no truth in the world, and yet Scripture says : 
 " Truth shall spring out of the earth." See Talm. Misc., 45 (e). 
 
 ■ nDK, i.e. truth. K-fllK, i.e. coffin. 
 D-ntDD, i.e. bier. 
 n— DO'lDn, i.e. shrouds. 
 
 A fair explanation of the rule of Notricon is to be ound in Talm. Misc 
 319, 2. Here it can only be sajd : Notricon is a kind of Acrostic 
 
 3 in'-Dn?, Ps. cxvi. 15. 
 
GENESIS I. 30, 31 
 
 to say, man was created in the form and express image of God. 
 "And now wilt Thou destroy that form by putting man to death 
 — much ratlier keep Thine express image in heaven above." 
 God replied : " Truth shall spring out of the earth ! "^ that is 
 through truth, which signifies (by the rule of Notricoti) coffin, 
 bier, shrouds, when man dies he rises again from earth to 
 heaven, as the Talmud says : Three have a share in a man, 
 father, mother, and the Holy One, blessed be He ! As soon 
 as a man dies, God says : " Ye parents take your share, and I 
 will take Mine,^ that is the soul, My express image j it shall 
 return to Me." 
 
 Rav Hunna says : Whilst the angels were quarrelhng to- 
 gether — some saymg, man should be created, and others that 
 he should not be created — God meanwhile created him, and 
 said to the angels: "Why do ye quarrel? The subject about 
 which you quarrel is already made." The thing is like unto a 
 king who has much property and wealth and a great deal of 
 good wine, but he has no guests. What use is to him all his 
 possessions when he cannot make a show of his glory and his 
 wealth ? So likewise, though there be many creatures in the 
 world, if man were not in the world, who would recognise the 
 glory and power of God ? 
 
 The sixth day. At the creation of man the Torah (the Law 
 of Moses) has added an extra (letter). He ; ' for God made it a 
 condition, that if Israel will accept and study the Torah, which 
 consists of five-fifths (viz.). Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Num- 
 bers and Deuteronomy, then the world will retain its existence. 
 This is intimated by the extra He (the value of which is five), 
 for everything was created with five, and all on that condition 
 
 'Ps. Ixxxv. II. ^ Talm. Misc., 66, 64. 
 
 2 Instead of ''B'B' Dr it is written ''EJ'EJ'n DII. The letter He is tlie 
 definite article, which is prefixed before the "sixth day" only, and not 
 before any of the other five days of creation. The letter He has the 
 numerical value of five. The commentator bases his remarks on the 
 numerical value of the letter He. See List of Numerical Values at end 01 
 Introduction. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 above stated. On the first day./w lights were created ; on the 
 second day, yfwtf heavens, and five times "water" is mentioned 
 on the second day ; on the third day five sorts of vegetation 
 were created out of the earth ; on the fourth day, there were 
 five kinds of hght — the sun, the moon, the constellations, the 
 stars, and the day (itself), also a light. On the fifth day were 
 created all living beings which have in themselves the power of 
 locomotion \wfive different ways ; some walk on two legs, some 
 on four ; others creep on their belly ; some fly and some swim. 
 On the sixth day man was created, and he has a soul bearing 
 five appellations : Nephesh, Ruach, N'shamah, Yekhidah and 
 Khayah.i 
 
 It is certain that man was created different to all other living 
 creatures, for in all other creatures there is no contending prin- 
 ciple, but in man there is. If he wishes to perform a good act ■ 
 the evil imagination in him prevents it ; if he be inclined to do 
 evil, then the good propensity prevents it ; thus he has all his 
 days a strife within his body.^ 
 
 But why has the Holy One, blessed be He ! created man 
 with strife and not with peace ? Because He did so in honour 
 of man, that he might have freewill. Cattle and beasts have 
 only a propensity to evil and not to good, and therefore it is 
 their nature (that prompts them) to evil ; to eat, to drink, and 
 to follow every evil lust. Also the angels have no freewill, for 
 they being of a pure understanding, and having an inclination 
 to good only, cannot be otherwise but good. And because 
 there was no creature in the world that was endowed with 
 freewill, therefore God wished to create such an one, and this 
 creature is man, who, like God, can do as he will, and in this 
 particular he resembles God. 
 
 ' E'SJ, soul, nn, spirit. ilDB'J, breath. mTl*, uniting principle, 
 the principles of good and evil; or perhaps '^darling,'" Ps. xxii. 20 and 
 XXXV. 17. Darling, because of its superiority to the soul of inferior 
 animals. H^n, living princijDle. 
 
 " See Rom. vii. 21-23. 
 
GENESIS I. zi-Ii. 3. 
 
 Previous to his eating of tlie tree of knowledge, man liad the 
 power of freewill, but his nature was only to do good and not 
 evil ; but as soon as he tasted of the tree of knowledge he 
 began to do evil as well as good, and therefore is the tree called 
 " the tree of knowledge of good and evil," for he who eats of it 
 hath the knowledge to do both good and evil. 
 
 Of no other creature is it said : Let us make (this or that 
 creature) in our image, but of man it is said : " Let us make 
 man in our image" that is to say, he shall have the power to do 
 what he will, even as I have the power to do what I will. And 
 it is in honour of man that the Torah has written down, '■^So 
 God created man in His own. image, in the image of God created 
 He him." Therefore the angels desired to sing praises before 
 Adam and to worship him, because they heard from God that 
 man has the power to do what he will, just the same as God. 
 But God caused a sleep to fall upon Adam, and proved to the 
 angels that they were superior to Adam ; for though he has the 
 power to do what he will, yet a sleep comes upon him, and then 
 he can do nothing, neither evil nor good ; but angels never 
 sleep and can do ever what they please, and therefore are they 
 called Eerin} which signiiies " Watchers," because they are 
 always awake. 
 
 The cattle and the beasts were created on the sixth day as 
 well as man, because that if man were pious he would be 
 superior to all cattle and beasts; and if not, then he would 
 be inferior to them all, because he has sense to do good and 
 he does evil.^ 
 
 Chapter II. — 2 And on the seventh day Goa ended His 
 work. The term "ended" (in Hebrew) means longed? On 
 the seventh day God longed that all things which He created 
 in the six days should remain 1,0 for ever. 
 
 3 And God blessed the Sabbath, that on it man should have 
 
 1 J'l^y, Dan. iv. 13. ^ James iv. 17. 
 
 ' 1173, This verb has various meanings, and one of these is " to pine mth 
 desire," or " anxiously to long." See Ps. cxix. 81 and Deut. xxviii. 32. 
 
14 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 an additional soid'^ more than on week days ; and therefore at 
 the close of the Sabbath, when the additional soul makes her 
 exit (from the body), a blessing is pronounced over spices.^ 
 
 And sanctified it. God sanctified the Sabbath and did no 
 manner of work on it, " because in it He'had rested from all His 
 work which God created and made." This intimates the six 
 days which refer to the six thousand years during which (period) 
 the world will stand, 
 
 In the first day the light was created, indicating the first 
 thousand years in which Adam lived and was the light of the 
 world ; he recognised his Creator. 
 
 The second day the heaven was created and made, a division 
 between the (upper and lower) waters ; alluding to the second 
 thousand years, which was the time of Noah, who was separated 
 from the wicked of his time who were drowned in the Deluge. 
 And this is why on the second day it was not said " That it 
 was good" because the Deluge (in the second thousand years) 
 was intimated by the second day. 
 
 On the third day, the earth became visible and all trees and 
 fruits fructified. This marks the third thousand years, in which 
 Abraham was born and in which his children accepted the Law 
 and the Commandments, which are likened to the fruits of the 
 world. 
 
 On the fourth day two lights were created, a greater and a 
 lesser, which indicates the fourth thousand years, in which there 
 were two temples, a greater and a lesser glory ^ unto Israel. 
 
 On the fifth day the fowls and the fish in the waters were 
 created, which marks the fifth thousand years. 
 
 ' m*n'' riDEJ'J, additional soul. See Treasui-es of the Talm., p. 130, 
 note b. 
 
 ' This custom of smelling spices and repeating a blessing over them at 
 the conclusion of the Sabbath, that is on Saturday evening after the appear- 
 ance of the stars, is strictly observed to this day by every orthodox Tew all 
 over the world. An ornamental kind of smelling box, of gold or silver 
 containing the spices for that special purpose, is found in every Jewish 
 family. ^ Comp. Hag. ii. g. 
 
GENESIS II. 3. 15 
 
 On the sixth day man was created, intimating the sixth 
 thousand years, in which the Messiah will come. As Adam the 
 first was created in the image of God, so likewise the Messiah 
 (" the last Adam " i) was anointed of God " and the spirit of 
 the Lord shall rest upon him." ^ And therefore also people 
 rest on the Sabbath, corresponding to the rest they will have 
 in the days of the Messiah. 
 
 The Midrash Rabbah writes in the Sedrah (or Section of 
 the Law) : God blessed the Sabbath, and if a man honours it 
 with good cheer God will make him rich. Rabbi Cheyah bar 
 Abba says : I once lodged with a householder at Ludkia, and 
 they brought before him a silver table which took sixteen men 
 to carry, and on which were all things that were created on the 
 six days of the creation. And a child sat in the centre of the 
 table, exclaiming ; " The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
 thereof." ' This exclamation was made in order that the 
 master of the house should not pride himself (on account of 
 his wealth). I asked him, " What merit hast thou that thou 
 shouldest be worthy of such great wealth ? " "I was a butcher," 
 he replied, " and each time I had a good beast I set it apart 
 for the Sabbath. Each day from Sunday and onwards I 
 reserved that which was the best for the Sabbath." Then 
 said I unto him : " I well know that on that account God 
 gives good luck * and blessing. " Likewise he who honours 
 the festivals, him will God reward in this world and will make 
 him rich.^ 
 
 The Midrash Rabbah also writes on this Section, that Rabbi 
 Tanchuma relates a story of a prince, who once sent his servant 
 
 ' I Cor. XV. 45. ^ Isa. xi. 2. ^ Ps. xxiv. i. 
 
 " 7TD. God is here represented to be the author of Mazal, i.e. good luck, 
 otherwise it is taught that the influence of the stars rules the destinies of 
 man. See Gen. ace. to the Talmud, p. 406. 
 
 " See Tal. Misc., 170, 48, where the same legend, quoted direct from 
 .the Talmud, considerably varies from the one quoted here from the 
 Midrash Rabbah. There is no harmony in the Talmud itself, and no 
 unanimity in Jewish books of later date. 
 
l6 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 on the eve of the Day of Atonement to buy fish. At the 
 fishmongers' a Jewish tailor presented himself, and outbid the 
 prince's servant, and bought up the fish (of the very best 
 quality) for twelve gulden. The servant came home without 
 fish, and his master scolded him. When the prince learnt the 
 cause, he sent for the tailor, and asked him how he dared 
 to outbid his servant, and buy up the fish ? The reply of the 
 tailor was : " To-morrow is the day when God pardons the sins 
 which we have committed all the year round ; why am I not 
 to rejoice in purchasing the best fish and all other choice 
 eatables ?" To this plea the prince replied : ^'■Thou art right V^ 
 The tailor then went home, and on opening the fish he found 
 in it a costly pearl which secured him a comfortable mainte- 
 nance for the rest of his life. 
 
 Rabbi Eliezer, on behalf of Rabbi Yossi, says : God blessed 
 the Sabbath with a good smell, so that the eatables prepared 
 for the Sabbath smell better than those prepared in week days. 
 Rabbi (the holy) made once a banquet for King Antoninus on 
 a Sabbath, and, though the food set before him was cold, the 
 king much enjoyed it. On a subsequent occasion, but on a 
 week day, he again gave a dinner, and set before the king warm 
 food. The king said to Rabbi : " Give me rather of the cold 
 viands, which I relished much better than these." But Rabbi 
 
 ' A similar legend of a costly jewel found in the belly of a fish is 
 given in Tal. Misc., 1 60, where it is recorded as follows ; "There was 
 once a man named Joseph, who was renowned for honouring the Sabbath 
 day. He had a rich neighbour, a Gentile, whose wealth a certain fortune- 
 teller had said would eventually revert to Joseph the Sabbatarian. To 
 frustrate this prediction, the Gentile disposed of his property, and with the 
 proceeds of the sale he purchased a rare and costly jewel, which he fixed to 
 his turban. On crossing a bridge, a gust of wind blew his turban into the 
 river and a fish swallowed it. This fish being caught, was brought on a 
 Friday to market, and, as luck would have it, it was bought by Joseph in 
 honour of the coming Sabbath. When the fish was cut up, the jewel was 
 found, and Joseph sold it for thirteen purses of gold denarii. When his 
 neighbour met him, he acknowledged that he who despised the Sabbath 
 the Lord of the Sabbath would be sure to v^m%\i:' Shabbath, fol. uoa ' 
 
GENESIS IT. z- 17 
 
 said : " The spices needful thereunto are wanting." The king 
 observed : " I have spices enough in my stores." Rabbi then 
 explained that he meant the Sabbath as the needful spices, that 
 day being blessed with a good smell. 
 
 Turnus Rufus asked Rabbi Akiva : " Why is the Sabbath day 
 better than the other days of the week?" " Why," asked Rabbi 
 Akiva in reply, "art thou distinguished more than other people?" 
 "The king has exalted me," answered the other, "and it is his 
 (royal) will that people should honour me." To this, the Rabbi 
 rejoined: "God also wills it that people should honour the 
 Sabbath." The other then asked the Rabbi : "How canst thou 
 prove that this day (Saturday) is the Sabbath ? " The Rabbi 
 replied : "The river Sambatyon proves it, for it throws up stones 
 all the week, but on the Sabbath it rests." Turnus Rufus then 
 said unto him : "He who wishes to tell a lie, brings a proof from 
 a distance where no people have ever been, that they should not be 
 able to disprove it. This is so now ; thou bringest a proof from 
 the river Sambatyon,^ where no one has ever been ; probably it 
 
 ' The river Sambatyon referred to in the text is situated in the same lo- 
 cality as that in which the lost Ten Tribes have settled themselves, and 
 Jewish traditions are very full and precise in affirming that this river flows 
 with great noise and violence during six days of the week, but it comes to 
 a stand-still on every Sabbath. The tradition probably took its rise from 
 some poetic conceit, in which the turmoil of the secular week was figured 
 as a mighty river, resting only on the sacred Sabbath. Its very name 
 points to a poetic origin — the Sabbath river. But the Jews have taken it 
 literally, and according to Dr. Neubauer {Geografhie du Talmud, p. 33), 
 this literal view must have been held as early as the time of Pliny. The 
 learned doctor says : " Nous ne devons pas passer sous silence le fleuve 
 Sabbatique. A ce sujet Pline (,Hist. Nat., xxxi. 2) est d'accord avec le 
 Midrasch. On dit dans le Midrasch {Bereschith rabba, ch. 2) que les eaux 
 ds cette riviere coulent rapidement pendant six jours de la semaine et 
 s'arretent le jour du sabbath." A Jew reading this statement of Dr. Neu- 
 bauer (himself a Jew) would take it as corroborative of the descriptions 
 found in Jewish literature. As recently as 1836, the Rev. Dr. M. Edrehi 
 published in London a work entitled, An Historical Account of the Ten 
 Tribes settled beyond the River Sambatyon in the East. It bore the im- 
 primatur of over a hundred English and foreign Jews of high social and 
 literary standing, who apparently experienced no difficulty in believing 
 
 C 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 is a lie." But Rabbi Akiva adduced another proof that the 
 Sabbath is distinguished more than all other days.i 
 
 Some sages say : That the Sabbath has been blessed because 
 it has no (other day as a) companion, but all (week) days have 
 a companion. Sunday has Monday as a companion (its equal) 
 Tuesday has Wednesday as a companion ; Thursday has Friday 
 for a companion ; but the Sabbath has no companion (to equal 
 It). 
 
 Rabbi Samuel bar Nachman says : The Sabbath has been 
 blessed, because it is never transferred to another day, as is 
 sometimes the case with a festival day. Even the Day of 
 Atonement "- is sometimes transferred in order that it should 
 not fall on a Friday or a Sunday ; but the Sabbath is never 
 transferred. 
 
 The Sabbath pleaded before God: "Why have I not a 
 companion ? " And God rephed : " Israel will be thy com- 
 panion." Therefore when Israel came to Mount Sinai, the 
 Sabbath reminded God thus : " Remember the Sabbath day!' 
 Remember that thou hast promised me that Israel should rest 
 in me and be my companion." * 
 
 what the Rev. Doctor asserted concerning this extremely orthodox river. 
 Its width, its depth, the character of the stones forming its bed, the noise 
 they malie in being tumbled by the current, audible half a league off, are 
 all set forth with minute particularity ; and its geographical position is 
 precisely indicated, though it does not appear on any Itnown maps. Not 
 only does the torrent cease, but a fire which descends upon it from heaven 
 all the rest of the weelc suspends its activity on the Sabbath day. 
 
 1 rT'DI' 31N 7l?3 "The necromancer proves it," for he fails in his art 
 on the Sabbath. "Thy father's grave proves it," said RalDbi Akiva to 
 Turnus Rufus ; from which the smoke, indicative of the hell-fire by which 
 its tenant is tormented the whole week, ceases to issue on the Sabbath 
 because even hell rests on that day. Gen. ace. to the Talmud, p. 92 69. 
 
 ' The Day of Atonement itself is observed as a Sabbath, and more than 
 a Sabbath, for it is called pnatJ' T\'2V Shabbath Shabbathon i.e. a 
 Sabbath of rest, or a sabbatized Sabbath. Lev. xvi. 31, xxiii. 32. 
 
 ' Exod. XX. 8. 
 
 ■* The Sabbath is the bride, and Israel the bridegroom. See Liturgical 
 
GENESIS If. 3, 4. 19 
 
 4 These are the generations of the heavens. Why is (the 
 Hebrew word Toldoth) " Generations" written in connection 
 with Pharez 1 and also in connection with heaven and earth 
 with two Vaus,2 whereas of Adam,^ and everywhere else (Tol- 
 doth, i.e. generations) is written with one Vau only?* The 
 reason is this : When God created " heaven and earth " there 
 was no Angel of Death ; as to the case of " Pharez" there will 
 be no Angel of Death, for from his posterity the Messiah will 
 come, and in the days of the Messiah the Angel of Death will 
 be taken away ; hence the term " Generations " (Toldoth in the 
 original) is written with two Vans. With reference to Adam 
 the same term (Toldoth, i.e. generations) is written with 0}ie Vau 
 only, because as soon as man was created, so soon was created 
 also the Angel of Death, who has killed and diminished all the 
 created " generations," and therefore in each case wherever the 
 term "Generations" occurs, it is minus one Vau (the numerical 
 value of Vau being six),^ which is intended to teach us that six 
 things were diminished from Adam when he sinned: i. He 
 lost his purity ; 2. his hfe was shortened; 3. his stature was 
 diminished^; 4. he became low (morally and physically); 5. 
 the fruits of the earth and the fruits of the trees were cursed 
 (for his sake) ; and 6. the good light was taken from him ; for 
 on Friday morning, when Adam was created, the light began 
 to shine, but two hours before the evening, after Adam had 
 eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, God intended to take away 
 
 Hymn for Sabbath-eve, commencing niT 1137, "Come, my beloved, to 
 meet the bride," etc., composed by Solomon Halevy. 
 
 ' Ruth iv. 18. 
 
 " Vau is the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. 
 
 ' Gen. V. I. , 
 
 * With one Vau only, viz., m?in ; and with two Vaus finVin. 
 
 ' See List of the Numerical Values of the Hebrew Letters, at end of 
 Introduction, also Tal. Misc., p. 318, I. 
 
 ' Adam's stature, when he stood on his legs, reached from the earth to 
 the sky ; and when he laid down he reached from one end of the world to 
 the other. But when he sinned, the measure of his height was shortened 
 to one hundred ells only. Sanhcdrin, fol. 38B, and fol. lOOA. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 the light, because Adam was not worthy to have such a hght, 
 but for the sake of the Sabbath, God did not take it away, and 
 it shone the whole of the Sabbath. 
 
 At the close of the Sabbath it became dark, and Adam was 
 frightened. He feared that the serpent would bite him in the 
 dark ; but God sent him two fire-stones (probably flint-stones), 
 which, by striking one against the other, produced fire and 
 gave him light. He then blessed God who created the light 
 of the fire ; for it was then that (artificial) light was created. 
 Therefore at the close of the Sabbath the service of the Habh- 
 dalah is performed.^ 
 
 When they were created. This world was created with the 
 letter He (n),2 which is open at the base like a door wide 
 open, and this teaches us that the whole world must come into 
 hell, in the pit below. But again the letter He (n) has a small 
 
 ' n/nin, Habhdalak means separation, a domestic religious service 
 separating the Sabbath from the common days of the week. An overflow- 
 ing cup of wine and a box of spices are held in the right and left hands 
 respectively by the head of the household, whilst the youngest member 
 holds two or three twisted lighted tapers in front of him, a form of prayer 
 being repeated, all standing. A sip of wine is drank by the master, the 
 cup and spice-box then changing hands. A short benediction follows, after 
 which the spice-box is handed round for all to smell. Then a third bene- 
 diction : " Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe ! who 
 createth the light of the fire." On which the master examines his finger 
 nails in several positions as a charm against evil spirits. This is followed 
 final benediction, in which the Creator is blessed for having made a 
 distinction between " light and darkness," " between Israel and other 
 nations," " between the seventh day and the six days of labour," etc., 
 whereupon a little of the wine is poured on the bare table, and the tapers 
 (Habhdalah) quenched in it, the extinguished tapers being smelt all round, 
 and the spilt wine touched with the fingers and applied to the eyebrows or 
 inside pockets, to bring good luck during the coming week. 
 
 Immediately after the conclusion of the Habhdalah the joyous hymn 
 ?n3Dn, Hamabdil, is gleefully sang : The first verse runs thus, " May 
 He who maketh a distinction between the holy (Sabbath) and the profane 
 (days of the week) pardon our sins, and multiply our children and our 
 money as the sand and as the stars of the night." SeeTalm. Misc., p. 340 
 
 3 Dxna 'na. 
 
GENESIS IT. 4-7. 
 
 doori open on the (left) side, which indicates that he who 
 (repents and) is pious in this world passes out again through 
 this small door (from hell) into Paradise. The other (future) 
 world was created with the letter Jod (') the smallest of all 
 letters in the original Hebrew, thus indicating that there be 
 few in the other world, and that the wicked are very low there. 
 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust. " Arid He 
 formed" is written (in the original Hebrew) with two Jods, 
 because man has two natures implanted in him, namely the 
 evil tendency and the good tendency.' Of cattle and beasts 
 the term " And He for}?ted " is written with one Jod only,* 
 because they have a tendency to evil only and none to good. 
 
 Dust from the ground. During the first hour of the day 
 God collected the dust of the ground, the second hour He 
 kneaded it into a lump, the third hour He covered the same 
 with skin, the fourth hour He put a soul into it, the fifth 
 hour Adam stood upon his legs, the sixth hour he gave names 
 to all creatures, the seventh hour Eve came to him, the 
 eighth hour they went to bed, the ninth hour God commanded 
 them not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, the tenth hour 
 they sinned by eating of the Tree, the eleventh hour God 
 judged them, and the twelfth hour they were expelled from 
 the garden of Eden.^ 
 
 Dust from the ground. God took the dust from all the 
 four parts of the world, and of it He created man, in order 
 that when he dies and is buried the earth should (willingly) 
 receive him. He also took some earth from the Altar, that 
 the earth might atone for his sins.^ 
 
 And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. God said : I 
 
 ' Comp. Luke xvi. 26. 
 
 2 nV"1 instead of ^V»1 with one Jod only. 
 
 3 nita -ivi vin ns\ ■• "1^*1. 
 
 ' Comp. Taint. Misc., p. 158, 17. 
 
 ' This idea is based on Deut. xxxii. 43. See Gen. ace. to the Taint., p. 
 224, n. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 must see that there be no strife nor jealousy amongst My crea- 
 tures. For God created on the first day heaven and earth, and 
 when He improved heaven on the second day, and strength- 
 ened it, the earth was jealous that she also was not improved 
 and made good. Therefore, on the third day God improved 
 the earth also, by gathering the waters into one place, that the 
 earth might be visible. On the fourth day God further im- 
 proved the heavens by suspending in them the lights ; and 
 on the fifth day He further improved the earth also, and 
 created in its waters fishes and fowls. On the sixth day God 
 said : I must make a compromise between heaven and earth, 
 that they shall feel no jealousy towards each other. Therefore 
 has God taken earth from the earth, and a soul from the angels 
 of heaven, and of both He created man, and thus there was 
 no more any jealousy between them. 
 
 The Ramban writes : God gave man a speaking soul, so that 
 he can speak more than all other creatures ; for it is the soul 
 from heaven that speaks ; therefore has no man power over 
 the soul, since the soul of man is of the Holy Spirit. The soul 
 is likened to God in all kinds of things, and is better than the 
 angels and all that is in heaven, and more esteemed, because 
 first created. Hence have the sages said : The righteous an 
 better than the angels if they preserve the soul in purity. 
 
 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden. And two 
 good trees are in the garden ; one is called the Tree of Know- 
 ledge, because they that eat of its fruit get great understanding 
 of good and evil, and a greater tendency to evil than before ; 
 and the other tree is called the Tree of Life, because he who 
 eats of its fruit lives for ever. 
 
 And four rivers went out of the garden to water the garden. 
 And God placed Adam in the garden to keep it, and to sow 
 wheat and corn and good spices for his wants. And God 
 commanded Adam not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. 
 
 But why did not God prohibit Adam to eat of the Tree of 
 Life ? Because, before Adam had sinned God desired that he 
 
GENESIS II. 7-17. 23 
 
 hould live for ever; but when he sinned, then He prohibited 
 dm also eating of the Tree of Life, for by reason of sin he 
 )ecame guilty of death ; hence he was expelled from the 
 ;arden of Eden, that he should not eat and live for ever. 
 
 Some of the sages say : The Tree of Life was in the midst 
 )f the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge formed a hedge 
 ound it, so that the inner tree could not be touched without 
 irst touching the outer one. Therefore, as soon as Adam 
 ouched the Tree of Knowledge and ate of its fruit, God im- 
 nediately expelled him, for Adam intended eating also of the 
 Free of Life. 
 
 The nature of the Tree of Knowledge was such that he who 
 ite of it increased his tendency to do evil. Before they ate of 
 :he Tree of Knowledge they were naked, without clothes, and 
 ivere not ashamed ; but when they had eaten of the tree, they 
 ivere ashamed, and they plucked leaves and covered their 
 ihame. 
 
 1 7 For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
 iie. But Adam did not die in that day, because God was 
 merciful to him and granted him a day of His own days, the 
 duration of which is a thousand years.^ Adam (who lived 
 only nine hundred and thirty years) "' would have lived a full 
 thousand years, but having prophetically seen that King David 
 svas to die on the very day of his birth, he made him a present 
 of seventy years of his own, that David might (as he did) 
 live seventy years. 
 
 Some of the sages thus explain " In the day" etc. God 
 meant in the day (of the week) that thou eatest, on that same 
 day (of the week) thou shalt surely die. He ate on Friday, 
 and, after many years, he died on a Friday. 
 
 Some other sages say, that when God said: " In the day," 
 etc. He meant {conditional) if he did not repent, as we find 
 in the case of the city of Nineveh ; when God sent Jonah to 
 prophesy that it would be overthrown, and after all it was not 
 
 ' Ps. xc. 4. '' Chap. V. 5. 
 
24 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 overthrown, for they repented, so likewise was it with Adam — 
 he repented and God delayed his death. 
 
 i8 // is not good that man should be alone. Alone without 
 a wife ; for when the other creatures see that Adam is alone, 
 they will hold him to be a god and worship him. They may 
 say : " As God is One in heaven, so Adam is One on earth ; " 
 therefore must a wife be created for him (that he should not 
 be One alone) ; also that she should help him to act, although 
 he (subsequently) ate of the Tree of Knowledge and sinned. 
 
 19, 20 And of the ground the Lord God formed every beast 
 — and cattle of the field, and every fowl — that flieth — under 
 heaven. And brought them unto Adam to see what he would 
 call them ; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, 
 that was the name thereof. God brought all creatures to Adam 
 that he should decide what they were to be called, for Adam 
 was very clever ; and he named each according to his reason 
 and according to the nature and habit of the animal. He saw 
 the ass to be a great fool without any understanding, he there- 
 fore called him Ckamor, which (in Hebrew) means clay, like 
 a lump of clay. The horse he saw to be ever merry, and he 
 called it Siis, which means (to leap, to skip, to be) merry. 
 He observed that every ten years the eagle moults his feathers, 
 and therefore he called it Nesher, which means " to throw off." 
 Also, because when the eagle is a hundred years old he flies so 
 near to heaven that on account of the heat he is thrown down 
 into the Great Sea and is drowned. 
 
 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. 
 This teaches us that a man should not be continually angry 
 with his wife. When he occasionally sees something which 
 does not please him, he should comport himself as if he were 
 asleep and did not see. When God brought all creatures 
 before Adam to give them names, Adam saw that every beast 
 and the cattle had a wife; and he said all the creatures have 
 wives, but I have none ; and therefore it is said (in ver. 20), 
 " But for Adam there was not found an help meet for him • "^- 
 
GEIVESIS IT. 17-22. 25 
 
 that is to say : Adam found of none of the creatures a female 
 that would suit him for a wife ; therefore " the Lord God — 
 caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he took one of 
 his ribs " from his body, and out of that He created a wife 
 for him. 
 
 God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, that she might 
 not disgust him, because she came out of his body. AVhen 
 man is meritorious, God gives him a wife dear and helpful to 
 him ; but when he is not pious, God sends him a wife like imto 
 his own body, causing him to lose both this world and the 
 next. She is then worse than bitter death.i A good wife 
 brings the husband to (01am Habba) the world to come, as 
 we learn from the story of a certain (Chassid) pious man, who 
 had a very pious wife. In consequence of having had no 
 children by her, he divorced her.^ She then married a wicked 
 husband, whom she made pious (and fit for the world to 
 come) ; and he married a wicked wife, who made him wicked 
 (and fit for hell). 
 
 22 And the rib . . . made he a woman. Rabbi Joshua, on 
 behalf of Rabbi Levi, says : God deliberated from what 
 member (of Adam's body) He should create a woman, and 
 He reasoned with Himself thus : I must not create her from 
 Adam's head, for she would be a proud person and hold her 
 head high. If I create her from the eye, then she will wish to 
 pry into all things ; if from the ear, she will wish to hear all 
 things ; if from the mouth, she will talk much ; if from the 
 heart, she will envy all people ; if from the hand, she will 
 desire to take to herself all things ; if from the feet, she will 
 be a gadabout. Therefore will I create her from the mem- 
 ber which is hid, that is the rib, which is not seen even when 
 man is naked. Yet for all these (careful precautions) she has 
 all these faults. I have not created her from the head, yet she 
 holds her head high, as Scripture says : " The daughters of 
 Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks ; " nor 
 ' Ecc. vii. 26. ^ See Talm. Misc., p. 135, 16. 
 
26 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 from the eye, yet she wishes to see all things, as the same 
 Scripture says : " And wanton eyes." ^ I have not created her 
 from the ear, yet she hears what she ought not to hear ; nor 
 from the heart, yet she envies all people. I have not created 
 her from the hand, yet she loves to take all things ; nor from 
 the feet, yet she gads about. * * * * 
 
 Rabbi Joshua asked : Why must a female perfume herself 
 and dress better than man ? They answered him : Adam was 
 made of earth, and earth never spoils ; but Eve being made 
 of a rib, and flesh if it be not salted soon putrifies, therefore 
 must women perfume themselves and dress well. For this 
 reason also have women good voices, because woman was made 
 of bone, and if you strike one bone against another it sounds 
 and echoes, but beat earth against earth it produces no sound 
 And for this reason also can a woman in anger be pacified less 
 easily than a man, because she is of bone, and you may all 
 day long pour water on a bone, it will not melt ; but pour 
 water on earth and in a little while it softens. Hence the 
 saying : " As s. father pitieth his children ; " ^ for a father pitieth 
 his children more than a mother. Therefore also does a man 
 search for a wife, and a woman does not search for a husband 
 Because woman was taken from man, he must search after her; 
 for instance, he who loses anything must seek for it ; but a 
 woman lost nothing, and she need not seek.^ Likewise do 
 women run to funerals more eagerly than do men, because they 
 brought death into the world. And God gave women the 
 precepts of separation, because they have shed blood. Also 
 the precept of the dough was given them, because woman 
 caused Adam to sin, who was separated from the earth as a 
 first cake is separated from the dough.* This is also the 
 reason why women light and bless the candles on Sabbath- 
 eve, because she extinguished the light of Adam, that is his 
 soul, which shines as a light. 
 
 ' Isa. iii. l6. ^ pj^ (-i;j_ j^^ 
 
 a jsfiddah, fol. 31B. ■• Num. xv. 20, 21. 
 
GENESIS IT. 22-7//. 6. 27 
 
 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and 
 shall cleave unto his wife. Because she is his flesh and bone. 
 Woman is strong by nature, because she was created of bone ; 
 but man is weak by nature, because he was created of earth, 
 and earth is weak, for it soon dissolves. 
 
 25 And they were both naked. Like the cattle. 
 Chapter III. — 6 That the tree was good for food. Some of 
 
 the sages say, that it was a fig tree, and that was why they (Adam 
 and Eve) plucked the leaves from the fig tree to cover their 
 shame ; for as soon as they had eaten from the Tree of Know- 
 ledge, their eyes were opened, and they were ashamed to go 
 about naked. But some sages say, that the tree was a vine. 
 She (Eve) pressed the grapes and gave him red wine to drink 
 as red as blood. Yet some other sages say, that it was a citron 
 tree. 
 
 And the serpent was very wicked, and wishing that Adam 
 might die, he made a pretext, and asked : (ver. i) " Hath God 
 said. Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ? " But he 
 knew that God had only forbidden the Tree of Knowledge, 
 and this (question) was merely his pretext to draw them into 
 conversation. Eve replied, " God has only forbidden us to eat 
 from the Tree of Knowledge, and moreover to toueh it." The 
 sages say : We must not speak that which God has not com- 
 manded, for God had not forbidden touching the tree, but 
 simply not to eat of it. Eve added to it and told a lie, and 
 she was therefore brought to commit a sin, for the serpent went 
 and pushed Eve's hand to the Tree of Knowledge, and said 
 unto her, " As thou hast not died from touching it, so likewise 
 wilt thou not die from eating it (ver. 5). For God doth know 
 that when ye eat of the tree ye will be like angels, and that is 
 the reason that He has forbidden you to eat of it." 
 
 Eve thought the serpent spoke very reasonably, and that it 
 is good we should eat of the tree, for our eyes will then be 
 opened, and we shall be like angels. After eating of it her- 
 self, she gave to Adam to eat, for she thought within herself : 
 
28 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 If I die, let my husband also die, that he may not take 
 another wife. 
 
 She gave also all catde, beasts and fowls to eat (of the tree), 
 in order that they also should die. All creatures did eat, 
 except one bird, called Khol, which would not eat of the tree. 
 Rabbi Yuddin, on behalf of Rabbi Simeon, says : That the 
 bird Khol lives a thousand years, and after that period his body 
 shrinks, he throws off his feathers, and becomes as small as 
 an egg, and then he begins to grow and becomes very large 
 again. 1 
 
 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that 
 they were naked ; and they plucked leaves from the fig tree 
 and covered their shame. Two hours before night they heard 
 the voice of God, and they hid themselves from the presence 
 of the Lord. In order not to frighten them, God pretended 
 that He knew not where they were, and therefore asked: 
 " Where are ye ? " Adam replied and said, 
 
 lo J heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, became 
 I was naked, and I hid myself. And God said : " Whence 
 knowest thou that it is a shame to go about naked ? Hast 
 thou eaten of the tree ? " And Adam said, 
 
 1 2 The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave m 
 of the ti-ee, and I did eat. God questioned the woman, "Why 
 
 ' The Midrash Rabbah (Bereshilh, fol. 22A), bases the legend of this 
 fabulous bird Khol on the following passage in Job xxix. i8 : "I shall die 
 in my nest, and I shall multiply my days " as 71113, Khol (A.V. as tlie 
 sand). Yanai says, the bird lives a thousand years, at the end of which 
 time a fire arises in its nest and consumes ,it and the bird together ; yet 
 something remains of the size of an egg out of which the bird springs into 
 new life again. In the Talmud (Sanhedrin, fol. ioSb) another immortal 
 bird is mentioned, named HJ^CniX, Orshinah, which, on seeing Noah so 
 much troubled and fatigued by his daily exertions in feeding such a vast 
 number of animals that were with him in the ark, abstained altogether from 
 food out of compassion to him. Noah, appreciating the sweet sympathy 
 of the bird, blessed it, and said : nion K7T \f.\^-\ Nil', May it please God 
 that thou shouldst never die, as it is written : "And I said, I shall die in my 
 nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand " (Job xxix. i8). 
 
GENESIS III. 6-14. 29 
 
 hast thou eaten of the tree which I told thee not to eat ? " 
 The woman said, " The serpent persuaded me." And God 
 said to the serpent, 
 
 14 Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all 
 cattle, and above every beast of the field. * * * * 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : Two questions might be asked 
 on this subject. One question is, Why did Eve tell a lie to the 
 serpent ? God had forbidden to eat of the tree, but He had 
 not forbidden to touch it. Still more it is difficult (to under- 
 stand), the serpent pushed Eve's hand to the tree, and said 
 unto her, "As thou didst not die in consequence of having 
 touched it, so likewise shalt thou not die when thou eatest of 
 it ; " why did Eve believe the serpent and immediately eat of 
 the tree ? Perhaps she would have died for touching it before 
 the day was out, for God said : " /« the day . . . thou 
 shalt surely die." But Eve ate immediately, before the day was 
 out ; she ought to hav^aited till it was ended, and if she 
 did not then die for touching, she might have eaten. Another 
 question may beasked : God said to Adam, " Why hast thou 
 eaten of the tree?" And he replied, "the woman gave it to 
 me." What excuse is this 1 because the woman gave it to him 
 should he therefore be free ? But God had forbidden it I 
 
 The Ramban writes : Adam said unto God, " Thou hast 
 given me a wife to be a help, and I thought what she bids me 
 I must do, therefore have I eaten from her own hands." On 
 this it might be asked : Was Adam such a fool as to obey his 
 wife when God prohibited him ? But the explanation is this : 
 Adam and Eve fancied that the only reason why God had 
 forbidden them to eat of the Tree of Knowledge was because 
 the Tree was in a very sacred spot, where the Shechinah rested. 
 And the reason why the Tree of Knowledge stood in the midst 
 of the garden was, because it is customary for kings to reside 
 in the midst of the land. Thus also the Shechinah dwelt in the 
 midst of the garden. Adam and Eve reasoned within them- 
 selves, that God had forbidden them to eat of the tree simply 
 
30 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 to prevent its being touched, for the eating would necessarily 
 bring them in contact with it ; but should the apple fall off the 
 tree and roll out from the sacred spot, it might well be eaten, for 
 God would not keep back that which was good for man, such 
 for instance as the Tree of Knowledge was, by means of which 
 one might obtain a good understanding. 
 
 But Adam thought that God had forbidden (the eating), 
 because the Tree of Knowledge stood in a sacred spot where 
 no man dare approach. And he mistook the text " Thou shalt 
 not eat of it"; he thought the meaning to be " Thou shalt not 
 eat of it " when the apple is on the tree, but when the apple 
 drops off from the tree, and rolls out from the holy place, it 
 may well be eaten ; and this is why the woman said to the 
 serpent, " But of the tree which is in the midst of the garden," 
 that is to say, because it stands on a holy spot, in the midst, 
 as a king residing in the midst of the land, so also does the 
 Shechinah rest in the midst, therefore we must not eat of 
 it, and therefore said the woman to the serpent: "God has 
 forbidden to touch the tree;" for they thought, it was that 
 which God meant. This being so, the woman, according to 
 her belief, did not tell a lie. The serpent said to the woman; 
 "Thou hast said according to thy belief, but thou art mistaken; 
 God begrudges you the good : that is, ye would become like 
 angels, and therefore has He forbidden you to eat of the Tree 
 of Knowledge ; " and the woman believed him, and hence 
 says the text: " When the woman saw that the tree was good' 
 and she thought that God did not wish to give them that 
 which is good for people. But Adam did not think so. He 
 fancied, God holds the spot as very holy and therefore has 
 He forbidden; and hence he pleaded before God and said; 
 " I have not been on the holy spot, I have not touched it ; the 
 woman plucked (the fruit) of the tree and gave it to me ; and 
 therefore I am not guilty of death." And this is why he did 
 not die on that day, for he did not commit the sin willingly. 
 He thought, I may not touch but I may eat. 
 
GENESIS III. 14-16. 31 
 
 Because Adam did not die, Eve also did not die, in order 
 that he should not be left alone without a wife. Another 
 extenuating plea did Adam advance : " The woman which thou 
 hast given me for help, that I may be able to study the Law, 
 while she should order the house, and cook and bake, so that 
 I should have no need to ask her whether she cooks lawful 
 food or not, but I must rely on her (that all she does is lawful 
 and right) — she gave me to eat of the tree, and I was not in 
 duty bound to ask her what kind of apple she gave me; 
 I thought it was another (ordinary) apple." 
 
 And the Lord said unto the woman, What is this that thou 
 hast done? (ver. 13). Although God had not forbidden the 
 woman to eat, yet he questioned her, because she was attached 
 to the body of Adam ; for God took one of his ribs of which 
 He created the woman. God first questioned Adam and Eve 
 about their act, and then He punished and cursed them ; but the 
 serpent He did not question " What hast thou done ? " for He 
 would not hear from him an excuse, and He cursed him imme- 
 diately. From this have our sages deduced : When one causes 
 his fellow to fall into sin, he is punished more than his fellow. 
 
 Upon thy belly shalt thou go. For the serpent had (origin- 
 ally) four feet, and God sent His angels who chopped them off. 
 
 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman. The 
 serpent seduced Eve and not Adam, because women are easily 
 persuaded, and because she would be able soon to persuade 
 her husband. 
 
 16 I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in 
 sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. * * * * The 
 curse with which Eve was cursed 1 is common to all women ; 
 even the wives of princes are subject to this sorrow, and riches 
 is of no avail against it, and this because Eve transgressed 
 willingly. # * * * 
 
 Although the woman is subject to her husband and must 
 
 ' The Talmud says : " Ten curses were uttered against Eve." Tal. 
 Misc., p. 132. 
 
32 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 obey his orders, as a slave a master's, so that she has Vio need 
 to desire that her husband should rule over her as a lord over 
 his servant, the text nevertheless says: "And thy desire shall 
 be to thy husband'' '■ 
 
 1 8 A7id thou Shalt eat the herb of the field. Before they 
 sinned they ate of all good herbs in the garden, but afterwards 
 God prevented them eating except of that which grew in the 
 field (outside the garden). 
 
 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Had they 
 not sinned they would have eaten wheat unground, which would 
 have been as good and as wholesome as bread. # * * * 
 
 20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve. Although he at 
 first named her " Woman" because she was taken out of 
 man,^ now, because she had caused him to sin, he would not 
 that she should have the honour to be called after him, and he 
 called her Eve, which means " the mother of all living," for all 
 living people spring from her. 
 
 2 1 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make 
 coats of skin. And on these coats were painted all beasts and 
 birds of the world, and Adam gave these coats to Cain, 
 When he was killed these coats came into the hands of 
 Nimrod. Esau killed Nimrod and got possession of them, 
 and they were worn by Jacob when he went to Isaac to 
 obtain the blessing. 
 
 And clothed them. Although they had sinned, yet was God 
 merciful, '■^ and clothed them" in the coats. 
 
 23, 24 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the 
 garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 
 So He drove out the man. God said to Adam, " Thou must till 
 
 ' This passage is very obscure. Possibly it means tliis : Although the 
 woman has much to endure from her husband, she does not dislilie him, 
 but still desires to have him ; or, although she might escape much pain and 
 trouble by remaining single, he so rules over her that she forgets her feats 
 and herself, and is more desirous of marrying him than he is of marrying 
 her. See Gen. ace. to the Talm., p. 124, 32. 
 
 ^ Chap. ii. 23. 
 
GENESIS III. 16-IV. 7. 33 
 
 the ground oiUside the garden of Eden just the same as thou 
 didst till within the garden of Eden, for thou wert taken from 
 the earth which is outside the garden." Thus Adam immedi- 
 ately left the garden to till the ground outside; but as he 
 intended to re-enter the garden again, the Holy One, blessed 
 be He ! locked the door of the garden, that he should not be 
 able to do so. 
 
 And He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim. 
 God stationed in front of the garden the destroying angels, 
 who had swords in their hands, so that no creature should 
 be able to enter it. 
 
 Chapter IV. — i And Adam knew Eve his wife. This took 
 place while he was yet in the garden of Eden. Rabbi Eleazar 
 the son of Azariah says : Three wonders occurred on that 
 day. I, He was created on that day ; 2, on the same day 
 they came together \ and 3, on it they had begotten children. 
 * # * * 
 
 And {Eve) said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. I have 
 gotten a child with God. God Himself created us, but now 
 I and my husband have also a share in the child ; for three 
 have a part in a child ; the father, the mother, and God, He 
 gives the soul.i 
 
 2-5 And she agai?i bare his brother Abel, etc. Abel fed 
 sheep and Cain tilled the ground. Cain brought fruit as an 
 offering unto God, and Abel of the best of his sheep for an 
 offering. God sent a fire from heaven and consumed the 
 offering of Abel, but the offering of Cain God would not 
 accept, because the best fruit he ate himself and the worst he 
 brought for an offering. Then Cain was angry, because God 
 would not accept his offering. 
 
 6, 7 A7id the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou angry ? 
 etc. If thou wilt be pious and repent, I will pardon thee ; if 
 however thou wilt not repent, thou shalt be condemned to the 
 door of hell, where thou shalt rest (or abide). The Yetzer- 
 
 ' See Tal. Misc., p. 66, 61. 
 
 D 
 
34 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 harrah {i.e. the natural propensity to evil) shall have his desire 
 unto thee to entice thee to evil. And this is the meaning of 
 " Sill lieth at the door J' by the door of hell shalt thou rest (or 
 lie).i 
 
 Rabbi Ammi says : The Yetzer-harrah {i.e. Satan or the 
 Devil) - invariably goes in the middle of the street and in the 
 middle of the road, and as soon as he meets a man fashionably 
 dressed, he joins him, and says : " Thou art mine, I will teach 
 thee right well ; " and he entices him to all evil. Therefore, let 
 a man not indulge in superfluous ornaments, so that the 
 Yetzer-harrah should have no dominion over him. 
 
 i And it came to pass ivhen they tvere in the field, the two 
 brothers began to quarrel, and they said, " Let us divide the 
 world between us." One said, " The ground on which thou 
 standest is mine ; " and the other said, " The ground on which 
 thon standest is mine." One said, " The (future) Temple shall 
 be situated on my portion of ground," and the other said the 
 same ; and thus they quarrelled together. And with Abel, the 
 younger son, were born two daughters, his sisters ; (with Cain 
 was born ox\y one sister;) and Cain said, "I will take thy second 
 sister for a wife, because I am t\\e first-born ;" Abel said, "I will 
 have her, for she was born with me.'" As they thus quarrelled, 
 Abel threw Cain to the ground and sat upon him. Cain said 
 to Abel, " We are but two sons to our father, why wilt thou kill 
 me? " Abel had compassion on him and released him ; hence 
 says the text : 
 
 1 In the Talmud we have the following on this text. God said to 
 Israel : I have created the temiDter, and his antidote, the Law. If you 
 engage in the study of the latter, you are not delivered into the hands of 
 the former; as it is written: "If thou doest well, nXB*, i.e. thou art 
 exalted above him ; if not, thou art delivered into his hands : " as it is said : 
 " Sin lieth at the door." Moreover, the tempter is always bent upon leading 
 thee astray ; for it it said : " And unto thee shall be his desire ; " but if 
 thou wilt study the Law, "thou shalt rule over him." (Gm. ace. to the Tal, 
 p. 169, 7). = Satan, Evil Imagination, and the Angel of Death, are the 
 same person. Ibid.,-^. 195, iii.. 
 
GENESIS IV. 7-1 1. 35 
 
 Cain rose up. That is to say, lie was lying under and 
 {when released) he rose up. Cain rose up and slew Abel. 
 
 And whence did Cain learn how to slay Abel ? The sages 
 say, he saw how Adam slaughtered oxen for sacrifice by cutting 
 their throats ; and by the throat he slew Abel. 
 
 And -luJio buried Abel ? Rabbi Eliezer the son of Pidoth 
 says : The clean birds and the clean beasts buried him, and 
 on that account God has given them a good reward, that one 
 blessing should be pronounced when they are slaughtered, and 
 another blessing when their blood is covered with dust; for 
 God rewards measure for measure. Because they covered the 
 blood of Abel, therefore has God commanded that their blood 
 should be covered. ^ 
 
 9, TO And the Lord said unto Cain, WJierc is Abel tJiy 
 brother 7 And he said, I Jznow not ; am I my brother's lieeperl 
 And God said unto him, " Thou wicked man, tlie voice of thy 
 brother's bloods cry unto Me from the ground.''' It is said in the 
 (original) text " Thy brother's bloods," ^ because (it includes) 
 the blood of thy brother and the blood of his children which 
 would have been born of him (to the end of the world). ^ But 
 some of the sages say : It is written bloods in the plural, be- 
 cause Cain wounded him in many parts, for he did not know 
 in what (particular) part he could kill him. He slew him 
 because he thought that the most essential portion of the world 
 would come out from hi?n, because God accepted his offering, 
 and the offering of Cain He did not accept And God said 
 unto Cain, 
 
 I r And now art thou cursed from the earth. Thou shalt be 
 cursed more than the earth, * for the earth was also cursed on 
 account of receiving the blood of Abel. 
 
 ' Lev. xvii. 13. 
 
 ^ It is not said : DT in the singular, but 'lOT in the phn-al, bloods ; also 
 the verb D'py^, they cry, is plural. 
 
 ^ Comp. Gen. ace. to the TaU, p. 173, 10. 
 
 ■* 112 has sometimes a compai-ative meaning, and the commentator takes 
 advantage of it here. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 1 2 When thou tillest the ground it shall yield unto thee less 
 corn than it otherwise would have done, because thou hast 
 slain thy brother. ^^ A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou he; " 
 as a penitent shalt thou not rest in one place. 
 
 13 And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater 
 than I can bear. Cain said : " Lord of the Universe ! are my 
 sins so great that Thou canst not pardon them ? " 
 
 14 Behold, thou hast driven me out! . . . every one 
 that findeth me shall slay me. Rabbi Yehudah says : The 
 cattle and the beasts and the fowls came to take vengeance 
 on him. But God said, 
 
 1 5 Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken 
 sevenfold ; that is to say, God rebuked the catde and the beasts 
 and the fowls and the serpent, that they should do him no 
 harm. 
 
 Vengeance shall be taken sevenfold. In seven generations 
 hence shall vengeance be taken on Cain, for Lamech will come 
 and slay him. 
 
 And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, that people should not 
 kill him. Rav says : God gave him a dog to preserve him from 
 wild beasts. Rabbi Yossi says : He caused a horn to grow 
 out of his forehead. Some say : God wrote a letter of His own 
 name on his forehead, that all should be afraid of him, and 
 should not kill him. 
 
 16 And Cain went out, very merry; and Adam met him 
 and asked him the nature of his sentence. Cain replied, " I 
 have repented, and therefore my sentence is light." Adam 
 distressed himself, that he had not known that the power 
 of repentance was so great, and immediately he uttered (the 
 Psalm which commences) " A Psalm for the Sabbath day," in 
 which it is said : "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the 
 Lord." 1 
 
 And dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. Adam 
 
 ' Ps. xcii. I. According to the Talnnid, Adam was one of the ten elders 
 who contributed to the book of the Psalms. Treasures of the Tal., p. 51. 
 
GENESJS IV. 12-23. 37 
 
 dwelt on the eastern side of the garden of Eden, because 
 the eastern side 1 receives (or accepts) the people who wish to 
 repent. 
 
 Some say, the land of Nod means, wherever Cain went the 
 tzx'Ca. shook under him, so that people said unto him, '^ Move on, 
 for thou art sinful, thou hast killed thy brother." 
 
 19 And Lamech took unto him two wives. It was customary 
 in his time for every man to have two wives, — one to bear chil- 
 dren, whilst to the other he gave a drug of herbs in order that 
 she should not bear children, and retain her beauty. * * * * 
 
 The tiame of one was Adah, which signifies to remove (or 
 temporary separation), and the name of the other Zillah, which 
 signifies shade ; he ever sat in her shade. 
 
 20, 21 And Adah bare Jabal. He was the first who 
 pastured cattle in the field. And his brother s name was Jubal. 
 He was the first who made harps and fiddles. 
 
 22 And Zillah also bare. * * * * God caused her to 
 have children, and she bare a son, whose name was Tubal- 
 cain, which signifies, he improved the trade of Cain ; for Cain 
 was a murderer, and Tubal-cain made swords for the world to 
 murder people with. 
 
 23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear 
 my voice. " Listen and be re-united to me ; " for the wives 
 separated themselves from him because he killed Cain and 
 Tubal-cain. For Lamech was blind, and Tubal-cain was lead- 
 ing him about ; and when Tubal-cain saw Cain walking at a 
 distance in the field, and mistook him for a wild beast, he said 
 to Lamech, " Take thy bow and shoot, for there goes a beast ;" 
 and Lamech took his bow and shot his grandfather Cain dead. 
 When Lamech became aware of this he was so frightened that 
 
 ' In most Jewish houses, and invariably in every synagogue, the eastern 
 side is indicated in a particular manner, so that every Jew Itnows the direc- 
 tion towards which he is to turn his face during the repetition of certain 
 portions of his daily worship. For further particulars, see Treasures of the 
 Tal, p. 299. 
 
38 RABBINTCAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 he clapped his hands together and killed his son Tubal-cain 
 between them. For this cause his wives separated themselves 
 from him. He excused himself and said, " Have I then killed 
 them wllhngly? My grandfather killed Abel wilfully, and 
 God let him live for seven generations, how much longer will 
 God wait in my case ? " But his wives would not listen to him. 
 Lamech then went to Adam and complained against his wives, 
 and Adam said unto them, " Ye should not speak against the 
 Divine decree ; do ye your part and re-unite yourselves to 
 your husband." They repHed to Adam, " Thou lecturest us, 
 but why dost thou not re-unite thyself to thy wife ? It is now 
 one hundred and thirty years since thou separatedst thyself 
 from her and didst eat of the Tree of Knowledge." And im- 
 mediately Adam had a son, and called his name Seth. 
 
 Chapter V. — 24 And Enoch walked with God, and he was 
 not ; for God took him. God took him alive into heaven. He 
 did not die, for he was a great Tsaddick (saint) ; God took 
 him from the world so soon that he should not commit sin, 
 but should continue in his piety. God took him alive into 
 heaven, that he should bear witness against the people that 
 were before the Deluge ; again God took alive into heaven 
 Elijah the prophet, that he should bear testimony against the 
 people that were after the Deluge. And this is why Scripture 
 records of each of the generations from Adam until Noah, 
 " A?id he died," to show that all these men were righteous, 
 and died in their beds, and did not perish in the Deluge. But 
 of the generations from Noah and onwards the Scriptures 
 had no need to record " Ajid he died," because there was not 
 a Deluge ; but it is simply recorded that they begat sons and 
 daughters, and how long they lived. 
 
 29 And he called his name Noah. Noah was the tenth 
 generation from Adam, and this is why from Noah and onwards 
 the world has remained in existence ; and also why it is that 
 of no one till Noah is it stated, "And he begat a son," whilst of 
 Noah // is said (vayoled ben, i.e.) "And he begat a son," for 
 
GENESIS II'. 23-r/. I. 37 
 
 ben sounds bt?i-ya.n {i.e. building), that is to say, from Noah 
 is the world built And he was called Noah, because Noah 
 means rest, and till Noah the earth produced thorns, but when 
 Noah came he made iron ploughs to plough the ground, and 
 the ground rested from the curse and produced everything that 
 is good. 
 
 Chapter VI. — i^ And it came to pass when men began to 
 multiply on the earth, and daughters were born %into them. The 
 Midrash Rabbah writes : Rabbon Gamliel gave his daughter 
 a husband, and when she was about to leave her father's house 
 she said to him, " Bless me." He blessed her and said : 
 " God grant thou shouldst never come again into my house ! " 
 She then said unto him, " Dear father, why cursest thou me ? " 
 He replied, " I have blessed thee, that it should be so well 
 with thee at thy husband's, that thou shouldest have no desire 
 to return to my house," After this the daughter begat a son, 
 and she said to her father, " Bless my son." He blessed the 
 child, and said to his daughter, " May (the exclamation) Woe I 
 never depart from thy mouth, that thou shouldest continually 
 cry out, Woe!" She said to him, " Why cursest thou me?" 
 He replied, " I have blessed thee ; that is to say, Thou 
 shouldest give attention to thy son, and shouldest always say, 
 Woe is me, I have not given food to my son ! Woe is me, 
 I have not let him go to his teacher." ^ 
 
 The wife of Rabbi Shimon gave birth to a daughter, and 
 when Rabbi Chiyah met him, he said, " God has begun to bless 
 thee, as it is said in the text : ' And it came to pass when 
 raen began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born 
 unto them,' that is to say, after the daughter thou wilt multiply 
 many children,^ which is a blessing." 
 
 1 The following comment on verse I is placed after verse 6 in the 
 original, but I have here put it in its rightful order. 
 
 2 Such exclamations as these are often heard among Polish Jewesses on 
 various occasions to this very day. " Ei,wehe tnir I" ("Ah! woe is me. "> 
 
 3 If the first child be a daughter, it is a good omen to the family. Bava- 
 
40 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 2 And the sons of God saw the daughters of men. And the 
 princes and magistrates saw the beautiful daughters and took 
 them away from their husbands to be wives for themselves. 
 \i princes and magistrates do so, what have others (not) done? 
 
 3 My spirit shall not also strive with man, for that he also 
 is flesh. God said, " I have created man with a soul, as the 
 angels, but now I see that they are but flesh and blood like 
 the cattle, and the soul helps them nothing, and therefore 
 shall they not be like angels, but shall die like cattle. Yet 
 I will let them live an hundred and twenty years, perhaps they 
 will repent ; and if not, I will bring on them the Deluge." 
 
 4 There were giants on the earth. There were angels that fell 
 down from heaven upon the earth, for God had cast them down 
 because they were evil, and from them descended the giants. 
 
 6 And it comfoiied ^ the Lord that He had made man on the 
 earth. And God comforted Himself that He had created man 
 upon the earth, for had He created him in heaven He would 
 have been obliged to cast him down (from thence) on account 
 of his sins ; but on earth was his right place. 
 
 A?id it grieved Hiin at His heart. The holy and blessed 
 One was grieved that the world should be destroyed. An 
 idolater once asked Rabbi Joshua, the son of Korcha : " God 
 certainly knowing all things, why created He man, when He 
 knew that he would be wicked?" Rabbi Joshua answered 
 him : " Thou hast had a son and rejoiced when he was born, 
 and yet thou must have known that he would die ; why didst 
 thou rejoice ? " The idolater replied : " When there is an occa- 
 sion of joy, one should rejoice; and when of grief, one should 
 grieve: 'To everything there is a season.'" ^ Rabbi Joshua 
 said unto him : " God has done so likewise ; He knew that 
 
 Bathra, fol. 141 B ; i.e. if a daughter is \iOTa.Jirst, it is a sign tliat sons, 
 and tnaiiy of them, are to follow. 
 
 ' DnJ means to comfort as well as to repent, or to regret. The commen- 
 tator chose the first meaning, as it suited his fancy best, and also a purpose. 
 
 - Eccles. iii. r. 
 
GENESIS VI. 2-9. 41 
 
 the righteous would descend from the wicked, and therefore 
 •created He the wicked for the sake of the righteous." 1 
 
 7 Both man and beast. God said : " If man is to be de- 
 stroyed, beast must also be destroyed, for the beasts were 
 ■created for the sake of man." 
 
 End of the First Section. 
 
 9 These are the generations of Noah. King Solomon, peace 
 be upon him, says: "The just man walketh in his integrity; 
 his children are blessed after him." ^ He means by this, that 
 a man should perform the precepts for God's sake, and not 
 for self-exaltation, as many people who give alms, and then 
 ^o and tell it to other people ; thus they do a twofold evil : 
 first, they exalt and boast themselves of it ; and, secondly, the 
 poor man is put to shame, by the divulging that he receives 
 charity. " Therefore," says Solomon, "the just man walketh 
 in his integrity," as a simple-minded man, and one that is 
 humble, and does not exalt himself; such a man is a just 
 man, and so is worthy that his children should be as pious as 
 himself. Solomon says : " Most men will proclaim every one 
 his own goodness ; but a faithful man who can find ? " ^ There 
 -are many who proclaim the charity and the goodness they do ; 
 but a pious, faithful man, who can find him ? It is acknow- 
 ledged that there are three degrees in the just. If he be 
 pious, he is called a just man; if more pious, then he is called 
 ferfect; and the third degree is walking, i.e. he walks entirely 
 and continually with God. And these three degrees were in 
 Noah, as the text says : 
 
 Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and 
 Noah walked with God. He was just and perfect in his heart, 
 he did not speak against the works of the Holy One, blessed 
 be He ! but walked entirely and continually with God. 
 
 Noah is mentioned three times (in this one text). Because, 
 
 ' Comp. Rom. iii. 8. ^ Prov. xx. 7. ^ Ibid., xx. 6. 
 
42 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 he saw first the world built over with cities and populated; 
 then he saw it destroyed in the Deluge ; and thirdly, he saw 
 it rebuilt with cities and people. 
 
 In his generations. This means, when all people were- 
 wicked, he was just in his generations; how much more just 
 would he have been among pious people. But some sages 
 say the reverse : In his generations he was counted for just, 
 but in the generation of Abraham he would not have been 
 thought of as just, for Abraham was more pious than he. 
 And the Torah (Scripture) tells us how pious Noah was, for 
 on account of his piety God saved him from the Deluge. 
 
 1 1 And the earth was filled with violence. All people com- 
 mitted robbery. 
 
 12 For all flesh had corrupted his way. That is to say, all 
 creatures committed adultery. * * * And they also wor- 
 shipped idols.^ 
 
 13 For the earth is filled with violence. On account of 
 robbery (violence) God sealed the decree (for destruction).. 
 Although adultery and idolatry are worse than robbery, yet 
 God sealed the decree on account of robbery, because reason 
 says one should not rob, though the Torah (Law) has not for- 
 bidden it. Again, adultery and idolatry are sinful against God. 
 only, because God has forbidden it ; but robbery is sinful both, 
 against God and man. 
 
 And therefore came the Deluge, because people would not 
 believe that God could renew the world, and also would not 
 believe that God cares for man, returning a good reward to the 
 righteous, and an evil reward to the wicked; for they said: 
 "God is in heaven, and gives no attention to man; it is all 
 the same whether one is pious or wicked ; " and therefore God 
 brought the Deluge. But Noah and his children remained, 
 which shows us that God gives a good reward to the just, and. 
 an evil reward to the unjust. 
 
 ' The text does not say -nho worshipped idols, and we are left to infer iL 
 from the context. 
 
GENESIS VI. 9-19. 43 
 
 14 Make tliee an ark of gopJier wood. God ordered a 
 great ark to be made, as a great ship upon the water, and to 
 be pitched within and without with pitch. God could have 
 delivered the just Noah and his children without the ark ; but 
 God ordered the building of the ark 120 years, in order that 
 people should ask Noah, " What doest thou ? " and he would 
 tell them, that God would bring a deluge, and they would 
 perhaps repent (in consequence). 
 
 The Rabbi B'chai writes : Why did not Noah pray that the 
 world should not be destroyed; as we find of Abraham, as 
 soon as God told him about the coming destruction of Sodom 
 and Gomorrah, he prayed several times on behalf of the 
 wicked ; and as also did the prophets ? (Reply) Noah having 
 seen that there were not ten righteous in his generation, could 
 not pray on their behalf that they should be spared alive, as 
 also Abraham, in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, could not 
 pray for less than ten righteous. Another explanation why 
 Noah did not pray on their behalf is : because God warned 
 them 120 years that they should be godly, and they took no 
 heed. 
 
 15 And thus thou shalt make it. God ordered the length 
 of the ark to be 300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits, and 
 the height of it 30 cubits ; and a window to admit light. 
 There were in the ark three storeys, one over the other ; the 
 uppermost storey was for man, the second for cattle and beasts 
 and fowls j and the lower for dung. 
 
 18 And with thee will I establish my covenant. God said 
 unto Noah, " I will keep my oath with thee, that the fruit and 
 the com shall not rot in the ark, and that the wicked should 
 not slay thee on account of the ark, and that thou with thy 
 children with the women shall enter into the ark." * * * 
 
 19 A7id of every living tiling of all flesh, two of every sort. 
 God commanded Noah to take into the ark of every creature 
 male and female, but only such of the cattle and beasts and 
 fowls which did not connect themselves with strange species. 
 
44 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 And the cattle, the beasts, and the fowls came on their own 
 accord, and such as the ark admitted to enter, such were for 
 certain good {i.e. true and faithful to their species).! And 
 Noah was obliged to bring provisions into the ark, that all 
 creatures should have enough to eat and to drink. 
 
 Chapter VII. — i For thee have I seen righteous before Me 
 in this generation, (The phrase) " A just man, and perfect," is 
 not repeated here, in order to teach us that a man should not 
 be much praised in his presence. 
 
 2 By sevens. God ordered of the clean cattle and fowls by 
 sevens, in order to bring sacrifices of the same. 
 
 The male and his female. The Torah writes of cattle, 
 " husband and wife," ^ as of human beings, because they begat 
 ■children ; but of fowls the- Torah writes (verse 3) " 7nak and 
 female," ^ because they do not bear children as human beings, 
 but lay eggs and hatch chickens. 
 
 4 For yet seven days. God delayed the Deluge for seven 
 days, in order that proper mourning should be observed for 
 Methuselah the righteous, who died at that time. 
 
 / will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and. forty 
 nights. * * * * The Gemara says in Zevachim,* that all 
 creatures were in the ark, but how could the unicorn be in the 
 ark, since that beast was so very great ? ^ The sages say, that 
 Noah fastened the horns of the beast to the ark on the outside. 
 The Gemara mentions that Rav Chisda had said, that the 
 vt^aters were as hot as fire, and asks how it is that the unicorn 
 was not scalded ? The Gemara (itself) replies : The waters 
 round about the ark were cool. 
 
 7 Because of the waters of the flood. Noah continued to 
 think that God would (after all) not bring the Deluge, and 
 therefore he did not enter the ark till the (steadily increasing) 
 waters compelled him to do so. 
 
 ioSb. = iriB'Kl B'iN. 3 ,13pJ1 131. 
 
 '' Fol. 113B. ' As large as Mount Tabor, Ibid. 
 
GENESIS VI. 19-F//. 16. 45 
 
 8 Atid of beasts that are not dean. The text (verse 2), 
 iays : "And of the beasts that are not clean, thou shalt take 
 3y two, the husband and his wife." ^ Our sages ask : Why does 
 ;he Torah (Scripture) speak of a beast that is not clean in 
 I circuitous manner, it might have said in a shorter way, an 
 indean beast ? 3 (Reply) The Torah teaches us, not to speak 
 :vil with the mouth when good can be spoken ; for the Torah 
 lid not wish to use (the word) undean, because that is in- 
 iecent language, and therefore it says, " That are not dean." 
 Man should specially be warned not to utter with the mouth 
 ndecent language, for indecent language defiles the soul. 
 
 9 They went in . . , unto Noah. All creatures came of 
 :heir own accord unto Noah, and those which the ark admitted 
 emained in it. 
 
 At first the rain descended gently, in order that the people 
 night be led to repentance; but afterwards, when God saw 
 hat they did not repent. He sent upon them much rain and 
 lot water, so that all were scalded therein. 
 
 13 In the selfsame day. In the dear day, at midday, Noah 
 mtered the ark ; for the wicked people said : " When Noah 
 mters the ark we will kill him, he must die with us." But 
 jod said, " In the middle of the day I shall make him enter 
 he ark." 
 
 16 And the Lord shut him in. God protected him, that 
 leither the waters, nor the wicked, should do him any injury. 
 
 Some sages say : God did not permit the sun and the moon 
 md the stars to shine for a whole twelve months, and as Noah 
 :ould not see in the dark God sent him a precious stone which 
 ihone as a great light. And when the wicked saw that they 
 vere perishing, they wanted to upset the ark with Noah in it. 
 But God sent lions and bears and other wild beasts, and they 
 dlled the wicked. 
 
 2 The difference in the Hebrew between the word "unclean," and the 
 ihrase "that are not clean," consists in eight letters. 
 
45 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 God caused first the death of all the cattle and the beasts 
 and the fowls, and afterwards He caused the death of man, 
 because man was created last, and therefore he remained to 
 the last. God did so that man might be led to repentance. 
 The Gemara in Bava Bathra asserts i just the contrary. Rabbi 
 Amnii says : Man was created last, but in the Deluge he 
 perished first, as it is written (in ver. 23): "And every living 
 substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the 
 ground, both man, and cattle." Man first, cattle last. 
 
 20 Fifteen cubits upwards. At first the waters were level 
 with the mountains, but afterwards they were fifteen cubits 
 higher than all mountains. 
 
 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of lift. From this 
 we learn, when man dies his soul comes out from the nose. 
 God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the soul of life,^ and 
 through the nostrils the soul comes out again. 
 
 Of all that was in the dry land died. But the fish in the 
 water were preserved, for they took refuge in the ocean which 
 surrounds the whole world. 
 
 23, 24 And Noah only remained, and they that were with 
 him in the ark. "Noah only;" "only" implies diminution; 
 for Noah was once late in feeding a lion, and the lion (to 
 remind him) came and bit him and thus diminished his blood. 
 
 And the waters prevailed upoti the earth an hundred and fifty 
 days. 
 
 Chapter VIII. — i And God remembered Noah, and the 
 cattle and the beasts and quieted the waters. Our Rabbi 
 B'chai asks : Why were not (here) \}L\e. fowls mentioned? The 
 answer is, because the cattle and the beasts were created with 
 man on the sixth day, and He therefore remembered them 
 with man. 
 
 4 And the ark rested in the seventh m07ith, on the seventeenth 
 day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. The Raraban 
 writes : At first it rained forty days, during which the waters 
 
 ^ Fol. 6 1 A. 2 ggg (,}jjjp_ ;;^ ^_ 
 
GENESIS VII. 16- F///. II. 47 
 
 increased daily till they became fifteen cubits higher than all 
 the mountains, and then the fountains and the windows of 
 heaven were opened, and the waters in their force continued 
 one hundred and fifty days. After tliis, God sent a strong 
 wind, so that the fountains were stopped, and the windows of 
 lieaven, where the waters came out, were loclced. The ark 
 n-as many cubits in water till the first of the month Tammuz 
 (the tenth month), then the tops of the mountains were seen 
 on the tenth of Ab (the eleventh month). And Noah opened 
 the window of the ark, and after three weeks he sent forth a 
 dove from the ark to see whether the ground was dry ; and 
 again after thirty days Noah removed the covering from the 
 ark. 
 
 7 And he sent forth a raven to see whether the waters were 
 abated. The raven would not go, but pleaded : " We in the 
 ark are no more than I and my wife ; if we are lost, my species 
 will become extinct in the world." But Noah would not re- 
 admit the raven into the ark, and said : " Thou art of no use, 
 neither for food nor for a sacrifice ! " But God said unto Noah, 
 "Take it in again, for the raven is intended as an embassy in 
 the days of Elijah the prophet." For Elijah the prophet was 
 hid from Ahab the king of Israel, and as he had nothing to 
 eat, the ravens brought him flesh and bread from the house 
 of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, even to the place where 
 he was hid. 
 
 8 And he sent forth a dove from him. Our Rabbi B'chai 
 asks : Why is it not said of the raven, "-from him 2 " (Reply) 
 This shows us that the clean fowls were with Noah in his own 
 compartment, but the unclean fowls were separate, and there- 
 fore it is not said "from him." 
 
 1 1 And, to, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. The 
 question is : Where did the dove get the leaf, since all the 
 trees in the world were uprooted ? The answer is, that in the 
 land of Israel there was no rain and no waters, except that 
 from the other countries reached there ; the trees of the land 
 
4S RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 of Israel therefore were not rooted up. But some of the sages 
 say, the dove brought the leaf from the garden of Eden. 
 
 Now another question arises : How did Noah know that 
 the waters abated, when the leaf was from the garden of Eden, 
 for there was 710 deluge there ? The Ramban writes : At the 
 time of the Deluge the gate of the garden of Eden was locked, 
 that the waters should not penetrate into it; but when the 
 waters abated the door was opened, and the dove flew in and 
 obtained the leaf 
 
 The dove might have brought a better leaf, but she brought 
 an olive leaf, which is bitter, thereby to teach Noah that it is 
 better to eat a bitter leaf from God's hands, than sweet food 
 from the hands of man. 
 
 14 Was the earth dried 7 Though the earth was dried, yet 
 Noah and his household did not leave the ark, for, said he, 
 " God commanded me to enter the ark, therefore will I not 
 leave it without His permission." 
 
 The Book of Jashar writes : When Noah opened the window 
 of the ark, God ordered him not to leave it till the (end of the) 
 year, and therefore he did not leave it. From this, Hananiah, 
 Mishael, and Azariah learned, when Nebuchadnezzar ordered 
 them to be cast into the furnace,^ the pit of the furnace was 
 very deep, but God worked for them a miracle that the pit 
 became level with the ground — that they should not come out 
 without the permission of Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife. Now has the 
 Holy One, blessed be He ! told them again to attach them- 
 selves to their wives, therefore it is said in the text, Noah and 
 his wife, and the children with their wives ; but on their enter- 
 ing the ark, the text mentions the husbands apart and the 
 wives apart. * * * * 
 
 1 8 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his 
 S07is' 7vives with him. Vide next chapter, ver. 5. 
 
 2 1 For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. 
 
 ' Dan. iii. 20. 
 
GENESIS VIII. 2I-/X 5. 49 
 
 God said, I will no more punish man all at one time, because 
 the Yetzer-harrah, i.e. the evil imagination (or propensity to 
 evil) is in man from his youth, for as soon as man is born 
 the Yetzer-harrah comes to him, but the Yetzer-tov, i.e. good 
 imagination (or propensity to good), first comes to man at the 
 age of thirteen years. Therefore man has great troubles from 
 the Yetzer-harrah, because it is implanted in him from his 
 youth, and the Yetzer-tov is a guest with him, and this is why 
 the latter cannot withstand (or oppose) the former.^ 
 
 22 While the earth remai?ieth, seedtime and harvest. God 
 said, " There must be a time when man must sow and reap 
 upon earth j cold and heat, summer and winter, shall not cease. 
 I will no more slay all at one time as I have done by the 
 Deluge, but some shall be born and some shall die ; " therefore, 
 says the text, there will be " seedtime and harvest," ^hat is to 
 say, people will be born and will die again. And of what will 
 they die? The text says "cold and heat" for when summer 
 and winter part from each other many diseases follow. This 
 is why we fast on Mondays and Thursdays after the feast of 
 Tabernacles (in the autumn), and after the feast of Passover 
 (in the spring), because the parting of summer and winter 
 brings a change in the atmosphere, and we fast, that the change 
 of atmosphere may do us no harm. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : The text means this : God 
 said, " I will no more bring a deluge, but I will punish the 
 people with sowing and reaping by means of cold and heat ; 
 that the heat will burn up the corn, or I will cause a cold that 
 the corn shall not grow." 
 
 Chapter IX. — 5 And surely your blood of your lives will I 
 require. God said unto Noah, " Whoever of you shall be slain, 
 I will understand (who did it) and will do vengeance on the 
 murderer." Because God permitted Noah to eat flesh, and to 
 Adam the eating of flesh was prohibited, therefore when Noah 
 hunted beasts for food, lest they kill him, God said, "Whoso kills 
 ■ 1 See Rom. vii. 21-23. 
 
 E 
 
so RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 you on him will I do vengeance, be it one man killing another, 
 or a beast killing a man ; " and hence says the text (ver. 2), 
 " And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every 
 beast of the earih.^' 
 
 A?id Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his 
 sons' wives 7vith him. It may be asked : If God said unto 
 Noah, " Go forth, thou and thy wife," that is to say, that he 
 should join himself with his wife, why did not Noah wish to 
 join himself with his wife? (as is implied from the text), for 
 here Noah and his sons are counted (by themselves), and the 
 women are counted separately. The answer is : On account 
 of three things Noah did not wish to join himself to his 
 wife. I. He was afraid that a deluge might come upon his 
 children ; and he thought to what purpose should he have 
 more children ? and therefore God assured him on oath that 
 He would no more bring a deluge. 2. He was afraid that 
 wild beasts would kill his children, because from Adam and 
 onwards man sinned, and consequently the beasts had the 
 power (or authority) to kill him, for the beast says, " I am as 
 good as man when he does not keep the law ; " therefore said 
 God unto Noah, "Thou needest not fear the beasts, for 'the 
 fear aftd dread of you shall be upon every beast,' " and therefore 
 it is immediately added, ''And God blessed Noah and his sons, 
 and said unto them, Be fruitful and 7nultiply" that is to say, 
 be ye not afraid of the beasts, and let your wives bear children. 
 3. He thought his children would be wicked and kill each 
 other, therefore said God, " 'And surely the blood of your lives 
 will I require; if one kills another I will kill the murderer. 
 'At the hand of every beast will I require it ; ' when a beast 
 kills a man, I will kill the beast." It may be asked : Has then 
 a beast sense (of guilt), that it should be executed (for guilt) ? 
 The explanation is this : God says, " When a man kills his 
 fellow man, I will require of him his fellow man's blood through 
 a beast ; I will send upon him a wild beast which will tear hira 
 to pieces." 
 
GENESIS IX. 5-13. 51 
 
 Ai the Jiand of man, and at the hand of every niati's brother. 
 It may be asked on this text : What need is there to say, " Of 
 man, and of a man's brother?" But the Torah (Scripture) 
 teaches us that a man is killed in four (different) ways : i. 
 A man may kill himself on account of troubles, respecting 
 whom the text says, " And your blood of your {own') lives will 
 I require .- " " he who kills himself, him will I punish." 2. A 
 man may incite a fierce dog or a savage beast to kill his 
 fellow man; respecting such the text says, "At the hand of 
 every beast will I require it : " " he who kills his fellow man 
 tlirough a beast, him will I punish." 3. A man may send his 
 servant (or slave) to kill a fellow man; respecting such the 
 text says, "At the hand of man, and at the hand of every man's 
 brother ; " which means " he who kills his fellow man through 
 a messenger, him will I punish." And 4. one may personally 
 kill his fellow man; respecting such the text says, " Whoso 
 sheddefh man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." 
 
 7 A?id you, be ye fruitful, and multiply. The sages say : 
 Close on "Whoso sheddeth man's blood," the Torah (Scrip- 
 ture) writes : " Be ye fruitful and multiply." This is to show 
 us that he who does not take a wife to beget children is as 
 much as if he sheddeth blood. But some sages say : He who 
 does not take a wife to beget children causeth the Shechinah 
 to depart from Israel, as it is said in the text, " To be a God 
 unto thee, and to thy seed after thee," ^ which means, the She- 
 chinah is with thee when thou hast children.^ 
 
 13 / do set my bow in the cloud. God said unto Noah, " I 
 give thee a token that I will keep my oath, and will never again 
 bring a deluge. When the people become wicked, I will send 
 rain and set a rainbow in the heavens, to show them they 
 deserve that I should have war with them, and cause much rain 
 to drown them ; but I will keep my oath." And to show that 
 God is at peace with us and will not destroy, the bow stands 
 with the ends downwards to the people. But when there are 
 
 ' Gen. xvii. 7. ^ Vide Tal. Misc., p. 277, i8. 
 
52 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 very righteous men in a generation there is no rainbow 
 (required), because the righteous (themselves) protect that 
 generation. Therefore there was no rainbow in the days of 
 King Hezekiah, nor in the days of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, 
 nor in the days of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. 
 
 20 And Noah began to be a husbandmati, and he planted a 
 vineyard. For Noah took with him into the ark, grapes to 
 plant a vineyard. The Torah mentions the planting of the 
 vine so close to the (record of the) rainbow, to show, as the 
 rainbow indicates that people are wicked, so likewise he who 
 desires to drink wine should know that much wickedness may 
 result from much drink; he may even lose his life. King 
 Solomon has said, "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? he 
 who drinks much wine."i And not wine only, but also other 
 intoxicating drinks are very unwholesome; and therefore in 
 olden times they used to mix water with the wine in the cup 
 of blessing at the repetition of grace after meals, because their 
 wine was very strong, and thus they demonstrated that the wine 
 was not fit to have a blessing repeated over it, because evil 
 comes of it. And this is why the text says, "And Noah began" ^ 
 signifying that he began to be profane, he drank much wine. 
 
 Though Noah was a just man, so that he saved the whole 
 world by his piety, for the world springs from him; yet 
 because he drank much wine, he became uncovered, and his 
 children sinned, and he cursed them in consequence. And 
 hence the Torah has written thirteen Vans ^ in connection with 
 wine, to show that though a man be worthy on account of his 
 
 ' Prov. xxiii. 29. 
 
 ^ 7n'1 from the verb ?>Vi has both meanings: to begin, to profane, or 
 to defile. It is quite usual to play on a word of two meanings, if it serves 
 the commentator's purpose. 
 
 ^ The letter Vau is used as a conjunctive, which corresponds to the 
 English and. And is found thirteen times between the 20th and 24tli 
 verses, and as the letter Vau (and) means, in Syriac, woe, the expounders 
 of the Talmud have taken the thirteen Vans as so many woes jjronounced 
 against wine. Vide Sanhedrin, fol. 70A. 
 
GENESIS IX. 19-21. S3 
 
 piety to enter paradise, which is divided into thirteen divisions, 
 through which flow thirteen rivers of precious oil, and in which 
 there are thirteen raised dais (one above the other, to indi- 
 cate high and low degrees or ranks) on which the righteous 
 are seated ; yet when a man drinks much wine he is excluded 
 from the thirteen degrees. 
 
 The Midrash Rabbah writes : At the time when Noah was 
 about to plant the vineyard, a spirit met him, and proposed 
 partnership in planting the same.i "But yet" (said the spirit), 
 "beware that thou dost not drink much, else I will injure 
 thee." Therefore, when a man is intoxicated, the evil spirit 
 causes him to be stark mad and to do evil. 
 
 Rabbi Chiya bar Abba says : In the day Noah planted the 
 vineyard, on that very day he drank of the wine, and on the 
 selfsame day also he did much evil on account of the wine ; 
 he became profane or unholy. 
 
 21 And was tmcovered within his tent, on account of the 
 wine (he drank). And therefore it is said: "And he was un- 
 covered^^ for it signifies exile? This is to show that on account 
 
 ^ The story of the partnership between the evil spirit and Noah is re- 
 corded in the Midrash Tanchuma with considerable variation, and will 
 bear repeating here. In fol. 14B we read : Whilst Noah was preparing 
 the ground for his vineyard, Satan approached him, and inquired about the 
 object of his occupation. " I am planting a vineyard," was the reply. "And 
 of what use will that be?" asked the evil one. "Its fruit," answered Noah, 
 "fresh or dried, will be sweet ; and its juice will ' make glad the heart of 
 man'" (Ps. civ. 15). Satan then offered to enter into partnership with 
 him ; and on the settlement of the agreement, he manured the soil with 
 the blood of a lamb, a lion, a pig, and a monkey. Asked to explain his 
 motive for this singular mode of cultivating the vine, he replied : " Before a 
 man drinks of its juice he is as harmless as a lamb, and ' as a sheep before 
 her shearers is dumb.' When he has taken a moderate quantity of the 
 liquid, his animal spirits are roused like those of a lion ; but when he has 
 indulged in it immoderately, he wallows in the mire like a pig, or performs 
 all sorts of antics like a monkey." Gen. ace. to the Tal., p. 229. 
 
 ■ n'pj has both meanings : to zmcover, to reveal, to maize bare: or, to 
 lead away captive, to carry into c;r;7t',— another example of a play on a 
 word with two meanings. 
 
S4 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 of drinking much wine his children, the Ten Tribes, were 
 exiled from the Land of Israel, because they drank much 
 wine, and consequently have done much evil, as it is stated in 
 the Scriptures : " That drink wine in bowls," etc.^ And the 
 tribes of Judah and Benjamin were also exiled on account of 
 wine, as it is recorded in Scripture: "They also have erred 
 through wine, and through strong drink are put out of the 
 way." 3 
 
 2 2 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of 
 his father. Canaan, the son of Ham, seeing Noah lying un- 
 covered, went to his father Ham, and told him of it. Ham 
 went and saw the nakedness of his father, and he told it to 
 his brothers Shem and Japheth. But Shem immediately took 
 a garment and covered the shame of his father, and Japheth 
 helped him to do so. Therefore was Shem counted worthy 
 that his children should receive the commandment respecting 
 Fringes to their garments.^ And because Japheth also helped 
 to cover his father, therefore will his children be covered in 
 burial in the days of Gog and Magog. For Gog and Magog 
 will descend from Japheth, and will war against Israel in the 
 days of the Messiah, and as they will be killed by the Messiah, 
 God will then pay the reward (for Japheth's conduct) that they 
 shall be buried (and thus covered). From this we learn that 
 when two together do a good work, and one of them is more 
 prompt in the performance of the meritorious act than the 
 other, he receives a better reward than the other; as we find 
 it in the case of Shem, because he was prompt to cover his 
 father's shame, and Japheth came afterwards to do the same, 
 therefore has Shem received a better reward than Japheth. 
 
 Because Ham put his father to shame, and did not cover 
 his nakedness, therefore were his children put to shame, and 
 fell into the hands of the king of Assyria, and he led them 
 (captive) naked and uncovered. 
 
 24 Atid Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his 
 ' Amos vi. 6. - Isa. xxviii. 7. ^ Num. xv. 38. 
 
GENESIS XT. 22-.Y-. 8. 55 
 
 you7iger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be 
 Canaan. He cursed Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, that 
 he should always be a servant to his brethren. Because, when 
 they came out of the ark, God blessed them, and Ham was 
 included in the blessing, therefore Noah did not curse him, 
 but his son Canaan. Rava, on behalf of Rav Joseph, says : 
 Noah said to Ham, " Thy children shall be dark and black." 
 These are the Ethiopians and the Negroes, which have de- 
 scended from Ham, on account of the curse. 
 
 28, 29 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and 
 fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred 
 and fifty years. 
 
 Chapter X. — i Noza these are the generations of the sons 
 of Noah. In this section are mentioned seventy of the sons 
 of Noah, from whom originated seventy languages (nations), 
 and the text mentions them so that it should be known from 
 whom Abraham descended, and it tells that he descended 
 from Shem. 
 
 The Ramban writes : The Torah has shown that Abraham 
 was also one who bore testimony that God alone created the 
 world, for Abraham was fifty-eight years old when Noah died. 
 Thus Abraham conversed with Noah, who told him on behalf 
 of his father Lamech, who saw Adam, whom God created at 
 the beginning of the world ; and Abraham communicated this 
 to his children, Isaac and Jacob ; and Isaac and Jacob saw 
 Shem the son of Noah, who had been in the ark, and who 
 related to them the story of the Deluge and of the ark. 
 Jacob, again, repeated the story to his children." ^ Therefore 
 the text mentions the names of Shem and his children. 
 
 8, 9 He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a 
 mighty hunter. Nimrod counselled rebellion against God in 
 the generation of Confusion of Tongues. He drew people 
 after him by his (cunning) speech, and incited them to rebel 
 against God. 
 
 1 Vide Tal. Misc., p. Ill, 22. 
 
55 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY- 
 
 In Pirk(^ de Rabbi Eliezer it is said on behalf of Rabbi 
 Yehudah, that the coat, which God made for Adam, Noah 
 took with him into the ark, and afterwards he gave it to 
 Nimrod. AVhen Nimrod dressed himself in the coat, all the 
 cattle and the beasts and the fowls bowed before him, for on 
 the coat was pictured all the cattle and the beasts and the 
 fowls. Therefore the people thought Nimrod was a mighty 
 one, and made him to be king over them. He then said (as 
 in next chapter) : 
 
 Chapter XL — 4 Go to, let us build a city and a tower whose 
 top shall reacli heaven. And they built the same tower twenty- 
 seven miles high. Steps were on the east side (of the tower) 
 and on the west side ; those who carried up bricks went up 
 on the east side and came down by the west, in order that 
 one should not obstruct the passage of the other. If one fell 
 down and was killed, no one felt concerned about it, for there 
 were many thousands to carry bricks ; but when a brick hap- 
 pened to fall, they were much distressed, and wept, saying, 
 "AVhen can another brick come in its place !" 
 
 The generation of the Confusion of Tongues said: "Why 
 should God be a king in heaven and we on earth ? We will 
 go up and war with Him, and we will reign above." They 
 then placed an idol on the top of the tower, with a sword in 
 its hand, so that the world thought the idol was at war with 
 God. And this is why the people of the Deluge perished, but 
 the people of the Confusion of Tongues, who built the tower in 
 rebelhon against God, did not perish ; because the former com- 
 mitted theft and robbery, but the latter greatly loved each other 
 and had peace among themselves. Rabbi says : " How great is 
 peace ! so that when Israel even serves idols but have peace 
 among themselves,^ God says, ' I can do nothing unto them ! ' " 
 
 The generation of the Confusion of Tongues said : "After 
 1656 years the heavens will be in a weak condition, therefore 
 
 ' And yet it is quite i^roverbial among tlie Jews themselves : D''"l3y *3tJ^ 
 □ 'VJ, " Two Hebrews quarrel together." Exod. ii. 13. 
 
GENESIS X. tj^XI. 6. 57- 
 
 we must build four lofty pillars of brick, on each side (on each 
 point of the compass) one pillar, that heaven should rest on 
 the same to prevent its falling down." And they said, " We will 
 make a great tower whose top shall reach heaven, and we will 
 hew out great windows in heaven that the waters shall flow out, 
 in order that God shall no more be able to bring a deluge." 
 
 Rabbi Jeremiah says : There were three parties ; one said : 
 '■ Let us mount up into heaven and dwell there ; " this has God 
 scattered all over the world. The second said : " Let us serve 
 idols there ; '' this had their language confounded. The third 
 said : " We will wage war with God in heaven ; " this God has 
 cursed. Rabbi Yochanan said : A third part of the tower 
 was consumed by fire, and a third sank into the ground, and 
 a third remained. '■ 
 
 7 And there confounded their language. Because they sinned 
 with their language when they said, " Let us build a tower," 
 therefore God punished them by confounding their language. 
 The sacred tongue {Hebrew) was spoken by all till the genera- 
 tion of the Confusion of Tongues, for the world was created 
 with the sacred tongue ; but now each of the seventy angels 
 took one nation and instructed it in a (new) language ; but 
 God instructed Israel in the holy tongue. 
 
 And when God had confounded their languages, one ordered 
 another to bring him an axe, and he brought him some other 
 thing, for he did not understand what was wanted, and thus 
 they could not get on building the tower. 
 
 6 Nothing will be restrained from them. This signifies, that 
 nothing was wanting to them, for they had great fortune to 
 build j therefore God scattered them, as the text says, " So the 
 Lord scattered them." The Rabbis say : God caused the sea to 
 
 ' The Talmud adds : HDB'D ^13D 1*1N, " The air about the tower 
 causes oblivion." Sanhedrin, fol. 109A. By way of contrast we quote 
 another passage from the Talmud, which is a favourite with the Jew : 
 D'SnO ''"XT S<T'15<, i.e. "The air of tlie Land of Israel mal<es one wise." 
 Bava balhra, fol. 158B. 
 
58 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 pour itself out upon them and drowned them, and God left 
 but thirty families alive. 
 
 10 These are the generations of Shem. Why is it mentioned 
 of these people, how long they lived, and begat sons and 
 ■daughters, — and why is it not mentioned, as was the case from 
 Adam until Noah, that they died ? ^ The answer is : Because 
 from Shem descended the House of David, and the Messiah 
 who lives for ever, as it is stated in Scripture, " He asked life 
 of Thee, and Thou gavest it to him, even length of days for 
 and ever." ^ 
 
 Another reason why death is not mentioned of Noah and 
 his children is : Because from them the world was established, 
 but the generations from Adam to Noah all perished in the 
 Deluge. 
 
 Another reason is : Because the generations from Adam to 
 Noah lived very long, therefore it is written " A?id he died," 
 that is to say, they lived long enough. But the generations 
 from Noah and onwards did not live long, therefore it is not 
 written of them, that they died. 
 
 28 A7td Haran died before his father Terah, in the land of 
 his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. The text informs us that 
 Abraham sacrificed himself for the sake of God, and he was 
 therefore counted worthy that God should speak to him. And 
 how could God speak with Abraham without proclaiming what 
 a just man he was? Therefore does the text make it known 
 that Abraham allowed himself to be cast into the fire for God's 
 sake. For his father Terah was a dealer in idols, and appointed 
 Abraham to sell them. When anyone came to buy an idol, 
 Abraham asked him, "How old art thou?" The other re- 
 plied, "Fifty or sixty years." Then Abraham exclaimed, 
 " Woe be to thee ! thou art sixty years old, and wilt thou bow 
 down to one that is only one day old ? for the idol was only 
 made this day." Thus the other departed with shame. Once 
 a woman came and brought a basin of fine flour, as an offering 
 
 ' Vidd chap. v. p. 38. - Ps. xxi. 4. 
 
GENESIS XL 10-28. 59 
 
 to the idols. Abraham took it and placed it before them, and 
 took a great stick and broke all the idols, except the largest, 
 in whose hands he fixed the stick. When Terah came and 
 -asked Abraham, "Who has done all this?" he replied: "A 
 woman brought fine flour as an offering, and there began a 
 quarrel between the gods as to who should eat first, but the 
 greatest one took the stick and broke them all ! " Terah then 
 said to Abraham ; " Have they then reason or life in them? " 
 Abraham replied, " Since they have no reason, why should we 
 worship them ? " Terah then seized him and delivered him 
 into the hands of Nimrod, who said unto Abraham, " If thou 
 ■svilt bow down to the idols, well and good ; if not, I will order 
 thee to be cast into the fire." Haran stood near (at the time) 
 -and thought : " I shall see ; if Abraham be delivered from the 
 fire, I shall declare that I serve the God of Abraham ; if not, 
 I will serve what Nimrod serves." When Abraham came out 
 of the fire uninjured, Haran was asked: " AVhom dost thou 
 worship ?" and he rephed : " The God cf Abraham ! " And they 
 cast him into the fire, where his bowels shrank together, and 
 ^he died. Then came an angel and thrust him out of the fire 
 before his father Terah, and this is the meaning of the text: 
 "And Haran died before his father Terah"; that is on 
 account, or because, of his father Terah ; for if Terah had 
 not complained to Nimrod against Abraham, Haran would not 
 have been cast into the fire. From this we learn, that a man 
 should not trust to a miracle, but if he be willing to die for 
 God's sake let him not think that God will work a miracle for 
 his sake, for he who trusts to a miracle does not willingly give 
 himself to God ; and therefore God performs no miracle for 
 him, as we find by Haran, because he allowed himself to be 
 •cast into the fire after he had seen that a miracle was wrought 
 for Abraham; therefore God performed no miracle for him. 
 It is on that account that the sages have said ; " One should 
 not trust to a miracle." ^ 
 
 ' Djn "^y fSDID PX- This s.aying is now quite proverbial. 
 
6o RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 30 But Sarah was barren, she had no child. The question 
 is : Since Sarah was barren, it is therefore well known of itself 
 that she had no child, why need it yet be stated : " She had m 
 child" "i The answer is this: There are many women who 
 (from some constitutional cause) can have no children, but yet 
 after many years they bear children, therefore the text states, 
 that Sarah, even after many years, was still incapable of bearing 
 children. 
 
 Abraham and Sarah, therefore, resolved to leave their native 
 land and go to the land of Canaan, which is a holy land, where 
 perhaps they might be counted worthy to have children. 
 
 It is known that Abraham was the principal and even the 
 master of his father's household, and when he left for the land 
 of Canaan they all accompanied him. But Abraham honoured 
 his father, whom he made master over himself, and therefore 
 it is stated — 
 
 31 And Terah took Ahrain his son, and Lot, etc. 
 
 32 And Terah died in Haran. Here is a question: Why 
 till now has the Torah not mentioned death of the children 
 of Shem, but of Terah death is mentioned ? The sages reply 
 thus : The Torah was obliged to record that he died, in 
 order that people should not say : Abraham went away from 
 his country — from the native land of his parents, whom he 
 forsook, as it is said further on : " Get thee out from thy 
 country, and from thy kindred " — How can it be possible that 
 Abraham did not honour his father, but (in his old age) forsook 
 him? Therefore does the text first record: "And Terah 
 died," and immediately after it states : " Get thee out from thy 
 country, and from thy kindred." 
 
 And even when God said to Abraham : " Thou shalt (after 
 death) go to thy fathers in peace," 1 our sages inferred from it; 
 that Terah has a portion in the AVorld to Come ; for Terah 
 participated in the merits of his son Abraham, and entered 
 Paradise. Here the fruit saved the tree ; that is to say, Abra- 
 
 ' Chap. XV. 13. 
 
GENESIS XL 30-32. 61 
 
 ham was the fruit, and Terah the tree. The Midrash learns 
 from this, that all kinds of wood were eligible for fire on the 
 altar, except the wood of the olive-tree and of the vine ; these 
 were not allowed to be brought for fire on the altar, because 
 they used oil in the Temple and also wine for the (service of 
 the) altar. Thus these two fruits saved their (respective) trees 
 from the fire, just as Abraham, the fruit of Terah, saved Terah 
 from the fire of hell. The sages explicitly say : The merits of 
 the son are available for the father, but not those of the father 
 for the son.'- This means : A son delivers his father from hell, 
 
 ' Nna ''3T0 ih N3N' ,!<2N' 13T0 Nia. SanJudrin, fol. 104A. The Tal- 
 mud says : The merits of a father are not available for a son, for Abraham 
 could not deliver Ishniael, nor could Isaac deliver Esau ; but ivhy a son s 
 merits are available for a father, the Talmud does not explain. This fact 
 alone is a strong proof that the Rabbinical Mass, called Kadish, is of 
 modern date, and was unknown to primitive Judaism. Vide Tal. J\/isc., 
 p. 332, 10, also 305, 64, and 311, 83. But we add here, as Ijriefly as pos- 
 sible, a few particulars respecting the Jewish Mass, or Prayer for the Dead, 
 called Kadish. It is repeated in the Chaldce language, that the angels, 
 who do not uirderstand Chaldee, might not thereby be provoked to jealousy 
 against man, for being so highly privileged in possessing such a valuable 
 prayer, which even the angels do not possess. Kadish is offered for the 
 souls of men and women, but is repeated by men only, and not by women. 
 Hence orthodox Jews are more anxious to have male rather than female 
 children. Sons, and not daughters, by repeating Kadish at public worship 
 for a certain period, can deliver their parents from hell. Parents cannot 
 say Kadish on behalf of their children. 
 
 At the end of time, when God will proclaim and explain the New Law, 
 which He will give by the Messiah to mankind, Zerubbaljel the son of 
 Shealthiel, whose voice will be heard from one end of the world to the 
 other, will say Kadish for all souls, and the wicked Jews as well as the 
 fioiis Gentiles, who will yet be in hell, if they but respond Amen, will 
 then be delivered from the eternal punishment in hell. Kab Hajasher, 
 chap. iv. 
 
 There is a good deal more to be said on the subject of Kadish, but at 
 present we will only quote from the Jewish Liturgy the following form of 
 Prayer, the repetition of which is believed to be an effectual means of 
 delivering condemned souls from the punishment of hell. 
 
 7130^ May his great name be exalted, and sanctified throughout the 
 world, which He hath created, according to His will. May He establish His 
 
62 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 but a father does not deliver his son from hell, as Scripture 
 says : "Neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand" 
 (Deut. xxxiii. 39), that is to say, Abraham did not deliver his- 
 wicked son Ishmael. 
 
 Kingdom in our life-time, and in the life-time of the whole house of Israel;, 
 soon, and in a short time, and say ye, Amen. 
 
 Amen. May His great name be blessed, and glorified for ever and ever. 
 
 May His hallowed name be praised, glorified, exalted, magnified, 
 honoured, and most excellently adored ; blessed is He ; far exceeding all 
 blessings, hymns, praises and beatitudes, that are repeated throughout the 
 world, and say ye. Amen. 
 
 Unto Israel, their Rabbis, their disciples, and all their disciples' disciples, 
 who diligently study the law, who are in this, and every other place, may 
 there be unto them, and to you, abundant peace, grace, favour, mercy, long 
 life, enlarged maintenance, and redemption, from the presence of their 
 Father of heaven and earth, and say ye. Amen. 
 
 May the fulness of peace from heaven, and good life be granted to us 
 and to all Israel, and say ye. Amen. 
 
 May He whomaketh peace in His high heavens, bestow peace on us and 
 on all Israel, and say ye, Amen. 
 
 Remarl;, We do not see any connection between the above form of 
 prayer and the deliverance from purgatory, but this we know for certain, 
 that no dutiful son, be his orthodoxy ever so weak, would ever willingly 
 miss repeating it for the benefit of his departed parents. 
 
 One point mora must be noticed here. On all Jewish festivals, especially 
 on the Day of Atonements (Atonements in the plural DniQ3n DV)' there 
 is a High Mass for the dead called DIOB'J mStn mO " The form of the 
 Remembrance of i/ie Souls " (in purgatory), solemnly repeated, not by 
 orphan sons, but by an official of the Synagogue, and for each departed 
 person he mentions by name he is paid by a relative of the dead. The 
 money thus obtained goes to the funds of the Synagogue. Though the 
 High Mass is only about four lines in extent, it has generally to be repeated 
 with irernendous rapidity, especially when the congregation is numerous, 
 for each individual expects, for his money, the whole form of the frayer for 
 the soul of his departed relative to be repeated separately, and this lengthens 
 the already long festival service ; and the congregation has to fast till all is 
 over. 
 
 * Because on that day atonement is made for the li\"ing and the dead. 
 
 End of Second Section. 
 
GENESIS XI. ZZ'XII. i. 63 
 
 Chapter XII. — i Get thee out. King Solomon, peace be 
 upon him ! says in Proverbs : — " He that walketh with wise 
 men shall be wise \ but a companion of fools shall be de- 
 stroyed." 1 The text teaches us that a man should associate 
 with wise and pious people, and should separate himself from 
 sinners. " He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but 
 a companion of fools shall be broken." As he who associates 
 with the sages is led in consequence to worship God properly, 
 and to think of God continually, so likewise he who associates 
 with the wicked forgets God continually and learns from the 
 wicked their wicked works. Therefore, let a man be warned 
 not to associate with wicked people. It is said : " When 
 woe overtakes the wicked, his neighbour is implicated in it." ^ 
 Abraham also wished to keep the Law and to serve God pro- 
 perly, as the Gemara says : Abraham, from his own reason, 
 observed the whole Law and the Gemara (the written and oral 
 Laws) before they were given. Therefore God said unto 
 Abraham : " Get thee out from thy country, and from thy kin- 
 dred^'' because they are wicked people. 
 
 The sages say : Abraham was like a vessel containing 
 spices, in an impure place, so that no one knew of the good 
 scent ; but when the vessel was removed from the foul place, 
 people became aware of the good odour. So likewise was 
 Abraham amongst the wicked who served idols, and therefore 
 God told him to get out of his country, that his good works 
 might become known. And this was one of the Ten Trials 
 with which God tested Abraham to ascertain whether he 
 would observe His command ; — to abandon his home where he 
 had lived all his days, and where he was well known, to go 
 to a strange country as a penitent. This was the first Trial^ 
 and " the offering of Isaac " was the tenth. These two Trials 
 resemble one another.^ Here it is said : " Get thee out from 
 
 ' Prov. xiii. 20. . , 
 
 " Negaim, chap. xii. 6, i:3C7 »1« Vt^l' ''1i< 
 
 ^ According to the thirteen Rabbinical Rules by which Scripture is to be 
 
^5+ RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 thy country," and by " the offering of Isaac " it is also said : 
 " Get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for 
 a burnt offering." i This teaches us, tliat a man would rather 
 die than be driven from his birth-place and see no more of 
 his family. 
 
 2 And I will make thee a great nation. Our sages say ; 
 Travel \yeakens a man in three particulars : i. It weakens 
 his power of procreation ; 2. it diminishes his money, on 
 account of travelling expenses ; and 3. it lowers his good 
 name, for he is not known in a strange country. Therefore 
 God said to Abraham, on these three particulars he should 
 suffer no loss on his journey; and this is signified in the text; 
 " / will make of thee a great nation" " for in this land thou art 
 not worthy to beget children, but there thou shalt have chil- 
 dren." " And I will make great thy name" " and I will bless 
 thee," with much money; "and thou shalt be a blessing," thou 
 shalt be a Blesser. God said unto Abraham, " Till now the 
 blessings were in My own hands, I blessed Adam and Noah ; 
 but now I deliver them into thy hands that thou shouldest 
 bless whomsoever thou wilt." 
 
 3 Arid I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him (sing.) 
 that curseth thee (sing.). That is to say, I will first bless him 
 that will bless thee, that his blessing should take effect on 
 thee ; and I will first curse him who curseth thee, in order 
 that his curse should have no effect on thee. 
 
 The Midrash Tanchuna writes : The text says : Lech- 
 expounded, which rules are embodied in the Jewish Liturgy and repeated by 
 every pious Jew in his daily morning prayer, one mle, the second on the 
 list, runs as follows: "WA 3iriDD 3N P^^D, i.e. "A decision deduced 
 from an agreement, or equality of texts. " " Get thee " in one text certainly 
 is equal to " Get thee " in another, yet the agreement of the two texts from 
 which the " Get thee " " Get thee " are quoted, is entirely wanting. By a 
 rule like this the sages of the Talmud might prove that the swan de- 
 scended from the goose, and the goose from the duck, and man from the 
 monkey, because there is some point of resemblance between them. 
 
 ' Chap. xxii. 2. 
 
GENESIS XII. 1-3. 65 
 
 lecha,!^ i.e. " Get thee gone." By this God indicated unto 
 Abraham that he would have children at the age of a hundred 
 years, for the numerical value of Lech-lecha, i.e. " Get thee 
 gone," is one hundred.^ 
 
 The Gemara says, in the first Section of the Treatise Rosh 
 Hashanah ^ : Rabbi Yitzkhac said : Five things annul the 
 judicial sentence passed against a man. i. Almsgiving, as it 
 is said, " Alms delivereth from death." * 2. Prayer, as it is 
 written : " They cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He 
 delivered them out of their distress." ^ 3. Change of Name, 
 as in the case of Sarah it is written : " Thou shalt not call 
 her name Sarai, but Sarah"; by another name she will have 
 children. 4. Change of conduct ; when one changes his 
 deeds from bad to good, he annuls the sentence passed against 
 him. And, 5. some sages say. Change of Place; when one 
 goes away from the town where he had no Luck, and goes 
 into another town, he can change his Luck for the better. 
 
 In Berachoth, Chapter ^Haro^h,^ Rabbi Yehudah says : 
 Three things shorten the life of a man. i. When he is called 
 up to the scroll of the Law and he fails to come, since it is 
 written : " For it (the scroll of the Law) is thy life and the 
 strength of thy days." 7 2. When a cup (of wine at the con- 
 
 1 ^7"'q7 literally " go-to thee " ; which we render, get thee gone. 
 
 27=30. 1 = 20. 7 = 30. "1 = 20. Total, 100. See List of Numerical 
 Values of the Hebrew Letters, at end of Preface. 
 
 ^ Fol. i6b, where the statement is rather different to that given here. 
 Vide Gen. ace. to the Talmud, p. 252, ver. i. 
 
 ■• Prov. X. 2. npTlf, i.e. righteousness, is also usually rendered alms, 
 almsgiving, and charity. * Ps. cvii. 6. * Fol. 55 A. 
 
 7 Deut. XXX. 20. A portion of the Law of Moses is read at public 
 worship three times a week — Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays ; also on 
 feast and fast days, and on New Moon days, on whatever day of the 
 week they may fall. These portions of the Law are divided into three, 
 five, or seven sections, to each of which a different Jew is formally called 
 up, and he has to repeat certain blessings before and after the Synagogue 
 Reader reads the section. To fail to appear at the desk where the Law is 
 read, the text tells us, shortens life. 
 
 F 
 
66 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 elusion of a meal of which three or more adult male persons 
 partook) is given him to repeat the usual blessing over it, and 
 he fails to repeat it, as it is said : " And I will bless them that 
 bless thee." And, 3. When he exalts himself, as we find it 
 in the case of Joseph the Righteous, because he somewhat 
 exalted himself, he died before any of his brethren.^ 
 
 4 So A brum departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him. 
 Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran, and 
 God said unto him; "Thou art 75 years old, and must drag 
 about the country as a penitent ; for the sake of this (thy trying 
 condition) shall a Redeemer of Israel come out of thee, that is, 
 Queen Esther." 
 
 5 And the souls that they had gotten in Haran. Abraham had 
 gathered much substance and servants in Haran, all of which 
 he took with him. He ought first to have chosen a country " 
 and then taken all with him, but Abraham relied on God that 
 He would give him a good land, and therefore he took all 
 with him immediately. 
 
 That they had gotten in Haran has also this important mean- 
 ing : Abraham proselytised men, and Sarah proselytised 
 women, and Scripture counts it to them as if they had created 
 them. These they took with them. Isaac did the same, as it 
 is written : " And Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was 
 a stranger."^ Jacob also did the same, as it is said: "Then 
 Jacob said unto his household, to all that were with Mm (be 
 ye proselytes and) put away the strange gods."^ 
 
 In the Treatise Sanhedrin,* Rish Lakish says : Whosoever 
 teaches his neighbour's son the Law is as if he had created 
 him, as it is said : " And the souls that they had gotten (or 
 made) in Haran." Rabbi Abuhu says : Whoever induces his 
 
 1 Vide Tahn. Misc., p. 41, 8. 
 
 ' Chap, xxxvii. i. By a play on the word ^"l13D, it is made out that 
 Isaac made proselytes. 
 ^ Chap. XXXV. 2. 
 * Fol. g9B. 
 
GENESIS XII. 3-6. 67 
 
 fellow to perform a meritorious work, is as if he had created 
 him.i 
 
 6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of 
 Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. Abraham prayed in Sichem 
 that his children should not lose the war in Sichem. And 
 Abraham came to the plain of Moreh, where Israel sware 
 unto God that they would observe the Law and the Com- 
 mandments, 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : Abraham went from town to 
 town and declared unto the people that God is in heaven, and 
 that he created heaven and earth, and this is why God's first 
 promise to Abraham was : " I will bless thee, and make thy 
 name great," which means — " I will bless thee " with much 
 money that thou shall be rich; "and will make thy name 
 ■ great " ; for a man who is not rich and has no name, people 
 will not listen to him, nor worship God (at his recommenda- 
 tion). This is a solution of a difficult question. God said 
 unto Abraham : " Get thee out of thy country and I will 
 make thee rich, and will make thy name great"; the question 
 is : Did Abraham serve God on account of the (promised) 
 reward? Is that possible? But the explanation is this: 
 Abraham did not serve God on account of any reward, but 
 God said unto Abraham : ^'Because thou wilt tell the people to 
 worship Me, and if thou be poor they will not listen to thy 
 words, particularly as thou art from a strange land and they 
 know thee not ; therefore must I bless thee with money and 
 with a good name, in order that thou shalt be able to speak 
 freely with kings and princes, for when a man is rich he 
 speaks freely to all." 
 
 Another question is asked : Why does the text say : " I 
 will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth 
 
 ' The version of the last sentence as given here by the Commentator is 
 not in harmony with the version of the Talmud which he professes to quote ; 
 in the original it runs thus : Whoever induces his fellow to perform a 
 meritorious work, is considered in Scripture as if he had done it himself. 
 
68 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 thee " ? Why in the plural the blessing, and in the singular 
 by the curse ? The reply to the question is this : Many people 
 blessed Abraham, because (by proselytising them), he brought 
 them to the World to Come, hence the plural is used of them 
 that blessed ; but only Nimrod cursed Abraham, because he 
 proved that Nimrod was no god ; therefore said God : " And 
 curse him that curseth thee." 
 
 And because it was the intention of Abraham to proselytise 
 kings and princes (but feared them lest they kill him, as it 
 happened by Nimrod, who ordered him to be cast into the 
 furnace), the text says : "And the Canaanite was then in the 
 land" that is to say, a very powerful king was in the land, and 
 Abraham was afraid to proclaim the name of God to him. 
 
 7 And there builded he an altar unto the Lord. Here it 
 does not say : " And called upon the name of the Lord," 
 because he feared to proclaim God's name. But when 
 
 8 He removed from thence unto a mountain, where the king 
 was not, then it is stated : "And called upon the name of the 
 Lord." Later on it is again said : " And the Canaanite dwelled- 
 then in the land"; ^ but that teaches us that Abraham said unto 
 Lot : " Thy herdmen quarrel with mine, because we have much 
 cattle ; and the king, being powerful, will drive us out of the 
 country, therefore let us not quarrel." Hence it is said twice : 
 " A?id the Canaanite was tJie7i t?t the land;" i. that Abraham 
 was afraid, because of the king, to proclaim God's name ; and 
 2. it shows us that Abraham was afraid to quarrel with Lot, 
 lest the king drive him out of the land. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks yet another question : Why did 
 Abraham depart from the land of Canaan — the Holy Land — 
 on account of famine, since God told him to go to Canaan ? 
 The answer is : Abraham was afraid that the Canaanites 
 would say. Because he came into our land and proselytised the 
 idolaters, therefore came the famine on the land. This is why 
 Abraham left on account of the famine, especially as that was 
 ' Chap. xiii. 7. 
 
GENESIS XII. 6-11. 69 
 
 the very first famine in the world, — the idolaters would have 
 ascribed it to the faith or religion of Abraham. 
 
 II Behold, now I know, that thou art a fair woman to look 
 upon. Usually a man becomes ugly on a journey, but thou 
 art still in thy beauty. 
 
 Another explanation is this : Abraham and Sarah were 
 exceedingly modest, so that he never once looked on her 
 person,! ^j^j j^Q^y they crossed over water (in which he saw her 
 reflection), and Abraham said unto her : " Now I know how 
 beautiful thou art. We are coming to Egypt, where the people 
 are swarthy ; and as they are not accustomed to see a handsome 
 woman, they will take thee away and kill me. Therefore in 
 all places we come to, say that thou art my sister, in order 
 that when they take thee away, they may at least let me live." 
 
 Our Rabbi B'chai, on behalf of Ramban, writes : Abraham 
 sinned in that he caused Sarah to sin ; for because he was 
 afraid that they would kill him, he let Sarah to be taken/or a 
 wife whilst she was the wife of a husband. He ought to have 
 relied on God, who can deliver every one. And he committed 
 yet another sin, in that he departed from the land of Canaan 
 (the Holy Land) on account of famine ; and this is the reason 
 why Israel have been in captivity of Egypt, in the very land 
 where Abraham sinned. But our sages say : That the captivity 
 of Egypt was not on account of that sin, but because Abraham 
 said unto God : " Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit 
 if t " 3 " Whereby shall I know that my children will inherit the 
 land of Canaan ? " And because the captivity of Egypt was 
 occasioned by evil words (implying doubt) against God, there- 
 fore it lasted four hundred and thirty years ; ^ but this (present) 
 
 ' The Chassidim of Russia and Austria are credited with never looking 
 on a woman, not even on their own wives, excepting on Sabbath eve, 
 natJ' 331V nanO, le. on account of the pleasures of the Sabbath. This 
 pleasure is in connection with the duty based on Exod. xxxi. 16, as explained 
 in Tal. Misc., p. 339. 
 
 - Chap. XV. 8. 
 
 * Exod. xii. 40, 41. 
 
70 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 captivity resulted from three things : Evil thought, evil works, 
 and jealousy, and therefore it lasts three times as long as the 
 captivity of Egypt, and still longer. 
 
 The Ramban writes : Abraham said to Sarah, that she should 
 say that he was her brother, but Sarah did not wish to deny 
 her husband. But on their arrival in Egypt, her beauty was 
 praised, and it was said that she was fit (to be a wife) for the 
 king, and when asked whether she had a husband, Sarah was 
 (simply) silent, and did not say that she was Abraham's wife. 
 But Abraham said she was his sister, and the king therefore 
 treated him well for Sarah's sake. Therefore did Pharaoh say 
 unto Abraham: "What is this that thou hast done unto me? 
 Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife ? " But (in 
 the text) nothing is mentioned that Pharaoh had said anything 
 to Sarah, why she did not tell him that she was Abraham's wife. 
 Sarah was silent. She did not deny her husband, for so it 
 behoves every pious woman. 
 
 It might be asked also : Why was Abraham afraid that they 
 would kill him, since it was as much forbidden to idolaters to 
 take away another man's wife as to shed blood ? For we find 
 that Pharaoh said unto Abraham : " Why didst thou not tell 
 me that she was thy wife" for then we would not have touched 
 her? Now, why was Abraham afraid ? The reply is : Abraham 
 reasoned with himself thus : The Egyptians are prompt to 
 fornication, they will therefore certainly slay me in order that 
 Sarah should not be a married woman. 
 
 It may also be asked : It is not right to cause another man 
 to sin, therefore how could Abraham say she was his sister, 
 whereby he caused other people to sin ? The reply is this ; 
 Abraham gave Sarah a temporary divorce,^ thinking, that 
 
 * In Shabbath, fol. s6a, we are informed that before Urijah went to war 
 he gave a temporary divorce to his wife Bath-sheba, and though King 
 David took her to his house, "and he lay with her" the Talmud says: 
 nVlD n"?}? 13'K XDn nn ICIXn ^3, i.e. 'Whoever says that David had 
 sinned is certainly in error. A temporary divorce then is a very convenient 
 
GENESIS XII. II- 14. 71 
 
 should they take her, she would then be the wife of no other 
 man. 
 
 14 And it came to pass, that, when Abratn was come into 
 Egypt. In the text it is said : That Abraham alone came into 
 Egypt. The question arises : And where was Sarah ? The 
 reply is : Abraham hid Sarah in a chest, but when they came 
 (to the Custom House) they ordered Abraham to open the 
 chest to see what kind of merchandise it contained. And 
 when Abraham was obliged to open the chest, a light proceeded 
 from Sarah's beauty which illumined the whole town.' 
 
 15 And the woman icias taken into PharaoKs house. The 
 Pirkd d' Rabbi Eliezer writes : Abraham was tried with Ten 
 Trials. 
 
 The ^rst trial was : When he was born the princes sought to 
 slay him, because they knew that he would introduce a new 
 religion into the world. Thus he was secreted in a cave for 
 thirteen years, and saw neither sun nor moon. When he came 
 out of the cave he employed the Holy Tongue (Hebrew), and 
 spoke evil of all idols. 
 
 The second trial was : He was captive for ten years, seven in 
 Kitah,^ and three in Kordu.^ And afterwards he was cast 
 into the furnace out of which God delivered him. 
 
 The third trial was : When he had to go away from his 
 country and family into a strange land as a penitent. 
 
 Th.tfowth trial was : When there was a famine and he was 
 obliged to go into Egypt. 
 
 The Jifth trial was : That they took away his wife. This 
 was on the feast of Passover, and God brought a plague 
 on Pharaoh and on his household, a typical earnest that God 
 
 instrument to make sin not sinful I Sarah and Bath-sheba were divorced 
 women, and therefore they were lawful for Pharaoh and David ! Such is 
 the doctrine of Rabbinism ! ! ! 
 
 ' In the Midrash this legend is more fully given. Vide Tai. Misc., 
 p. 58 («/.). 
 
 ^ Cuthah, 2 Kings xvii. 24, 30. 
 
 ^ Kardou. Bava-Bath. , fol. 91A, probably Kurdistan. 
 
72 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 would bring more plagues on him. And Pharaoh wrote for 
 Sarah a marriage deed,i assigning to her all his gold and silver, 
 all his male and female slaves, and also the land of Goshen ; 
 therefore did the Israelites dwell in the land of Goshen when 
 they came into Egypt. Abimelech also took Sarah, and the 
 angel Michael came with a naked sword and wanted to kill 
 him. 
 
 The sixth trial was : That great kings came upon him to 
 slay him. They began with Lot, when the angel Michael came 
 and told Abraham of it, as it is said in the text : " And there 
 came one that had escaped and told Abraham." ^ As soon 
 as Abraham saw that they captured Lot, his brother's son, he 
 pursued them and killed the princes and rescued Lot. And 
 Abraham said : " Lord of the Universe ! I praise thee for this 
 that Thou hast helped me ! " And the angels responded : 
 " Blessed art Thou, O Lord ! the Shield of Abraham? 
 
 1 6 And he entreated Abram well for her sake. He gave 
 him sheep and oxen and all kinds of cattle. Upon this, says 
 the Gemara in Bava-Metzia ; * A man should always be care- 
 ful to honour his wife, for it is only for the sake of his wife 
 that a blessing rests on his house, as it is said in the text ; 
 
 ' nniriD, Kethubah, i.e. a marriage contract usually given to a legally 
 wedded wife. Shimon ben Shetach ordained this document of the Kethubah 
 for a woman, vide Shabbath, fol. 14B. By virtue of this document, a virgin 
 is entitled to no less than 200, and a widow or divorced woman, on manying 
 again, is entitled to no less than 100 zuz. (A zuz is a small silver coin of 
 disputed value.) 
 
 ^ Chap. xiv. 13. The Talmud says,in Niddah, fol. 61A, that the person 
 that had escaped and told Abraham, was Og the king of Bashan, who 
 escaped from the Deluge by fleeing to the Land of Israel. As the angel 
 Michael had no escape from anything that we are aware of, the explana- 
 tion in the Talmud seems more reasonable than that of our Commentator. 
 The rest of the ten trials are not stated. 
 
 ' This angelic response is incorporated in the Jewish Liturgy, and is 
 repeated three times daily, at morning, afternoon and evening prayers. 
 It forms one of the Eighteen Blessings, repeated in silence and in a per- 
 fectly upright standing position, both feet joined together. 
 < Fol. S9A. 
 
GENESIS XII. 14-18. 73 
 
 "And he entreated Abram well for her sake." Hence Rava 
 used to say to the townspeople : " Honour your wives, for 
 thus will ye be rich." 
 
 17 And the Lord plagued Pharaoh. When Pharaoh de- 
 tained Sarah by him, an angel came and smote him with 
 leprosy. And Sarah prayed the whole night, and said : " Lord 
 of the Universe 1 Thou hast promised to do good to Abraham, 
 and upon that word of promise I came out with him." And 
 the angel held in his hand a naked sword and wanted to slay 
 Pharaoh, then Sarah informed Pharaoh that she was Abraham's 
 wife. Pharaoh then called Abraham, and said unto him : 
 
 18 What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst 
 thou not tell tne that she was thy wife ? And Pharaoh said 
 unto him: "Take thy wife;" for he wanted to ascertain 
 whether she was really his wife. But Abraham was afraid to 
 say that she was his wife, lest they should slay him. Pharaoh 
 endeavoured to know the truth. He thought, Sarah perhaps 
 does not like me for a husband, but pretends to be Abraham's 
 wife in order that I should let her go. Therefore, said Pharaoh 
 unto Abraham, " I have taken her for a wife" that is to say : 
 " She will be with me a Queen and not a concubine ; tell me, 
 therefore, is she thy sister ? " But as Abraham was silent and 
 spake nothing at all, Pharoah understood that she was his wife, 
 and he said unto him : " Take thy wife, and go away." 
 
 Rabbi B'chai asks : Why did not Abraham reply to Pharaoh ? 
 For when Abimelech " took Sarah," 1 and he questioned him : 
 " Why hast thou not told me that she was thy wife, and why 
 hast thou told me that she was thy sister ? " Abraham did 
 answer him. The reply is this : Pharaoh told Abraham, 
 " Take thy wife and go away," that is to say : " Be off imme- 
 diately;" Abraham feared to make any delay, and he left at 
 07ice without replying ; but in the case of Abimelech, he did 
 not say "Go away," therefore was Abraham obliged to reply 
 (and give a reason) why he said that she was his sister. 
 ' Chap. XX. 2 and 6. 
 
74 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 20 And they sent him away and all that he had. The text 
 teaches us that Pharaoh did not take back the presents he 
 gave Abraham for the sake of Sarah, though he ought to have' 
 done so, because Abraham deceived him, in saying that she 
 was his sister. But God performed a miracle, so that he did not 
 take them back. Pharaoh moreover accompanied Abraham 
 four paces, for the sake of which he became worthy that Israel 
 should be with him in the Captivity of Egypt four hundred 
 years. 1 
 
 Chapter XIII. — 3 And he went on his journeys. The Tol- 
 doth Yitzkhac writes : Abraham was a righteous man. He was 
 not quite pleased with the presents, for had it happened to any 
 other man who got valuable presents by deception, he would have 
 hastily gone away and would have kept himself at a distance 
 from Pharaoh, who might have repented and taken back his 
 presents. But Abraham did not do so ; " he went on Ms 
 journeys" he travelled as on his former journeys, not hastily. 
 He always remained overnight where he formerly stayed over- 
 night when he travelled from Canaan to Egypt. 
 
 Our sages say : Abraham borrowed money in all the inns 
 wherever he went from Canaan to Egypt, for he feared to 
 show money at the inns on account of robbers; and the 
 reason that Abraham again lodged in the same inns, was, in 
 order to pay his debts. Our sages deduce also from this : 
 That a man should always put up in the same inn where he 
 once before lodged, that he may not put the first innkeeper 
 to shame. 2 
 
 ' Rabbi Meir used to say : Compel people to accompany guests some 
 way on their journey, as the reward for such an hospitable act has no hmit. 
 Not to accompany a guest is as great a crime as the shedding of blood. If 
 the people of Jericho had accompanied the prophet Elisha, he would not 
 have instigated the bears against the little children (2 Kings ii. 23). Soieh, 
 fol. 46B. 
 
 ^ There are some very curious laws in the Talmud respecting inns. A 
 short extract must suffice. In Eifechin, fol i6b, we read : How long shall 
 a man refrain from changing his inn.' Rav says : Until he is driven from 
 
GENESIS XII. 20-XIII. 7. 75 
 
 6 And the land was not able to bear them. Abraham and 
 Lot having much cattle but not sufficient pasture for them, 
 there arose much quarrelling between their respective herdsmen. 
 
 7 And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the 
 land. The Ramban writes : All the seven idolatrous nations 
 had a share in the land of Canaan, but as there was not 
 sufficient pasture for all their cattle, they dwelt there by turns 
 every year, and at that time " the Canaanite and the Perizzite 
 dwelled in the land." This explains why the herdsmen of 
 Abraham and Lot quarrelled together, saying, " If when the 
 Canaanite and the Perizzite only are in the land there is 
 scarcity of pasture, how can we strangers find it for our cattle ? " 
 
 Another explanation is, that the quarrel originated thus : 
 Lot's herdsmen were wicked, and pastured their cattle in fields 
 that belonged to others, and Abraham's herdsmen rebuked 
 them for robbing other people. Lot's herdsmen retorted thus : 
 God gave the land to Abraham as an inheritance, and as 
 Abraham has no son and Lot is his nearest heir, it is therefore 
 no robbery (to feed Lot's cattle on other people's land).^ 
 Therefore does the text state : " Aiid the Canaanite and the 
 Perizzite dwelled then iti the land" that is to say, the time was 
 not yet come to inherit the land. Hence said Abraham unto 
 Lot : " Why should we have strife in a strange land (a land not 
 yet ours), let us separate." Then went Lot and chose for him- 
 self the locality near Jordan, because there was good pasture 
 for his cattle there. ; 
 
 it by blows. Shemuel says: Until his luggage is thrown out, etc. , etc. 
 But how is it proved from the Law, that a man may not change his 
 inn ? Reply — It is written : " Unto the place where his tent had been at 
 the beginning." Gen. xiii. 3. 
 
 1 From a Rabbinical point of view the argument of Lot's herdsmen 
 was perfectly correct. Abraham, however, seems to have been ignorant 
 of the fact that "The world was created only for Israel," and the pro- 
 perty of the Gentiles was made free for the service of Israel, otherwise 
 he would have considered the land to be his property even then. Vide 
 Tal.Misc, p. 38 («.), and 116, 38. 
 
75 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 II And Lot journeyed east. 'Lot ionm&ytd. from the east} 
 or he departed from the Kadtnon ^ of the world ! that is to say, 
 Lot said : " I will have neither Abraham nor the God of 
 Abraham ; and he joined himself to Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 who were wicked with their bodies and with their money. He 
 settled himself with the wicked like himself. 
 
 The Gemara, in Sanhedrin,^ writes : The people of Sodom 
 were so bad because God sxipplied them with an abundance of 
 bread and of gold and silver.* And they said : " We will shut 
 up our country that no stranger should enter it, for they only 
 come here to carry off our gold and silver." 
 
 They used also to pervert judgment by giving contrary 
 verdicts. When one had beaten a fellow citizen and made 
 him bleed, the judges decided that the victim should pay the 
 offender a fee, as to a phlebotomist, for bleeding him. Once 
 upon a time, Eliezer, Abraham's servant, came to Sodom, and 
 the people there having beaten and wounded him so that he 
 lost much blood, he summoned the aggressors before the 
 magistrates, and they decided that he should pay them for 
 bleeding him as a remedy. Then Eliezer took a big stone 
 and threw it at a magistrate, and so wounded him that he bled, 
 " Pay me," said he to the magistrate, " for that remedial opera- 
 tion, and I will pay the others for theirs." 
 
 ' " From the east " is more literal according to the original Hebrew, 
 mpD, as in Chap. xi. 2, and elsewhere. Eastward, or towards the east, is 
 usually expressed by ilDlp. 
 
 - llDTp, Kadmon, has the meaning The First, the Eternal, the Ante- 
 cedent ; hence it means God. In the text it is intended to say that Lot 
 apostatised from the God of Abraham and embraced the idolatrous religion 
 of Sodom 
 
 2 Fol. logA. 
 
 ■* God's goodness was the cause of the wickedness of the people of Sodom. 
 The same was the case with the sons of Abraham, for in Sanliediin, io\. 
 I02A, we read as follows : Owing to the abundance of gold and silver 
 with which the children of Israel have been supplied, they have made for 
 themselves a god of gold. Riches corrupt the heart, and, according to the 
 Talmud, God is the cause of all evil. 
 
GENESIS XITI. \l-XIV. I. 77 
 
 They had also (in their guest chamber) a bedstead for 
 visitors. If the visitor happened to be longer than the bed- 
 stead they chopped off his legs ; if shorter, they drew him till 
 he was the length of the bedstead. They ordered Eliezer to 
 lie down on that bedstead, but he said, " Since my Mistress 
 Sarah died I made a vow not to lie on any bedstead." 
 
 When a poor man came there to beg, they gave him no 
 bread, but every one gave him a coin (as alms), with the name 
 of the donor written on it, and when the beggar died of 
 starvation, each got back his coin. 
 
 A girl once gave a beggar a morsel of bread secretly. When 
 she went to draw water she carried out to him a morsel of 
 bread with a little water. The inhabitants, on learning this, 
 smeared the girl all over with honey, and placed her before the 
 bees, which devoured her. Thus her great cry came before 
 God. This is the meaning of the text : " The cry of Sodom 
 and Gomorrah is Great," which means the cry of the girl, for 
 "rabbah "i (great) in the holy tongue signifies (also) girl. 
 
 14 And the Lord said unto Abram, after Lot was separated 
 from him. This text teaches us that God did not speak with 
 Abram during the time that Lot was with him. "After that 
 Lot was separated from him," God told Abram, " I will make 
 thy seed as the dust of the earth," which cannot be numbered. 
 "Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the 
 breadth of it," and take a legal possession of the land, " for I 
 will give it unto thee," and unto thy children. 
 
 Chapter XIV. — i And it came to pass in the days of Am- 
 raphel. This was in the days of Nimrod, who is called 
 
 ' T\y\ " Rabbah " in chap, xviii. 20, or in any other passage in the 
 whole Bible, has no signification as given in the text by the Commentator. 
 Rivah in Aramaic means girl, and as the two words begin and end with the 
 same letters, and as the two words sound very nearly alike also, the Rabbis 
 manage all the rest, and say and teach as they find to suit them. The 
 legends in the Talmud vary considerably from those given here respecting 
 the people of Sodom. See Sanhedrin, fol. 109B. 
 
78 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 Amraphel, which sounds Amar-phul,' and signifies : " He said 
 cast ; " i.e. cast Abraham into the furnace. 
 
 The four kings being very powerful, went to war with the 
 five kings and smote them. Yet Abraham went to war with 
 these four kings because they captured Lot, and this was 
 because, being a wicked man, Lot settled among the people of 
 Sodom.^ 
 
 lo And the vale of Siddim was full of lime pits. Where 
 the battle was there were deep lime pits in which the five kings 
 fell and perished. This God did because many people did 
 not believe that Abraham was cast into the fire and escaped. 
 But now having seen that God helped the king of Sodom 
 out of the deep pits, they were naturally led to believe that 
 Abraham might possibly have been cast into the fire and came 
 out of it alive. 
 
 13 And there came one that escaped^ and told Abram. That 
 was Og, the king of Bashan, who is called Palit, i.e. the escaped 
 one., for he escaped from the battle of the four kings, and he 
 told Abraham of the capture of Lot. Og did this in order 
 that Abraham should pursue the kings and be killed by them. 
 
 Some sages say : The reason why Og was called Palit (the 
 escaped one) was because he escaped from the Deluge.* But 
 he was called Og because he came unto Abraham on the 
 eve of Passover, when Passover-cakes are baked, and Og (in 
 Hebrew) means cake. 
 
 And Abraham gained the battle against the mighty kings. 
 
 He dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, when he was 
 told of Lot's capture. Mamre was a friend of Abraham, whom 
 
 ' ?1B""1DX, Amar-phul. The signification here given is simply fan- 
 ciful. 
 
 ^ See Note 2, p. 76, ante. 
 
 ' D'Sa (from D^S). One escaped by flight from battle and slaughter. 
 See Note 2, p. 72, ante. 
 
 * According to some, Og fled for refuge to the land of Israel, where there 
 was no deluge. See Zevachim, fol. 113B, and Niddah, fol. 61 A. 
 
GENESIS X/r. 1-14. 79 
 
 he advised to be circumcised, for he thus reasoned with 
 Abraham : " If God should wish to have thy whole body thou 
 wouldest certainly give it to him, how much more so the 
 foreskin ! The God who delivered thee from the fire in Ur of 
 the Chaldees, and from the famine, and from the kings, the 
 same God will now also deliver thee that thou wilt be preserved 
 ahve." 
 
 The reason why he was called Mamre was to show forth the 
 four things which he intimated to Abraham that God had 
 delivered him from, viz. from the kings, circumcision, famine, 
 and fire.i 
 
 14 He armed his trained servants, horn in his own house, three 
 hundred and eighteen, to pursue the kings and retake Lot and 
 his household. Our sages, say : He went in pursuit with Eliezer 
 alone, whose name has the numerical value of three hundred 
 and eighteen.^ 
 
 Rabbi B'chai asks : Is it conceivable that the text should 
 say distinctly three hundred and eighteen, and should not say 
 distinctly that Eliezer alone went. But the explanation is this : 
 Abraham took with him 318 men, and when he came to the 
 battle he proclaimed : " He who has any sin in him let him 
 
 ' It will be seen from this and tlie preceding paragraph that it was 
 Mamre who persuaded Abraham to be circumcised ; thus confirming the 
 view of modem critics that circumcision was of heathen origin. 
 
 K1DD. By the rule of Notricon, each letter of Mamre is converted into 
 a word. The first letter is Mem and forms the word M'lachim, which 
 signifies kings; the second letter is also Mem and is converted into the 
 word Milah, which signifies circumcision ; the third letter is Jiesh and is 
 turned into the word Raav, i.e. famine ; the fourth letter is Aleph, which 
 forms the word Aish, which means fire. A wise man will understand. 
 Let us apply the rule. By the same rule in, m, r, e, form the initials of the 
 following four words : master masons rise early. Hence it is plain that 
 M'mre was a master mason, and so was Abraham indeed, for it is written : 
 "And Abraham rose early " (Gen. xxii. 3). A " wise " Jew will appreciate 
 this. 
 
 2 See List of Numerical Values of the Hebrew Letters, at the end of 
 
 Preface. 
 
8o RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 return home," — after the manner observed in the wars of 
 Israel — and all returned except Eliezer. Hence it is said (in 
 the Hebrew text) " vayareck" ^ which has two meanings ; i. he 
 armed his trained servants ; and 2. he emptied his trained 
 servants by letting them (leave their ranks and) return home. 
 Abraham went with Eliezer alone. 
 
 That his brother was taken captive. The question is : Why 
 does the text call him brother when he was but his brother's 
 son ? The text here intimates that though Abraham was a just 
 man and Lot was not, yet did Abraham not forsake him, but 
 pursued (with such zeal to dehver him) as if he had been a 
 real brother. 
 
 And pursued them unto Dan. There his strength failed 
 him, because at that place Israel would subsequently serve 
 idols.2 
 
 1 5 And divided himself against them., by night. On their 
 account he divided himself with his servants to pursue them. 
 The sages say the explanation is this : God divided the night ; 
 in the first half, He, by a Divine miracle, slew the kings -, and 
 the other half night God preserved for His children in Egypt, 
 when the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain on the Pass- 
 over. 
 
 Rabbi B'chai adds the following , explanation : Abraham 
 divided the night on their account ; the first half he pursued 
 till he overtook them ; and in the other half night he killed 
 them. 
 
 1 7 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him in a valley 
 where all idolaters assembled themselves, and where they made 
 Abraham a king over them. 
 
 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and 
 wine., and thus honoured Abraham although he had slain his 
 children the four kings. The Midrash writes that Melchizedek 
 was the son of Shem the son of Noah. ^ 
 
 19 And said Blessed be Abram of the most high God. . . • 
 ' p~l*l ' I Kings xii. 28, 29. ^ Heb. vii. 3. 
 
GENESIS XIV. \\-XV. i. 
 
 And blessed he the most high God which hath delivered thine 
 enemies into thy hand. Because he blessed Abraham first, and 
 then praised God afterwards, therefore God punished Mel- 
 chizedek and took away the priesthood from him and gave 
 it to Abraham. And Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek, 
 because at that time he was still a priest. 
 
 21, 2 2 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me 
 the persons which thou hast taken from the kings, and keep the 
 goods and the money for thyself. Abraham replied : " I have 
 sworn unto God that I will not touch a shoelatchet nor a thread, 
 from all that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, ' I have made 
 Abram rich.' " 
 
 23 From a thread even to a shoelatchet. Our sages say : God 
 said unto Abraham, " Because of the merit of what thou hast 
 said, ' From a thread,' I will reward thee by giving thy 
 children a (valuable) Precept about threads, and that is the 
 Precept of Fringes ; ^ and because thou hast said : ' To a shoe- 
 latchet,' that thou wilt not touch even a shoelatchet belonging 
 to the king of Sodom, therefore shall thy children have the 
 Precept of Phylacteries," which are made of leather straps, and 
 also the Precept of loosing the shoe ^ which is done with leather 
 straps." 
 
 Chapter XV. — i Fear not Abram, I am thy shield. God 
 has here said three things unto Abraham. The first is, 
 Abraham was afraid that the children of the kings he had slain 
 
 ' Num. XV. 38. This Precept is esteemed to be of greater importance 
 and of more value than all the Precepts of the Law put together, as it is no 
 less than three times said in the Talmud : 'p3 IJJD fl'^'V Dli'D n'pipB' 
 f>\2 niVnn, i.e. The Precept of Fringes is equivalent to all the Precepts, 
 even to all of them together. Shevuoth, fol. 29A, and elsewhere. 
 
 As a reward for observing this Precept, the Talmud promises every Jew 
 to have 2,800 slaves to wait upon him. See Tal. Misc., p. 260, 19. In fact 
 the Fringes, together with the Phylacteries and the Mezuzah, preserve one 
 from sin. Ibid., p. 123 note. 
 
 2 Deut. vi. 8. 
 
 ^ Ibid. XXV. 9. 
 
 G 
 
'82 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 would revenge themselves on him, therefore God said unto 
 him, " Fear not.'" The second is, God promised him that he 
 would have a son, therefore He said : " Thy exceeding great 
 reward ; " thy reward will be very much, and He says " Great" 
 with two He's} to intimate that when Abram is become 
 AbraHam and Sarai is become SaraH, thus each having the 
 letter He in their name, they will have children. And this is 
 the reason that Rachel, because she had no letter He in her 
 name,' gave BilHaH her handmaid unto Jacob, for she had 
 two He's in her name, in order that one He should enable 
 Rachel to have children. The third thing was, God promised 
 Abraham the World to Come. But Abraham did not under- 
 "stand what God had promised him, for God did not tell him 
 .plainly that He would give him children and the World to Come. 
 Therefore said Abraham, "What wilt Thou give me?" "What 
 use will it be to me when I have no children? Who will 
 be mine heir? " But God replied : " Do not be anxious, thy 
 servant EHezer shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come 
 forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir." 
 
 5 And he brought him forth abroad, and showed him the 
 stars, and said unto him: "As thou art unable to number 
 the stars, so numerous shall be thy children ; they shall be 
 innumerable." 
 
 Our sages say ; God took Abraham from this world up to 
 heaven, and said unto him, " Thou art now higher than the 
 constellations, and though, thy star and thy constellation (or 
 luck) augur that thou wilt have no children, yet canst thou alter 
 thy luck, because I have exalted thee above the influences 
 of the stars." " The text means : "And he brought him forth 
 abroad." 
 
 ' r\'T\r\ Harheh, i.e. " Great" ; the word commences with the letter He 
 and ends the letter He ; thus we have two He's in the word "Great. 
 
 2 It may be necessary to inform the reader that the Ch in the English 
 spelling of Rachel is in Hebrew a single letter having a guttural sound 
 nearly like KH, not like H. 
 
 ' The occult science of astrology must have been familiar to the Rabbis 
 
GENESIS XV. 1-6. F3 
 
 ^ 6 And he believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for 
 righteousness. Abraham believed in God and counted it as a 
 righteousness (or benevolence) on the part of God for promis- 
 ing to give him children, as he was not worthy of the same. 
 Thus writes the Ramban. 
 
 Rabbi B'chai writes : God counted it to Abraham for 
 righteousness, and for a great thing in believing that which 
 God had promised him. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks the question : AVhy, when God 
 promised Abraham that He would give him children, he at 
 once believed, and asked for no sign ; whereas, when God told 
 him that his children will inherit the land, he did wish for a 
 sign ? The reply is this : Abraham said, " Give me a sign that 
 my children will inherit the land, thus shall I, as a matter of 
 course, know that Thou wilt give me children." 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac, asks another question. Why did 
 Abraham say : " Seeing I go childless " ? Had not God already 
 told him : " Jvr all the land which thou seest, to thee will I 
 give it, and to thy seed for ever ; and I will make thy seed as the 
 dust of the earth " ? The answer to this question is : Abra- 
 ham thought that God's promise to give the land to his seed 
 meant to his family, or to his household, but not to an own son 
 
 of old. In Shabbath, fol. 156A, we read : Rabbi Chanina said to his 
 disciples : " Go, and tell tlie son of Laive, The planetary influence does 
 not depend upon days, but hours. He that is born under the influence of 
 the sun (no matter on what day), will have a beaming face ... no 
 prosperity will attend him, if given to thieving. If bom under the influence 
 of Venus (nj13) he will be rich and incontinent. If under the influence of 
 Mercury (3313), he will be bright and wise, because that planet is the at- 
 tendant scribe on the sun. If under the influence of the moon, he will be 
 subject to affliction, . . . and prosperity will attend him if given to 
 thieving. If under the influence of Jupiter (pTV), he will be benevolent. If 
 under the influence of Mars (D'TND), he wUl be a blood-shedder, that is, a 
 phlebotomist, a highwayman, a butcher, or a circumciser." Not to believe 
 in these things is not to believe in the Talmud, and not to believe in the 
 Talmud is not to be a believer in the God of Israel. He who rejects even 
 one of the niceties of the scribes is an infidel. " He hath despised the 
 word of the Lord." Sanhedriit, fol. 99A. 
 
8^ RABBIKICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 that would come out of himself; and therefore he was afraid, as 
 Eliezer was also of his household, and \!nQ first in his house and 
 equal to a son, he would perhaps be his heir. God therefore 
 said unto Abraham, " TJiis (Eliezer) shall twt be thine heir, but 
 he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine 
 heir ; " and the text is therefore more explicit here than (any- 
 where else) in all the Torah : " out of thine own bowels" 
 
 Yet another question asks the Toldoth Yitzkhac. The 
 Torah says : And he believed in the Lord, what God had 
 promised him ; this implies that now he believed, but before 
 this, God forbid ! he did not believe. But the explanation 
 is this : Now Abraham believed that God would give him 
 children, because God said explicitly that out of his own 
 bowels shall come forth children; but before, Abraham thought 
 that one of his family, or Eliezer, would be his heir. 
 
 7 / am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldets. 
 God said unto Abraham: "From the time I brought thee out 
 of Ur of the Chaldees, and worked a miracle for thee, it was 
 My intention to give thee the land." Abraham thought, If my 
 children commit sin, or if the idolaters repent, (in that case) 
 God will not give the land to my children ; hence Abraham 
 said : "Let me know whether my children will for a certainty 
 inherit the land, even when my children sin, or when the 
 idolaters repent." So God assured him : " They shall surely 
 inherit the land." 
 
 Rabbi B'chai writes : It is related in a Midrash, that when 
 Abraham was born a star in heaven appeared in the east and 
 swallowed up four stars from the four sides of the world. The 
 wise men said unto Nimrod, " A son is now born unto Terah 
 whose children will inherit the whole world. Our counsel is, 
 that thou shouldest give Terah much gold and silver that he 
 should give thee his son, and that thou shouldest kill him." 
 Nimrod at once sent for Terah, and said unto him : " Give me 
 thy son, and I will give thee much gold and silver." Terah 
 replied to Nimrod in a parable : " One said to ahorse: 'I will 
 
GENESIS XV. 6-IO. 85 
 
 give thee plenty of oats to eat, but let me first cut off thy head. 
 The horse replied : ' Of what use will the oats be to me when 
 thou cuttest off my head? Who will then eat the oats?' So 
 likewise who will inherit the gold and silver when thou killest 
 my son?" Then said Nimrod unto him, "I perceive from thy 
 words that yesterday was yet another son born unto thee." 
 Terah declared that he instantly died ; but Nimrod was 
 determined that he would have the living child that was born 
 yesterday. Then went Terah and took a newborn babe 
 from one of his female slaves and brought it to Nirrrod, and 
 hid his son Abraham in a cave thirteen years. God provided 
 him there with two stones ; from one flowed oil, and from the 
 other honey and fine flour. 
 
 When thirteen years of age, he came out of the cave and 
 began to think : Who created heaven and earth and me ? 
 When he saw the sun, he thought it was God, and prayed to it 
 a whole day. In the evening the sun set, and as the moon 
 and the stars appeared he thought the moon to be the Lord 
 and the stars his servants, and so he prayed to the moon. 
 When at dawn the moon and the stars also disappeared, he 
 concluded that this also cannot be God, and he found out that 
 God who is in heaven is God. 
 
 8 Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it 1 Abraham 
 said unto God : " Let me know by what merit shall my 
 children inherit the land ? " God replied : " By the merit of 
 sacrifices ;" and therefore it is said 
 
 9 Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of 
 three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, 
 and a young pigeon. God showed him by these that his 
 children would bring (in the time of the Temple) sacrifices of 
 cattle and of fowls. 
 
 10 And he divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one 
 against another ; and he passed between the pieces, and swore 
 that he would serve God for ever ; and if ever he should not 
 serve Him, then might he be cut in pieces like the cattle ! 
 
86 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 And God (on His part) swore unto Abraham, that He would 
 give him the land. And He sent His messenger, that is the 
 fire, and the fire passed between the pieces, as if God Himself 
 had passed, and swore that He would give him the land. 
 
 And Abraham divided the cattle, " but the birds divided he 
 not." This was intended to typify that Israel, being likened 
 unto birds, shall remain indestructible in the world. " And 
 when the fowls came down upon the pieces (carcases), Abra- 
 ham drove them away." 
 
 1 2 And, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And 
 that was because God showed Abraham that his children 
 would be in captivity. Although God swore that they should 
 inherit the land, yet, if they be wicked they shall be driven 
 out of it.i 
 
 1 3 Know thou of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger, 
 and will be obliged to work four hundred years. The captivity 
 of Egypt began from the birth of Isaac. Although they were 
 not yet in Egypt, yet from the birth of Isaac they had no land, 
 and were equal to strangers. 
 
 Rabbi B'chai writes : The reason why this captivity lasted 
 four hundred years was, because they had an evil eye, and would 
 not give alms to the poor, and they are called " Ra-ayin" ^ the 
 numerical value of which \sfour hundred. 
 
 14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge. 
 God said unto Abraham, "The nation which will force thy 
 children to hard labour, will I judge, and bring upon them ten 
 plagues." 
 
 15 And thou shall go to thy father in peace. That is, thou 
 shalt not see the captivity. And from this we infer that Terah, 
 Abraham's father, had repented before he died ; for had he 
 died a wicked man (in his wickedness, and without repentance), 
 
 ' On every festival the Jews solemnly repeat : 13''NDn ''JBDI, " Because 
 of our sins we have been exiled from our native country, and removed from 
 our own land." 
 
 2 py J)^, i-e- Evil-eye. The numerical value of the Hebrew letters is 400. 
 
GENESIS XV. \o-XVI. i. 87, 
 
 God would Hoi have told Abraham, " Thou shalt go to thy 
 father " ; for Abraham was a righteous man, and how is it 
 conceivable that he should go to a wicked man in the other 
 world ? 
 
 The Ramban asks : When God's decree was that Israel: 
 should be slaves in Egypt and should be afflicted with forced 
 labour, why are the Egyptians guilty, that God said He would 
 punish them ? The reply is : The Egyptians thought out 
 much evil and made Israel to serve with rigour ; and what they 
 wanted was, not the labour, but to efface Israel out of the 
 world, which was more than the Divine decree authorised, 
 and would have cast all their children into the water, therefore 
 God punished the Egyptians. 
 
 Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Thou shalt see no 
 evil in thy children. This teaches us, that during his lifetime 
 Ishmael repented, and Esau had not become so very wicked 
 as yet. And this is why Abraham died five years before his 
 time, — that he might not see Esau worship idols ; for on the 
 day in which Abraham died Esau worshipped idols. The 
 distress in seeing wickedness in one's children is very great, 
 and therefore God said unto Abraham: "It is better that 
 thou diest five years before thy time, in order that thou 
 shouldest not see any wickedness in thy children." 
 
 16 Bui ill the fourth generation they shall come hither again. 
 God said unto Abraham : " Three generations of thy children 
 shall be in captivity, and the fourth generation shall return 
 hither to the land of Israel." Because the measure of the 
 people that dwell in the land of Israel "?V not yet full." there- 
 fore the time to drive them out of their land is not yet come ; 
 for God pays only when the measure of iniquities is full. 
 
 1 7 Behold a sjnoking furnace and a burning lamp. God sent 
 smoke and fire to pass between the pieces of flesh in token 
 that He had sworn unto Abraham that He would give him 
 the land of Canaan. 
 
 Chapter XVI. — i Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no 
 
■SS RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 children : and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name 
 was Hagar. This handmaid was the daughter of Pharaoh 
 king of Egypt ; " for," said Pharoah, " better let my daughter be 
 a handmaid of Abraham rather than a lady in the house of 
 another," because many miracles were performed for Abraham. 
 
 3 And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar, and gave her to 
 Abraham, because she saw that she had been already ten years 
 in the land of Canaan and as yet had no children. She 
 thought that for the merit in giving her maidservant to her 
 husband, God would also favour her with children. 
 
 And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. Abraham did 
 
 " so, to please Sarah ; but it was not his intention that the 
 
 legitimate children should spring from Hagar, and therefore 
 
 -it is specified ^' Sarai Abram's wife," although we knew long 
 
 before that Sarai was Abram's wife. 
 
 The Ramban writes ; The text shows us that when even 
 Sarai had given Plagar to Abram, she still said, " Abram is my 
 husband, and /awz his wife. I will not be divorced from him." 
 And therefore it is also stated, " And Sarai Abram's wife took 
 Hagar;" for Hagar was ashamed before Sarai. And the text 
 teaches us, that when one lives with his wife ten years and has 
 no children, he is to divorce her ; i as the text says, "After— 
 at the end of ten years," that Abram had no children by Sarai, 
 then Sarai gave Hagar to Abram. 
 
 4 And he went in itnto Hagar, and she conceived. As soon 
 as he came to her she immediately conceived. Hence Hagar 
 said of Sarah, that she must not have been really pious, for she 
 had been with Abram for many years and did not conceive, 
 " whereas I (said Hagar) conceived //vot the first time." " And 
 she despised her mistress, Sarai." 
 
 5 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee I 
 "Thou listenest to my disgrace, thou hearest how Hagar 
 disgraces me, and thou art silent ! " 
 
 ' This is a law of the Tahnud. See Genesis ace. to the Talmud, p. 
 293. V. 3- 
 
GENES/S XVr. 1-8. 
 
 Moreover Sarai said unto Abram : " Thou oughtest to have 
 prayed also on my behalf, that we both should have children ; 
 but thou hast prayed on thy behalf alone ! Thou hast said, 
 ' Seeing / go childless,' and thou didst not remember me ! 
 ' The Lord judge between me and thee ! ' Let Him punish thee 
 for it ! " 
 
 And Sarai set an evil eye upon the child conceived by 
 Hagar, so that she miscarried. The sages deduce from this, 
 that he who desires a judgment of God to coraeupon another, 
 suffers himself in the end. For Sarai wronged herself (by 
 sinning in calling for Divine judgment) so that she died forty- 
 eight years before her time ; for she should have lived as long 
 as her husband Abraham. 
 
 6 And Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy 
 hand, do to her as it pleaseth thee. Thus Sarai afflicted her with 
 hard labour} The Ramban writes -. Because Abraham allowed 
 Hagar to be afflicted, and because Sarah did so afflict her, 
 therefore do the children of Hagar rule over the children 
 of Abraham and Sarah, and afflict them- (in return). And 
 Hagar fled from Sarah. 
 
 7, 8 A7id the angel of the Lord foujid her. . . . And 
 he said, Hagar, SaraPs maid, whence comest thou 1 Rabbi 
 B'chai asks : What need had the angel to be so particular as 
 to say, "Hagar, Sarai's maid," as we already knew long since 
 that she was Sarai's maid ? (Reply) The text teaches us 
 that the angel appeared to her on account of her being so 
 worthy as to be a maidservant of Sarah; and the angel in- 
 
 ' The comment tells us in the first verse of this chapter, that Hagar was 
 the daughter of Pharaoh ; at all events vfe know that she was an Egyptian, 
 and Abraham's wife "afflicted her with hard labour.'" Pharaoh and his 
 people, it would seem, treasured up this conduct towards Hagar, and sub- 
 sequently retaliated it measure for measure on Abraham's children. Exod. 
 i. 13, 14. 
 
 - The Ramban evidently alludes to the great oppression of the Jews in 
 Moslem countries, for the Jews generally believe that all Moslems are 
 Ishmaelites, or Hagarites. 
 
9=> RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 tiraated to her that both she and her children should for ever 
 be servants to Sarah and her children (?). 
 
 lo And the angel of the Lord said unto her. Return to thy 
 mistress and be afflicted under her hand. And afterwards again 
 came an angel and said unto Hagar, " Thou shalt bear a son, 
 and shalt call his name Ishntael, because the Lord hath heard 
 thy affliction.^' Thy son shall " be a wild man ; " he will war 
 with all people, and all people will war with him. 
 
 r5 And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his 
 name Ishmael. For the spirit of prophecy rested upon him, 
 and he just hit upon the very name which the angel told 
 Hagar. 
 
 The Ramban writes : Hagar was bashful naming the child, 
 because she was not Abram's wife (but only his concubine), 
 therefore she said unto Abraham, the angel told her to call 
 her child Ishmael, and Abraham listened to her, and called 
 him Ishmael. 
 
 1 6 And Abram was fourscore and six years old when Hagar 
 bare Lshmael. The text tells us this in order that we should 
 know that Ishmael was thirteen years old when Abraham cir- 
 cumcised him, and he did not resist it. 
 
 Chapter XVII. — i And when Abram was ninety years old 
 and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I 
 am the Almighty God. " I am a God that can do all things, 
 therefore, fear not that the circumcision will make thee ill, for 
 I can restore thee to health again." 
 
 Walk before Me, and be thou perfect. That is to say : Be not 
 divided in thy person, that thy heart be not Hke thy mouth. 
 
 Another explanation is : When thou wilt circumcise thyself, 
 thou wilt be perfect before Me, for the foreskin is a blemish in 
 
 thCG 4f * 4p 4p 
 
 5 Neither shall thy name aiiy tnore be called Abram, but 
 thy name shall be Abraham. Thy name shall be AbraHam, 
 with a He ; because with circumcision thou wilt certainly 
 gain (the perfection of) five members properly to serve God 
 
GENESIS XVT. 8-17 91 
 
 with.i Also AbraHam (with the letter He) means, A Father 
 of all the nations.'' 
 
 13 And my covenajit shall be in your flesh for an everlasting 
 covenant. The circumcision shall be a sign in your body that 
 ye shall serve God for ever, and that sign shall not be done 
 away from you. Circumcision is better than a sacrifice, for 
 a sacrifice is bought with money, but circumcision is a personal 
 sacrifice. 
 
 The Pirk^ de Rabbi EHezer writes : Abraham circumcised 
 himself on the Day of Atonement, and every Day of Atone- 
 ment God looks on the blood and pardons our sins.^ * * * * 
 
 17 Then Abraham fell upon his face. Previous to his cir- 
 cumcision Abraham could not stand before the Shechinah, but 
 after that it is said : "Abraham stood before the Lord." "^ 
 
 Thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name 
 be, which means, A mistress over the whole world. 
 
 Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed. He laughed 
 that he and Sarah, being old, should have children. And God 
 said : " I will bless Sarah with much milk in her breasts." For 
 people had not believed that Sarah had given birth to a child, 
 but said that she took a strange child, and adopted it. But 
 when Sarah weaned Isaac, Abraham made a great banquet, 
 and invited to it all the great people with their wives. The 
 women brought their infants with them, but their wet nurses 
 they did not bring. When the infants began to cry, they said 
 unto Sarah, "Give thou our infants to suck," and Sarah 
 
 ' He is the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and has the numerical 
 value aifive. 
 
 ^ DMJ pon literally means " 3. multitude of nations," but it does not 
 mean all. 
 
 ^ In the Talmud, Yo7na, fol. ' 5A, we have the following, n"lS3 I*X 
 ma S7S, i.e. There is no atonement but by blood, for it is said (Lev. 
 xvii. II), "It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul," or, as 
 we have it in the New Test. (Heb. ix. 22), " Without shedding of blood 
 there is no remission." 
 
 * Chap, xviii. 22. 
 
92 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 suckled all the children, for God blessed her with much milk. 
 Then all the women knew that Sarah had borne a child. ' 
 
 The Midrash writes ; God took the (last letter) Jod (from 
 the name) of Sarai,^ and divided it (numerically) into two, 
 half He gave imto Abraham, and half remained with S; rah. 
 
 But \\\t Jod complained before God : "Why hast thou taken 
 me away from (the name of) a righteous woman ?" But God 
 replied : " I will restore thee to a righteous man, who will first 
 be called Hosea (without the letter _/<?// in his name), but after- 
 wards he shall be called Jehoshua — with a. Jod." 
 
 Shall a child be borti unto him that is an hundred years old i 
 and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? It is difficult 
 to conceive why Abraham wondered about it, since God had 
 promised to give him children. What is more, since we find 
 even in our own times that an old man of ninety years can have 
 children. Nay, Abraham himself forty years later had many 
 children by Keturah. The reply is : Abraham did not wonder, 
 but said thus : " When I was young and strong I had no chil- 
 dren, and now, when I and Sarah are old, that we should have 
 children must be a miracle from God, and I believe that God 
 can do all things." Abraham rejoiced, and this is why God 
 said unto Abraham : 
 
 19 And thou shall call his name Isaac, which means joy. 
 Because thou hast rejoiced, and because the name of Isaac 
 came from God, therefore Isaac's name remained unchanged. 
 But Abraham's name was changed. First, he was called 
 Abrara, and then Abraham ; likewise was the name of Jacob 
 changed, when God called him Israel. 
 
 Rabbi B'chai writes : Abraham's name was changed because 
 he became a Father of many nations ; and the name of Jacob 
 was changed because an angel had war with him, and he over- 
 came the angel ; but nothing of the kind happened to Isaac, 
 
 1 The same stoiy, but with considerable variations, is found in Bava- 
 Mefzia, fol. 87A. 
 
 2 ',-w. 
 
GENESIS XVI. 17-23. 93 
 
 therefore he was not re-named. Isaac was so named, because 
 the ybd, the first letter of Isaac's name (the numerical value of 
 which is ten) points to the Te7i Trials of Abraham ; and the 
 Tzaddi (the second letter of Isaac's name = 90) points to 
 Sarah's age, which was ninety (when she conceived) ; and the 
 Kheth (the third letter in Isaac's name = 8) has reference to cir- 
 cumcision which takes place on the eighth day ; and the Koph 
 (the last letter in Isaac's name =100) stands for the hundred 
 years, Abraham's age when he begat Isaac. 
 
 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee. God said unto 
 Abraham, " I have heard thy prayer on behalf of Ishmael, and 
 I will give him twelve princes." He Said Princes, and not 
 children, because God said, that Ishmael would have twelve 
 children, who would be great kings, greater than the kings of 
 the world ; and they shall be called N'seeim (Princes), which 
 means Clouds, that is to say, although they will be great kmgs, 
 yet their kingdom shall ultimately be lost from the world as 
 a cloud that passeth away; yet, " I 7vill make him a great 
 nation." 
 
 23 And circumcised the flesh of their foreskin. Abraham 
 first circumcised the three hundred and eighteen men, the 
 servants of his household, and then he circumcised himself; 
 for had he first circumcised himself, he would have been weak, 
 and unable properly to circumcise his household. 
 
 And it shall be a token of the covenant. " Circumcision shall 
 be a token and a testimony that thou hast received thy re- 
 ligion from Me." Three things are designated in the Law as a 
 token and a testimony that God is a Unity, and they are these : 
 The Sabbath, the Phylacteries, and Circumcision. A man 
 must have by him two witnesses to testify of God. On week 
 days a man has by him the phylacteries 1 and circumcision, 
 and on Sabbath days he needs not the phylacteries, for the 
 Sabbath itself is a token ; and thus he has by him two 
 
 1 Phylacteries are worn on week days only, but never on the Sabbath 
 nor on any festival, when it is unlawful even to touch them. 
 
1/ 
 
 9+ RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 witnesses, the Sabbath and circumcision. The Midrash 
 writes : circumcision is a great commandment, it delivers 
 from hell?- 
 
 End of Section Three. 
 
 Chapter XVIII. — i And the Lord appeared unto him. 
 God appeared unto Abraham when he had performed the 
 Divine command, and circumcised himself. It is said : " And 
 He appeared unto him^' but it is not said unto whom, for it 
 refers to the above, where it is stated how Abraham had cir- 
 cumcised himself. Here it says : " God appeared unto him " 
 as an act of visitation of the sick, for it was on the third day ^ 
 after the circumcision. 
 
 By the oaks ^ of Mamre. (A.V. in the plains of Mamre). 
 God appeared unto Abraham in the city of Mamre. Mamre 
 was a friend of Abraham, whom he counselled pubhcly to 
 circumcise himself,* therefore God appeared in his city. 
 
 It is well-known that God appears on earth with fire, water, 
 wind, as it is plainly stated by all the prophets, but with 
 Abraham God appeared on a tree, and therefore it is stated : 
 " By the oaks of Mamre" which signifies : " On the trees of 
 the city of Mamre." By this God showed unto Abraham, 
 that as a tree, which, though old, yet bears fruit, so also 
 Abraham, though old, would have children. 
 
 And he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. He sat 
 in the heat of the day that the sun (with healing in his wings) 
 should be a healing to his circumcision. 
 
 Another explanation is : He sat in the door to see whether 
 strangers pass by, that he should invite them into the house. 
 But God caused great heat, that strangers should not be able 
 to travel, in order that they should not trouble him as he was 
 
 ' Comp. Treasures of the Tal., p. 73, 21. 
 
 == Comp. chap, xxxiv. 25. ' flPX, i.e. an oak. 
 
 '■ Vide Note, p. 79 ante. 
 
GENESIS XVU. 2i-XVni. 3. 95 
 
 weak. And when God saw that Abraham felt distressed, 
 because no strangers were coming, He sent three angels in the 
 guise of men. And who were the three angels? One was 
 Michael, to inform Sarah that she would have a son ; the 
 second was Raphael, to heal Abraham's (wound of the) circum- 
 cision ; and the third was Gabriel, to overthrow Sodom. Why 
 did not one angel perform all this ? (Reply) Because one angel 
 cannot do both good and evil ; for one angel exercises mercy 
 and love, and another angel executeth judgement. And why 
 did not Michael heal Abraham ? The reply is : Because 
 Raphael being appointed over healing remedies, no other 
 angel dares encroach on his province, and he had to heal 
 Abraham. Afterwards he went thence to deliver Lot. 
 
 2 Atid he ran to meet them. As Abraham saw the angels 
 standing on one spot he inferred that they did not wish to 
 trouble him, and he ran to meet and invite them to come in 
 (as his guests). 
 
 The Gemara, in treatise Bava-Metzia,i asks : It is stated, 
 " They stood hy him," if so what need had he to run to meet 
 them ? The reply is : The angels at first stood by him, but 
 when they saw that he was ill they went away, and he i-a?i to 
 meet them. 
 
 Therefore is it said they stood over him,^ because usually 
 one sees a man come from a distance first, and afterwards 
 come nearer. But in this case Abraham did not see them from 
 a distance ; they came upon him suddenly, as if they had 
 dropped from heaven, therefore it is said, " And, lo, three men 
 stood over him;" and he, thinking them to be great saints or 
 prophets, ran to meet them, saying to the chief of them — 
 
 3 My Lord . . . pass not away, I pray thee, from thy 
 servant ; for if the chief would not go away the other two 
 angels would also not go away. And by what did Abraham 
 recognise the chief? That one who walked in the middle 
 
 1 Fol. 86b. ° Ivy. above cr over him. 
 
96 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 (between the other two), him did Abraham take to be the 
 chief. 
 
 Another explanation is : Abraham said unto God,i pass not 
 away from me, but wait for me till I get the strangers into my 
 house. From this we learn that entertaining strangers is 
 (more meritorious) than receiving the presence of the She- 
 chinah. ^ 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : It is evident that Abraham 
 spoke to one angel only ; because the angel that came to an- 
 nounce the conception of Sarah was certain to remain, and 
 the one that came to heal Abraham from the (pain of) circum- 
 cision was as certain to remain ; therefore Abraham spoke only , 
 to the third angel, who was on his way to overthrow Sodom, 
 and said unto him : " I pray thee remain thou also ; though 
 thou hast nothing to do here, but because thy friends remain 
 here of necessity, remain thou also to please them." This ex- 
 plains why it is stated : " And he said, My Lord" for he spoke 
 to one only ; but when it is further said : " And wash your feet 
 . . . and comfort ye your hearts ; after that ye shall pass 
 on," he spoke to them all. This then is the explanation ; 
 First he spoke only to the angel of Sodom, that he should 
 remain in honour of the company^ and afterwards he invited 
 all to dine with him. 
 
 Although Abraham was weak on account of the circumcision, 
 yet he exerted himself in running to meet the strangers, and 
 invited them to his place, and said : 
 
 4 Let a little water, L pray you be fetched, and wash your 
 feet. Abraham thought perhaps they were Arabs, who worship 
 
 ' In Shevuoth, fol. 35B, we are told : That all the names usually appHed 
 to God in the Law, in connection with Abraham, should be so understood, 
 except 'JIN, " My Lord," which refers to the greatest of the three angels. 
 Chanina, the nephew of Rab. Joshua, and Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah, say, 
 in the name of Rab. Elazer the Modoaite : In this instance also it refers to 
 nin' Jehovah, mentioned in the iirst verse. Our commentator is of the 
 same opinion as Rabbi Elazer the Modoaite. 
 
 ^ Shabbath, fol. 127A. Comp. Heb. xiii. 2. 
 
GENESIS XVIII. 3-5. 97 
 
 the dust of their feet,i and he would not allow an idol (i.e. the 
 alleged object of idolatrous worship) to come into his house. 
 
 The sages say : Because Abraham did not personally offer 
 the water to his guests, but through a messenger; therefore 
 when his children were in need of water in the wilderness, 
 God did not give it to them in person, from heaven, but 
 through a messenger, namely through Moses, who was obliged 
 to smite the rock to obtain water for them. But of the bread 
 it is stated that Abraham said : 
 
 5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread. (Abraham himself 
 fetched the bread), therefore God Himself gave his children 
 in the wilderness bread from heaven, that is the Manna ; for 
 God pays measure for measure. From this we learn that 
 the righteous promise little but do much, for Abraham said : 
 " And I will fetch a morsel of bread," and then he brought three 
 calves ; but the wicked promise much but do not even a little, 
 for Ephron the Hittite said unto Abraham : " I make thee a 
 present of the field,"^ but in the end he would accept only 
 shekels that were weighty? 
 
 After that ye shall pass on, for therefore are ye come to your 
 servant. " First eat with me, and then ye shall travel on ; for 
 because ye have come to your servant, therefore ye shall eat 
 with me." 
 
 And they said, So do as thou hast said. The question is : 
 Can it be fitting that strangers should say to the master of the 
 house: So do as thou hast said, and give us to eat? It is 
 unmannerly to say so. But the answer is : The strangers had 
 blessed Abraham, and told him, that thou mayest be worthy 
 again to do so as thou hast said, viz. to make feasts when his 
 
 ' In Bava-Melzia, fol. 861?, we read, that when the angels were asked to 
 wash their feet, they said: pas"? D'lnnK'D DnC UmCH D"mj;a '31 
 Dn'bj"), i.e. " Dost thou suspect us for Arabs, who worship the dust of 
 their feet ? " 
 
 2 Evidently referring to chap, xxiii. 15, " What is that betwixt me 
 and thee." ' Ibid. ,yfti. 16. 
 
 H 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 wife Sarah should have a son. Thus writes the Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac. But the Ramban writes : The angels said, " So 
 do as thou hast said," to give to eat under the tree, that we 
 should not be detained long, for when one gets into a house 
 he is unavoidably delayed. 
 
 Rabbi B'chai writes : They have said ; " So do, as thou hast 
 said," meaning, to give us a morsel of bread, but not to make 
 a great dinner. Another explanation is : They said unto 
 Abraham, "Do not detain us long, do immediately prepare our 
 food, as thou hast said, for we are in haste to go on." 
 
 6 Make ready quickly three measures of meal. The reason 
 why he ordered three measures was, that he should give each 
 an equal portion, that there should be no jealousy at the meal. 
 The Ramban writes : He ordered Sarah to take three measures 
 of fine flour, and sift it finer, that the flour should be very fine. 
 
 7 And Abraham ran unto the herd. Although Abraham 
 had many servants, yet, in honour of the guests, he himself ran 
 unto the herd, and he took three calves to honour his guests 
 alike. Abraham took the calves and gave them to Ishmael 
 to dress them, and this he did in order to accustom Ishmael to 
 observe the precepts. 
 
 8 And he took butter and milk. In Shabbath, Chapter 
 M'phannin (fol. 127A), Rabbi Yochanan says: The precept of 
 hospitality to strangers is greater than the study of the Law.^ 
 
 1 This is not correct. Rabbi Yochanan says: JTniX.nDJan nTllJ 
 mon ri'l nnSBTia, i.e. Hospitality is as great as early attendance at 
 college ; as great as, but not greater, than early attendance at school 
 where the Law is studied. Rabbi Yochanan also gives the following : 
 Six precepts, the interest of ■which a man enjoys in this world, and the 
 capital remains for him intact in the world to come ; and they are these : 
 Hospitality to strangers, visiting the sick, devotion in prayer, early atten- 
 dance at school (or early rising for school), training his children to study the 
 Law, and judging neighbours charitably. In the next line but one, another 
 list of additional precepts is given, and is wound up thus : But the study o] 
 the Law outweighs them all. And this is daily repeated by every Jew in 
 his morning prayer. The sttidy of the Law is above all. 
 
GENESIS XVTII. 5-10. 99 
 
 The Yalkut writes : For the merit of Abraham in giving 
 water to strangers, his children became worthy to be rewarded 
 with the well in the wilderness for forty years, which followed 
 them in all places ; and when Israel sinned in the wilderness 
 the Well tarried and remained behind, till the disciples of the 
 wise prayed and said : " For the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, Spring up, O Well!" (Num. xxi. 17) and immediately 
 it sprang up. 
 
 Arid they did eat. They pretended to eat. From this we 
 learn that a man must not alter a popular custom ; for angels 
 do not eat, but they made it appear as if they did eat.i 
 
 9 And they said unto him. Where is Sarah thy wife ? and he 
 said. Behold, in the te7it. This teaches us that a guest should 
 ask the husband, " Where is thy wife ? " and of the wife he 
 should ask, " Where is thy husband ? " The angels knew 
 where Sarah was, yet they asked, in order to show that she 
 was modest in remaining out of sight, and thus made her more 
 beloved by Abraham ; or they asked after her, in order to give 
 her of the Cup of Blessing after the usual repetition of " Grace 
 after Meals." 2 
 
 10 And he said, I will certainly return next year unto thee, 
 
 ^ Moses, when he ascended into heaven (Ps. Ixviii. 18), did not eat, for 
 there the custom is not to eat. Bava-Metzia, fol. 86b. 
 
 I^TD 3nJD, *' Custom is as law,^^ is a proverb amongst the Jews. 
 
 ^ The form of " Grace after Meals," which is always repeated in Hebrew 
 after each meal, fills over three octavo pages. When three adult Jews have 
 eaten together in one room at the same time, they are bound to say the 
 " Grace after Meals " over a Cup of Blessing, and a certain short sentence 
 is added to the usual form of Grace. When a father, or Rabbi, or a priest 
 is present, or the company consists of ten, or more than ten persons, the 
 short additional sentence is different in its wording. The mistress of the 
 house and the members of the family, male or female, have a taste of this 
 Cup of Blessing. The observance of this custom is alluded to in the text. 
 The eating of a piece of bread no larger than the size of an olive ne- 
 cessitates the usual washing of hands and the repetition of the Irnj 
 form of Grace, the laws about which are many and most complicated and 
 exacting. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 and Sarah shall already have a son. This was on Passover, 
 and on the Passover next j-ear the child Isaac was born. 
 
 Rabbi B'chai writes : " According to the time of life " means, 
 Sarah will have a son according to the time, which is not 
 longer than a year. * * * * 
 
 The Chizkuni writes: "According to the time of life" is 
 meant that the angels have said, " We will next year return ; 
 we shall live then as we live now, for we live for ever." 
 
 Afid Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him ; 
 behind the angel. The Chizkfini writes : " Which was behind 
 him " refers to Ishmael, who was behind the angel, that she 
 should not be alone with the angels, for they were thought to 
 be men.i 
 
 11 JVbw Abraham atid Sarah were old. It ceased to be 
 with Sarah after the manner of young women. 
 
 12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself. Sarah mocked. 
 . . She said, " the breasts that are dried up, shall they 
 
 give milk to suckle a child ? " " And my lord being old also I " 
 And how can I and an old husband have children ? 
 
 13 And the Lord said unto Abrahatn, Wherefore did Sarah 
 laugh, saying. Shall I of a surety have a child, which am old f 
 God altered Sarah's words before Abraham, in order that 
 Abraham should bear no hatred towards her, because she said 
 that he was old to have children. And from this our sages 
 learn by deduction, that /or the sake of peace one may tell a lie 
 which does no one any harm.^ 
 
 ' To this day it is customary not to leave Jewish women alone with 
 strangers. Even an infant, provided it be a boy, is considered a sufficient 
 guardian for a woman when alone with a stranger. 
 
 ^ The qualification is not in the Talmud which the commentator quotes. 
 The original runs thus: A tradition of the School of Rabbi Ishmael 
 teaches : So great is peace, that, for its sake, even the Holy One, blessed 
 be He! tampered with truth; for Sarah had said (disparagingly) "My 
 lord being old also"; but God reported to Abraham that she had said : 
 "And /am old." Yovamoth, iol. 6%B. 
 
 Immediately preceding the above we read as follows : Rabbi Ilaa said, 
 
GENESIS XV 11 I. 10-15. 
 
 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? God said, "Is there 
 anything hid from Me that I should not be able to do it?" 
 
 15 T/ien Sarah debited, saying; I laughed not. Sarah denied, 
 and said, " I have not mocked " (or sneered), because she was 
 afraid to admit that she had sneered. She was not aware that 
 God told Abraham she had mocked ; for had she known this 
 she would not have denied God's word. But Sarah thought 
 that Abraham perceived that she mocked, because she had 
 laughed. Or because she did not believe the good news (that 
 she would have a son), therefore she denied. When Abraham 
 told her : " JVay, but thou didst sneer" she then understood 
 that God told him ; then she was silent. 
 
 The Ramban writes : Sarah was not aware that God had 
 said she would have a son; for when God said unto Abraham, 
 " Thy wife shall have a son," Abraham did not tell it before 
 Sarah, because he thought God would certainly send an extra 
 angel to Sarah to announce unto her the good tidings, and 
 when the angels came and told her that she should have a son, 
 she thought that they were but men, not angels, therefore she 
 sneered. 
 
 Old and well-stricken in age (ver. 11). From Adam unto 
 Abraham it is not mentioned that there were aged people in 
 the world, but when Abraham came, he said unto God : " Lord 
 of the Universe 1 A father and his son walk in the market, 
 and people do not know who is old and who is young ; the 
 aged therefore cannot be honoured ; it is right that an old 
 man should have grey hair." God said unto Abraham : 
 " Thou hast well spoken, and I will begin with thee," and 
 
 in the name of Rabbi Elazer the son of Rabbi Shimon : An untruth may 
 be told in the interest of peace ; for Joseph's brethren told him (which was 
 not true— as it is not recorded), " Thy father commanded before he died, 
 saying," etc. (Gen. 1. 16). Rabbi Nathan says : To tell an untruth for the 
 sake of peace is (not merely permitted, but) commanded ; for it is said 
 (l Sam. xvi. 2), "And Samuel said. How can I go? if Saul hear it, he 
 will kill me. And the Lord said, Take an heifer with thee, and say (im- 
 perative, which was not true) I come to sacrifice to the Lord." 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 made Abraham hoary grey, hence it is stated " <?/(/," and in 
 Abraham old age was recognised for the first time. 
 
 And when Isaac came, he said before God : " Lord of the 
 Universe ! A man dies without affliction, and he has many afflic- 
 tions in the other world ; therefore it is better that he should 
 have some affliction in this world in order that he might take 
 off a little in this world (from the punishment in the next)." 
 God said : " Thou art right ! and I will begin with thee," as it 
 is stated in Scripture : " And his eyes were dim, so that he 
 could not see." ^ 
 
 And when Jacob came, he pleaded before God : "When a 
 man dies without (previous) illness, he cannot leave a will for 
 his children." God said: " Thou art right ! and I will begin with 
 thee,"as it is said: "One told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick."^ 
 
 Sat-ah laughed. V\'hen the month Tishri (about October) 
 came, after the angels told her that she would have a son, and 
 there appeared no sign thereof, Sarah sneered at the words of 
 the angels ; for, she thought, it is only six months to Passover, 
 and I am not pregnant yet. But Abraham (in spite of this) 
 still believed that Sarah would have a son, because he heard 
 it (direct) from God, and Sarah heard it only from the angels, 
 and therefore she supposed they ^tre. false people. 
 
 Although Abraham too laughed when God told him, "Thy 
 wife will bear thee a son," yet the reply is : Abraham did not 
 openly laugh before the people, but "fell upon his face, and 
 laughed." ^ But Sarah went about among people and laughed 
 at it, and therefore it is stated : " Sarah laughed amongst her 
 near relations "* (A.V. Sarah laughed within herself), "saying" 
 i.e. she related it. 
 
 1 Chap, xxvii. I. ^ Chap, xlviii. I. ^ Chap. xvii. 17. 
 
 ■• By a play on the Hebrew root of 3np with a change of the vowel 
 points, this change of signification is arrived at. This mode of inter- 
 preting Scripture is in vogue and much admired. Thus the most solemn 
 truth is often turned into foolishness, "and My people love to have it so" 
 ,(Jer. V. 31). 
 
GENESIS XVni. 15-20. 103 
 
 The Chizkuni writes a reply in a parable. A woman wishing 
 to rebuke her daughter-in-law, goes and rebukes- her own 
 daughter, that the daughter-in-law might take the hint ; so 
 likewise God said unto Abraham : " Wherefore did Sarah 
 sneer ? " in order that Abraham should understand ■ that- he 
 himself did wrong when he sneered. 
 
 16 And Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. 
 Abraham went to accompany the angels, and for this merit 
 God immediately appeared unto him. And how far -is the 
 limit of accompanying (strangers in the sense of guests) ?" One 
 friend with another, till outside the town. A Rabbi with his 
 disciple, a Sabbath day's journey. A disciple and his Rabbi, 
 three miles. A master of the house with his guest, for one 
 mile. 
 
 1 7 Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I will do 
 jinto Sodotn 1 I love him, because he is pious, and orders his 
 household to do righteousness and judgment. When Abraham 
 heard that God praised him, he humbled himself still more, and 
 said : " I am dust and ashes." From this it should be learned 
 that when a man is praised he should not pride himself, but 
 humble himself the more. 
 
 19 For I know him. God said: "I love Abraham because 
 he is pious." Rabbi B'chai writes : God said, "I take more 
 care of Abraham than of other righteous men." This is the 
 meaning of "I know him," i.e. I make myself known to him 
 to deliver him. 
 
 20 And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and GO' 
 viorrah is great, — is very great, and the people of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah were bad with their person and their money. But 
 their judgment in heaven is gone forth, because they would give 
 no alms to the poor. For a girl once carried out, in her pitcher 
 with which she went to draw water, a slice of bread for a poor 
 man ; when the people of Sodom became aware of it, they 
 took the girl and smeared her all over with honey, and bound 
 her hands and feet and placed her before the bees and flies, 
 
104 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 till the bees devoured her. Thus her cry came before God, 
 and the text expresses it : " The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is 
 great"— \hs.t the girl cries unto me : for "great" i (in Talmudic 
 language) means a girl. 
 
 21 They have done altogether. God said : " If all have sinned 
 and will not repent, I will destroy them ; but if not, and if 
 they will repent, I will not destroy them, but I will consider 
 what sufferings to inflict upon them." 
 
 23, 24 And Abrahatn drew near and said, Wilt Thou also 
 destroy the righteous with the wicked 1 Peradventure there be 
 fifty righteous within the city. "Peradventure there be fifty 
 righteous in the five cities, if each city have ten righteous to 
 deliver them (the inhabitants), wilt Thou then destroy them, 
 and wilt thou not spare them for the sake of the righteous 
 which are among them ? And if Thou wilt not deliver the 
 wicked for the sake of the righteous, deliver at least the 
 righteous for his own sake." 
 
 And Ramban asks : What need was there for Abraham to 
 say " Within the city " ? He might have said no more than, 
 " Peradventure there be here (some) righteous." But Abraham 
 said thus: "Peradventure righteous strangers have recently 
 come to reside in the city, like Lot, for instance ; them also 
 shalt thou deliver." 
 
 25 That be far from thee to do such a thing (after this 
 manner), to slay the righteous with the wicked. Shall not the 
 Judge of all the world (all the earth, A.V.) do a right judgment 1 
 That be far from thee ! "For people will say that it is Thy 
 custom to slay the righteous with the wicked, as Thou hast 
 done by the Deluge and in the generation of the division (or 
 confusion of tongues)." 
 
 26, 27 And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous 
 within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. 
 
 ' n3^. The meaning of this word depends on its vowel points. If the 
 word reads "RabLiah,"it means great; if it reads " Ribhali," then it 
 means a girl. See ante, p. 77' 
 
GENESIS XVIII. 20-32. 105 
 
 I will not destroy the ivliole place. And Abraham answered 
 and said, Peradventure there will be found only forty and five 
 righteous, wilt Thou then on account of five righteous (less) de- 
 stroy the whole place ? For Abraham pleaded, If there were 
 forty and five righteous, there would be nine righteous for 
 each city. After that Abraham prayed, Should there be only 
 forty righteous, that at least four cities should remain. God 
 answered, 
 
 29-32 / 7iiill not do it for forty s sake. After that Abraham 
 said, " Peradventure should there be only thirty righteous, 
 let then three cities be spared." God answered, " I will not 
 destroy for the sake of thirty." Again Abraham prayed, 
 " Peradventure if tliere be only twenty righteous." And God 
 said, " I will not destroy for the sake of twenty." 
 
 Abraham once more urged if " Peradventure there be only 
 ten ; " and God said, " I will not destroy for the sake of the 
 ten righteous." 
 
 But for less than ten righteous Abraham did not pray, 
 for if there be not ten righteous, then God does not deliver 
 the world. And this is the reason that in the generation of 
 the Deluge, as there were no more than Noah with his wife, 
 and his three sons with their three wives, thus no more than 
 eight persons, they could not (by their merits) deUver their 
 generation, all of which perished, and they only remained. 
 
 Rabbi B'chai asks : What need had Abraham to pray so 
 long ? for when God told him that if there be forty righteous 
 he would spare four cities, he ought then to have known that 
 if there were thirty, three cities would be spared ; and if twenty, 
 two cities ; and if ten, one city. The reply is this : Abraham 
 thought the greater the number of the righteous the greater 
 would be their (joint) merit, for God told him that He would 
 deliver four cities for the sake of forty righteous, but for less 
 than forty (thought he), God would not deliver ; therefore he 
 felt obliged to pray for thirty, and for twenty, and for ten. 
 From this we learn that prayer should be made where there 
 
lo5 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 are many people together, for the (joint) merit of many people 
 is very great, and the prayer is more readily accepted. The 
 sages say as much in the Gemara ; " The few who observe the 
 law are not to be compared with the many who observe it ; " ' 
 for the (joint) merit of the latter is greater (than that of the 
 former). But God is merciful, and He answered Abraham, 
 that He would pardon even for a few righteous. 
 
 Chapter XIX. — i And the two angels came to Sodom, And 
 the third angel, who had announced to Sarah that she would 
 have a son, returned to heaven. Here it is asked : AVhy do 
 the Scriptures in connection with Lot call them angels, whereas 
 in the case of Abraham they are called men 1 The reply is : 
 By Abraham they are called men, because angels came to him 
 usually like men ; but angels were not in the habit of visiting 
 Lot (so frequently), therefore does Scripture call them angels. 
 
 And the angels came to Sodom at even. The question is : 
 Why tarried the angels so long between Hebron and Sodom ? 
 The answer is : They were angels of mercy, and they waited 
 for Abraham to plead on behalf of Sodom. 
 
 And Lot sat ifi the gate of Sodom. On that day they made 
 Lot a judge in Sodom. 
 
 And Lot saw and rose up to meet them. Lot learned of 
 Abraham to respect strangers, therefore he rose up before 
 them, for he supposed them to be men. Rabbi B'chai and 
 the Toldoth Yitzkhac ask : Why did not Lot " run to meet 
 them," as Abraham did ? The answer is : By Abraham they 
 came when it was quite light and he could see them from a 
 distance, therefore he ran to meet ; whereas they came to Lot 
 "at even" in the dark, when Lot could not see them till they 
 came quite near, then he " rose icp to meet them" 
 
 ' The passage here quoted as from the Talmud runs thus : nOH 13'« 
 iD'K'iyn DUno"? minn n« n'-B'lVn D'ayilO. To the best of my know- 
 ledge there is no such passage to be found anywhere in the Talmud.. 
 But misquotations of this kind are by no means uncommon, perhaps be-. 
 cause " they do no one any harm." See ver. 13, p. \oo,ante. 
 
GE.V£S/S XVin. Z2-X/X. 3. 107 
 
 2 And he said, Behold now, niy lords, turn in I pray you. 
 Lot said unto the angels, " I pray you come into my house, only 
 go in from behind, that the townspeople know not anything of 
 you, for should they know that I have taken in strangers, I 
 am in danger of my life." 
 
 And tarry all ?iighf and wash your feet, from the dust that is 
 upon them. And why did not Lot, as Abraham, first ask them 
 to wash their feet, and then enter the house ? The Chizkuui 
 gives a reply : Lot was afraid that when the wicked came and 
 saw that the strangers had clean feet, they would say they had 
 been a long time with Lot, and he did not report it to them. 
 
 And they said, Nay, but we will abide in the street all night, 
 in order that the townspeople may see how we will overthrow 
 them ; perhaps they will repent. 
 
 3 And he pressed upon them greatly, and they obeyed him. 
 Abraham they obeyed immediately, saying : " So do, as thou 
 hast said, "^ we will eat with thee." From this we learn that a 
 person of much esteem is to be obeyed at once. 
 
 And he made them a feast. Lot made them a banquet, and 
 baked Passover-cakes, for it was the feast of Passover, and 
 they did eat. 
 
 The angels having asked Lot whether the townspeople were 
 good or bad, he replied that the majority were wicked. As 
 they were thus talking, the whole town, young and old, for 
 there was not one righteous among them to prevent them, 
 called on Lot, and said unto him : " Where are the men 
 which came unto thee? give them up." Lot went out and 
 shut the door after him, and said, " My brethren, do the 
 strangers no harm ! I have two daughters, virgins, which have 
 not known man ; I will give you my two daughters and do ye 
 with them as you please, but to the men ye shall do nothing, 
 because they came to me and are guests in my house." They 
 replied, "Get aside! thou art a stranger and wilt thou judge 
 us? now will we deal worse with thee than with them." And 
 
 Chap, xviii. 5. 
 
I°8 RABBINICAL COMMEA'TARY. 
 
 they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to 
 break the door. The angels stretched out their hands and 
 pulled Lot in and locked the door. And they smote all the 
 men that were before the door with blindness, so that they 
 got tired and could not find the door. And the angels said 
 unto Lot : " Hast thou any children, or sons-in-law in the 
 city ? bring them out from here ! " 
 
 12 And the angels said unto Lot : Hast thou any here he- 
 sides 1 1 that means : How canst thou yet have a mouth to 
 intercede for the wicked ? for Lot interceded all night for the 
 townspeople that they should not be slain. 
 
 13 For we will destroy the city. Rabbi E'chai writes: Be- 
 cause the angels said, " We will destroy the city," and had 
 not said, God will destroy the city, therefore God punished 
 them, that they were for a hundred and thirty-eight years 
 driven from their position, and God sent them not on any 
 embassy (or errand) till the time of Jacob, when He sent them 
 again to be with Jacob, and Jacob again sent them on an 
 errand to Esau. From this it may be learnt that a man should 
 not pride himself in his glory, for glory belongs alone to God, 
 as the prophet Isaiah has said : " The whole earth is full of 
 His glory." ^ In the end, however, the angels stated the case 
 truly : " And the Lord hath sent us to destroy it "—the city. 
 
 1 4 And Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law, which 
 married his daughters, and said, Get ye out of the city with me, 
 for God ivill destroy the city. His sons-in-law mocked at him.^ 
 And when the morning star arose, then the angels hastened 
 Lot, and said unto him, " Take thy wife and thy two daughters, 
 which are ready with thee to be delivered, lest thou also be 
 
 1 na By a play on the rowel points the sense of the word is altered from 
 "here" to "mouth." The literal meaning of HD I? *0 with the altered 
 vowels would be : Who to thee is mouth, but the sense we give seems 
 natural from the context. 
 
 ^ Isa. vi. 3. 
 
 ' We give the rendering as we find it. 
 
GE.VESIS XIX. 3-22. 
 
 log 
 
 consumed on account of the sins of the city." And Lot 
 lingered to save his money, but — 
 
 1 6 The atzgels laid hold on his hand, and on his wife and 
 two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto him, and they 
 brought him forth from the city, but did not let him take his 
 money with him, and therefore it is stated — 
 
 1 7 When they brought them {even thetn) forth. The repetition 
 of the term " them " (in the original Hebrew),i shows that the 
 angels brought them forth, them alone, but not their money. 
 And the angel said : ''Look not behind thee. Thou art delivered 
 for the sake of Abraham's merit, therefore thou must not look 
 to see how those other wicked are destroyed." The Midrash 
 writes : The reason why the angel told him not to look behind 
 was because the Shechinah with the ministering angels were 
 standing over the city, to rain upon it brimstone and fire. But 
 Irith, the wife of Lot, had compassion for her two daughters 
 who were with their husbands in the city, and looking back 
 to see whether the daughters also were coming out of the city, 
 she meanwhile saw the Shechinah, and thus became a heap of 
 salt I For having sinned in the matter of salt, refusing to give 
 any salt to a stranger, therefore she became a heap of salt. 
 
 And Lot prayed unto God and said : " I cannot run quickly ; 
 I am afraid, lest the evil meets me meanwhile ; let me abide 
 in the city of Zoar. For Zoar has not long been built, and 
 therefore it has not many sins, and there I shall remain alive." 
 God favoured him, and left Zoar, and did not destroy it. 
 
 2 2 Haste thee, escape thither ; for I cannot do anything till 
 thou be come thither — to Zoar. The angels were punished 
 because they had exalted themselves, and said, " We will 
 destroy" the city of Sodom; they ought to have said, ''God 
 will destroy ;" therefore here they are obliged to say : " "For 
 I cannot do anything," y/Yiich. means: I cannot do anything 
 without God. 
 
 ' DniX DK^'JinS, literally : "As they brought them forth, them." 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 23 The sun was risen upon the earth, and the moon was 
 also yet visible, for it was full moon, Easter, when the sun and 
 the moon are both visible for several hours in the morning; 
 then God caused it to rain upon Sodom brimstone and fire out 
 of heaven in the presence of the sun and moon, for some of 
 the people of Sodom worshipped the sun, and some the nloon. 
 Had God punished them in the presence of the sun alone, the 
 worshippers of the moon would have said, Had the moon been 
 visible above the horizon she would not have permitted (such 
 a catastrophe) ; and had God punished them in the presence 
 of the moon alone, then the sun worshippers would have said, 
 Had the sun been above the horizon, he would not have per- 
 mitted (such an awful event to take place); therefore God 
 caused it to rain brimstone and fire from heaven, in the pre- 
 sence of both the sun and moon. When God punishes the 
 wicked, He sends brimstone and fire from heaven ; when He 
 does good to the righteous. He sends manna from heaven. 
 
 26 But his wife looked back from beitind him. For Lot 
 went last, to drive his household out of the city, and the wife 
 of Lot looked behind him, and she became a heap of salt 
 unto this day. 
 
 28, 29 Abraham looked towards Sodom, and saw a smoke 
 went up from thence as the smoke of a lime kiln. " God remem- 
 bered Abraham," and therefore He sent Lot away from Sodom ; 
 for God thought of the good Lot had done unto Abraham, in 
 that he did not betray that Sarah was his wife. 
 
 30 And Lot went up out of Zoar. For he feared to dwell in 
 Zoar, because it was near Sodom, and might perhaps also be 
 destroyed. The Chizkuni writes: Lot supposed Zoar was 
 spared because he was unable to flee further from Sodom m 
 a hurry, but now, having leisure, he must move away from 
 the city, which was doomed to destruction. 
 
 31 And the firstborn said. Lot had two daughters, who had 
 had no husbands, and the elder said to the younger, " Our father 
 is old, and may soon die, and there is no man in the world 
 
GENESIS XIX. 2Z-XX. I. 
 
 that we should have children;" for they supposed that the 
 whole world was destroyed, as in the time of the Deluge. 
 
 Rabbi B'chai writes : The daughters were modest, and there- 
 fore were ashamed to tell their father that the children of 
 Noah might marry their daughters. Therefore they made him 
 drunk with wine, that he should not know (what he was about), 
 and God provided them with wine in the cave for that purpose. 
 
 32 Come, let us make our father drink wuie. And because 
 the elder began to persuade the younger to the deed, it is 
 therefore distinctly said with reference to her, " And lay with 
 her father," and with reference to the younger it is expressed 
 more delicately, " And lay with him" and is not said, " with 
 her father." 
 
 33 Atid he perceived not when she lay down nor when she 
 arose. Yet the second night he again got drunk, and the two 
 daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. 
 
 37 And the elder bare a son, and called his name, Moab ; this 
 means, he was born of my father ; and because she did not 
 say this with modesty, therefore God said unto Moses : " Do 
 thou not war with Moab; but other distresses will be brought 
 upon them." ^ But the younger spake with decorum, and 
 called her son Ben-ammi, which means, he was born oi my people, 
 and said not distinctly (as her elder sister said) of my father ; 
 therefore God said unto Moses: "Thou shalt do no manner 
 of evil to the nation of Ammon." ^ 
 
 Chapter XX. — i And Abraham journeyed thence. Abraham 
 saw that Sodom was destroyed and that no strangers were 
 coming, so he journeyed thence, and came to sojourn in the 
 city of Gerar. 
 
 ' See Deut ii. 9, and read the note which follows next here below. 
 
 ^ The passage here quoted as from the Bible runs thus : — 
 
 :;Kt3 D'J t"3 Dlty P'p pJ3j; pa nOIX NH WbV.1 NH, i.e. "Thou 
 shalt do no manner of evil to the nation of Ammon." There is no such 
 passage to be found anwhere in the Bible. But an occasional misquotation, 
 from a Jewish point of view, does no more harm than an occasional 
 deliberate falsehood. See Note, p. lo6, ante. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife. She is my sister. 
 The question here is : Why did not Abraham now also request 
 Sarah to say that she was his sister, as in the case of Pharaoh ? 
 The answer is : Because Sarah having been once taken to 
 Pharaoh, therefore Abraham knew for certain that she (withotit 
 being requested to do so) would say that she was his sister. 
 
 Rabbi B'chai asks : Why did Abraham go to Gerar, since he 
 already had had great troubles (in a royal city) ; his wife Sarah 
 was taken from him, and God was obliged to do great miracles 
 ere he took Sarah out of Pharaoh's house ? The answer is : 
 Abraham gave her a divorce (previous to going to Gerar). But 
 God said : " Because he divorced her out of fear, the divorce 
 is no divorce," and therefore came an angel to Abimelech and 
 informed him, " She is a tnan's wife." The woman Sarah has 
 a husband, for her divorce is no divorce, because it was given 
 out of fear. 
 
 And Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. And an 
 angel came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, 
 " Thou shalt die because of the woman which thou hast taken, 
 for she has a husband." 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks : Why does it say of Pharaoh, 
 " And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house," and of 
 Abimelech it says, "And took Sarah," and does not say, 
 "■Into his house"! The answer is: Pharaoh was a greater 
 king than Abimelech and took Sarah on account of her great 
 beauty. He intended to make a great wedding feast before he 
 married her, and wanted (meanwhile) to make a show of his 
 great wealth ; therefore he placed her in the house of a great 
 prince. It states " Pharaoh's house," that is to say the house- 
 hold of Pharaoh, this means, his royal princes. But Abimelech 
 was a righteous man, and not so rich as Pharaoh. He took 
 Sarah because she was honourably connected, as it is said m 
 the text: "And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, she is my 
 sister," and therefore, "Abimelech sent and took Sarah," but 
 he took her not on account of her beauty, for she was now not 
 
GENESIS XX. 2-4. 
 
 SO handsome as in the time of Pharaoh, because she was older, 
 and Abiraelech did not wish to make a great wedding feast, 
 and therefore he took her at once to be his wife. 
 
 4 And Abimekck did not come near her. The angel pre- 
 vented Abimelecli coming near her. Of Pharaoh there was 
 no need to state that he " did not come near her" because 
 she was not yet in his house, for she was in the house of a 
 prince. 
 
 Yet another question is asked by the Toldoth Yitzkhac : 
 Why did an angel come to Abimelech and not to Pharaoh ? 
 The answer is : Because Abimelech was a righteous man (and 
 Pharaoh was not). 
 
 Another question he asks ; Why God plagued Pharaoh 
 with leprosy, and not Abimelech ? The answer is : God did 
 everything, that Abimelech should (of himself) understand 
 that it was because he took Sarah, and that alone was sufficient 
 punishment for him ; but Pharaoh having given cause that 
 people should speak evil of Sarah, that Pharaoh lay with her, 
 therefore God punished him with leprosy, — for he who speaks 
 evil is plagued with leprosy.^ Although Abimelech also gave 
 cause to people to speak against Sarah, yet he was not guilty 
 in the matter, and as soon as he became aware that Sarah had 
 a husband, he would not touch her. But Pharaoh, although 
 he knew that Sarah had a husband, yet he still desired to take 
 her for his wife, and therefore God plagued him with leprosy. 
 
 And the Toldoth Yitzkhac asks yet another question : 
 Why did not Pharaoh seek an explanation from Abraham 
 for saying that Sarah was his sister, and Abimelech did seek 
 from Abraham an explanation for having said that Sarah 
 was his sister ? It may also be asked : Why Pharaoh said 
 to Abraham, " Behold thy wife, take her and go thy way, 
 
 ' Eerchin, fol. 15E. Rish Lakish says : What does that mean which is 
 written (Lev. xrv. 2), "This shall be the law of the leper?" Ull^fOn. 
 Reply : This shall be the law of JJ") DC K*S1D, one that spreads a bad 
 name {i.e. that speaks evil of another). 
 
 I 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 out of my land " ; and Abimelech said to him, " Dwell in 
 my land where it pleaseth thee ? " The answer is : Pharaoh 
 feared that Abraham would say to him, " I was afraid thou 
 wouldst kill me, on account of my wife." Therefore Pharaoh 
 avoided hearing a reply from Abraham, and said : " Take tliy 
 wife and get instantly out of my land," because he feared his 
 own people, in respect to Sarah. But Abimelech was a righteous 
 man, therefore he asked Abraham to tell him why he said that 
 Sarah was his sister. Abraham replied to him : " Thou art a 
 righteous man, but I was afraid of thy people. So not only 
 here have I begun to say that Sarah was my sister, but ever 
 since I left my father's house I have always said so." Abime- 
 lech, fearing that the angel came to destroy his land, as he did 
 Sodom, therefore said unto Abraham, " Dwell in my land, and 
 thou wilt deliver it." And thus says the text: "Therefore 
 Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, 
 and told all these things in their ears, and the men were sore 
 afraid." 
 
 And he said., Lord, wilt Thou slay also a righteous 
 nation 1 " If so, then will I say that Thou hast done so like- 
 wise to the generation of the Deluge, and to the generation of 
 the division of tongues." 
 
 Rabbi B'chai writes : The nation 1 " If Thou, God, wilt slay 
 the king (who is the nation), Thou wilt through this (act) slay 
 also the righteous Abraham, for my people will revenge them- 
 selves and slay him." And Abimelech said, "Why am I guilty?" 
 Abraham said that she was his sister, and Sarah also had said 
 that Abraham was her brother. ' ' In the integrity of my heart;' 
 that is to say, " I had not the intention to commit sin, and in the 
 innocency of my hands have I done this. I am free from the sin, 
 for I have not yet touched her." The angel said unto him, " I 
 know that thou hadst no intention to commit sin, therefore I 
 have withheld thee from committing a sin, and have not 
 permitted thee to touch her. This (affair) was not of thee." 
 And now, 
 
GENESIS XX. i,-XXT. i. 1,5 
 
 7 Restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet. " He is a 
 prophet and knows well that thou hast not touched her, she 
 will not be despised or rejected by him, and he will pray for 
 thee." 
 
 The B'chai -ivrites : Abimelech said unto Sarah, " Behold, I 
 have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver," " and thus 
 will all people know for certain that I have not touched thee, 
 but that I was obliged to restore thee to him and to conciliate 
 him, for till now, I did not love him, and now my giving him 
 so much money, (people will say) this must be a miracle from 
 God." Had he given Sarah the money, the world would have 
 said, he gave her hire. " Thjis she was reproved." " Thus thou 
 shalt be able to defend thyself, and prove to all people that 
 thou art gone out of my house pure." Another exposition can 
 be given to " Thus she was reproved." "All people will reprove 
 thee, as punished by God, if thou say Abraham is thy brother, 
 and people take thee for a wife." 
 
 The Midrash Rabba writes : Abimelech gave Sarah an ex- 
 pensive dress, which a queen used to wear, and said unto her, 
 " Behold, it will be for thee a covering of the eyes ; all people 
 will see the handsome dress and will fear to look on thee." 
 
 ij So Abraham prayed unto God, and God healed Abimelech, 
 and his wife, and his maidservants, and they bare children. 
 Abraham prayed that Abimelech might be healed, and prayed 
 for them also, and they all were healed.^ 
 
 Chapter XXI. — i And the Lord visited Sarah." The Torah 
 records the chapter of Sarah's conception close upon that 
 
 ^ See Gen. ace. to the Tat., p. ^Z^, v. 18, where it is said that even the 
 hens belonging to tlie house of Abimelecli ceased to lay eggs (and needed 
 to be cured). 
 
 * This chapter is read with great devotion and solemnity at public 
 worship on the first day of the Jewish new year, for it was on that day 
 that Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah were visited or remembered by the Lord. 
 Rosh-Imshanah, fol. IIA. flUnOTD p ^H HUnpS, Visitations are the 
 same as Remembrances (Gen. xxi. I ; xxx. 22; I Sam. i. 19 and ii. 21 ; 
 also Exod. iii. 16). 
 
^Ii6 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 n:elating to Abraham's intercession on behalf of Abimelech, 
 that (the females of) his household might bear children. Here 
 the Torah teaches us : When one prays for his neighbour, and 
 he himself is in need of the same thing for which he prays, 
 God grants it first to him before He grants it to his neighbour, 
 for Abraham prayed that the household of Abimelech might 
 bear children, and God gave Abraham children before He 
 gave to Abimelech, and this is the meaning of " and the Lord 
 visited Sarah." God remembered, or was mindful of Sarah's 
 conception, before He healed Abimelech (and his wife and his 
 maidservants). 
 
 The Midrash writes : What did God recall to mind about 
 Sarah ? The reply is : God said, " This Sarah was in the 
 house of Pharaoh and in the house of Abimelech, and she 
 came out pure ; how shall I not remember her for good that 
 she may have children ? " 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks a question : Since it is stated, 
 " And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said," what need is 
 there for the text to say, " And the Lord did unto Sarah as He 
 had spoken " ? The answer is : And the Lord did unto Sarah 
 as He had spoken, that is to say, God caused that Sarah 
 should not only have a son, but also an abundant supply of 
 milk.i 
 
 6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all 
 that hear me will laugh with me. For many women visited 
 Sarah on that day, and on that day many sick were also 
 healed. 
 
 7 And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, thai 
 Sarah should have given children suck i The Toldoth Yitzkhac 
 writes : She said, who will now be able to talk with Abraham, 
 since Sarah his wife suckles children? that is to say, he will be 
 very proud. And therefore does the text mention of Sarah 
 laughter or merriment, because it is more wonder for an old 
 woman to beget children than for an old man. 
 
 ' See ante, chap, xviii. 12. 
 
GENESIS XXI. i-io. 117 
 
 8 Aiid the child grew and was weaned ; and Abraham made 
 a great feast. And many princes were at the feast ; also Shem, 
 and Eber, and Abimelech, and Og (king of Bashan). People 
 (taunted and) said to Og, " Thou hast said that Sarah would 
 have no children ! " Og (retorted and) said : " Isaac is like a 
 fly ! If I were to lay my little finger on him, it would kill 
 him." But God said, " His children will be as the sand at the 
 sea (shore), and thou shalt fall into their hands." 1 
 
 The day that Isaac taas weaned. When Isaac was weaned 
 Abraham made a feast — a banquet. The Rabbi B'chai writes : 
 Why made Abraham no feast when he circumcised his son? 
 The answer is : He waited till he was weaned, for he wished to 
 rejoice together with his son in the joy of the Torah (Law). It 
 is also well-known that a man loves his children better when 
 they are weaned than when they were born, for they are now 
 (somewhat) sensible, and can (in a manner) talk. Therefore 
 he made a feast when Isaac was weaned. 
 
 The Midrash writes : In the day (" hag-mal ") he was weaned., 
 are (in Hebrew) two words "hag," and " mal ;" the numerical 
 value of "hag" is eight, that is to say, at eight days " mal," 
 i.e. he circumcised him, when he made a feast.^ From this we 
 learn that we make a feast at a circumcision. 
 
 9, 10 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which 
 she had born unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto 
 Abraham, Cast out the bondwoman and her son. The Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac writes : Ishmael mocked at the feast Abraham had 
 made for Isaac, and said, " Why is the merriment so great ? a 
 feast is made for Isaac more than for me ! Yet I am the first- 
 
 1 Moses killed Og- Tal. Misc., p. 41, 7. 
 
 ^ 'ppari i.e. he was weaned : divide the Hebrew word into two, JD and 
 7D, tlie^ first has the numerical value of 8, and the second signifies "he 
 was circumcised." The wit and wisdom of this kind of trifling with Scrip- 
 ture is much admired and lauded by the orthodox Jews, and hence the 
 very great number of Midrashim or witty (?) commentaries on the Scrip- > 
 ture. 
 
Ii8 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 born, and will inherit a double share." Therefore said Sarah, 
 " Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for that son shall not 
 inherit with my son Isaac." 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks also the question : Is it proper 
 and suitable for a master, as Abraham was, to give only " bread 
 and a bottle of water""? The answer is: God said unto 
 Abraham — 
 
 12 In all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her 
 voice. And Sarah said she should be cast out, therefore Abraham 
 had not the power to give her more than what is usually given 
 to one cast out, bread and water only. And God said unto 
 Abraham — 
 
 13 And also of the son of bondwoman will I make a nation, 
 because he is thy seed. I will make also Ishmael a nation, for he 
 is thy child. 
 
 14 Ajid Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took 
 bread and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it 
 on her shoulder. And the lad also he put on her shoulder, for 
 he was ill and could not walk. And the Toldoth Yitzkhac 
 writes : Ishmael was wild and would not obey his father and 
 leave his house, therefore Abraham was obliged to bind him 
 and put him on the shoulder of Hagar ; and therefore it is not 
 said (in the text), and he sent them away, but " and he sent her 
 away," because Ishmael was bound upon her shoulder, and as 
 she was sent away, Ishmael was sent away also. 
 
 15 And the water was spent from the bottle. For Ishmael wa 
 sick, and a sick person drinks more than one in health. Then 
 Hagar cast him away under a tree, and she sat down at a 
 distance from him, so far as one can shoot with a bow, for she 
 thought, " Let me not see how the lad dies." And she lifted 
 up her voice and wept. 
 
 17 And God heard the voice of the lad. And God listened 
 to the voice and to the prayer of the lad. Our sages learn 
 from this, that the prayer of the sick is better accepted than 
 the prayer offered by others on his behalf. 
 
GENESIS XXI. 10-23 H9 
 
 And the angel said unto Hagar, Fear not, for God has heard 
 the voice of the lad where he is. For the angels said before 
 God, " Lord of the Universe ! How wilt Thou have com- 
 passion on Ishmael, who will eventually kill the Israelites by 
 thirst?"! But God replied: " I judge no man more than 
 where he is, i.e. only as he is now, and not as he will be here- 
 after ; and now as he is, Ishmael does not deserve to die of 
 thirst." And the angel said unto Hagar, "Take up the lad," 
 
 1 8 For I will make of him a great nation. The Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac asks : What need had the angel to talk so much with 
 Hagar, that the lad would be a great nation ? Better if God 
 had shown her a well of water, as she would have surely given 
 the lad to drink. The answer is : Hagar intended to let 
 Ishmael die, for she said, " His father Abraham has no com- 
 passion on him, why should I have compassion on him ? " And 
 in anger she cast him away under a tree, for it is said, "And 
 she cast the child," and it is not said she laid the child down ; 
 so the angel thought that she would let him die, and therefore 
 said the angel unto Hagar, " The child will be a great nation, 
 therefore take him up and give him to drink, for where thou 
 standest is a well of water." 
 
 19-21 And she filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad 
 to drink. And God was with the lad and helped him. And 
 his mother took him to Egypt. 
 
 22 And it came to f ass at that time that Abimelech said: 
 "Abraham has great good 'fortune ; he was delivered from 
 Sodom and the great kings, and Sarah his wife bare to him 
 a child in her old age." Thus Abimelech being afraid of 
 Abraham, said unto him — 
 
 23 Swear unto me, that thou wilt do no evil to my children, 
 " but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee." 
 And Abraham swore unto Abimelech. The Toldoth Yitzkhac 
 writes : Abimelech had an idol, and he wished that Abraham 
 
 ' See Isa. xxi. 13, 14, and a Midrash says they brought to the Israelites 
 salted food, and skin bottles filled with air, but no water. 
 
'20 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 should swear by it ; but Abraham said, " I will not swear by 
 thine idol, but I will swear by ' I am the Lord thy God.' " i 
 
 33 And Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheha. Abraham 
 planted a pretty garden with all kinds of good fruits to give to 
 stranger-guests. But the sages say : "Grove" {Eshd\a. Hebrew) 
 means an inn, or a house for strangers, a guest-house. Abraham 
 built a guest-house with four doors, in order that strangers 
 should be able to enter from all points. By means of this 
 house God's name was magnified; for the strangers, after being 
 refreshed, desired to praise Abraham, but Abraham said, " Ye 
 think ye have eaten of mine. No ! for the eating and drinking 
 belongeth unto God, therefore praise God ! " This is it that 
 the text says : 
 
 And called there on the name of the Lord, the merlasting God. 
 The Rabbi B'chai writes : The house (for strangers) was called 
 Eshel because its letters were the initials of words, which 
 severally mean board, lodging, and accompanying.^ And 
 Abraham repeated before each stranger that God is a unity 
 in the universe. 
 
 Chapter XXII.'* — i And it came to pass after these 
 
 ' Exod. XX. 2. This form of oath only is most binding. Vide Gen. ace. 
 to the Tal., lo6, 19, and notes. An oath which a Jew usually is made to 
 take in a Christian court, has no binding force whatever on him. 
 
 2 ^tyj^j Eshel : n^'3K Board ; n3»3ty Lodging ; iTI^ Accompanying 
 the stranger on leaving the hospitable Eshel. Vide 7al. Misc., 319, 2; 
 subject Notricon. 
 
 3 This chapter (1-19) is read with the greatest possible solemnity out of 
 the Scroll of the Law at public worship, on the second day of the Jewish 
 New Year. And also, but with less ceremonious solemnity, every day all 
 the year round, Sabbath days and Feast days not excepted, for it is em- 
 bodied in the Jewish Liturgy and forms part of the daily Morning Prayer. 
 
 This portion of Scripture is well known in Jewry by the title of mpy 
 pnV'. Akeedath Yitzkhac, i.e. "The Binding of Isaac," and the great 
 benefits derived from the mere daily repetition of the same are fully de- 
 scribed in the Holy Zohar and many other standard works. Every Jew who 
 daily repeats '^The Binding of Isaac " is assured of being protected against 
 all evil diseases, for, says the Holy Zohar, )b ^Vn bn n»K1 |TSO N^p 
 
GENESIS XXI. 2Z-XXII. 2. 
 
 7vords^ that God tempted Abraham. For Satan said before God : 
 "Abraham made a great banquet, but brought Thee no sacrifice 
 whatever." God replied, " Abraham only made the banquet 
 for the sake of his son, and if I bid him to slaughter his son 
 for My sake, he will certainly do it." This then is the meaning 
 of " after these words," after the words of Satan, God said unto 
 Abraham, " For My sake slay thy son Isaac." 
 
 Another explanation is: "After these words," after the 
 taunting words uttered by Ishmael to Isaac. " My father," said 
 he, " circumcised me at the age of thirteen, and I resisted not 
 (but resigned myself to the Divine command); but thee, Isaac, 
 he circumcised at eight days old, when thou didst not under- 
 stand to resist." Isaac retorted, " Thou boastest against me 
 with the (sacrifice of ) one member of thy body ; but if God 
 would have my whok body, I would certainly surrender it." 
 " After these words " God said unto Abraham — 
 
 2 Take now thy son I fray thee.''' " I pray thee to obey Me 
 now in order that people should not say that thy previous trials 
 (of faith and obedience) were nothing, and take thy son and 
 slaughter him for a sacrifice for My sake (in proof of thy obe- 
 dience to Me)." But Abraham said : " I have two sons, which 
 should I take ? " God said : " Thine only son." Abraham said : 
 " Isaac is an only son of Sarah, and Ishmael is an only son of 
 
 ilDIND "A voice (from heaven) goes forth and says : 'Neither do thou 
 anything unto him ' " (ver. 12). 
 
 This, perhaps, is one of the advantages the Jews have over the Gentiles ; 
 they repeat daily "the Akeedath Yitzkhac," and therefore enjoy better 
 health (or fancy they do), and consequently live longer ; and by the mere 
 daily repetition of the 145th Psalm they are assured to live for ever in the 
 world to come. Tal. Misc., 36, 3. 
 
 A long life here, and a happy eternity hereafter, may well inspire every 
 Israelite to thank God every morning iiJ ij^tj; t<'?E»», i-e- " that Thou hast 
 not made mc a Gentile.^' 
 
 1 "131 means both a thing and a word. The Commentator follows the 
 exegesis'^of the Talmud, and we must give the rendering of the Commenta- 
 tor. 
 
 2 KJ np literally : " Take, I pray tliee." 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTAR V. 
 
 Hagar." " Whom thou lovest," said God. " I love them both," 
 said Abraham. God did not at once tell him to take Isaac, in 
 order not to frighten him, as also to reward him for each word 
 he spoke with Him. 
 
 A?id offer him there for a burnt offering. There, on Mount 
 Moriah. God did not say that he should slay him, but that he 
 should bring him up and bring him down again. But Abraham 
 thought that God ordered him there to sacrifice Isaac for a 
 burnt offering. 
 
 3 And Abraham rose up early in the mornings to do the 
 bidding of God, and he himself saddled his ass ; and he took 
 with him his two young men, Ishmael and Eliezer. 
 
 And clave the wood for a burnt offering. He split the wood 
 at home, thinking, perhaps there may be no wood there ; and 
 he carried the wood with him three days' journey. 
 
 Rabbi B'chai offers another explanation why Abraham took 
 the wood from his own house : viz. to be sure that the wood 
 was not attacked by insects, and that it was (Kosher) clean for 
 use at the offering of a sacrifice. For the merit of his splitting 
 the wood, God split (divided) the Red Sea for his children. 
 
 4 Ajid he saiv the place afar off. Abraham said to Isaac, 
 " What seest thou ? " Isaac replied, " I see a pretty mount, 
 and on it a pretty cloud." Abraham asked the young men, 
 "What do ye see?" They said "We see nothing." Then 
 said Abraham 
 
 5 Abide ye he7-e with the ass. The Pirk^ d'Rabbi Eleazar 
 writes : The young men quarrelled together. Ishmael said, 
 " Isaac will be slaughtered, and I shall inherit -all." And 
 Eliezer said, " Thou hast been driven away from thy father's 
 house, therefore thou shalt not inherit, but /shall." Then a 
 Bath Kol (a voice from heaven) came forth and said, " Neither 
 of you shall inherit." 
 
 The Midrash writes: Abraham thought, "If I do not tell 
 Sarah of my intended offering up of Isaac, when she (on my 
 return) does not see him, she will die ; if I do tell her before- 
 
CEASES IS XXII. 2-5. 123 
 
 hand, she will not consent." Therefore Abraham told Sarah to 
 prepare a dinner for merriment. " For," said he, " I knew God 
 when I was three years old, and our son Isaac is now thirty- 
 seven years old, I must therefore initiate him to perform the 
 precepts. I intend going to offer a sacrifice on Mount Moriah ; 
 let him go with me." Sarah gave permission to take Isaac 
 with him, and Abraham rose very early in order that she should 
 not repent ; also when all people were yet asleep, in order 
 that they should not dissuade him from offering up his son 
 Isaac. 
 
 Then Satan disguised himself as an old man, and presented 
 himself before Abraham, and said, " Where art thou going ? " 
 " I am going to pray," replied Abraham. (Satan) " What is 
 the use of the wood, and the fire, and the slaughtering knife ? " 
 (Abraham) " I shall remain some days, and the wood and fire 
 will be for cooking purposes." (Satan) " Such an old man as 
 thou art, who hast no more than an only son in thine old age, 
 and wilt thou slay him ? Will God not punish thee ? " (Abra- 
 ham) " God told me to do so." 
 
 Then came Satan unto Isaac, and asked him, " Where art 
 thou going?" Isaac replied, " I am going to learn to do the 
 commandments." Satan said unto him, " Wilt thou be taught 
 after death, or when alive ? for thou art to be slaughtered ! " 
 Isaac replied, "If God wills that I should be slaughtered, I 
 will let it be so without resisting. 
 
 Satan then went to Sarah, and said unto her, " Where is 
 Abraham (gone) with Isaac ? Thou shalt never more see thy 
 son Isaac." Sarah replied, " Let God do what He wills ! " 
 
 The Midrash writes also : That Satan made a great (flood of) 
 water, which reached up to the necks of Abraham and Isaac. 
 But Abraham prayed unto God, and said, " Lord of the Uni- 
 verse ! Thou hast bidden me to offer up my son Isaac for a 
 sacrifice unto Thee, therefore help me now to do so." Then 
 the flood of water disappeared. 1 
 
 ' Comp. Rev. xii. 15, 16. The Talmud and the Midrashim have bor- 
 
124 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 And we shall come again unto you. Abraham told the young 
 men, we will go to yonder place, and we shall return unto you. 
 Rashi writes : He said this prophetically, that they both would 
 return. Rabbi B'chai writes : Abraham had it in his mind that 
 he would return the bones of Isaac after they had been burnt 
 on the altar, therefore he said (the truth) we both will return.^ 
 
 6 And they went both of them together. Both of them to- 
 gether were equally happy as they went ; Abraham, who knew 
 that he was going to slaughter Isaac, was as happy as Isaac, 
 who knew nothing about it as yet. 
 
 7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father., and said, My 
 father. It may be asked : What need is there for the text to 
 state that Isaac spake unto Abraham \\\% father, since we know 
 it already that Abraham was his father ; and again, '■'■And said 
 my father : " what need had he to say that he was his father ? 
 Rabbi B'chai writes : He therefore called him twice, father, 
 father, in order that he might have compassion on him, as a 
 father (pitieth) his son. 
 
 And he said, . . . My son. Abraham responded, "Thou 
 art my son." Isaac then asked, " If I am indeed thy son, 
 where is the sacrifice ? " 
 
 8 And Abraham replied, God will show us the sacrifice, my 
 son. Isaac then understood that he himself was to be offered 
 for a sacrifice, and therefore says the text once more — ■ 
 
 They went both of them together. That is to say, although 
 Isaac knew now that he was to be offered as a sacrifice, yet 
 they went both of them together, of one heart and mind, and 
 equally happy (to slay and to be slain). 
 
 rowed many sentiments from the New Testament. See Index III. to Gen. 
 ace. to the TaL, under the word Neio Test. 
 
 ' In this case a little prevarication and mental reservation was necessary. 
 Father Abraham thus established a precedent for the conduct of his ortho- 
 dox children. So at least would reason a modern Jew. R. Akiva swore 
 with his lips and made it null in his heart ! The Talmud says plainly that 
 thoughts of the heart are not words of the mouth : p^X HpatJ" DHIT 
 D»"l31. Kiddushin, fol. 50A. 
 
GENESIS XXII. 5-9. 125 
 
 Rabbi B'chai asks : Who had the greater merit ? Abraham, 
 who was about to slay his own son with his own hands, or 
 Isaac, who was willing to be slain ? Some of the sages say : 
 Abraham had the greater merit, for it is much easier for a man 
 to allow himself to be slain, than for a father to slay his son 
 with his own hands. But some of the sages say : The merit 
 of Isaac was greater, because Abraham explicitly heard direct 
 from God that he was to slaughter his son, whereas Isaac had 
 no such Divine communication, he having heard from Abraham 
 only, and yet was ready to be slain. Therefore his merit was 
 greater. The Rabbi B'chai maintains, however, that the merit 
 of Abraham was greater, for Isaac was in duty bound to obey 
 his father's bidding. 
 
 9 And Abraham built an altar there. " There," — on the 
 same spot where Adam the first had built an altar. The 
 Chizkuni asks ; Why did not Isaac assist building the altar? 
 The answer is : Abraham hid Isaac away, that Satan should not 
 blemish him, and thus disqualify him from being an acceptable 
 sacrifice.! Therefore Isaac was unable to assist in building. 
 
 And bound Isaac his son. Isaac said to Abraham, " Bind my 
 hands and feet, that I should not be able to throw myself 
 about when thou slayest me, and thus make the slaughtering 
 illegal." Abraham bound him, and laid him on the wood, and 
 took the knife to slay him. As soon as the knife touched 
 Isaac's throat his soul departed out of him. When he heard 
 the voice from the throne of glory, that Isaac should not be 
 touched, his soul returned into his body, and Abraham un- 
 bound him and pronounced the (following) blessing : " Blessed 
 art thou, O Lord ! who revivest the dead." ^ 
 
 ' Vide Lev. xxii. 18-25. 
 
 ''■ This blessing is one of the eighteen blessings thrice repeated daily by 
 every Jew in his morning or evening worship in synagogue or at home. 
 Strange to say, this blessing has been omitted in a copy before us of the 
 English translation of the Morning Service, in the English, but not in the 
 Hebrew. This copy of the Liturgy was published in London in 1848, by 
 H. Abrahams, and revised by Isaac L. Lyon. See said Liturgy, p. 31. 
 
126 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 The Chizkilni and the Imrae Noam ask : What need had 
 God to try Abraham, since He well knew that he would obey 
 all he was bid to do ? The answer is : The angel said unto 
 God, " In what is Abraham so much better than other right- 
 eous men, that Thou shouldest do so many wonders for him ? " 
 God replied, "I will show you what Abraham is; if I tell him 
 to slay his son, he will obey. 
 
 And bound Isaac his son. Abraham having bound Isaac's 
 hands and feet, and laid him upon the wood, Isaac besought 
 him thus : " Father, let me not see the knife, lest I shake with 
 fear, and thou shouldest not legally (Kosher) slay me." He 
 also begged his father not to tell Sarah (what had happened) 
 when on the housetop, or by the side of a pit, for she might 
 be frightened and fall down. 
 
 And Abraham took the knife in his hand to slay his son, 
 but a voice from heaven cried aloud, " Touch not Isaac to kill 
 him ! " Abraham said, " Let me shed a little of his blood." 
 But the angel replied : 
 
 Neither do thou anything to him. Make no blemish in him. 
 The B'chai writes : Abraham asked the voice that cried aloud, 
 "Who art thou? " And the voice answered, "I am an angel." 
 Abraham then said, " God Himself spoke with me to slay my 
 son, and now (if I am not to slay him) let Him speak also 
 Himself with me." 
 
 1 5 And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out oj 
 heaven the second time, 
 
 1 6 By Myself have I sworn. The angel told him that God 
 swore by Himself that He would bless the children of Isaac, 
 and multiply them as the stars of heaven, and as the sand 
 which is upon the sea shore. And Abraham said unto God, 
 " Let me say my say before Thee. First, Thou hast told me 
 that my principal children would be of Isaac; then Thou 
 commandedst me to slay him ; and now again Thou biddest me 
 not to slay him." God replied, " I do not go from My word. 
 I only told thee to bring thy son for a burnt offering, but I 
 
GEN£SJS XXII. 9-13. 127 
 
 have not bid to slay him. Now as thou hast brought him up, 
 thou mayest bring him down." Abraham said unto God, 
 " Thou hast sworn, and I, too, swear, that I will not go down 
 from here till Thou hast promised me that Thou wilt remember 
 this (binding of Isaac) as an atonement for the sins of my 
 children, as if I actually had poured out the blood 1 of my son, 
 and as if his ashes were actually spread upon the altar. 
 
 The Imrae Noam asks : Why is it stated that the angel called 
 unto Abraham from heaven, without his coming down to him, 
 whereas to Hagar the angel came down from heaven and found 
 her at the well ? The answer is : The angel was obliged 
 promptly to call unto Abraham, for he was in a hurry to slay 
 his son. (There was no time for delay.) 
 
 For now I know that thou fear est God. God said unto 
 Abraham, " Now I can answer the angels why I show thee 
 more favour than to other people." 
 
 13 And he looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a 
 thicket by his horns. The ram could not escape, and from the 
 six days of the creation he had been prepared for this purpose 
 (to be caught by the horns, and to be a substitute for Isaac). 
 The Chizkuni writes : Because the ram was tied, Abraham 
 therefore understood that God provided it for a sacrifice in 
 place of his son. Had the ram not been tied, Abraham would 
 have thought that it belonged to another person, and would 
 not have taken it for a sacrifice. 
 
 The B'chai writes on the words^ "Another caught in a thicket " 
 thus : When Israel are unclean with sin all the year round, 
 they blow the horn of a ram on new year, and God forgives 
 them their sins. 
 
 1 This sentiment seems to be based on Yoma, fol. SA, where it is said, 
 ma aha niaa ]^a, i.e. There is no atonement except by blood ; or, in 
 the language of the New Test. " Without shedding of blood there is no 
 remission. " Heb. ix. 22. 
 
 » The words of the A. V. "behind him" will bear also the meaning 
 " another," "inX means " behind," as well as " another." 
 
128 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah. After the binding of Isaac 
 was over, Abraham thought that had Isaac been slain, he would 
 have departed from this world without children, and it would 
 have been better if he had given him a wife of the daughters 
 of Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. Therefore God communicated 
 to him the good tidings that his brother's son had begat a 
 daughter, named Rebekah, who should be Isaac's wife. 
 
 End of the Fourth Section. 
 
 Chapter XXIII. — i And the life of Sarah was a hundred 
 a?id twenty-seven years. The sages say that during all the 
 time that Sarah lived, the candle burned (continually) from 
 Sabbath-eve to Sabbath-eve, a blessing was in her dough, and 
 a cloud stood over her tent. As soon as she died and these 
 three things ceased to be, then it was known that it was for 
 her sake that they had been. She was worthy of dying in the 
 Land of Israel, and being buried there. She lived out her 
 days, and this is why the text says : " And the life of Sarah 
 was a hundred and twenty-seven years, the years of the life of 
 Sarah," that is to say, she lived out (the appointed number of) 
 her years. 
 
 2 A?id Sarah died. The Torah must needs write the 
 chapter of Sarah's death immediately after the record of " The 
 Binding of Isaac," because on account of " The Binding," 
 when she heard that her son was bound to be slaughtered, 
 she was so frightened that her soul came out (she died). And 
 why does the Torah record first the birth of Rebekah, and then 
 the death of Sarah ? This is to show us that before one saint 
 departs from this world another saint enters into it.i 
 
 The Chizkiini writes : Sarah had no need to adorn herself 
 
 ' The Talmud proves that no righteous man departs this life before 
 another equally righteous is born (from Eccles. i. 5) : " The sun rises and 
 the sun goes down." The sun of Eli had not set before that of Samuel 
 rose ; as it is said (i Sam. iii. 3), " Ere the lamp of God was out . . . 
 and Samuel lay down." Kiddusiiiin, fol. 72B. 
 
GENESIS XXII. 2Z-XXIII. 2. 129 
 
 with paint (kohl) or other ornaments, as other women adorn 
 . themselves ; for she was as handsome, without any ornaments, 
 as a young girl.i 
 
 Rabbi B'chai and the Chizkuni write on the text, "And 
 the life of Sarah were" (plur.) : Were (in the original") has the 
 numerical value of thirty-seven, to show that the real .life of 
 Sarah was thirty-seven years, viz. from the birth of Isaac to 
 the Binding of Isaac, when he was thirty-seven years old ; for 
 all the years of her life before the birth of Isaac could not be' 
 called life, because if one has no children, one is like being 
 dead.3 
 
 The Baal Hatturim writes on " Kirjath-arba," thus: Sarah 
 died in the city of Kirjath-arba, and the city was so called 
 because four couples were buried there, viz. Adam and Eve, 
 Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. 
 Another explanation is, that the city was called Kirjath-Arba 
 because four mighty giants were there. 
 
 And Abraham came {from Beersheba) to moiir?i for Sarah, 
 and to weep for her. Rabbi B'chai asks : What need is there 
 to say, " to mourn for Sarah" since her name was mentioned 
 just before, "and Sarah died"? The reply is : When mourn- 
 ing is made over the dead, the name ought to be mentioned 
 several times. 
 
 Another question is asked by Rabbi B'chai : Why. is it stated 
 only that Abraham mourned, and not that. Isaac mourned for 
 his mother ? The answer is : Isaac was not informed of the 
 death of his mother Sarah, in order that he should not distress 
 himself about her dying on his account when she heard that 
 he was bound to be slaughtered. 
 
 ' We are told in MeggiUah, fol. 15A : There were four beautiful women 
 in the world — Sarah, Abigail, Rahab and Esther. In Bava-Bathra, fol. 
 50A, we are informed, compared to Sarah, all other women were like apes. 
 
 3 Four classes of people are like the dead : the poor, the lepers, the 
 blind, and the childless. Nedarim, fol. 64B. 
 
 K 
 
 ( • 
 
130 • RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 Isaac is not mentioned at the mourning and burial of Sarah, 
 nor since " The Binding," for he was three years on Mount 
 Moriah, till he became forty years of age, when he married 
 Rebekah, therefore it is said ^'■Abraham returned unto his 
 young men." ^ Abraham alo7ie returned, but Isaac remained 
 on Maunt Moriah. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks : Why did not Abraham betimes 
 buy a city where to bury himself and wife, since they were 
 already old ? The answer is : Abraham did so wisely (in 
 delaying to buy). He thought (to himself) : " I know that 
 Adam and Eve are buried in the cave, and the place therefore 
 is very valuable. Ephron may not know that Adam and Eve 
 are buried there, and therefore he holds the cave of no value. 
 If I make him an offer to buy it before Sarah dies, he' (Ephron) 
 may suspect something, and will be making inquiries of people 
 about it, and will learn that Adam and Eve are buried there, 
 and consequently he will ask a high price for it." Therefore 
 when Sarah became very old, Abraham sent her to Hebron, 
 where she would eventually die, and where there was the 
 cave of Adam and Eve, and when Sarah died there (thought 
 Abraham), I shall get the cave of Ephron with ease, in spite 
 of the inquiries that may be made. Therefore Abraham- 
 behaved .wisely in not saying plainly that he wanted that par- 
 ticular cave, but simply said : " Give me a place, that I may 
 bury my dead out of my sight," that is to say : A dead person 
 lies before me, and ye therefore ought to give me a grave 
 for the dead. They answered him: "In the- choice of our 
 sepulchres bury thy dead," since the dead person lies before 
 thee. 
 
 And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks : Is it not customary to weep first 
 and then to mourn? The answer is : Abraham 'was very joyful 
 because Isaac had been delivered from " The Binding" {i.e. from 
 being offered as a sacrifice), and also because he heard the 
 
 ' Chap, jtxii. 19. 
 
GENESIS!. XXIII. 2, 4. 131 
 
 good tidings that Rebekali was born, as his son Isaac would 
 then be able to have a wife of honourable connection, there- 
 fore he could not weep, for great joy, and hence he first 
 mourned for her and recounted her good works, and after- 
 wards . he was able also to weep a little. And this is the 
 reason why the word " weep " is written with a small Caph,i 
 because he only wept a little for her, for he was full of joy 
 and unable to weep much. 
 
 The Baal Hatturim writes : He wept but little for her, 
 because she was old when she -died, and people weep little 
 for an aged person. Another explanation is: He wept little 
 for Sarah because she herself caused her own death when she 
 passed judgment on Abraham by saying: "The Lord judge 
 between me and thee."^ And he who causes his own death 
 need not be wept for. 
 
 3 And Abraham stood up before his dead, and prayed the 
 children of Heth they should give him a sepulchre. The 
 Baal Hatturim writes : It is not lawful to talk in the presence 
 of the dead, for it is a contempt for the dead who cannot 
 speak. Therefore Abraham arose from before the dead and 
 went aside, and spoke to the children of Heth, saying — 
 
 4 I am a stranger, from a strange land, and I have settled 
 myself among you. Another explanation is : He spoke thus : 
 " If ye will sell me a sepulchre, well and good, I shall count 
 myself for a stranger and buy it of you; but if ye will not sell, 
 
 ' then I am one settled in the land, and will by law take away for 
 myself a place for a sepulchre, for God has promised to give 
 me this land." 
 
 The Chizkuni asks : Why has the Torah recorded in what 
 city Sarah died, but it does not record in what city Abraham, 
 and Rebekah, and Rachel, and Leah have died ? The answer 
 is : Abraham sent Sarah to Hebron, in order that she should 
 
 ' nn^3^1. The type of the letter Caph in this word is much smaller 
 than the other letters. 
 * Chap. xvi. 5. 
 
132 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 be far from Mount Moriah, and should not soon learn that 
 her son Isaac was slain. But as the angel Sammael came to 
 Sarah and told her that Isaac was slain, her soul departed, 
 and she died. 
 
 Some say, Sarah was ill, and Abraham sent her to Hebron 
 because of the good air there, but when there she died on 
 account of what she heard about her son Isaac. 
 
 Give me a possession of a hurying-place with you. The B'chai 
 asks : What need had he to say " with you " ? The answer is : 
 Their arrangement was that each family had its own particular 
 cemetery, and when a stranger died they buried him separately 
 in a field. "Therefore," said Abraham, "give me a place -for 
 a cemetery with you." 
 
 6 Thou art a mighty prince among its. The children of 
 Heth said unto Abraham, " Do not hold thyself for so little — 
 for a stranger — thou art a Divine personage among us ; choose, 
 therefore, the best of our sepulchres to bury thy dead, none 
 of us shall withhold from thee (his sepulchre) from burying thy 
 dead." xVbraham said to the children of Heth, " If ye indeed 
 wish that I should bury my dead," 
 
 8, 9 Hear me, and e7itreat for me to Ephron the son of 
 Zohar, that he give me the cave of Machpclah., which he has. 
 The cave was called Machpelah because it was double, one 
 ca\'e over the other. Another explanation why the cave was 
 called Machpelah (i.e. double) is, because of the couples 
 buried there, Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and 
 Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. Another explanation is, that tke 
 cave was called double (Machpelah), because the length of 
 Adam was in the cave doubled up in two. 
 
 Abraham said, "I will give good silver for the cave." 
 Ephron replied, " A land which is worth four hundred shekels 
 of silver, what is that betwixt me and thee, between such 
 good friends as we are ? Bury, therefore, thy dead." 
 
 1 6 And Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which Ephron 
 named, for Ephron said at first, that he would make Abraham 
 
GENESIS XXIII. e,-XXIV. i. 133 
 
 a present of the field, but afterwards he would accept only 
 heavy weight, such as would pass among all merchants. 
 
 Chapter XXIV. — i And Abraham was old and well 
 stricken in age. When Abraham became old, then he was well 
 stricken in age ; for there are many people who become grey, 
 and get white hair, on account of affliction and not on account 
 of old age, but Abraham possessed wealth and honour, and 
 had a son in his old age, therefore he was well-stricken in age, 
 not on account of affliction, but on account of many years. 
 
 Because he was very old, he thought he might die before 
 taking a wife for his son Isaac. He therefore made his servant 
 swear that he would take no wife for his son Isaac except from 
 his own family. And why did he not make his son Isaac 
 himself swear (to that effect)? Because he thought to himself: 
 " Perhaps the servant is a cheat, and would persuade Isaac to 
 take a wife from (the daughters of) the Canaanites ;" and there- 
 fore he made the servant himself swear. The Midrash writes : 
 On account of four things a man soon becomes grey and old : — 
 I. When one is frightened (suddenly), old age comes upon 
 him ; 2. when one has bad children ; 3. when one goes to war ; 
 and 4. when he has a bad wife. 
 
 And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. He 
 wanted nothing, except a wife for his son, which he much 
 wished. 
 
 Rabbi Meir says : God had blessed Abraham in not giving 
 him a daughter, for he would not have been able to give her a 
 good husband, and she would have been obliged Xo marry an 
 idolater, and every wife is in the power of her husband ; if he 
 worships idols she must do the same. Rabbi Yehudah says : 
 Abraham had a daughter, for a man desires to have both sons 
 and daughters, especially when he is rich.i 
 
 ' In Bava-Bathra, fol. 141 A, we read: "And the Lord had blessed 
 Abraham in all things." Rabbi Meir, said ; He had no daughter. Rabbi 
 Yehudah said ; He had a daughter and her name was Baccol (733). The 
 Comment of Tosephoth in loco says : He had a daughter, and her name 
 
134 RABBTNICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 2 His eldest sen'ant of his house, that ruled over all he. had. 
 Eliezer was the chief in the house of Abraham. 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : Abraham sent Eliezer in preference 
 to any other servant to take a wife for his son Isaac, because 
 EUezer was older than any other of all his servants, and an old 
 man is more to be trusted than a young man ; and therefore 
 says the text, his oldest servant. Nevertheless they still sus- 
 pected him, as we shall see further on. 
 
 2, 3 Put I pray thee thy ha?id utider my thigh ; and I will 
 make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of 
 the earth, that thou shall not take a wife unto my son of the 
 daughters of the Canaanites. Rabbi B'chai, and the Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac, and the Chizkuni write : It was a custom in aricient 
 .times that a servant put his hand under his master's thigh as a 
 proof of subjection and faithfulness. 
 
 Rashi writes : He who swears must hold in his hand a book 
 or something else tha,t is sacred. As Abraham had no book, he 
 ordered his servant to put his hand under his thigh, because it 
 was the first precept to Abraham which came through much 
 pain. 
 
 And I zvill make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, 
 and the God of the earth. ■ Rashi asks : Why is it that in 
 verse 7 is mentioned only, " The Lord God of heaven which 
 took me. from my father's house," and not as here, "the God 
 of the earth " ? The answer is : When God first led Abraham 
 from the house of Terah, He was not known then as a God of 
 the earth, but only as a God of heaven ; but when Abraham 
 came he made it known that God was a God of heaven and 
 of the earth. 
 
 That thou shall not take a wife unto my son of the daughters 
 
 . was Baccol. If it is asked why he did not give her to Isaac, for a son of 
 Noah might legally marry his sister ? It could be replied : Perhaps she was 
 too young, and he would not yet marry her to Isaac ; or, because she was 
 from Hagar and not from Sarah, and therefore he would not marry her to 
 Isaac. ■ 
 
GENESIS XXIV. 2-4. 135 
 
 of the Canaanites. This passage teaches us that a man should 
 take a wife of his own family, as Amram did in taking 
 Jochebed ^ and as Abraham did in taking a wife for his son 
 Isaac from his own family ; for when one marries into his own 
 family there is peace between them, for one cannot taunt the 
 other, " Thou art not so well connected as I am." 
 
 The Eben Shoaeb asks a question : Why did Abraham take 
 a maidservant, and have a concubine, but Isaac did not ? Be- 
 cause Isaac was consecrated as a Corban (offering) on- Mount 
 Moriah, therefore he could not (be so profane as to) marry a 
 maidservant ; but Abraham was not consecrated, and he could 
 marry a uaaidservant ; and this is why Abraham would not 
 trouble God with his prayer on behalf of his wife Sarah, that 
 she should have children, for- the saints do not like to weary 
 God with their prayers about things that are' not very urgent.^ 
 But Isaac was obliged to pray on behalf of his wife Rebekah, 
 that she should have children, because he could not marry a 
 maidservant (with the view of having children by her), for he 
 was very holy. 
 
 The Eben Shoaeb asks another question : Why did not 
 Abraham ask Isaac whether he should send for a wife for 
 him ? The answer is : Because Abraham knew' (for certain) 
 That Isaac would obey him. Another answer he gives : At 
 that time Isaac was not with Abraham, for he was in the 
 garden of Eden for three years to cure himself of the wound 
 Abraham had made in his throat when he was about to slay 
 him. 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : The reason why Abraham did not 
 wish that his son should marry a wife of the Canaanites is, 
 that the Canaanites should not afterwards say, " God would not 
 perform His oath to give the land to Abraham's children, who 
 were obliged to effect a matrimonial alliance with us by which 
 they would obtain the land." Therefore Abraham prohibited 
 his servant to take a wife unto his son Isaac of the daughters 
 ' Exod. vi. 20. ^ 'Vide Isa. i. 14, 15.. 
 
136 -RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 of Canaan. •' For I know," said he, " that God will give the 
 land of Canaan unto my children without their daughters." 
 
 5 And the servant said unto him, Peradveiiture the woman 
 will not be willing to follow me unto this land. And Abraham 
 said unto Eliezer, " If the woman will not be willing to follow 
 thee hither, then shalt thou be clear from this my oath, and 
 thou mayest take a wife unto my son from the daughters of my 
 companions, Aner,.Eschol, and Mamre.^ And Abraham prayed 
 and said : 
 
 7 The Lord God of heaven whieh took ?ne from my father's 
 house, and from the land of, my nativity, which is Ur of the 
 Chaldees, may He send an angel before thee that thou shalt 
 take a wife unto my son Isaac from thence. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks : What need had Abraham to 
 mention in his prayer that God took him from his father's 
 house and from his- native land? The reply is : Abraham said 
 in his prayer : " Thou, O God, hast led me from my father's 
 house, and from my native land, how can I now take a wife 
 from my own family? Therefore it is but right that Thou 
 shouldest send an angel with Eliezer, that he should be able to 
 take a wife unto ray son from my family, because I have kept 
 Thy command and came away from it." 
 
 ID And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, 
 and departed ; and all the goods of his master were in his hands. 
 Abraham's camels were distinguished from all other camels 
 because they were always muzzled, that they should not be 
 able to feed on fields belonging to other people. And Eliezer 
 had a legal document in his hands in which all the property of 
 Abraham was made over to Isaac as a specific gift, in order 
 that they should be induced to send their daughter when they 
 saw that Isaac was so very rich.^ 
 
 1 1 And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by 
 
 ^ Chap. xiv. 13. 
 
 - This explains the phrase, which would otherwise be unintelligible, 
 "All the goods of his master were in his hand." 
 
GENESIS XXIV. 4-15. 137 
 
 a well of water. Eliezer came to the city of Nahor, and by 
 the well there he made the camels to kneel to give them to 
 drink. This was towards the evening, when the maidens went 
 out to draw water. And Eliezer prayed, and said : 
 
 12 O Lord God of my master Abraha??i, I pray thee, send me 
 good speed this day, that the maiden should come to the well 
 amongst other maidens, and 
 
 14 The damsel to whom I shall say. Give me to diink, and she 
 shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also, let the 
 same be she whom Thou hast appointed for Thy servant Isaac. 
 That is to say, " Because the maiden will be kind at the well, it 
 will be a proof that she is worthy to be Isaac's wife, and will 
 come to the house of Abraham, where kindness is shown to 
 people." 
 
 And thereby shall I know that Thou hast showed kindness 
 unto my master. That is to say, " Thou, God, shouldest so 
 order that a maiden of my master's family should tell me so." 
 
 The Chizkuni asks : Why did Eliezer wish to know of the 
 maiden at the well, whether she were kind to people; he might 
 have learned at her father's house whether she were pious and 
 prudent ? The answer is : A child cannot be so well known in 
 the house of its parents whether it be wise ; for it may be 
 foolish, but its parents teach it on the sly to appear wise in the 
 presence of a stranger. Therefore did Eliezer wish to know 
 her at the well, where she would be alone, and learn from 
 herself her wisdom. The Chizkuni writes also : Eliezer took 
 ten camels with him, in order to have ten people to ride on 
 them, that he might have a Minyan ^ (a congregation of no less 
 than ten, necessary) for the blessing of the solemnization of 
 matrimony. 
 
 le, And it came to pass before he had done speaking, that 
 
 Rebekah the daughter of Bethuel came with her pitcher upon 
 
 her shoulder. The B'chai asks : What need had the text to say, 
 
 " And it came to pass, he " ? it need only say, " And it came 
 
 ' See Tal. Misc., 128, I, Note; and 134, 12, Note. 
 
138 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 to pass, before he had done speaking." ^ The answer is : The 
 word "He" refers to God, who is called He, as it is said, 
 " It is He that hath made us." ^ This is to say, God sent an 
 angel with Eliezer, and he caused Rebekah to come soon to 
 the well. 
 
 1 6 And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, 
 neither had any man known her. The Toldoth Yitzkhac 
 writes : The text teaches us that God had accepted the prayer 
 of Eliezer, and caused such a damsel to come to the well that 
 never came there before for fear of young men, and not only 
 that she never went to the well, but even in her house also no 
 one could see her, because she was exceedingly modest, and 
 this is why the text says no man had known her. * * * * 
 
 And she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and 
 came up. It is not said: "And she drew" (the water), but 
 only " and filled." From this have our sages inferred, that the 
 water had risen towards Rebekah, so that she had no need to 
 
 ' In the original the literal rendering would run thus : "And it came 
 to pass, he, before he had done speaking." 
 
 2 Ps. c. 3. lOti'V Nin. Here Rabbi B'chai lays stress on the personal 
 pronoun He {Hil in Hebrew), and converts it into a proper name for God. 
 The Talmud itself, and Rashi the first Talmudic commentator, and also 
 the orthodox Liturgy, take the same view, viz. that Be (i.e. Htl) is the 
 Name of God. By Kabbalistic combination the ineffable Name ViWf, 
 Jehovah, expresses a Duality in the Godhead^a He and a She — two Per- 
 sons in One God ; or the Unity of the Holy One, blessed be HA ! and 
 his Shechinah. The Divine Husband and Wife is mentioned in the Jewish 
 Liturgy for Pentecost, 11^^33 NDiOK' Nin^'?; and also in the daily 
 repeated formula :— inn D^VJI "I^OD Xinn '"V HTirSm n"3p IIH' Uth 
 D?iy? 'n i.e. "In the name of the Union of the Holy and Blessed IHi and 
 His Shechinah., the Hidden and Concealed Hil, blessed be jEHOVAH/or ever I " 
 
 The name Hu, and the familiar name Yah, are of masculine and feminine 
 gender respectively, and the union of the two forms the name of THX nilT 
 One Jehovah : one, but of a Bisexual Nature, according to Kabbalists. 
 
 H and Yah, in a separate form, used to be invoked in the second Temple 
 on the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, an imitation of which, 
 attended with all tTie ancient ceremonials now possible, may annually be 
 witnessed in the orthodox synagogue unto this day. 
 
GENESIS XXIV. 15-25. 139 
 
 draw, but simply to fill her pitcher. When EHezer saw that 
 the water rose towards Rebekah, he immediately ran towards 
 her, and asked for a little water to drink. 
 
 The Toldoth Yjtzkhac writes: The text, "And she filled . 
 her pitcher, and came up," teaches us that as soon as she had 
 filled her pitcher she immediately came up from the well ; 
 unlike the other damsels, who used to loiter at the well, 
 Rebekah was modest and came up at once. 
 
 19 And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will 
 draw water for thy camels also. 
 
 2 1 And the man wondered at her, because Eliezer saw that 
 God began to prosper him. 
 
 2 2 The man took a golden nose-ring, of half a shekel weight, 
 and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold. The 
 Chizkuni writes : It is not stated, " And he gave it to the 
 damsel ; " but, "And the man took." This means that Eliezer 
 took all in his hand, having it ready to give her when he 
 ascertained who she was. And he asked first — 
 
 23 Whose daughter art thou ? Another explanation is : He 
 first gave the ornaments, and he asked her who she was, in order 
 to show that he was very rich. But before Bethuel and Laban, 
 he said that he first asked her, and then gave her the ornaments. 
 
 Rashi writes : The reason why he first gave her the ornaments 
 was, because he fully reUed on the merit of Abraham that she 
 must be of Abraham's family. He therefore gave her a golden 
 nose-ring of half a shekel weight, thus indicating that her chil- 
 dren will give shekels, half a shekel each. The two bracelets 
 stand for the two tables of the Covenant which her children 
 would receive from God ; and their weight being ten shekels 
 symbolically indicated the Ten Commandments. 
 
 23, 25 Is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in 1 
 The term " to lodge in" is with a Yod\ (in the original), which 
 means to lodge in for one night. The reply, " Room to lodge 
 
 1 P^S, with a Yod. 
 
I40 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 in" with a Vav^ (in the original) means, "In my father's 
 house there is room to lodge in for many nights." 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : Rebekah answered Eliezer 
 with wisdom. He asked, " Is there room in thy father's house 
 for us to lodge in one night ? " But she answered him : "There 
 is room to lodge in many nights," and omitted saying "for you," 
 for she thought her father might not be willing to accommodate 
 them with lodgings. 
 
 26 And the man bowed his head and worshipped the Lord. 
 Eliezer bowed before God and thanked Him for having led 
 him in the right way. 
 
 28 And the damsel ran, and told her mother, for it is natural 
 that a daughter should tell all she knows to her mother. 
 
 29 And Laba7i ran out unto the man. When Laban saw the 
 ornaments Rebekah had received from Eliezer, he ran to meet 
 him at the well, and invited him to the house, saying unto 
 Eliezer, " Come in, for we have cleared the house from the 
 images of idols." He came in, and they gave food for the 
 camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of his attendants. 
 
 33 And there was meat set before him to eat: But Eliezer 
 said, " I will not eat till I have said what I have to say." 
 
 The B'chai and the Baal Hatturim write : They must have 
 pressed him to eat quickly, but Eliezer said : " I am Abraham's 
 servant; I cannot eat without first washing my hands and 
 pronouncing the blessing on the washing of hands, and I must 
 then repeat the benediction on the first morsel of bread." For 
 Ehezer thought that by repeating these blessings he would be 
 protected from evil. An angel came, in fact, and turned the 
 side of the basin with the deadly poison towards Bethuel, who 
 ate of it and instantly died, which explains verse 54, "And 
 they did eat and drink, Eliezer and the men that were 
 with him," and it is not stated that the household of Bethuel 
 did eat with him, for they were mourners, because Bethuel died 
 at the table. 
 
 ' II7? with Vav, means the same as J v? with a Yod, viz. " to lodge." 
 
GENESIS XXIV. 25-36. 141 
 
 Two hours after daybreak Eliezer left Haran with Rebekah. 
 With the he]pof an angel they travelled in one day to Hebron, 
 which was from Haran smenteen days' journey. The same 
 distance of seventeen days' journey Eliezer travelled in three 
 hours only when he left Abraham's house and went to Haran 
 in search of Rebekah, as it is recorded in the text (ver. 42) : 
 " And I came this day unto the well"; that is to say " This 
 day I left home, and this day I came to the well,"i 
 
 Eliezer rose up early, and when he saw the angel waiting, 
 he said unto his host : " Do not detain me, but let Rebekah go 
 with me." 
 
 When Eliezer and Rebekah were on the journey they saw 
 Isaac in a field on the road. He saw them coming out 
 from the garden of Eden. Rebekah prophetically seeing that 
 Esau would be born of her, she fell down from the camel. 
 
 35 And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly, and he is 
 become great. Eliezer praised Abraham his master, that he had 
 much cattle and gold and silver and servants. ' 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : The reason why it is said, "And man- 
 sen'ants " without a Yod,"^ is to show us that Abraham had 
 only one servant, Eliezer, who was to Abraham equal to many 
 servants. And Eliezer said — 
 
 36 Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master when she 
 was old. After she was old,' and my master legally made over 
 all he had to his son. 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : Eliezer therefore specified that she 
 bare a son after she was old, in order to prove that she would 
 have no other child, and thus the son Isaac would inherit all. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : Ehezer praised his" master 
 Abraham, to prevent people from thinking that Isaac was not 
 so pious and Abraham was not so rich, and therefore he came 
 
 ^ The Jews accept this fable as a fact, for assuch it is authenticated in 
 their holy Talmud. Vide Treasures of the Talmud, 232, 32. 
 
 ^ The Yod ' followed by Af«K-D is a grammatical sign of the plural num- 
 ber and niasc. gender, and here the Yod is omitted, 
 
 3 nnjpt nnN. 
 
142 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 there in search of a wife because it was not so easy to get one' 
 in his own land. Eliezer assured them that Abraharti was very 
 rich, and that Isaac was good and pious, for Sarah had given 
 birth to him by a miracle when she was ninety years of age. 
 He persuaded them, saying, " You will comprehend that God 
 having wrought a miracle, will be sure to send you a good son 
 in Isaac. Think not that the camels and the goods I display 
 have been borrowed from other people, for ' The Lord hath 
 blessed my master greatly ' with wealth and he has no need to 
 borrow from any one. The only reason my master has for 
 sending me here is, that his son. Isaac should' not marry a 
 woman of the Canaanites, but one of his own family, and my 
 master took an oath from me to come to you for that purpose." 
 
 39, 40 And I said unto my master, Peradventure the woman 
 will not follow me. And he said unto me, The Lord will send 
 His angel with thee, and prosper thy way, that thou shalt be able 
 to take a wife unto my son from my family. 
 
 Rashi writes : The word '■^peradventure" is written (in the 
 original Hebrew) without a Vav} and therefore it means " unto 
 me" for Eliezer said unto Abraham : " Let thy son Isaac be 
 allied unto me by marrying my daughter." But Abraham 
 objected and said : " My son is blessed of God, and thou art 
 a Canaanite and cursed, therefore my son cannot marry thy 
 daughter." 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : Scripture has here shown (by omit- 
 ting the letter Vav) that Eliezer wished Isaac should marry his 
 daughter, and has not alluded to it before when Abraham 
 commissioned him to fetch a wife unto Isaac from his own 
 family, in order to prove that Eliezer praised Isaac before the 
 parents of Rebekah, and said : " I myself was solicitous to 
 give my daughter to Isaac, but my master Abraham objected 
 to it." 
 
 47 ' And I asked her and said, Whose daughter art thou 1 . . . 
 and I put, the ring upon her nose. Eliezer related unto them 
 ' It is written 'h\A instead of '''piX' 
 
• GENESIS XXIV. 36-49. ■ 143 
 
 all that occurred and all he did on that day ; how he travelled 
 from Hebron in three hours — a distance of seventeen days' 
 journey, as it is stated in the text : " And I came this day unto 
 the well " — that is to say : " This day I left home, and this day 
 I came to the well. I also asked her whose daughter she was, 
 and afterwards I gave her the presents." 
 
 Rashi says : He first gave her the presents and then he 
 asked her whose daughter she was, because he relied on 
 Abraham's merit that she must be of his family.^ Before 
 Rebekah's parents he said the reverse, lest they should taunt 
 him : "What a fool thou art, to give such valuable presents to 
 a maiden without first knowing who she was." This is the 
 reason why he reversed the statement, and said : " I asked her 
 whose daughter she was, and afterwards gave her the presents." 
 
 49 And now if ye zvill deal kindly and truly with my master,, 
 tell me. The Imrae Noam asks : What need had he to beg 
 them so earnestly ? Did they decline giving up Rebekah to 
 - such a rich house ? The reply is : They had heard that the 
 children of Abraham would be obliged to go into captivity, 
 and therefore they would not give Rebekah to Isaac. Hence 
 Ehezer had to beg much : " Deal kindly and truly with my 
 master." 
 
 Rabbi Isseril asks : Why did Eliezer say, "kindly and 
 truly " ? The \.ftxxa. " truly " is never employed except when a 
 kindness has been done to a dead person when there is no 
 hope to receive a kindness in return, for then it is " kmdiy and 
 truly," in other words " a true kindness "■ — hoping for no return. 
 The reply is : Eliezer was very clever, and he said unto them, 
 " I beg you to do a true kindness to my master, and do not 
 desire that he should repay you for the same." 
 
 ' Merit and luck are often two convertible terms. The luck of Abraham 
 gave Eliezer the assurance that he would be led to give the presents to 
 none other but to the right damsel. Luck is blind, and lucky people need 
 not see what they are about to do, for their luck will not be so unlucky as 
 to mislead them. 
 
144 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 That I may turn to the right hand or to the left. " If ye will 
 not give me Rebekah," said Eliezer, " then I shall be obliged 
 " to take a wife unto Isaac of the daughters of Ishmael, or of 
 the daughters of Lot." 
 
 50 The7i Laba7i and Bethuel answered and said, The thing 
 proceedeth from the Lord ; we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. 
 Laban was a wicked man ; he spoke before his father did, but 
 his father had let him speak first because he was shrewd in 
 his speech. He said first " bad" and then "good" because he 
 always thought more of bad than of good. 
 
 ^ The B'chai says : From this we learn that every matrirlionial 
 engagement is formed by God, as it is here stated : " The 
 thing proceedeth from the Lord." Our sages say; Forty days 
 before a man is born, a Bath Kol proclaims : So and so shall 
 marry so and so.^ 
 
 5 1 Behold Rebekah is before thee, take her and go to thy master, 
 as the Lord hath spokeji. When Eliezer heard this, he wor- 
 shipped and thanked God. He then gave Rebekah costly 
 jewels of gold and silver, and beautiful dresses, and with these 
 he betrothed her. To her brother and mother he gave choice 
 fruit as a present. 
 
 54 And they did eat and drink, he and the men that were 
 with him, and tarried all night. On arising the following 
 morning, the angel came again to Eliezer ready to accompany 
 him, and Eliezer said : " Send me home to my master." 
 
 55 And her brother and her mother said. Let the damsel 
 abide with us a year or ten months, after that she will go. 
 Bethuel said nothing, for he was dead (as already mentioned). 
 
 The Chizkuni asks : Yesterday they said, " Behold Rebekah 
 is before thee, take her, and go" why now ask that the girl 
 should abide with them a year, or at least ten months ? The 
 answer is : They at first thought that the girl was to be en-' 
 
 ' These two passages are drawn from the Talmud. N\As. Moed Kaion, 
 fol. I 8b, and .5'o/t'/^, fol. 2A. Bath Kol, z.^. The daughter of a voice, an 
 echo, a voice from heaven. 
 
GENESIS XXIV. 49-58. 145 
 
 gaged by Isaac in person, and as an engagement is not to be 
 put off, they said, " Take her and go " ; but now finding that 
 Eliezer engaged her on behalf of Isaac by proxy, and the 
 engagement was secure, they said, " Let her tarry with us a 
 few months, that we may have time to fit her out with a ward- 
 robe and ornaments." 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : Laban was a great rogue ; he 
 did not say before, "Let Rebekah abide for the purpose of fitting 
 her out with a costly trousseau," lest Eliezer should take him at 
 
 ■ his word ; he therefore said first, " take her, and go," expecting 
 that Eliezer' would be surprised and raise no question about 
 dowry. But when Laban noticed that Eliezer thanked God 
 for the engagement, he then proposed that Rebekah should 
 tarry for her trousseau, well knowing that Eliezer would not 
 sacrifice eve7i one day for all the trousseau and dowry offered 
 to him. 
 
 57 And they said, We will call the damsel, and enquire at her 
 
 ■ mouth, whether she will go. ' From this our sages deduce that 
 an orphan girl must be asked whether she approves of the 
 husband selected for her. 
 
 58 And she said, 1 711 ill go. The B'chai asks a question in 
 this section : Why does the text sometimes call Eliezer servant, 
 and sometimes man, which means an estimable man ? The 
 reply is : Before EUezer came to the well and had seen the 
 angel, the text calls him servant, but afterwards it calls him 
 man, because an angel appeared unto him, and out of respect 
 to him who was called Ish (man), Eliezer had the honour of 
 being called (Ish) man. And hence as soon as Rebekah was 
 handed over to Eliezer, the commission of the angel ceased, 
 and the text calls Eliezer again servant, as for instance : 
 " And the servant brought forth jewels of silver " ; " And the 
 servant took Rebekah"; "And the servant told Isaac," thus 
 he is always called servant. But it may be asked : Why did 
 Laban and his mother say to Rebekah, " Wilt thou go with 
 this manf" The answer is: They were ashamed to call 
 
 L 
 
146 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 Eliezer to his face servant ; also out of respect to Rebekah 
 they called him '-man." When all this was over, the text 
 says^ — 
 
 6 1 TAey followed the man : and the servant took Rebekah, 
 arid went his way. This means they followed the angel, whose 
 name was Ish (man) ; but the servant Eliezer took Rebekah, 
 and went his way. 
 
 The Ramban asks : What need had Eliezer to take her, since 
 
 ■ she willingly went by herself? The answer is : The women (of 
 
 the place) went to accompany Rebekah, and Eliezer fearing 
 
 lest they should abscond with her, took her by the. hand to be 
 
 near him and under his guard. 
 
 62 And Isaac came from the way of the well. Lahai-rei. And 
 Isaac came from the garden of Eden, where he had been three 
 years to cure himself of the wound which his father inflicted 
 on his throat when he bound him upon the altar on Mount 
 Moriah. 
 
 63 And Isaac went out towards the evening into the field to 
 repeat the afternoon prayers} and he then saw camels ap- 
 proaching. Rebekah lifted" up her eyes and saw Isaac from 
 a distance going to and fro in a bashful manner, for when he 
 saw Eliezer coming with his bride he felt bashful. Rebekah 
 thought, all men run to see a bride, but he who does not run 
 must be the bridegroom, and she too became bashful and 
 frightened in his presence, and alighted from the camel, 
 
 65 She said unto the servant. What man is this that walketh 
 in the field to meet us ? and the servant said. It is my master. 
 Therefore she took a veil and covered herself. The Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac asks : Why did Eliezer say now of Isaac, "It is my 
 master ? " In the whole of this section he speaks of Isaac 
 as the son of Abraham his master, but Isaac himself he never 
 
 ' The Talmud informs us that Abraham was' the first who instituted the 
 Morning Prayer according to the present form in the Jewish Liturgy ; that 
 
 nnJD npSn |pn pnX', Isaac instituted the Afternoon Prayer. Berachoth, 
 fol. 26B. 
 
GENESIS XXIV. 58-A'XK. I. 147 
 
 called master. The answer is : So long as Isaac had no wife 
 he was no master, but now with Rebekah by his side he was 
 master. 
 
 67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent: that 
 is to say, he fancied his mother was still living ; for all the 
 time Sarah was living, her candles continually burned from 
 Sabbath to Sabbath, and there was a blessing in the dough 
 Sarah made, and a cloud rested over her tent,i but as soon as 
 Sarah died these three (miraculous) things disappeared. But 
 when Rebekah came they were restored, hence Isaac fancied 
 his mother was still living. 
 
 The Eben Shoaeb writes : Sarah really came after her death 
 into the tent of Rebekah to see the happiness of her son 
 Isaac, which explains the words : " And Isaac brought her 
 into her tent, Sarah his mother ;"2 that is, he brought 
 Rebekah into the tent, and Sarah his mother was personally 
 also there. 
 
 And Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. It is usual 
 for a man to be with his mother so long as she lives, but when 
 she dies then he usually is with his wife. 
 
 Chapter XXV. — i Then again Abraham took a wife. The 
 B'chai, the Toldoth Yitzkhac and the Chizkuni write : From 
 this we learn, that if a man loses a wife and he has children, 
 he should not marry another wife till his children are married, 
 otherwise he will not be able to effect good alliances for them, 
 because people would say that the issue of his second wife will 
 inherit all -his property. Therefore, Abraham gave first a wife 
 unto Isaac, and then he took a wife himself. 
 
 And her name was Keturah. That was Hagar, and the text 
 calls her Keturah because it signifies (in Aramaic) to bind up 
 with knots. Since she was separated from Abraham she had 
 bound herself with knots and did not let any other man come 
 in to her. Kings and princes sought her in marriage because 
 
 ' See ante, p. 128. 
 
 2 Such being the literal rendering of the originjil. 
 
148 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 she was the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, but she 
 refused them all and waited for Abraham. She had many 
 . children by Abraham, but they were not honest people. 
 
 The B'chai writes : It follows from the text, Keturah was 
 Hagar, for it is said, " Then again Abraham took a ■wife.'" It 
 may be asked. What need is there to say, " Then again " ? 
 Why not simply say, He took a wife." It must be inferred 
 that Keturah was Hagar whom he once before had for a wife, 
 and "Then again," he took her once more. 
 
 Again it is inferred, that Keturah was Hagar, for how is it 
 conceivable that Abraham should give away all his property 
 to Isaac, and the children of Keturah no share in the in- 
 heritance ? . 
 
 5 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. The 
 Talmud says : That it is not permissible to take away the in- 
 heritance from one son and give to another, even from a bad 
 son to a good one, for all should inherit share and share alike. 
 But the answer is : Keturah was Hagar, the maidservant of 
 Sarah, and the children of a slave are as slaves, and slaves do 
 not inherit. 
 
 Another explanation why Hagar was called Keturah, is be- 
 cause her good works were as beautiful as incense.^ Jhough 
 Rashi writes, that Hagar returned to idolatry, he also says, 
 that her good works were as beautiful as Ketoreth (i.e. incense)', 
 and the explanation is : She repented and became pious, and 
 was called Keturah. 
 
 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. Abraham 
 gave Isaac a legal document which entitled him to inherit all 
 his property. But it cannot be that Abraham handed over all 
 his property to Isaac while he yet lived ; for how did Abraham 
 know that he would soon die ? perhaps he might live long and 
 then be obliged to trust to Isaac for his very foodi 
 
 ' This is a play on the word " incense," which in Hebrew is Ketoreth, and 
 being similar in sound to Keturah, a connection is hammered out of the 
 two words, Keturah and Ketoreth. 
 
GENESIS XXV. 1-6. 149 
 
 6 JBiit wito the sons of the coficuMnes, which Abraham had, 
 Abraham gave gifts. Scripture has written (the word Pilag- 
 shim) concubines without a Yod}_ to show that he (Abraham) 
 had only one concubine, Keturah ; and because she was very 
 pious Abraham took her. 
 
 Rashi observes ; In the first instance the text speaks of 
 " wife," and in the next of " concubirte ;" a wife has a marriage 
 contract and a concubine has not. Hagar, though a con- 
 cubine, had a marriage contract, and hence the text speaks of 
 her as a wife, that is to say, she was esteemed by Abraham 
 as a legal wife and he gave her a marriage contract; but with 
 reference to her children as heirs, she is named concubine, 
 that her children should not share in the inheritance. 
 
 Rashi also observes : When Abraham gave away all his 
 property to Isaac, he gave presents to the children of the con- 
 cubine : viz. as a present he communicated to them the name 
 of God, though they did not keep themselves in purity.^ 
 
 The Debek Tov asks : What induced Abraham to do this? 
 
 • Tl» t"!* \^ DB'j'pa IVanE''': axn min t^n, i.e. The Torah has 
 written Pilagshim (concubines) without a Yod. Here a very serious ques- 
 tion arises. We have examined several Hebrew Bibles, we consulted the 
 Hebrew Concordance, and have referred to the Talmud itself, but failed to 
 find anywhere the word without the Yod. Evidently this very positive 
 statement is made on the authority of Rashi, and this is asserted by Rashi 
 in as positive a manner. The question now is : assuming that such a 
 high authority would not make a deliberate misstatement, when, and by 
 whom, was the text of our present Hebrew Bibles interfered with ? Who 
 inserted the Yod? Or has the Koi/ always been there ? In any case this 
 passage is remarkable for boldly presuming on the ignorance or carelessness 
 of the ordinary Jewish reader. 
 
 ^ The version of this passage in the Talmud, and there commented on 
 by Rashi, is to this effect : Abraham delivered to the children he had by 
 Keturah, nXDItD m>, " The name of undeanness," with which they learned 
 to practise witchcraft and do the works of the devil. Sanhedrin, fol. 91 A, 
 
 "The name of undeanness" is the antonym of B>llQDn Dti' "the 
 ineffable name" of Jehovah. Miracles and wonders were and still are 
 performed by the Rabbis by the means of the Shem-hainmephorash. So 
 the Jews say. See Tal. Misc., p. 321. 
 
I50 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 The answer is : Abraham knew that they would dwell among 
 idolatrous nations; and in order that they should not mingle 
 with them, He taught them to be able to mention the secret 
 name of God, although they were impure. 
 
 Rashi further observes : At the. time Eliezer went after 
 Rebekah, Abraham, already gave a document that Isaac should 
 inherit all he had ; why give the same over again here ? Hence 
 observes Rashi ; Rabbi Nehemiah said ; He gave him the power 
 to bless whomsoever he wished to bless, and he whom he 
 blessed, should also be blessed. 
 
 8 An old man and full. Abraham died old and full. The 
 B'chai asks : Why is it not stated full of many years and many 
 days ? The answer is : Abraham did not follow the pleasures 
 of the world, that he should seek after much money, as it is 
 said in Scripture : " He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied 
 with silver" (Eccles. v. lo). And the sages in the Gemara have 
 likewise said : No man dies with half his desires reahzed ;i for 
 when he has a hundred gulden, he wishes for two hundred; 
 hence says the text with reference to Abraham, he was "full" 
 of everything, for he was satisfied and content with all he 
 had, or with what he had. 
 
 And Abraham gave up the ghost and died. " Giving up the 
 ghost " means to pass away quickly with ease and without 
 pain; and is used only with ' reference to the death of the 
 righteous. Thus writes Rashi : It .is asked why is the same 
 term, of giving up the ghost, also used of the generation of 
 the Deluge ? To this answers the Toldoth Yitzkhac : Of the 
 wicked the term, of giving up the ghost, is used for evil ; they. 
 
 '.1T3 inaiD <Vni DD DIN pN. This edifying passage is often quoted 
 and with some variation, but no one has ever referred to fol. and col. in 
 the Talmud where it is found ; and for this simple reason — it is not there. 
 Similarly, Dr. Adler, in The Nineteenth Century for July, 1878, p. 138, 
 credits the Talmud with an important doctrinal statement which is no- 
 where to be found there. Their own abstention from translating the 
 Talmud, and the obstacles the Jews throw in the way of its translation 
 by others, render these misquotations both frequent and safe. 
 
GENESIS XXV. 6-19. 151 
 
 die quickly, that they should not be able to leave their last 
 will for their children, as was the case with the generation 
 of the Deluge ; they died quickly. But of a righteous man 
 the term is for good ; he dies quickly, but without pain, and 
 leaves behind his last will and testament. 
 
 9 And Isaac and Ishmael buried him. The text teaches us 
 that Ishmael had repented and had honoured Isaac by giving , 
 him the precedence, as Isaac was more righteous than he ; • 
 had not Ishmael repented, God would not have permitted him 
 to bury Abraham. So says Rashi, as also the Ramban and 
 the B'chai. 
 
 II And it catne to pass after the death of Abraham, that God 
 blessed his son Isaac, with the (formal) blessing of mourners, 
 to console him.i Another explanation is : Abraham did not 
 wish to bless Isaac, because he foresaw that Esau would come 
 out of him; he then said, " Let God bless whom He will," — 
 and God blessed Isaac. 
 
 End of Section V. 
 
 19 And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son; 
 Abraham begat Isaac. Here it is stated that Isaac was the 
 son of Abraham, and then is added " Abraham begat Isaac." 
 Why this repetition ? Because the two sons of Isaac (Jacob 
 and Esau) being so opposite in character might have caused 
 people to suspect that Sarah had become pregnant by Abime- 
 lech ; and that Isaac (her son) had taken half after Sarah, 
 a pious woman, and half after Abimelech, who was a heathen, 
 thus accounting for Isaac, in turn, begetting Jacob and Esau, 
 resembling Sarah and Abhnelech respectively; God therefore 
 made Isaac to be exactly like Abraham,^ so that everybody 
 acknowledged that " Abraham begat Isaac." 
 
 ' A form of prayer said in the house of a mourner, as prescribed in the 
 Book of Life, p. 86, and in the Jewish Liturgy. 
 
 ' This is a fanciful inference from the repetition in the text, which the 
 words themselves do not warrant. 
 
152 ■ RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : The text distinguishes Isaac as being 
 born under legal qualifications, for it says " Abraham begat 
 Isaac" that is to say, after God called his name with a He (not 
 Abram but Abraham), and this was after his circumcision, then 
 it was that he begat Isaac ; not a,s Ishmael, who was born 
 when Abraham was yet uncircumcised. The Toldoth Yitzkhac 
 also writes in a similar sense. 
 
 20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to 
 wife. Rashi asks : Why did Isaac remain so long without a 
 wife, since the sages say, that a man should marry at eighteen 
 years of age ? It may also be asked : Why does the text record 
 that he was forty years old? The answer is: She was his 
 predestined wife, and he was obliged to wait till she became 
 a little older and fit to marry.^ 
 
 The daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the 
 sister of laban the Syrian. Rashi asks : What need had the 
 text to state that she was the daughter of Bethuel and the 
 sister of Laban, since we knew this already? The answer is : 
 Although they both were wicked, yet Rebekah was a pious 
 woman, and did not copy their evil works. 
 
 2 1 Against his wife {A..Y. for his wife). Isaac prayed over 
 against his wife ; that is to say, he placed himself in one corner 
 and Rebekah in another corner, and thus they prayed. 
 
 And the lord was entreated of him. Of him, not of her ; 
 because he was a righteous man, the son of a righteous man ; 
 but she was a righteous woman, the daughter of a wicked man. 
 
 22 And the children struggled together * * * * They 
 quarrelled about this world and the world to come, and 
 
 ■ Rebekah said : " If the pain of child-bearing is so great, why 
 did I pray for children ? " 
 
 ' For Rebekah was only three years and three days old when she left 
 her father's house. Sophrim, chap. xxi. The Talmud says in several 
 places that HKOl HB'npnD 'K DV1 D»:K''J HI, a girl three years and one 
 day old is marriageable. See Sanhedrin, fol. 55B. 
 
 Frorn Tosephoth in Zevatiiolh, fol. 61B, it would seem that Rebekah 
 W3.S fourUeit years old when she married. 
 
GENESIS XXV. 19-24. 153 
 
 Ajid she went to inquire of the Lord. Rebekah went to the 
 Beth-Hammidrash (school) of Shem and Eber to inquire of 
 God lyhy the children struggled ? God ordered them to inform 
 her : "Two worthy children are in thy womb ; " for it is said, 
 
 23 Two nations. This means, two lords; out of Jacob will 
 descend Rabbi, who will be a prince, a lord over the Jews; 
 and out of Esau will descend Antoninus, who will be a king 
 over (the children of) Esau. 
 
 Rabbi and Antoninus made a covenant (of friendship) 
 between themselves and lived together. Rashi writes : That 
 neither in summer nor in winter was there absent from their 
 tables such good eatables that help digestion, namely radish 
 and Jwrseradish. But be it here said, Rabbi never followed 
 after pleasures, but having been very rich, and having had 
 many servants and a large household, he fed them all so 
 liberally that it was necessary to give them radish and horse- 
 radish to excite their appetite and to digest their food. But 
 Rabbi himself, when he was dying, lifted up his ten fingers 
 towards heaven and said : " Lord of the universe ! Thou 
 knowest that not even with my little finger did I seek to enjoy 
 anything of this world." ^ 
 
 24 A7id when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, 
 there were twins in her womb. The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks : 
 Why did Isaac wait ten years before he prayed on behalf of 
 Rebekah ? The answer is : He did pray sooner, but God 
 would not hear his prayer in order that that wicked man (Esau) 
 should not come so soon into the world, and hence it is said : 
 " When her days to be delivered were fulfilled" God made that 
 wicked one iaxry full nine months, that he should not come 
 so soon into the world ; but Moses, being righteous, remained 
 only six months and a few days. Hence also the word twins 
 
 ' The same story, differing somewhat in detail, is recorded in the Talmud. 
 For an interesting sketch of this holy Rabbi, consult Index to the Treasures 
 of the Talmud. 
 
154 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 (in the original)!^ is written without an Aleph, because one of 
 the twins was wicked, but by Tamar the word " twin " is (in 
 the original) written with an Aleph,''' because both children, 
 Pharez and Zarah, were righteous. 
 
 Some sages ask : Why did not Rebekah inquire of Isaac 
 himself about the children's struggling in her womb, since he 
 also was a prophet ? The answer is : She was afraid lest Isaac 
 should say, " Since thou hast more pain than all other women, 
 thou must have more sins than all other women," and he would 
 divorce her. 
 
 25 And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment, 
 and they called his naine Esau ; because he was already covered 
 with hair as a child that has-been born a long time. 
 
 26 And after that came his brother, and his hand took hold 
 on Esau's heel . . . and Isaac was threescore years old when she 
 bare them. Rashi asks : Why did Isaac wait for twenty years 
 with his prayer (for children), since it is usual for prayer to 
 be made when a wife has had no children for ten years only ? 
 The answer is : Isaac first waited ten years till Rebekah 
 became thirteen years old, when she should be capable to 
 beget children, and from her age of thirteen he waited ten 
 years, as is usual, and then he prayed. 
 
 27 And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter. So 
 long as they were yet very young, people did not know whether 
 their works were good or evil ; but when they grew up, then 
 went Esau into an idolatrous temple, but Jacob went to a 
 Beth-Hammidrash (a rabbinical school). 
 
 A cunning hunter ; one that devised cunning tricks; Esau 
 used to ask his father (cunningly) how he might give tithes 
 even of salt and straw, thus leading Isaac to think him devoted 
 to pious observances. 
 
 And Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. Jacob was a 
 
 ' D»Oin without an Aleph (N) instead of D*D1Kn with the Aleph. 
 - Chap, xxxvii. 27. 
 
GENESIS XXV. 24-31. 155 
 
 pious man without guile ; he sat in the Beth-Hammidrash and 
 studied the Torah (Law).i 
 
 29 And Jacob sod pottage- Jacob cooked lentils, and Esau 
 came from the field, and was tired and faint from the murders 
 of the day. 2 
 
 30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me with the red le7itils,for 
 I am. faint, therefore was his name called Edom, which means 
 (in Hebrew) "Red." The reason why Jacob cooked lentils 
 on that day was because his father Isaac was a mourner for 
 his father Abraham, who died on that day five years before 
 his time, in order that he might not (have the pain to) 
 see how Esau proceeded in his evil course. The reason why 
 lentils are cooked for a mourner (whereby to condole with 
 him) is to show symbolically, as lentils are round, so death 
 rolls round from one man to another.^ 
 
 31 And Jacob said, Sell me, as clear as the day,*' thy birthright. 
 Because the office of the sacrifices had to be performed by 
 the firstborn, therefore Jacob thought that such a wicked man 
 would not be proper for the office. Esau, on his part, thought 
 that such an office can cause death ; for when one enters the 
 temple, or when -one is drunk with wine and performs such 
 an office, he is guilty of death ; therefore, he thought, I do not 
 wish to have the birthright. 
 
 The B'chai writes : It was the custom in the olden times, that 
 after the father's death the children used to show great respect 
 
 ' By the term Torah (mm) is usually understood, either the Pentateuch 
 only, or the whole law ; «.«. both the written and the oral law — the Bible 
 and the Talmud. Here the Torah means the whole law. 
 
 ^ nin'ST literally murders ; the very word used being that which occurs 
 in the Decalogue, ^X^n N7, "Thou shall not kill" (Exod. xx. 13). See 
 chap. xlix. 5. 
 
 ' This exposition, but considerably different on some points, is to be 
 found in the Talmud, Bava-Bathra, fol. i6b. 
 
 * "As clear as the day," /.«. without any mental reservation, honestly. 
 The original Hebrew, DVO, "as the day," will bear this meaning, though 
 forced and far-fetched. 
 
156 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 to the firstborn and seated him in his father's place. " This 
 honour," said Esau, " what is that to me that I should wait for 
 it till after my father's death ! Nobody knows who will die first, 
 especially as I go daily among wild beasts (hunting), perhaps 
 they will kill me first " (" Thus Esau despised his birth- 
 right "). 
 
 Chapter XXVI. — i, 2 And there was a famine in the land. 
 
 . . And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not 
 down into Egypt. Thou art not as thy father, who on account 
 of the famine went down into Egypt, for thou hast been a sacri- 
 fice upon the altar, and therefore the outside land {i.e. beyond 
 the Land of Israel) is not worthy to have thee upon it. 
 
 3 Sojourn in this land, for I will give it unto thy children, 
 and will bless them to be as many (in number) as the stars 
 of heaven. 
 
 5 Because Abraham obeyed My voice, and was pious. Our 
 sages deduce from this, that Abraham learned to know his 
 Creator when he was three years old, for he lived 175 years, 
 and " Because " ' (in the original Hebrew) has the numerical 
 value of 172, that is three years less than his whole lifetime 
 during which he obeyed God's voice, and observed the whole 
 law even before it v^as given (on Mount Sinai). 
 
 The B'chai asks : If the Patriarchs indeed kept the whole 
 law, why did Jacob marry two sisters ? and why did Araram 
 marry his aunt,^ which the law forbids. ^ The Ramban and the 
 Toldoth Yitzkhac reply : The principle of a precept is that 
 the precept be observed in the Land of Israel only, but Jacob 
 married two sisters outside the land {i.e. in a foreign country), 
 and also Amram married his aunt in^ Egypt. As for Joseph 
 having observed the Sabbath * in Egypt, that was because the 
 
 ' np3;=i72. 
 
 * Amram was the father of Moses, and he married his aunt (Exod. vi. 20). 
 ^ See Lev. xviii. 12. 
 
 ■* A Gentile unbeliever might ask : Where is it recorded in Scripture 
 that Joseph observed the Sabbath in Egypt ? To this the orthodox Jew 
 
GENESIS XXV. 31— XA'Fy. 10. 157 
 
 Sabbath is the greatest commandment and weightier than all 
 the commandments of the law. 
 
 Rabbi Isseril gives another reply : Jacob married two sisters, 
 because he thought the only reason the law forbids it is, to 
 prevent jealousy and hatred between two wives who were 
 sisters, and he knew there would be no jealousy and hatred 
 between these sisters (Rachel and Leah). 
 
 6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar. The citizens asked him who 
 Rebekah was, and he said : " She is my sister," for he was ■ 
 afraid, she being so' very beautiful, the people would kill him 
 and take away Rebekah. 
 
 8 And it came to pass, when he had been thei-e a long time, 
 that Abimelech looked out at a windoiv, and saw Isaac sporting 
 with Rebekah. 
 
 10 And Abimelech said, What is this that thou hast done 
 
 might reply thus : We have it often repeated in our Talmud : ]'Xt^ '"DyS 
 lan'? -|3t '\1'h n'N"), i.e. Though there is no proof of the matter, there 
 is a mnemonic reminder of it. According to Scripture, as explained by 
 Jewish commentators, we are mnemonically reminded that nx'3 " Bee-ah " 
 stands in close connection with the observance of the Sabbath, for it is 
 written (Exod. xxxi. 16), naCH n^'pNIB''' '33 TIDB'l, i.e. Wherefore the 
 children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath. The initial letter of '?J<-lB'''" »33" 
 n^EJTl" riN" make up the word nN'3 Bee-ah, the meaning of which need 
 not be told to the Hebrew scholar. Now without Bee-ah there can be no 
 procreation, and as Joseph had children in Egypt, it is a mnemonic proof 
 that he kept the Sabbath there. Then we are also reminded of the fact by 
 the Sabbaticalhymn in thejewish Liturgy, which commences, nOI Jl'S'' HD 
 
 '1J1 n^n D31 -)^2 1^ D»3i3 mi^fD nac nx D''Ji3vn3 now, i.e. How 
 
 beautiful and how pleasant among pleasures art thou, O Sabbath, thou joy 
 of the sorrowful, to thee belongeth flesh and also fish, etc. Now the first 
 and last letters of Joseph's name (^101'') are the same as the first two letters 
 of the second word of the Sabbatical hymn (11*2''), which may serve as a 
 mnemonicat reminder of the fact, and we have no difficulty in believing that 
 Joseph kept the Sabbath, which was to him a vast comfort and joy, when 
 sorrowful in one of the prisons in Egypt. To unbelievers this may appear 
 fanciful and visionary, but to the orthodox Jew all is as clear as the day ! 
 Thus then the sons of Joseph and the hymn alluded to are mnemonic 
 reminders that Joseph kept the Sabbath in Egypt. • 
 
158 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 unto us, in saying that she was thy sister? One of the people 
 might have lien with her, and thou wouldest have caused us to 
 sin. 
 
 11 And Abimelech commanded ^ He that toucheth Isaac and 
 his wife shall be put to death. The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks : 
 Why did Abimelech say : " What is this thou hast done unto 
 us?" and Pharaoh said: "What is this thou hast done unto 
 me ? " 1 The answer is : Pharaoh said unto Abraham, " I am not 
 angry that thou considerest my people to be fond of fornica- 
 tion ; for hadst thou even told them that she was thy wife they 
 would still have debauched her; but /, hadst thou told me that 
 she was thy wife, I would not have touched her; but thou 
 hast said she was thy sister, and therefore I wanted to marry ' 
 her." But on the other hand, Abimelech said unto Isaac, " I 
 and my people are righteous ; hadst thou told us all that she was 
 thy wife, we would not have touched her." And this is the 
 reason why Pharaoh said unto Abraham, " Get away from here,^ 
 for it will be of no use even if I proclaim that thy wife should 
 not be touched." On the other hand, Abimelech had pro- 
 claimed, "He who toucheth this man and his wife shall surely 
 be put to death." Thus all feared to touch her. 
 
 The Ramban asks : Did not Abimelech see that Isaac had 
 two children with him, Jacob and Esau ; how is it that he did 
 not know that Rebekah was his wife? The answer is: He 
 thought the children to have been by another wife. 
 
 12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same 
 year an hundredfold ; and the Lord blessed him. Rashi asks : 
 Why did he count, since no blessing rests iipon a thing when 
 counted or measured ? ^ The answer is : Tithes had to be . 
 given, and hence the necessity of counting it. Yet, for the 
 
 1 Chap. xii. i8. 
 
 ' Chap. xii. 19. 
 
 ^ No supernatural increase can be expected in things that have already 
 been weighed, measured, or counted ; to pray for a blessing 'on known 
 quantities is a Kit}* fl/i'Sn, false prayer. Bava-Metzia, fal. 42A. . See 
 also Gen. ace. to the Talmud, 131, 9. 
 
GENESIS XXVI. 10-30. 159 
 
 merit of. giving tithes, there was a blessing even after counting, 
 so that of one measure of seed sown grew a hundred measures, 
 and Isaac became so rich that it was (commonly) said, that the 
 dung of his mules was productive of more money than the 
 gold and silver of Abimelech. A questioii is asked : Why was 
 the saying with reference to the dung of his mules, and not of 
 his other cattle ? The answer is : The saying was expressed 
 as a marvel, for (as a rule) there is no blessing in mules, but 
 in Isaac's mules there was a blessing. 
 
 15 All the wells which his father's servants had digged in 
 the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines staffed them, 
 atid filled them with earth, for, said they, when an army comes 
 to beseige the city, and find no water, they will be obliged to 
 quit the place. 
 
 18 Afid Isaac digged again the wells of water ; and when 
 his servants completed a well, the herdsmen of Abimelech, 
 quarrelled about it, and Isaac called the name of the well 
 Esek, which means quarrel. 
 
 21 And they digged another well, and they quarrelled about 
 that also, and he called the name of it Sitnah, which means 
 hatred. He digged a third time a well, and as there was no 
 strife about it, he called it Rehoboth, that is to say : " God 
 made spacious room and peace for us." 
 
 23, 24 And he went up from thence to Beersheba, and the lord 
 appeared unto him, and said, Fear not, for I am with thee, and 
 will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for My servant Abraham's 
 sake. 
 
 25-30 Isaac builded ari altar and praised God; he pitched 
 his tent and digged a well. Abimelech and his princes called 
 upon Isaac, and he said unto them : " Wherefore come yeto me, 
 seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you 1 " Abimelech 
 answered, " Because we have seen that God has done many 
 wonders with thy father and with thee, therefore came we to 
 make a covenant with thee." And Isaac made a covenant 
 with them. 
 
i6d rabbinical COMMENTARY. 
 
 34, 35 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife 
 Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite. He took wives from 
 idolaters and gave them Jewish names, to show thereby that 
 they were pious women, but for all that they did not please 
 Isaac and Rebekah. ■ 
 
 Chapter XXVII. — i And it came to pass, that when Isaac 
 was old, and his eyes were dim. He therefore became blind, 
 that he should not recognise Jacob, and should bless him. 
 Another explanation is : The smoke (of incense) which Esau's 
 wives made before their idols destroyed his eyes, for Isaac 
 was not accustomed to the smoke as Rebekah was, for in, 
 her father's house also was a smoke made before the idol. 
 
 Another explanation is : When Isaac was bound on the altar 
 he saw the Shechinah, and therefore he became bhnd.i 
 
 2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I kno7v not the day of 
 my death. The Chizkuni vwites : Isaac said to Esau, " When 
 I die thou wilt have no money, no princely power and no 
 honour, because thou hast sold thy birthright, therefore I will 
 give thee (all these), whilst I am yet alive, that Jacob should 
 hot be able to take away the same from thee." 
 
 Rashi writes: He therefore said, " I know not the day of 
 my death,]' because when a man has reached the age of his 
 father, or of his mother, he should be anxiously concerned lest 
 he dies at the same age as his father or his mother died. 
 
 3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, and sharpen 
 them, and go to the fields and catch for me some venison, 
 
 4 Tliat I may eat, and my soul bless thee before I die. Isaac 
 said to Esau, " Bring me something to eat and I will bless 
 thee." The Chizkiini writes : Isaac told him, " Thou hast sold 
 the birthright for something to eat, and I will bless thee and 
 restore unto thee thy princely power, also for something 
 to eat." 
 
 ' Besides looking at the Shechinah, there are three things at which if a. 
 man gaze his eyes become dim : viz. the rainbow, the prince, and the 
 priests when in the act of lifting up their hands to bless the congregation! 
 Chagiggah, fol. I 6a. 
 
GENESIS XXVI. 34-XXVI/. 13. 161 
 
 The B'chai writes : Isaac said, " Bring me something to 
 eat in order that I should be cheerful, as by merrinaent I shall 
 be able to bless thee ; for our sages say, that (the spirit of) 
 prophecy does not rest on a man when in a melancholy mood, 
 but when he is cheerful.i 
 
 The B'chai asks : What need had he to eat in order to 
 be merry, he might have effected this by musical instruments, 
 as our prophets used to do when they were melancholy ? The 
 answer is ; Isaac wished to cheer his spirits by means of the 
 very things with which he wished to bless Esau ; for the bless- 
 ing of Esau was, " The dew of heaven, and the fatness of the 
 - earth, and plenty of corn and wine." ^ 
 
 5 And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring 
 it. That is to say, he thought if he found a beast in the field, 
 well and good; and if not, he was "/<? bring it" from any- 
 where, and anyhow he was "to bring it," even by means of 
 theft or robbery.5 
 
 6 And Rebekah spake unto Jacob : " Thy father ordered 
 Esau to bring him to eat, and he will bless him ; therefore — 
 
 9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids, 
 and I will make them savoury ttieat for thy father, such as he 
 loveth, in order that he may bless thee." Rebekah used the 
 terms, "And fetch me" which means to say: "The two kids 
 are mine ; for thy father, Isaac, has specified, in my marriage 
 contract to give me every day two kids." 
 
 II, 12 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother. Behold, Esau 
 my brother is a haiyy man, and I am a smooth man : my father 
 peradveiiture will feel ?ne, and recognise me, and will curse me. 
 (A. v., I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring 
 a curse upon me, and not a blessing.) 
 
 13 And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my 
 
 1 Shabbath, fol. 30B. 
 
 2 Ver. 28. 
 
 s The animus against Esan is betrayed in tiiis gratuitous assumption. 
 
 M 
 
i62 ■ RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 S071. The Chizkuni writes : She said unto him, " Fear not, for 
 God had said, The elder shall serve the younger" i 
 
 The Chizkflni gives another explanation : Rebekah said, 
 " Isaac will curse me, not thee ; for he will think that I gave 
 you the advice, because I heard how he wished to bless Esau." 
 
 The Chizkuni adds yet another explanation : She said, 
 " Rather will I curse thee when thou wilt not obey me ; but 
 Isaac will not curse thee, because thou doest him good in 
 giving him to eat." 
 
 The Imrae Noam gives this explanation of the phrase, 
 " Ufon me be thy curse, my son " : Rebekah said, " I will make 
 up for thy curse ; if thy father disinherit thee, I will give thee 
 all I have by my marriage contract, and thou wilt have 
 enough." ' 
 
 Rebekah took the garments of Esau which he usually wore 
 when hunting, and put them upon Jacob, and the skins of the 
 kids she put upon his hands and neck, in order that Isaac 
 should think that he was Esau. 
 
 Esau deposited his garments for safety with his mother ; for 
 though he had many wives, he would trust none of them with 
 his garments, because he knew them to be wicked. - 
 
 1 8 And Jacob came unto his father with the savoury meat 
 prepared by his mother. The Eben Shoaeb writes : Jacob did 
 not wish to impose on his father by telling a lie. He wept, 
 and would not carry the meat till Rebekah forced it into his 
 hands ; he still would not proceed, till Rebekah told him that 
 angels would go with him to his father. As he came to the 
 door he fell down in a fainting fit, but God sent Michael and 
 Gabriel, who led him by his two hands to his father. 
 
 Rebekah gave no wine to Jacob, for she did not wish that 
 Isaac should be red at the blessing of Jacob, because Esau 
 (Edom) signifies red."^ But Michael brought wine from the 
 garden of Eden. As soon as Jacob came out of the door, Esau 
 arrived, but Michael hid Jacob that Esau should not see him. 
 
 ^ Chap. XXV. 23. Vide chap. xxv. 25- 
 
GENESIS XXVn. 13-22. 163 
 
 19 I am Esau thy firstborn. The B'chai and the Chizkuni 
 write : God so ruled that Esau sold the birthright to Jacob, in 
 order that Jacob should receive the blessings from his father. 
 When his father asked him, " Who art thou ? " he answered, 
 " I am Esau thy firstborn ; " that is to say, " I am in the place 
 of thy firstborn Esau, for he sold me the birthright." 
 
 / have done according as thou badest me. The B'chai asks : 
 Did Isaac bid him to bring meat ? The reply is : " Me" 
 means, for my sake, or concerning me; that is to say, "Rebekah 
 heard that thou didst bid to bring meat, and she bade me to 
 brmg it." " I have many times done according as thou badest 
 me." The Chizkuni writes : One may sometimes hide the 
 truth if necessary. Abraham said of Sarah, She was his sister 
 and not his wife. And Isaac asked Jacob, " Why hast thou 
 come so quickly from the field ? " 
 
 20 And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. 
 Isaac then thought that this must be Jacob, for Esau never 
 mentioned the name of God. As Isaac esteemed Esau as a 
 righteous man, why was it a wonder to him that he should 
 mention God's name, since a righteous man often does so? 
 The reply is : Isaac thought that Esau, when in the field hunt- 
 ing, often had to go into unclean places, and therefore he accus- 
 tomed himself not to mention God's name even when at home. 
 And now God's name being mentioned, Isaac concluded that 
 it must be Jacob, who never went into unclean places, and was 
 in. the habit of mentioning God's name. 
 
 22 And he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice — for 
 he spake gently and Esau spake roughly — but the hands are the 
 hands of Esau. The Midrash writes : " The voice is Jacob's 
 voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau " ; that is to say : 
 When Esau would do something (harmful with his hands) these 
 hands would by the (voice) studying the Law, and by (the voice 
 of) prayer defend themselves. 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : Isaac said, " In the voice I do not 
 recognise whether this be Esau, because a man speaks some- 
 
'64 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 times in a gentle and sometimes in a rough voice ; but by the 
 hands I recognise for sure and certain that this is Esau, be- 
 cause they are hairy." Therefore he blessed him. 
 
 25 And he brought him wine, and he drank. The ChizMni 
 writes : He therefore brought him wine, because it confuses a 
 man, that he should not recognise him. 
 
 27 And he smelled the smell of his raiment. Rashi asks; 
 The skins of goats have no pleasant odour, what pleasant smell 
 did he smell ? The answer is : Jacob had on the garments of 
 Esau, which belonged to Adam when in the garden of Eden, 
 and therefore these garments had the smell of Paradise. On 
 these garments were painted all sorts of animals, and when 
 Esau went to hunt in them, all animals were attracted by them, 
 and thus he was enabled to catch any animal he pleased. 
 
 29 And let thy fnothet^s sons bow down to thee. . The Debek 
 Tov asks : They had but one father, why did he not say, "The 
 children of thy father " ? The Chizkuni replies : Isaac thought 
 Rebekah being yet young, she would marry another husband 
 and would have other children, therefore he said, "Thy 
 mother's sons," even those which she will have by another 
 husband. 
 
 Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that 
 blesseth thee. Rashi asks : Why is it by Balaam first written, 
 " Blessed is he that blesseth thee," and afterwards, " Cursed is 
 he that curseth thee " ? 1 The reply is : In this world it goes 
 first hard with the righteous, and afterwards it goes well with 
 them, therefore said Isaac first, "Cursed is he that curseth 
 thee," and afterwards, " Blessed is he that blesseth thee ; " but 
 with the wicked, it first goes well with them, and then bad, 
 therefore said Balaam first, " Blessed is he that blesseth thee," 
 and afterwards, " Cursed is he that curseth thee." 
 
 The ChizkQni remarks : Although Isaac held Esau to be a 
 righteous man, yet he knew that he was a quarrelsome one, 
 and many hated him and would curse him, therefore he said 
 
 ' Num. xxiv. 9. 
 
GENESIS XXVII. 22-33. 165 
 
 first, " Cursed be those that curse thee," because those that 
 cursed were more numerous than those that blessed. 
 
 31 Get up my father! The Chizkflni observes: Isaac fell 
 asleep after eating the meat of Jacob, therefore he said " Get 
 tip my father, and eat of my meat." 
 
 . 32, 33 And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou ? 
 And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trem ■ 
 bled very exceedingly. The Midrash observes : It ought to have 
 been stated simply " very greatly," which meant to say, a great 
 fright; but "very exceedingly," means a frightfully great fright. 
 But Isaac, when he had been bound on the altar, was very 
 much frightened, and now he was still more frightened, because 
 he noticed Hell entered into Esau, so that even the walls of the 
 house trembled ; therefore it is stated (in the text) " very ex- 
 ceedingly." 
 
 And Isaac said. Who is he 1 God answered him, " He that 
 hunteth for venison, the Esau that captures animals." 
 
 And I have eaten of all the dainties before ihoic earnest, and I 
 have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed. And therefore 
 did Isaac say, "■And he shall be blessed^ that people should not 
 say, " If Jacob had not practised deception he would not have 
 been blessed." Therefore when Isaac became afterwards aware 
 of the deception, he nevertheless said, '■'■Yea, and he shall be 
 blessed." 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : Isaac said, " It is no wonder that I mis- 
 took Jacob for, Esau, for I am blind ; but God well knows why 
 He took away the blessing from the firstborn and gave it to the 
 younger, yea, and he shall be blessed' ; as a matter of course 
 he must be blessed, for I blessed according to the intention of 
 God ; and as Jacob, moireover, bought the birthright of Esau, 
 it is but just and right that he should be blessed." 
 
 The Chizkuni gives yet another explanation : Isaac said, 
 " Jacob must now remain blessed, because I blessed him, that 
 those who bless him shall be blessed, and those that curse him 
 shall be cursed, and now if I curse him I shall curse myself. 
 
i66 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 Should it be said : Neither curse nor bless him ; ^ yea, and he 
 shall be blessed,^ because if I bless him / bless myself." 
 
 34' 35' 36 He cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and 
 said u7ito his father, Bless me, also me, O my father ! And he 
 said. Thy brother came with wisdom (or cleverness),^ and hath 
 taken away thy blessing. And Esau said. Is he not rightly called 
 Jacob ? which means a swindle, " because he swindled me first 
 of my birthright, and now of my blessing." And he said, 
 " Verily hast thou reserved a blessing for me ? " 
 
 37-39 And Isaac answered, and said unto Esau, Behold, I 
 have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him 
 for servants, and with corn and wine have I sustained him ; and 
 what shall I do now unto thee my son ? And Esau said unto his 
 father. Hast thou but one blessing, my father ? and he lifted up 
 his voice and wept. Isaac then blessed him with " The fatness 
 of the earth shall be thy dwelling." 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks : Why did Isaac say, "I have al- 
 ready blessed thy brother, and I cannot bless thee also " ? Is 
 there but one blessing in the world? We see moreover that 
 Isaac himself yet found a blessing for him. The reply is: 
 Isaac said, " Such a blessing as Jacob's I cannot give thee, for 
 I made him lord, and consequently his brethren must be his 
 servants ; therefore, O Esau, I can give thee no blessing." 
 
 When Esau said, " Bless me, also me" he meant to say, 
 " Bless me also with the same blessing as Jacob," for he did , 
 not yet know the import of that blessing. Isaac informed him 
 that he could not be equal with Jacob, because he had made 
 Jacob to be his lord. Esau pleaded, " If I cannot be equal in 
 this blessing; thou hast blessed him with corn and wine, '■Bless 
 me, also me,' with the same blessing." Isaac blessed him there- 
 fore : " The fatness of the earth shall be thy dwelling^ 
 
 ' ilDID, deceit, fraud, cunning, artfulness, in A.V. it is rendered " suh- 
 tilly;" in the text " Klzigskaft," prudence, wisdom, cleverness, wit, etc. 
 As a rule, Jacob is all that is good, and Esau all that is bad. One is an 
 angel, and the other a devil. 
 
GENESIS XXVII. 33-41. 167 
 
 Esau further pleaded " Of what use to me will be the corn 
 and wine, if I be a slave ? for what a slave has belongs to his 
 lord ; 1 give me some independent ruling power." To this 
 Isaac responded — 
 
 40 And by thy sword shall thou live, and have dominion 
 over Jacob if he does not keep the Torah (the Law). 
 
 Rabbi Israel says : Esau pleaded with Isaac " Give me corn 
 and wine for myself, that I may serve Jacob with the same ; for 
 it is usual that the servant should give presents to his master, 
 and therefore I wish to have corn and wine for myself, in order 
 that it may be considered by Jacob as a present when I bring 
 it to him." Isaac replied, " I have already given Jacob corn 
 and wine, and he needs not thine, ' what shall I do now unto 
 thee ? ' " 
 
 The Imrae Noam says : Abraham had a sword which he 
 gave to Isaac, and Isaac gave it to Jacob. When ■ Esau de- 
 cided to have war with Nimrod, he sold his birthright to Jacob 
 for that sword. Nowadays it is customary, when a business 
 transaction is concluded, the parties drink a bottle of wine, 
 paid for by the purchasers ; at that time it was the custom (in- 
 stead of drinking wine) to eat bread and lentils ; these Jacob 
 gave to Esau. When Esau said that Jacob had taken aiuay 
 his birthright, Isaac replied : "'By thy sword shall thou live,' 
 which thou hast accepted (in exchange) for the birthright." 
 
 4r And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith 
 his father blessed him. The Chizkuni says : Because Esau re- 
 ceived the blessing, " By thy sword shall thou live," he hated 
 Jacob, and felt confident that with this sword he would be able 
 to kill him. 
 
 And Esau said, The days of mourning for my father are at 
 hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob ; for whilst he is yet 
 living I will not distress him (for he is my father). Thus 
 Rashi. But the Chizkuni writes : Esau said thus "The days 
 of mourning for my father are at hand, he will die and have no 
 ' Vide Gen. ace. to the Talmud, 4y7, 20. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTAR Y. 
 
 more children, so there will be none to take Jacob's part, then 
 I will kill him." 
 
 42 And these words were told to Rebekah, by the Holy Ghost, 
 that Esau was plotting to slay Jacob. She therefore bade him 
 flee to her brother Laban, and hide himself there until she sent 
 for him home again. . 
 
 45 Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day ? 
 For Esau having said, that on the very day that Isaac died he 
 would kill Jacob, therefore Rebekah said, " Why should I be 
 deprived of thee and of Isaac in one day ? " Thus writes the 
 Chizkiini. 
 
 But Rashi : Rebekah spake thus : " If he rises to kill thee, 
 and thou (in self-defence) killest him,i then his children will rise 
 and kill thee ; and thus I shall be deprived of you both in one 
 day." And in truth both eventually did die in one day.^ 
 
 46 And Rebekah said utito Isaac . . . If Jacob take a 
 wife of the daughters of Heth . . . what is life to me 1 
 The Chizkuni writes : Rebekah said to Isaac, " Thou must for- 
 bid Jacob to take a wife from the daughters of Heth, for he 
 hopes to take a wife from a great prince of the children of 
 Heth, who would help him (to fight) against Esau." 
 
 Chapter XXVIII. — 1-5 And Isaac called Jacob and said 
 unto him, go to Laban and take a wife of his daughters, and 
 God Almighty bless thee I And Isaac sent Jacob away to Padan- 
 aram unto laban, son of Bethuel, the brother of Rebekah, the 
 mother of Jacob and Esau. The Chizkflni asks : Why does the 
 text tell us that she was the mother of Jacob and Esau, since 
 we know this already ? The explanation is : The text shows 
 us how it was that Isaac and Rebekah, though both were 
 pious, should have such a son as Esau. Laban, the text 
 says, was Rebekah's brother, and most children resemble their 
 
 » Unn^ DDB'n •\i'\rh Xl mDN minni. i.e. The Law says : Antici- 
 pate him who seeks to slay thee. Treasures of Talm., 230, 26. 
 2 Vide Talm. Misc., 288; 10. 
 
GEiVESIS XXVIl. A,\-XXVin. 7. 169 
 
 maternal uncles, 1 therefore was she the mother of Jacob and 
 Esau. 
 
 Another explanation is : Rebekah therefore sent away Jacob, 
 that he should not kill Esau if Esau attempted to kill him ; 
 hence the text says, that Rebekah was " the mother of 
 Jacob and Esau," and she had a mother's solicitude for them 
 both. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac and the B'chai write : How is it that 
 Rebekah was not afraid to send Jacob to so near a place as 
 Padan-aram, for Esau might have pursued him thither ? The 
 text says: "The mother of Jacob and Esau." Jacob is mentioned 
 first, and it was well-known in Padan-aram that she loved Jacob 
 more than Esau, and that therefore they would deliver him 
 from Esau. * * * * 
 
 7 Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and went to Padan- 
 aram. The B'chai asks : Since Isaac had ordered Jacob to 
 go away, why was Jacob punished for it ? for we find that 
 Joseph was lost to Jacob for twenty-two years, and did not 
 honour him (all that time), because Jacob tarried in Laban's 
 house twenty-two years, and did not honour his parents (during 
 that time). The explanation is this : Isaac had ordered Jacob 
 to marry Leah, the eldest daughter of Laban, and not to re- 
 main long away ; but Jacob was more pleased with Rachel, 
 and on her account he tarried so long, therefore he was 
 punished. 
 
 The Imrae Noam explains it thus : Jacob hid himself in 
 the Beth-Hammidrash (Rabbinical school) of Shem and Eber 
 fourteen years, until his brother's anger turned away from him. 
 Rebekah sent Deborah after him, and she found him in the 
 house of Laban, the first year; and yet he tarried twenty-two 
 years. Therefore he was punished, by Joseph not honour- 
 
 • DXn TIkS D'Dn D^aa an, Bava-Bathra,M. IIOA. Esau resembled 
 his uncle in wickedness, and Jacob resembled his mother in piety, and the 
 two brothers represented their mother, who was a compound of good and 
 bad — pious, but of a wicked family. 
 
170 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 ing him also for twenty-two years, for God repays measure for 
 measure. 
 
 End of the Sixth Section. 
 
 10 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward 
 Haran. Rashi asks : What need was there to mention that 
 he went out from Beer-sheba, since we know that he was in 
 Beer-sheba ? The answer is : The text shows us, that a pious 
 man is the beauty and glory of the city where he resides; 
 when he departs from it, the beauty and the glory of the city 
 depart also.i 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : The reason why mention is made that 
 he went out from Beer-sheba, is this. They used to impose 
 there an oath on any one they would, and therefore was the 
 city called Beer-sheba, ^ because all people there used to 
 swear. Jacob, in order that they should not make him swear 
 that he did not take away the blessings (from Esau) by de- 
 ception, went out from Beer-sheba. 
 
 And went toward Haran. In one day he went from Beer- 
 sheba to Haran. The sages say : It was seventeen day's journey 
 but Jacob went (the whole distance) in twelve hours. Hence 
 it is said : 
 
 1 1 And he lighted upon the place. He met the place, for the 
 place came to meet him. The sages say : That the term ^^And 
 he lighted'''' (in the original), means Prayer ; and "upon the 
 place" ^ means God., that is to say : he prayed to God. 
 
 ' It is not the place which confers honour upon the man, but it is the 
 man who confers honour upon the place. Taanith, fol. 21A. 
 
 - In the original Hebrew, Beer-sheba means Well of an Oath. It means 
 also a Well of Seven, or the Seventh Well, but the first meaning suited 
 better the purpose of the Chizkuni. 
 
 3 D1pD3 5JJD''1, i.e. " And he lighted upon a place." But J)JS means 
 also " to pray," for it is said (Jer. vii. 16) " Therefore pray," Wfifl, " thou 
 not for this people." Bei-achoth, fol. 26B, and Taanith, fol. 7B. 
 
 DlpD, i.e. Place. In the Talmud, in the Liturgy, and in general Jewish 
 
GENESIS XXVni. 7-1 r. 171 
 
 Our sages say also : When Jacob came to Haran he regretted 
 having passed Mount Moriah without having prayed there ; 
 and as he began to retrace his steps, God brought Mount 
 Moriah to meet him, that he should not have far to return. 
 
 And he tarried there all night, because the sun was set. 
 Rashi asks : Why is it said first, " he tarried all night," and 
 then it is said, "because the sun was set"? It ought to have 
 stated the reverse ; first, " the sun set," and then, " he tarried 
 all night." The explanation is : The sun set before its time 
 in order that he should tarry there all night. 
 
 Another explanation is : " He tarried there all night, because 
 the sun was set " before its time, otherwise he would have 
 travelled on in order to be at a greater distance from Esau. 
 From this we learn that a man should not travel at night even 
 in a case of necessity. As our sages say : Let a man ever go 
 out when " it was good" and come in when " it was good ; " 
 that is : Let a man enter a city before the sun sets, and let 
 him leave it after the sun rises. ^ 
 
 And he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his 
 pillows. Rashi asks: Here it is said, "And he took of the 
 stones" and further on (ver. 18), "And he took the stone" 
 which means one stone. The explanation is : Jacob took many 
 stones and laid them as a wall round about him, that the wild 
 beasts should do him no harm whilst asleep during the night ; 
 the stones then began to quarrel, each striving that the sleep- 
 ing saint should have his head laid upon it, but God made 
 
 literature, God is often called DIpD, Makom, "Place," because He is the 
 space of the Universe, though the Universe does not constitute His space. 
 
 ^ This saying of the sages is based on (Gen. i. 4), " And God saw the 
 light that it was good." The reason given by Rashi in Taanilh, fol. lOB, 
 that a man should travel by day and not by night, is to the effect that he 
 would avoid falling into the hands of robbers, or into pits and ditches, 
 and would not draw upon himself the suspicion of being a spy or a thief. 
 He also escapes the danger of wild beasts and evil spirits that rove about 
 at night. Then also Scripture says (Exod. xii. 22), "None of you shall 
 go out of the door of his house until the morning." Vide Bava-Kama, 
 fol. 60B. 
 
rya RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 peace between the stones and caused them all to become one 
 stone.i 
 
 And he lay down in that place. Rashi observes : It is ex- 
 pressly stated in the text, " In that place," to show that only 
 in that place he lay down to sleep ; but all the fourteen years 
 which he spent in the Beth-Hammidrash of Shem and Eber 
 he did not lie down at night to sleep, but day and night he 
 studied the Law. 
 
 1 2 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, 
 and the top of it reached to heaven ; and behold the angels 
 of God ascending and descending on it. Rashi asks : Since 
 angels are in heaven, it ought to have been said first " de- 
 scending," and then " ascending." The answer is : On that 
 night Jacob was on the frontier of the Land of Israel, and 
 those angels that accompanied him in the Holy Land were 
 not permitted to escort him beyond the border into the out- 
 side land, so they were " ascending," and afterwards other 
 angels were " descending " to accompany him in the, outside 
 land.^ And God appeared unto Jacob and said : 
 
 13 I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God 
 of Isaac. The Baal Hatturim asks : Why is it said " thy 
 father" of Abraham and not of Isaac? The Baal Hatturim 
 gives no reply to the question, but Rabbi Israel gives answer 
 thus : Jacob feared that the blessings of Isaac would not be 
 fulfilled, because Isaac intended to bless Esau, but in wisdom 
 he took them away. But God said unto Jacob, " Abraham is 
 thy real father, for he would not bless Isaac because he knew 
 that he would bless Esau." Therefore Abraham said, "Let 
 God bless Isaac ! " But Isaac had a mind to bless Esau and 
 not Jacob, therefore says the text unto Jacob, " Abraham is 
 thy father, but Isaac is unlike a father unto thee." 
 
 1 In the Talmud this story is told somewhat differently. Vide Chullin, 
 fol. 91B. 
 
 2 The distinction between the Land of Israel and the outside land is 
 noticed in Treasures of the Talmud, p. 279, lo. 
 
GENESIS XXVIII. 11-17. 173 
 
 Rashi asks : God said (in the text), " The God of Isaac,'' 
 though God never attaches His name to that of a righteous 
 man during his lifetime, lest he should become bad? 1 The 
 answer is : Isaac was blind and confined to his house ; he 
 was a dead man, and his Yetzer-harah (propensity to evil) de- 
 parted from him, therefore God attached His name to him 
 though he was still alive. 
 
 The land whereon thou Itest, to thee will I give it, and to thy 
 seed. Rashi asks : What is there in such a gift as four ells of 
 ground on which a man lies ? The reply is : God folded up 
 the whole Land of Israel and laid it underneath Jacob, showing 
 him thereby that the whole land will as easily be conquered 
 by his children as if it were a small piece of ground whereon 
 he lay. 
 
 14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. The B'chai 
 asks :. Why does he not say, " As the stars of heaven " ? The 
 answer is : This was to show that when Israelites are pious 
 God exalts them to the stars of heaven, otherwise He sinks 
 them to the dust, to be trod upon. 
 
 15 That which I have spoken unto thee. God said unto 
 Jacob, "I will do that which I have spoken unto thee." 
 Rashi asks : But we do not find that God had ever before 
 spoken unto him ; why does He say, " that which I have 
 spoken unto thee"! The answer is : "Unto thee" means 7-e- 
 specti?ig thee ; "for when I spoke to Abraham and said, 'For 
 in Isaac shall thy seed be called,' ^ I meant in Isaac, but not 
 all Isaac ; ^ that is, a portion of Isaac will be called thy chil- 
 dren ; thy children, and not all the children of Isaac, will have 
 the blessings I promised ; " that is to say, Jacob will be blessed, 
 but not Esau. 
 
 16, 17 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, 
 Surely the Lord is in this place ; and I knew it not ; for had I 
 
 ' Rashi bases this on Job xv. 15, " Behold He putteth no trust in His 
 saints." 
 
 ^ Chap. xxi. 12. ^ Comp. Rom., ix. 6-8. 
 
174 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 known it I should not have slept in so holy a place. And 
 he was afraid, and said, This is the gate of heaven, through 
 which the prayers ascend. 
 
 1 8 And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone 
 that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar (as a 
 monument), and poured oil upon the top of it. 
 
 20j 21 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying. If God will be with 
 me, and will keep me in this way that I go . . . then shall 
 the Lord be my God. The question is : Is it conceivable that 
 Jacob should say, If God would be his help, he would hold 
 him as a God ; otherwise he would not hold Him for a God ? 
 The explanation is this : Jacob was afraid lest he, God forbid ! 
 should commit sin, and God would not fulfil His promises 
 unto him ; he therefore said, " If God will fulfil that which He 
 has promised unto me, then will I worship Him in this place ; 
 if not, then I will worship Him, but not in this place." 
 
 And will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on. Rashi 
 asks : Where did God promise to give him bread ? The answer 
 is : God said (ver. 15), " I will not forsake thee" that is, I will 
 give thee bread ; for he who has no bread is <i2i\!itA forsaken. 
 
 Rabbi Israel asks : Where did God promise Jacob to give 
 him raiment? To this question the Siphsey Khachamim 1 
 answers thus : When God promised to give him bread to eat, 
 it is to be inferred that He would also give him raiment to put 
 on, for otherwise he would be obliged to sell the bread for 
 raiment and suff'er want. 
 
 If God will be with me . . . I will surely give unto thee 
 the tenth of all that thou shall give me. And Jacob thus ful- 
 filled it, for even of his children he gave the tenth, that is the 
 tribe of Levi.^ 
 
 Chapter XXIX.— 2, 3 And he looked, and behold a well 
 
 > D''03n ''nSti', Siphsey Khachamiin is the title of a certain commentary 
 of modern date, but much esteemed by orthodox Jews. The title in 
 'En'^\i\\\s, The Lips of the Sages. 
 
 2 Probably based on Deut. x. 8 = Num. iii. 12, 45. 
 
GENESIS XXVIII. \-j-XXIX. lo. 175 
 
 in the field, and lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it 
 . . . and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. And 
 thither were all the herdsmen gathered ; and rolled the stone from 
 the well, and watered the sheep. 
 
 S And Jacob said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of 
 Nahorl The B'chai and the Chizkuni ask: Why does the 
 text call him Laban the son of Nahor, when he was the son of 
 Bethuel ? The explanation is this : Bethuel was a bad man, 
 and therefore did Laban call himself after Nahor, for a grand- 
 son is like a son ; also because Nahor, was Abraham's brother, 
 and all claimed the honour of being allied to Abraham's family. 
 As they spoke, 
 
 6, 7 Behold, Rachel his daughter came with the sheep. And 
 Jacob said to the herdsmen, " Lo, it is yet high day ; it is not yet 
 time to water the sheep. Are ye hired by the day ? if so, the 
 day is not yet out ; but if these are your sheep, it is not yet 
 time to gather them together, therefore water ye the sheep, and 
 go and feed them." Jacob said this, that the herdsmen might 
 go away, in order that he should be able to have a talk with 
 Rachel alone. 
 
 8, 9 And the herdsmen said, We cannot water the sheep until 
 all herdsmen gather together .and we roll away the stone from the 
 well. Meamuhile Rachel came very near the well with tJie sheep. 
 The Chizkuni writes : Leah did not go with the sheep because 
 she had weak eyes, and the wind in the open field was in- 
 jurious to her; also, she being the elder, Rachel did her 
 honour by letting her sit at home. Thus writes the Ramban. 
 Also, Laban sent Rachel because she was yet so very young 
 and he had no fear of letting her go in the fields. 
 
 10 When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban Jiis 
 mother's brother, and the sheep of Labaii his motlur's brother, 
 that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth. 
 He did not roll the stone, but he took it off from the well, in 
 order to show Rachel his great strength. The herdsmen were 
 obliged to unite their strength and roll the stone from the 
 
176 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 well's mouth, for they could not lift it on account of its great 
 weight, and therefore it is said of them, " And they rolled the 
 stone ; " i but of Jacob it is said, " And he uncovered ^ the 
 stone from the well," as one uncovers a lid from a glass. 
 
 The B'chai says : The reason that it is repeated in the text 
 three times, " his mother's brother," is to show that he took 
 away the stone because he (Laban) was his mother's brother. ' 
 
 11 And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up Ms voice and wept, 
 because he prophetically foresaw that she would not be buried 
 with him in the cave of Machpelah ; also because he had no 
 present to give her. He said, " Eliezer, the servant of Abra- 
 ham, gave beautiful presents to Rebekah, and / (Abraham's 
 grandson) have nothing to give." It may be asked : How is 
 it conceivable that Rebekah should send Jacob away with 
 nothing? But it is thus explained : Rebekah indeed gave him 
 many presents to take with him, but Eliphaz, the son of Esau, 
 by the order of his father, pursued after him to kill him, and 
 when he overtook him on the road, Jacob said unto him, 
 " Take all I have and I shall then be counted as dead,* and 
 thou wilt be able to tell thy father that thou hast killed me." 
 
 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her fathei^s brother, 
 " and therefore I kissed thee," said he, "because thou art my 
 near relation." Rashi remarks ; Jacob said thus, " If thy 
 father be a deceiver, then I am his brother (his equal), for I 
 too can deceive ; and if he be pious, then I am the son of 
 Rebekah, and she is pious." ^ 
 
 1 iS^il, from the root 77J, "to roll off, roll away." 
 
 2 ^J*l, from the root H^J, "to uncover, to lay bare, to reveal." 
 ^ Otherwise he would not have done it. 
 
 * nn''D3 nViy, Poverty is as death. Nedarim, fol. 7B. See also Tal. 
 Misc., 71,. 14- 
 
 ' In the Talmud this passage is thus commented on : Was he then her 
 father's brother? Was he not the son of her father's sister? (Reply) 
 He had asked her to marry him. She assented, but added : " Yet my father 
 is a deceiver, and thou art no match for him." He replied: N3X VnS 
 niXDna, " I am his brother (his equal) in artful deception." She said unto 
 
GENESIS XXIX. 10-14. 177 
 
 And she ran and told her father. Rachel told her father, 
 and Rebekah told her mother when Eliezer came to fetch her 
 to Isaac ; but Rachel's mother was dead. 
 
 The Chizkuni says: Because Jacob said he was '■'■her 
 fathei-'s brother," ihtieiort Rachel told her father, "Thy rela- 
 tion is come." But Rebekah told her mother, because Eliezer 
 did not say by what family he was sent, therefore shei told her 
 mother, for maidens tell all things to their mother ; also be- 
 cause Eliezer gave her pretty ornaments, therefore she told her 
 mother. 
 
 13 And Laban ran to meet him, for he reasoned with himself 
 thus : Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, had ten camel loads 
 with him ; therefore Jacob, being himself one of the fathers, 
 must of course have a deal of money with him. As he saw no 
 camels, he thought that he must have much money about him, 
 he therefore embraced him to ascertain what he had on his 
 person ; finding that he had nothing, he kissed him, to discover 
 whether he had not hidden a valuable diamond in his mouth. 
 
 A?id Jacob told Laban all these things — that he fled from 
 
 Esau, and therefore he had brought nothing with him. The 
 
 Chizkuni says : He related how he took away the birthright 
 
 ' and the blessing from Esau, in order to induce Laban to give 
 
 him his daughter. 
 
 14 And Laban said unto him, Su?-ely thou art my bone and my 
 flesh. " I ought not to have taken thee into the house, because 
 thou hast no money ; but as thou art iny relative, abide with 
 me a month." And also that month was not for nothing, for 
 he kept his sheep. 
 
 The Chizkuni observes : Laban said to Jacob, " I ought not 
 to have taken thee into the house, because thou art a cheat, as 
 thou hast duped thy brother Esau of his birthright and of his 
 
 him: "Is it permissible for righteous men to go about with deception ? " 
 " Yes," said he ; " with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure, and with the 
 froward thou wilt show thyself unsavoury," etc. (2 Sam. xxii. 27). 
 Meggillah, fol. 13B. 
 
 N 
 
178 ■ • RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 blessing ; but thou art my blood and my flesh, that is to say, I 
 also am a cheat, and thou wilt therefore be unable to play a 
 trick upon me." 
 
 And Jacob abode with him a month, for Laban would not hire 
 him until he knew what he was. 
 
 The Imrae Noam asks : How is it that Jacob entered the 
 house of Laban, which contained idols ; whereas Abraham's 
 camels even would not enter the house of Bethuel until the 
 idols were removed from ■ it ? The reply is : Jacob wished to- 
 know whether or not Rachel and Leah worshipped idols, and 
 this he ascertained in a month, after which he separated him- 
 self from the house, and hence it is stated : "And he abode 
 with him the space of a month " only. 
 
 ■ 1 5 And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, 
 shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought ? The Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac remarks : Laban was an artful cheat, and he thought, 
 if Jacob served him for nought he would then be legally free 
 from paying damages, as a keeper i without wages; he preferred 
 to pay him, in order that he should be obliged to make good 
 any loss. Therefore said Laban to Jacob, " Tell me, what 
 shall thy wages be 2 " 
 
 1 7 Zeah was tender-eyed, because she wept much. She , 
 heard people say, " Leah, being the eldest daughter of Laban, 
 will marry Esau, the eldest son of Rebekah; and Rachel, being 
 the youngest daughter, will marry Jacob, the youngest son of 
 Rebekah," and therefore Leah wept very much, and got bad 
 eyes in consequence.^ So says Rashi. 
 
 * Keeper : in this instance " keeper" of Laban's flocks. It is a Jewish 
 legal maxim, that one who has charge of (a " keeper" of) anything for an- 
 other, and is not paid for his service, is not responsible for its loss ; but the 
 receipt of even a small payment renders the "keeper" responsible. Hence 
 it is agreed that Laban's offer of wages was dictated by a selfish motive, 
 to hold Jacob legally answerable for his flocks. The Hebrew technical 
 expressions "lO{i> "IttlC, DJH lOIB' (a gratiiitous keeper and a paid 
 keeper), are very common in Hebrew. See also Exod. xxii. 6-14. 
 
 ' l-a Bava-Bathra, fol. 123A, we are told;. Leah, when she heard. 
 
GENESIS XXIX. .14-J8. 179 
 
 The Debek Tov remarks : Rashi wonders how it is that 
 Scripture should expose the defect of Leah ? Rashi explains : 
 Scripture informs us that Leah was a most pious woman, and 
 she wept her eyes sore, so that she should not fall to the lot of 
 Esau the wicked. 
 
 Rabbi Israel writes : The Talmud says : A bride that has 
 pretty eyes, her whole body requires no further examina- 
 tion for any deformity ; but if she has bad eyes, her whole 
 body requires examination lest she has yet some other blemish.^ 
 Hence Jacob reasoned thus : " My parents commanded me to 
 marry a wife of the daughters of Laban, and that command 
 I must obey. Had there been but one daughter, though de- 
 formed, I should have been bound to marry her ; but now 
 there is Rachel, who has no deformity whatever, why should 
 I marry Leah with a deformity ? " Hence Jacob said unto 
 Laban : 
 
 18 / will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger 
 daughter. Rashi remarks : Jacob was therefore obliged thus 
 to stipulate with Laban. Though we are already aware that 
 Rachel was his younger daughter, Jacob knew that Laban was 
 a cunning cheat, and therefore he thought, if I tell him " I 
 will serve thee for RachelJ' he will take a strange_ girl of the 
 name of Rachel and give her to me. Hence he was particular 
 to say "thy daughter." "He was also afraid that Laban would- 
 change Leah's name into Rachel, therefore he said, " thy 
 younger daughter." But all this careful stipulation did not help 
 him, for after all he gave him Leah. 
 
 The Chizkuni says : Jacob declared, " I will marry Rachel, 
 because, she is the younger ; for if I marry Leah, then Esau will 
 
 \'Qph .n:Dp1 "pnab nPIIJ, i. e. " The elder-for the elder, and the younger for 
 the younger" sat on the cross ways and inquired of the passers by the 
 character of Esau, and she was told that he was a wicked highwayman, 
 and Jacob was an upright man, dwelling in tents (chap. xxv. 27). She 
 then wept till her eyelashes fell off. 
 
 > Vide Taanith, fol. 24A "31 DIS' niJiytJ* \'0\ ^3 n'?3? "jt^D. 
 
i8o RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 say that I took away from him the birthright and the blessing, 
 and now I take away also his wife, which belongs to him as he 
 is the elder." 
 
 The Chizkfini writes also : Jacob said that he would serve 
 him seven years for Rachel, for he was afraid that for less than 
 seven years he would not give him so handsome a woman. 
 
 19, 20 It is better that I give her to thee, than that 1 should 
 give her to another . . .■ And the seven years seemed unto 
 him but a few days, for he much loved her. It is asked : When 
 one loves a woman, the days and hours are usually long, and 
 he is anxious the time should pass away that he should marry 
 her j and why were these seven long years as but a few days to 
 Jacob? The answer is : This was after the seven years had 
 passed that they seemed to him as seven days, because he 
 loved her so much. 
 
 2 1 Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go 
 in unto her. Rashi asks : Why did Jacob say so plainly, " Let 
 me go in unto her," since even the lowest bred man would not 
 utter so coarse an expression ? The reply is : Jacob had said, 
 " I am already eighty four years old, and as I must needs have 
 twelve children, it is time that I should take a wife," therefore 
 he said plainly, " Let me come in unto her," for he had no 
 other intention but the procreation of children.^ 
 
 The Raraban asks : Why did Jacob say, " The days for which 
 my mother had sent me away are already fulfilled, therefore 
 give me Rachel, though the seven years are not yet completed "? 
 What had that to d.o with Laban, if the days of Jacob's mother 
 were fulfilled? Hence says the Ramban : The meaning of " For 
 . my days are fulfilled,"- is to be explained thus : When the . 
 seventh year began, Jacob said to Laban, " Thou mayest now 
 give me Rachel, for surely I will be with her and not run away 
 
 1 Procreation is of the first consideration with the orthodox Jew. Of 
 the 613 precepts of the Law, Ull nS, "Be fruitful and multiply " (Gen. i. 
 28), stands first on the list, and it is of the highest importance. See Gen. 
 ace. to the Talmud, 69, 7. ■ 
 
GENESIS XXIX. 18-25.' ' "Si 
 
 for one whole year." Therefore he said, "I will come in unto 
 her," that is to say, " I will take her for a wife, so to be sure 
 that I will not run away." 
 
 22 And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and 
 made a feast. And he said unto them, " Promise me that ye 
 will not tell Jacob that I will give him Leah to-night." They 
 promised him. Laban then urged them to give him pledges 
 that they would keep their promise, and they gave him their 
 garments as pledges. These Laban pledged for wine, with 
 which he treated them at their own cost. They became very 
 merry, and sung all night Hilulu} And thereby they intimated 
 to Jacob that that was Leah ; for Hilulu consists of two words, 
 signifying " This is Leah." But Jacob did not understand it. 
 
 23, 24 And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah 
 his daughter, and brought her to him. And Laban gave his 
 maid Zilpah unto his daughter Leah for a handmaid, in order 
 to lead Jacob to think that, seeing Zilpah in the tent, and she 
 being younger than Bilhah, as Rachel was younger than Leah, 
 and the elder servant naturally belongs to the elder daughter, 
 and the younger to the younger, it was. certain that Rachel 
 was given him. But, 
 
 25 // came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah. 
 It was in the morning that Jacob recognised that it was Leah ; 
 though he spoke with her all night, he did not recognise her. 
 Jacob had given Rachel certain signs of recognition ; but when 
 she saw that Leah was being led to him, to save her sister 
 from exposure, she committed these signs of recognition to her. 
 Hence Jacob thought all night that Leah was Rachel, and it 
 was only in the morning that he discovered the difference. 
 
 The B'chai says : God rewards measure for measure. Jacob 
 sent presents to Rachel, as it is the custom for a bridegroom 
 
 ' Something similar in sound to Hilula-lu-lu-lu as usually sung by women 
 at night at an Eastern wedding. But Europeans do not understand it ; to 
 them it is a noise without meaning ; but it may probably be .to perpetuate 
 the memory of the eventful marriage of Jacob and Leah. 
 
1 82 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 to send presents to the bride before the wodding. The 
 presents Laban took and gave to Leah, and Rachel did not 
 report it to Jacob. As a reward, she was the ancestress of 
 Benjamin, who did not report against the brethren who sold 
 Joseph. Benjamin was the ancestor of Saul,i yy^Q also did not 
 tell that Samuel had anointed him king,^ for no one knew it. 
 From Saul descended Queen Esther, who also did not say from 
 what people she was,^ and by this means came the deliverance 
 of Purim. 
 
 And he said unto Laban, What is this thou hast done unto 
 me ? I have served thee for Rachel, and thou hast given me 
 Leah. 
 
 26, 27 A?id Laban said, Lt must not be so done in our country, 
 to give in marriage the younger before the elder. If thou wilt 
 have Rachel also, let the wedding week pass, and I will give 
 thee also Rachel, in order that one merriment should not 
 interfere with another. 
 
 30 And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also 
 Rachel more than Leah. The Ramban observes : It is usual 
 to love the first wife more than the other wives ; and as Jacob 
 married Leah first, why did he love Rachel more? The 
 answer is : Because Leah wronged her sister and deceived him. 
 For although she was bound to obey her father and go in to 
 Jacob, yet she ought to have told him that she was Leah. But 
 she practised deception in making believe she was Rachel. 
 Hence Jacob hated her, and wanted to divorce her ; but God, 
 knowing that her intention was good, in desiring to unite her- 
 self to a righteous man, had compassion on her, and at once 
 gave her children, and hence says the text : 
 
 3 1 And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, Be opened 
 her womb. He gave her children in order that Jacob should 
 love her. The B'chai and the Ramban say : Jacob did not 
 hate Leah ; but compared to the love he had for Rachel, his 
 feelings for Leah were like those of hatred. 
 
 1 I Sam. ix. I, 2. ^ I!>id. x. 16. ' Esther ii. 5, 7, 10. 
 
GENESIS XXIX. 25-34. . 183 
 
 30 And he served with him yet seven other years. The text 
 teaches us the righteousness of Jacob. Although he served' 
 the first seven years for Rachel, and Laban cheated him and 
 gave him Leah, yet he served the last seven years with a 
 much faithfulness as the first. 
 
 32 And Leah conceived and bare a son. ■ The B'chai observes 
 It is therefore stated : " She conceived and bare," to show that 
 soon after she had conceived she gave birth. * * * When 
 Leah had had her third son, she said : 
 
 34 JVow this time will my husband be joined unto me ; for she 
 prophetically foresaw that Jacob would beget twelve children, 
 and as he had four wives, each would have three children. 
 Leah therefore said : " I have already begotten my share of 
 children, and 'now this time will my husband be joined unto 
 me,'" and she called her third son Levi, which means to join- 
 So write both Rashi and Ghizkuni ; but the Toldoth Yitzkhac 
 says : When a woman has two children she carries one on 
 each arm, but when she gets a third child the husband, must 
 carry it, and hence said Leah, " JVotv this time will my husband 
 be joined unto 7)ie," in carrying the third child. 
 
 Rashi says : Although it is said of Levi, as it is said of all 
 the tribes, " Therefore was his name called," yet he had not 
 many children for all that, because he did no work in Egypt 
 (as the other tribes) ; for Jacob having given no orders that 
 the Levites should carry his coffin, the Egyptians supposed 
 them to be holy, and did not therefore force them to labour, 
 and hence the Levites were not included in the blessing, 
 " The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and 
 grew,"'^ i.e. they had not the blessing of many children. 
 . He called"^ his name Lmi. Of all the other children it is 
 said, " She called his name." This was because God sent 
 Gabriel to bring before Him the child, and "He called Jiis 
 name Levi," because He joined him to the twenty-four gifts 
 
 > Exod. i. 12. 
 
 2 X"lp, he called, masc. past, third pers. sing. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 of the priesthood, and also other gifts of the priesthood— sacri 
 fices and offerings— which should be given hira. 
 
 35 Now will I praise the Lord. When Leah had the fourth 
 son she said "Now will I praise the Lord, because I have 
 more children than my share." Therefore she called his name 
 Judah, which means Praise. 
 
 . Chapter XXX.— i A,id when Rachel saw that she ban 
 Jacob tio children, Rachel envied her sister. The Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac explains the reason why Rachel was envious of her 
 sister when she had her fourth son, and not before. Because 
 when Leah had three children only, she thought that her share 
 would also be three children, for all the four wives were to 
 have three children each ; but when Leah had a fourth son, 
 and therefore a larger share, she envied her. 
 
 Rashi says : She was not envious because Leah had many 
 children, for it is not to be thought that such a pious woman 
 as she was should be envious for such a cause ; but she was 
 envious of her good works, as she thought her to be very 
 pious, and this kind of envy is permissible. ^ 
 
 And she said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. She 
 
 said to him, " Thy father Isaac prayed on behalf of Rebekah, 
 
 that she should have children. Do thou also pray for me." 
 
 ■ From this we learn that whoever has no children is like a dead 
 
 man. 2 
 
 2 And Jacob's anger was kifidkd against Rachel: and he 
 said. Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee to have 
 children 1 My father prayed on behalf of Rebekah because he 
 had no children by another wife, but I have children by Leah. 
 The Ramban asks : How is it conceivable that Jacob should 
 so answer, viz. that because he had children by Leah he would 
 therefore not pray for Rachel ? The pious pray even for the 
 wives of others that they should have children, as, for instance, 
 
 ' "Zealous of good works " (Titus ii. 14). "A zeal not according to 
 knowledge " (Rom. x. 2). • 
 
 2 Nedarim, fol. 64B. ' . . 
 
GENESIS XXIX. z\-XXX. 5. 185 
 
 Elijah and Elisha prayed on behalf of other men's wives,^ how 
 much stranger is it that Jacob should not pray for his own 
 beloved wife ? Furthermore, it is difficult to comprehend why 
 Jacob was angry with Rachel. She had but asked for a proper 
 thing, and she thought that God accepts the prayers of the 
 righteous. 
 
 The Midrash also says : That God told Jacob, " Thpu didst 
 not well reply to Rachel ; therefore thy children will be obliged 
 to bow down to her son Joseph." 
 
 Another explanation is : Rachel, knowing that Jacob loved 
 her very much, had threatened him that she would die of grief 
 if she had no children, in order that he should put on sackcloth, 
 and fast and pray to God on her behalf, and hence his anger 
 against her for threatening him ; and he remonstrated, saying, 
 " Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee to have 
 children ] " But Rachel argued thus : "Thy grandfather Abra- 
 ham, though he had . children by Hagar, yet prayed for Sarah, 
 that she also might have .children." Jacob retorted: "My 
 grandmother Sarah herself gave her maidservant unto Abraham." 
 
 3 And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her ; and 
 she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by 
 her. Rashi and the B'chai write : Rachel said, " There is the 
 letter He in the name of Leah, but not in mine.^ This letter 
 He occurs in the name Jehovah, and therefore Leah (having 
 the same letter He in her name) has children and I have none. 
 I will give thee therefore my maid Bilhah, in whose name 
 there are two He's ; one He will have the effect of giving her 
 children, and the other He will cause me to have children." 
 
 5 And Bilhah co?iceived, and bare Jacob a son. The Ramban 
 remarks : It is said, " Bare Jacob a son," to show that though 
 Bilhah and Zilpah were but servants, yet Jacob loved their 
 children, and called them his sons. 
 
 Rachel called him Dan. Bilhah then conceived again and 
 
 ' I Kings xvii. 22 ; 2 Kings iv. 17, 33. 
 
 2 The spelling of Rachel in Hebrew is without the letter He, Pll"]. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 bare a second son, and Rachel called him Naphtali. And 
 when Leah saw that Rachel gave her maid to Jacobs she also 
 gave her maid to him. The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks : Since 
 Leah had children enough, why did she give her maid to 
 Jacob ? The answer is ; Rachel gave her maid to Jacob that 
 she might bear children, and for the sake of this Rachel hoped 
 that she herself would have children ; hence says the text (ver. 
 3), " And shall beariipon my knees, that I may also have children 
 by her." But of Leah it is said : 
 
 9 She took.Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife, and 
 it is not said : " And she shall bear upon my knees," that is, 
 that the maid shall have children ; but she wished that she 
 herself should have more children. Hence, when she saw that 
 Zilpah had a son, she was angry, and said : " I did not mean 
 to have children by the maid, but that I myself should have 
 children. Evidently God did not regard me, and this child 
 was born by mere Zuck,"'^ and hence she called him Gad, 
 which means Mazal, i.e. Liick. And when Leah had the sixth 
 son, she called him Zebulun, which means a Lodging, for 
 "because I had six children, my husband will therefore make 
 his lodgings with me." And because Leah had said that the 
 son of the maid came by Luck, and not from God, she was 
 punished by God, in giving her a bad daughter. Leah, how- 
 ever, said : " Blessed be the true Judge ! " and she called her 
 Dinah.2 
 
 10 And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a son. The reason 
 why it is not said she conceived is, because she was very young, 
 and it is not noticed that she was pregnant. Laban, the cheat, 
 gave her to Leah on her marriage with Jacob, in order to 
 deceive Jacob, by inferring from Zilpah's being in the tent that 
 Rachel and not Leah was with him.^ 
 
 1 hm, i.e. Luck, or astral influence. 
 
 2 nri, i.e. Judgment. It is customary to this day, wiien one hears bad 
 news, to say, nOSn \<^-\ 1113, i.e. Blessed be the true Judge ! 
 
 3 Vide chap. xxix. 23, ante. 
 
GENESIS XXX. 5-21. 187 
 
 14 And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found 
 mandrakes in the field} and brought them unto his mother. The 
 Ramban and the B'chai say : It was such an herb that it had 
 a beautiful scent, and excited man's desire, and also caused 
 (barren) women to have children if they put it into the bed. 
 Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I fr-ay thee, of thy son's 
 ma7idrakes, for she longed to have children. Leah became 
 cross. 
 
 15 And she said unto her. Is it a small matter that thou hast 
 taken my husband 1 and wilt tlwu now take away my son's man- 
 drakes also 1 And Rachel said. Therefore he shall lie with thee 
 to-night for thy son's mandrakes. " He was to be with me to- 
 night, but in payment for the mandrakes I yield him up to 
 thee." And because Rachel so contemptuously sold the 
 privilege of lying with the pious saint, she was not counted 
 worthy to lie with him in the cave of Machpelah. 
 
 16 And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah 
 went out to meet him, and said. Thou must come iji unto me ; 
 for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he 
 lay with her that night. And she had a son, whom she called 
 Issachar, that is to say, " God hath given me my hire, because 
 I have hired Jacob." And afterwards she yet bare another son, 
 whom she called Zebulun, which means Lodging, for " because 
 I have more children than all the wives, my husband will have 
 his lodgings with me." 
 
 2 1 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name 
 Dinah. The Chizkuni observes : It is therefore not said that 
 she conceived Dinah, because Dinah was the twin sister of 
 Zebulun. Another explanation is : Leah had conceived a 
 son, but she prayed that Rachel might have that son. God 
 heard that prayer, and turned tlie embryo into a female. 
 Therefore it is said, " She bare a daughter " — but she conceived 
 a -son — and she called her Dinah, which means judgment, 
 
 1 According to Jewish chronology, by Rabbi David Ganz, Reuben was 
 three, or at the most four, years old when he found the mandrakes. 
 
RABBHsnCAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 because Leah judged (and condemned) herself to have a 
 daughter. 
 
 2 2 And God remembered Rachel. He remembered her kind- 
 ness to Leah, in giving her the signs of recognition which Jacob 
 gave her; He remembered her tears; for, being childless, she 
 wept for fear that Jacob would divorce her in consequence and 
 Esau would take her. All this God remembered, and gave 
 her a son, and she said : 
 
 . 23 God hath taken away my reproach, what people used to 
 say, that Jacob would divorce me, and that Esau would take 
 me. Hence she called him Joseph, which means, " Taken 
 away." 
 
 Another explanation is : When a woman has a child she is 
 able to lay all the reproaches due to her, upon the child. Who 
 broke the glass ? The child ! Who ate up the figs ? The 
 child ! Thus all reproach is taken from her. 
 
 * * * * When Rachel had no children, people said 
 that Jacob gave her drugs to drink; hence,' when she had a 
 son, she said, " God hath taken away my reproach." 
 
 24 The Lord shall add to tne another son. Rashi remarks: 
 She prayed for no more than one other son, because she pro- 
 phetically saw that Jacob would have twelve sons, and as there 
 were already eleven born, and only one more wanting, she 
 prayed that that one might be of her. 
 
 25 And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, 
 Joseph was an accuser against Esau, and therefore Jacob was 
 no more afraid of Esau, and wished to return home. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac remarks : Joseph was more than all 
 his brethren an accuser against Esau, because he will be able, 
 in the day of judgment, to ask Esau, "Why hast thou done evil 
 against thy brother Jacob?" If he should answer: "Jacob 
 has done me evil, he took away my birthright and my bless- 
 ing ; " then Joseph will retort ; " My brothers have also done 
 me evil ; they sold me, and I did them good in return." The 
 rest of the brethren will not be able to ask Esau, in the day of 
 
GENESIS XXX. 21-31. 189 
 
 judgment, why he did evil to his brother, because they them- 
 selves did evil to their brother, and sold him into slavery. 
 
 26 Give me my wives and my childreji. Jacob said to 
 Laban, " I will not go away without thy permission; therefore, 
 give me niiy wives and my children and let me go home." 
 
 27 And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found 
 favour in thine eyes, tarry here ; for I have learned by experiefice 
 that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. For ere thou camest 
 I had no sons, and was obliged to send a daughter into the 
 field with the sheep j but after thou camest, I have begotten 
 sons. 
 
 The Chizkiini asks : Whence is it inferred that Laban had 
 no sons before ? Perhaps he had sons, but they were too 
 young, and therefore he was obliged to send his daughter. 
 Rabbi Israel answers : Had he had sons, though ever so young, 
 he would not have sent a daughter into the field, he would 
 have sent Bilhah or Zilpah ; but because he had no sons, and 
 his daughters would be his heirs, he sent a daughter, as she 
 would be sure to tend the sheep faithfully, being her interest 
 to do so ; and did not send Bilhah or Zilpah, because, being 
 the childreu of concubines, and disqualified from being heirs, 
 they would not be faithful in tending the flocks. 
 • 28 And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and / will give it ; 
 only remain here. The Toldoth Yitzkhac says ; Laban had 
 more daughters, and he proposed, " One female more shall be 
 thy wages,! Q^iy serve me." But Jacob replied, "I have no;iV 
 wives enough." • 
 
 30 The Ljjrd hath blessed thee since my coming. Jacob said 
 to Laban, " I have served thee honestly, and God blessed thee 
 for my sake." 
 
 31 And he said. What shall L give thee? And Jacob said. 
 Thou shall not give me anything, for my past service ; for my 
 past service was for the women. But if thou wilt retain me in 
 
 ' T13EJ' napJ. The verb which means "fix " or "appoint," by altering 
 its vowel points thus n3p^, means "female." 
 
'9° RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 thy service, thou must go with me through thy flock, and re- 
 move from thence all the speckled and spotted, and of such 
 shall in future be my hire ; and if thou find among my sheep, 
 or the goats, any that are not speckled or spotted, and brown 
 among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me. 
 
 35 And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked 
 and spotted The Ramban observes : That Laban was a great 
 cheat ; for Jacob stipulated with him to remove only the 
 speckled and spotted from the goats, and Laban did so also 
 from the he goats, and that even those which were spotted with 
 white or had a little white on their feet. 
 ■ 36 And he set three days' joicrney between himself and Jacob, 
 in order that the sheep remaining with Jacob should not be-, 
 come speckled and spotted. On account of this cunning trick, 
 Jacob the Righteous was obliged to do a little trick in re^ 
 turn.i 
 
 37-39 And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the 
 hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white st rakes in them, and 
 made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the 
 rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the 
 watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that- they should 
 conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before 
 the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled and 
 spotted. * * * * 
 
 40 And Jacob separated the lambs that were born spotted, 
 arjd set them before the sheep, that they should gaze upon 
 them and conceive spotted sheep. 
 
 41 The stronger cattle (females), which lust after the males, 
 Jacob operated upon with the pilled rods, that they might give 
 birth to strong cattle ; but — 
 
 42 When the cattle were feeble, he put them (the rods) not 
 in, so the feeble were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. 
 
 43 And he had much cattle. The blessing was with Jacob 
 and his sheep, more than with the other sheep (which were 
 
 ' FiiiSf chap. xxix. 12, ante. 
 
GENESIS XXX. si-XXXI. 8. 191 
 
 Laban's), and from his sheep he came to have many asses, and 
 camels, and menservants and maidservants. 
 
 Chapter XXXI. — 1-7 And Jacob heard the words of 
 Labatis sons, saying, "Jacob hath taken away all that was our 
 father's ; and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all his 
 glory." And God appeared unto Jacob, and said unto him : 
 " Go to thy land, and I will be with thee." And Jacob sent 
 . and called Rachel and Leah to the field, and said unto them, 
 " Ye know that with all my power I served your father, and he 
 deceived me ten times ; but God hath helped me." 
 
 8 If he said thus} The Ramban and the Toldoth Yitzkhac 
 ask : AVhy is this passage in the future and not in the past 
 tense } The answer is : Laban was a great cheat, and knew 
 whatever stipulations he might make with Jacob, God would 
 favour Jacob ; hence, before the sheep conceived he stipulated 
 that the spotted should be Jacob's wages, and he thought that 
 God, of course, for Jacob's sake will cause all to be spotted ; 
 but he calculated that when the sheep conceived, he would 
 then alter the stipulation, so that the spotted should belong 
 to him. But God knew what Laban's second thoughts would 
 be, and therefore the passage is in the future tense. " If he 
 shall say thus," that is to say : The sheep were just what 
 Laban had in his mind afterwards to say that they should be. 
 
 Jacob said to Laban : " Thou shalt not give me anything." ^ 
 " Thou shalt not give me a thing which is nothing, that is to 
 say, a thing that can be numbered, for there is no blessing in 
 it j but give me such a thing which cannot be counted, namely, 
 I will go through thy flock, arrd do thou remove from thence 
 all the speckled sheep, and those that shall be born speckled 
 shall be my hire." The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : That Jacob 
 spoke to Laban thus : " Thou wilt not give me that which thou 
 
 ' In the original it is: IDX' PID DX, in the future tense, i.e. " If he 
 will, or shall say thus." The past tense would be ION HS DN, /.«. "Ifhe 
 said thus." 
 
 ° Chap. XXX. 31, ante. 
 
192 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 wilt promise, therefore let me keep thy cattle, so that I will 
 have them in my own hand." 
 
 lo And saw in a dreamy and, behold, the rams which leaped 
 upon the sheep were speckled and spotted. Although Laban re- 
 moved all the speckled and spotted from the flock, that the 
 sheep should not give birth to. such, yet the angel brought 
 them back from the herd of Laban to the herd of Jacob. 
 
 11-13 And the angel of God spake unto me . . . and 
 said. Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rains which leap 
 upon the sheep are speckled and spotted, for I have seen all that 
 Laban doeth unto thee. L am the God of Bethel . . . now 
 arise and return to the land of thy nativity. The B'chai asks : 
 Why did the angel order Jacob to look how the rams leaped 
 on the sheep? The Gemara forbids to gaze on such occa- 
 sions.i The answer is : Because it was a dream. * * * * 
 
 14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is 
 there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father^ s house 1 
 He has sons. 
 
 15 And he hath quite devoured our money. He swallowed 
 our dowry even. But all that which God separated from our 
 father's property is ours ; therefore, that which God bids thee, 
 
 do. 
 
 1 7 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon 
 camels. His sons first, and afterwards his wives. The Chiz- 
 kuni asks : Why is it said in Exodus of Moses, that he took 
 first his wife and then his children,^ and .of Jacob the reverse 
 is said, first the children and then the wives .? The answer is : 
 The children of Moses were too young to ride alone, and 
 hence the mother had to be set on the ass first, and then she 
 received the children on her lap-, but the sons of Jacob were 
 big enough to ride by themselves on camels, and hence he set 
 iipon the camels, first his sons and his wives afterwards. 
 
 Another explanation, is : Because Jacob ran away from 
 Laban, and he feared if Laban pursued him, and overtook the 
 1 See Gen. ace. to the Tal, p. 57, 23- "'Exod. iv. 20. 
 
GENES/S XXXI. 8-24. 193 
 
 runaway party, he would kill those in the rear; and in the 
 hope that Laban would have more compassion on his 
 daughters than on his grandchildren, he left the women in the 
 rear; also, should Laban's retainers begin to kill, let them 
 rather kill the women. But Moses went towards the enemy, 
 for he had many enemies in Egj'pt, hence he placed the 
 women in front, that the enemy should first meet them.i 
 
 ig And Rachel had stolen the images that mere her father's, 
 in order to wean him from idolatry. So say Rashi and the 
 Chizkuni ; but the Toldoth Yitzkhac says : She stole the images 
 in order that they should not reveal that Jacob ran away, and 
 also that Laban should say that they were no gods, since they 
 allowed themselves to be stolen. 
 
 Rabbi Abraham writes : Rachel did not hide the images in 
 Laban's- house, bec'ause there were so many menservants and 
 maidservants, and- eleven children about, and she feared that 
 she would be observed. 
 
 22 And it was told Laban on the third day, that Jacob was 
 fled. Because Jacob was now at a distance of three days' 
 journey (Laban made an extra effort), 
 
 23 ^nd pursued after them seven days' journey ; for the mes- 
 sengers had to travel three days to report Jacob's flight, and 
 meanwhile Jacob travelled three days, and thus the distance 
 between them' was six days, and on the seventh day Laban 
 caught Jacob. ' From this we learn, that the journey which 
 Jacob travelled in seven days Laban travelled in one day. 
 
 The Chizkuni observes: Laban went quickly, as it is the 
 manner of robbers to travel quickly ; but Jacob, having much 
 wealth, many cattle, and a- large household, was obliged to 
 travel very slowly. 
 
 24 And God came to Laban in a dream by night, and said 
 unto him : Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or 
 
 ' The meaning of this is, that in time of danger women are to be exposed 
 first, and then children; for if one woman dies there are many. others to 
 be had, but one is not so sure of having more children. 
 
 • O 
 
'94 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 bad. Rashi observes : He was not to speak even good, for the 
 good of the wicked is evil to the righteous.^ Laban said unto 
 Jacob : 
 
 27 Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and didst not tell 
 nte, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with 
 songs, and with harp ? ■ 
 
 28 Why hast thou not suffered me to kiss my sons and my 
 daughters ? 
 
 2^ It is in the power of my hand to do you evil, hut the God 
 of your father spake unto me yesternight, that I Should do you 
 no evil. The Chizkuni says : Laban argued, " If God had to 
 warn me that I should' do you no evil, you can easily infer 
 that I have the power to do you harm." 
 
 30,32 Wherefore hast thou stolen my gvds ? And Jacob 
 answered . . . With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let 
 him not live. Rashi remarks : On account of his curse — ''Let 
 him not live " — Rachel died on the road ; ^ but Jacob did not 
 know that Rachel had stolen them. 
 
 33 And Laban went ifito Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, 
 and into the two maidservants' tents, but he found them not. 
 Then went lie out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent. 
 Laban first entered the tent of Jacob, which was the tent of 
 Rachel, for he principally made his abode with her, — hence 
 Laban searched her tent first ; afterwards he went into the 
 tents of Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah; but when he went -out of 
 the tent of Leah, he went once more into that of RacheJ, be- 
 cause he suspected her. He, however, found, nothing in any 
 of the tents. 
 
 34, 35 Rachel had- taken the images and hid them in the 
 camel's saddle and sat upon them . . . And she said unto 
 her father, I cannot rise before thee, for I have the time of im- 
 purity upon me. The Ramban asks : Is it then true that when 
 
 ' Yevamoth, fol. 103A. 
 
 2 The curse of a wise man comes to pass even when it is causeless. 
 Sankedrin, fol. 90B. 
 
GENESIS XXXI. 24-43. 195 
 
 a woman has her time of impurity that she cannot rise ? The 
 answer is : Women who, Hke Rachel, have no children, are 
 generally more weak than other women at such times, hence 
 she said, " I cannot rise before thee" because I am- weak. 
 
 The Ramban, and also the B'chai, write : As soon as Rachel 
 told her father that she was a Niddah, he left her; for in 
 ancient times they used to keep aloof from a Niddah, and did 
 not even speak with her. The Gemara says also : One should 
 not tread on her footsteps. ^ 
 
 36-39 And Jacob tvas wroth and quarrelled unth Laban, and 
 said tmto hi??i. What hast thou found of all thy househola 
 stuff 1 Twenty years have I served thee, fourte.en for thy two 
 daughters and six for thy sheep. Thy ewes .and thy goats 
 have not cast their young. That which was torn by a lion or 
 a wolf, I brought not unto thee, but I paid thee for it. 
 
 41 And thou hast changed my ivages ten times. I have 
 hired myself out for six years on the condition to receive the 
 speckled sheep. The first. year none of the kind were born. 
 Those born during the five years, twice a year, thou hast each 
 time, that is ten times, altered the stipulations and my wages. 
 
 The Ramban asks : Jacob himself having ordered that search 
 should be made, why was he then afterwards angry about it ? 
 The answer is : Jacob thought that perhaps one of his sons, or 
 one of his wives, might have taken the images ; but as soon as 
 he saw that nothing was found, he became angry with Laban, 
 and said unto him : " Thou camest to bring a false accusa- 
 tion .'" But Laban said : 
 
 43 These daughters are my daughters, and these sons are my 
 sons. The B'chai, on behalf of our Rabbi Channanel, says : 
 Laban told a lie when he said, " These sons are my sons ; " for 
 our sages say that only the grandchildren of a son are the 
 grandfather's, but not the grandchildren of a daughter. Also 
 when he said, " These cattle are my cattle" did Laban tell a 
 lie ; for Jacob honestly gained them. 
 
 I canpot find this passage in the Gemara. 
 
'96 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 45 And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. 
 
 48 And Laban said, This heap is a- witness between us, that 
 one should not injure the other. 
 
 Chapter XXXII. — i, 2 And the angels of God met him, and 
 Jacob called the name of that place, Mahanaim, which- means a 
 duahty of hosts, for he saw there two hosts of angels, — the 
 angels of the outside land, which escorted him to the frontiers 
 of the Holy Land; and the angels of the "Land of Israel, who 
 came to accompany him in the Land of Israel. 
 
 End of the Seventh Section. 
 
 3 And- Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother. 
 The B'chai says : These messengers ^ were real angels, for it 
 Is said (ver.' 6), "And the messengers returned," and it is not 
 said how they went to Esau ; for because they were angels, and 
 flew unto Esau, they soon returned to Jacob. 
 
 iRabbi Israel says : From this we know that they were real 
 angels, for it is said : . . 
 
 4 Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau. And why did Jacob 
 show him such respect in his absence, but because the Prince oj 
 Esau^ was also 'amongst the angels, and he therefore called 
 him ".lord," for fear lest the Prince might do him an injury.? 
 
 / have sojourned with Laban. He sent to say to Esau : 
 " Thou hast no cause to hate me, for the blessings of my father 
 were not fulfilled; he blessed me to be '« lord,' but ' I have 
 sojourned with Laban' as a slave and not as a lord." 
 
 The reason why he said " L have sojourned,"^ is because 
 " I have sojourned" (in the original) has the numerical value 
 of 613. Jacob thus intimated to Esau: "Do not think that 
 
 1 D'DN^D, Malachim, means angels, or human messengers. 
 
 ^ All the nations have their respective angels in heaven, which are called 
 Princes. Esau, a nation by anticipation at the time alluded to in the 
 text, had his angel, a real angel. Compare Dan. x. 20, 21. 
 ■ ' 'n"lJ = 6l3. See List of Numerals, p. xii. 
 
GENESIS XXXI. s.'i-XXXn. 6. 197 
 
 because ' I sojourned ivith Laban,' I have not kept the Law, 
 ■ and thou wilt consequently vanquish me, because my father 
 said: ' If Jacob does not keep the Torah, thou shalt have 
 dominion over him,' 1 — I therefore tell thee that I have kept 
 all the 613 Precepts." ^ 
 
 5 And I have oxen and asses, and sheep, and menservants, 
 and maidservants, and the blessing of my father, " The dew: 
 of heaven, and the fatness of the earth," is by no means ful- 
 filled in me, for what I have is neither from heaven nor of 
 the earth. 
 
 The B'chai observes ; Jacob first mentions oxen and asses, 
 and last he mentions sheep ; whereas of Abraham and Isaac 
 sheep are mentioned first, because sheep 'are the best (most 
 profitable) cattle. The explanation is this : Jacob did not 
 like to mention sheep first to Esau, because by means of the 
 sheep skins, which disguised his neck and arms, he obtained 
 by deception the blessing of Isaac, and therefore he did not 
 mention them first. Hence when Esau had made peace with 
 him, Jacob subsequently mentions first sheep, and then oxen 
 and asses. 
 
 The Midrash says : Jacob therefore mentions oxen, in order 
 to give Esau a hint that Joseph, who is called bullock, ^ is an 
 accuser unto him, thus showing Esau that he is not afraid of 
 him, because he has Joseph for his help. 
 
 6 We came to thy brother, Esau. Rashi says : The angels 
 said unto Jacob, " Thou hast said that he is thy brother ; but 
 he is Esau, he is still persevering in his hatred." 
 
 And also he cometh to meet thee, and wage war against thee. 
 The B'chai says : The term " and also " means that also the 
 
 ^ Vide xxviii. 40, an^e. 
 
 2 Among the seven things that were created before the world, was the 
 Law, which consists of 613 Precepts, which, long before they were given on 
 Mount Sinai, were kept by Jacob, but not by Esau. Comp. Ps. cxlvii. 
 19, 20. 
 
 ' Deut. xxxiii. 17. 
 
^9^ RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 angel of Esau went with him to assist him against Jacob, and 
 ■four hundred men were with him. 
 
 7 The7i Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He was 
 afraid lest they should kill him, and was distressed lest he 
 himself should kill another, i So says Rashi ; but the B'chai 
 and the Chizkuni say — 
 
 And Jacob was greatly afraid of Esau and distressed, on 
 
 . account of the Prince of Esau. Although Jacob had angels 
 
 with him, yet he was afraid, because of the angels, were 
 
 Michael on the one hand, and Sammael, the Prince of Esau, 
 
 on the other, and Sammael he greatly feared. ^ 
 
 The Eben Shoab and the Toldoth Yitzkhac say : Jacob was 
 greatly afraid, lest they should kill him ; and distressed, for he 
 mferred that his father was dead, for Esau had said, after the 
 mourning for my father I will kill my brother ; ^ and he felt 
 distressed because he had not honoured his father. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks : Why is it said, Jacob greatly 
 feared, and why is it not said also, greatly distressed ? The 
 answer is : Had he had to kill another, it would have been no 
 sin, as the Gemara says: " Anticipate him who seeks to slay 
 thee." He greatly feared to be killed, but was distressed not 
 greatly, to kill others. 
 
 8 Then the other company which is left shall escape. Jacob 
 divided his people into two companies, and said, "If Esau 
 comes upon one company and slaughters it, his people will 
 then be too tired to attack the second company, which \vill be 
 fresh to defend itself against them." So writes the Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac. 
 
 • On the principle wliich is quite proverbial among tiie Jews, "IJin? X2n 
 XTifh DDCn, i.e. anticipate him who seel<s to Icill thee. Fi&xxvii. 45, 
 ante. . 
 
 = A word or two about Samiilael, 7NDD, the patron and Prince of Esau. 
 He is believed to be the n''3t3ti'n '?3 U'SI, the chieftain of all the devils. 
 We shall meet with this Prince of darkness again. See p. 132, ante. 
 
 ' Chap, xxvii. 41. 
 
GENESIS XXX 11. 6-n. 199 
 
 From this section we learn the same thing which the Gemara 
 teaches, viz. A man should divide his capital into three parts, 
 and' invest one third in land, one third in merchandise, and 
 reserve one third in ready money ; ^ for if he loses in one thing 
 or in another, he has still something to fall back- upon. We 
 also infer the following: "The Lord shall command the 
 blessing upon thee in thy storehouses," that means merchan- 
 dise ; " and in all that thou settest thine hand unto," that 
 means ready cash in hand ; "and he shall bless thee in the 
 land," ^ means the field. 
 
 Then the other company which is left shall escape. This text 
 also teaches us : When one wicked prince banishes Israel, 
 God sends a good prince after it to do them good, in order 
 that Israel should be " left" in the world. 
 
 10 T am not worthy of the least of all Thy mercies; that is 
 to say, I have already received much good from God, so that 
 I am not worthy to receive more mercy ; even when God 
 promised to do me good, I fear lest I have committed many 
 transgressions. 
 
 For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, when I fled 
 from before Esau, and now I am become two companies. The 
 Midrash writes : The meaning of '■'■With my staff I passed over 
 this Jordan," is, tha.t ]a.coh hud with his staff divided Jordan, 
 and crossed over it dryshod. 
 
 The B'chai remarks : From this (text) we learn that a man 
 in his prosperity should remember his adversity of former days 
 long gone by, in order that he should praise God who helped 
 him out of it. 
 
 1 1 Zest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the 
 children. Jacob said : " For my own personal self I am not 
 afraid, for God has promised me that He would preserve me 
 from all evil ; but when Esau slays my children, how will the 
 blessing be fulfilled which thou (O God) hast promised me : 
 ' T will make thy seed as the sand of the sea ' " ? 
 
 ' Tal. Misc., p. 60, 42. - Deuf. xxviii. 8. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 14 And he took of that which came to his hand a present fi 
 Esau his brother. He took what a man can carry in his han( 
 namely, precious stones. 
 
 The B'chai and the Toldoth Yitzkhac say : He (Jacob) ser 
 him a bird called Sperber (probably a falcon or hawk), whic 
 princes carry on their hands for purposes of the chase, bi 
 cause Esau used to hunt. 
 
 14 Tivo hundred she goats, and twenty he goats. The B'chi 
 writes: He placed goats first, because they always go fir; 
 before all other cattle, and also because they have more male 
 than other cattle ; afterwards he says camels, because they ar 
 better than all cattle ; then he mentions clean cattle, and lastl 
 unclean cattle * * * * 
 
 Another explanation is-: Jacob would not mention to Esa 
 the goats first, in order not to excite his hatred for havin 
 taken away the blessing by means of the kids' skins ; but nov\ 
 after he had prayed, he said, "I have no fear for thee! 
 Hence he placed the goats first, to show that the kids were thi 
 means by which, said he, " I took the blessing to be thy lord 
 and thou shalt be my servant." Lastly he sent asses and foals 
 to show that in the end the Messiah (Christ) will come, 
 whom it is said : " Poor, and riding upon an ass, and upoi 
 a colt, the foal of an ass." 1 By this Jacob showed Esau wha 
 will come to pass respecting Israel. The presents numberec 
 five hundred and fifty, which shows that the kingdom of Esai 
 is to commence five hundred and fifty years before the king 
 dora of Israel. 
 
 The Baal Hatturim writes : All the words in the verse, 
 " Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, 
 and twenty rams',' end (in the original) with the letter Mem;- 
 
 1 Zeeh. ix. 9. 
 
 2 All the Hebrew words in ver. 14 end with the letter Mem. D'l! 
 : nnB'j; D'^''N1 DTISO D'''?n-1 nna-V D'-tJ'^ni DTISD. The Hebrew wor( 
 for spot, blemish or defect is, DID Mum, which resembles the sound of th 
 letter Mem D, and thus it is proved that all the cattle Jacob sent to Esa 
 
G£.VES/S XXXTT. 14-20 
 
 to show that all the cattle which Jacob sent were defective and 
 not fit for offering. 
 
 Rashi writes : Jacob gave one male for ten she goats, one 
 male for ten sheep, but only four cows for one bullock and 
 two females for one ass ; because goats and sheep do not work 
 at all, oxen labour hard, and asses travel far. 
 
 Camels were thirty in number, but in consideration of- their 
 natural modesty the text is silent as to the proportion of their 
 females to one male. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac remarks : God did not appear to 
 Esau, as he did to Laban, to warn him against doing Jacob 
 any evil; because God wished Israel to fear (the rod),i and be 
 pious. For the same reason Jacob did not pray when Laban 
 pursued him as he prayed when about to meet Esau, because 
 Laban was angry only for a time, but Esau is a constant enemy 
 of Jacob} 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac says : God made the angels forsake 
 •Jacob, and they did not watch over him that Esau should do 
 him no evil, in order to show that the righteous are greater than 
 the angels,^ and thus we find Jacob wrestled with an angel and 
 prevailed, and had power over the angel.* 
 
 16-18 Put a space betwixt drove and drove, in order that 
 Esau should think that there was much cattle. And he told his 
 servants, ■" When Esau meets you, and asks whose these cattle 
 are, ye shall say : From thy servant Jacob is this present sent 
 unto my lord Esau, and Jacob comes behind us. Should Esau 
 ask, 'Why he did not come at once to meet me,' say ye, he 
 thought — 
 
 20 / will appease Jiim with the present that goes before me, 
 and will come afterwards." The B'chai writes : Jacob prayed to 
 
 were defective. Nothing in connection with Esau can be without some 
 Mum, some flaw, spot, blemish, or defect, and simply because he is Esau, 
 the wicked Esau ! ' Comp. Isa. x. 5. 
 
 ' I Cor. vi. 3. <* Hos. xii. 4. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTAR V. 
 
 God, "■ and put a space!'" i.e. When troubles come upon 
 Israel, that there may be a wide space between one trouble 
 and another. 
 
 21 And himself lodged that night in the company. Not in a 
 tent, in order to be ready should Esau make a night. attack. 
 
 2 2 And he took his two wives, and his two womenservants, 
 and his eleven sons. The Chizkuni writes : He therefore placed 
 the women before the children, in order that when Esau came 
 to meet him, and to kill, he should kill the women rather than 
 the children. When he fled from Laban he placed the women 
 behind, for the same reason. 
 
 Rabbi Israel writes : The women went before, because 
 when the brook Jabbok was divided, the children were afraid 
 to proceed, as we find when the Red Sea was divided, the 
 children of Israel were afraid to proceed, till Nahshon the son 
 of Amminadab went in first,i and God greatly rewarded him 
 for it. 
 
 Rashi asks : Why are mentioned the eleven sons only, and 
 where was Dinah ? The answer is : Jacob hid her in a box, 
 that Esau should not see her and ask to marry her. But God 
 punished Jacob for it, for she was dishonoured by Shechem ; 
 had he given her to Esau she might have made him pious. 
 
 And he passed over the ford Jabhok. Jacob alone first 
 passed over the ford, to ascertain its depth, and after having 
 done so, he led his household over. 
 
 And Jacob was left alone, for he returned to fetch some 
 small jugs which he had forgotten on the other side, and 
 thus he was left alone. From this we learn that the righteous 
 value very much their money,^ because they do not rob others ; 
 
 ' In the Talmud we are told : When Israel stood by the Red Sea, the 
 tribes were contending with each other as to which should first enter into 
 it, when the tribe of Benjamin leaped into the sea before all. Soteh, 
 
 ^°^! The version of this text runs thus in the Talmud •.-DV^^li'? 1^30 
 DS1JD inV D31DD Dn»'?y a^anB', U. From this we learn that the 
 
GENESIS XXXII. 20-28. 203 
 
 for on account of small jugs, Jacob returned ; and because he 
 was left alone, an angel wrestled with him till a dust arose from 
 the earth (and reached the throne of glory).i He wrestled 
 with him till the morning star arose. The angel was the 
 Prince of Esau,^ who sought ever to find a sin in Jacob in 
 order that he should by this means be able to prevail over him. 
 
 And when he. saw that he prevailed not against /;/;«— because 
 he found no sin in him^/^« touched the hollow of his thigh ; 
 that is to say, on account of the sin of his having married two 
 sisters ; thus he prevailed somewhat against him. 
 
 The Baal Hatturim writes : When the angel saw that he 
 could not prevail against him he thought that he (Jacob) must 
 be an angel, and he touched him on the thigh. 
 
 26 And he said. Let me go. For because he was sent by 
 God to Jacob, he would not leave Jacob without his permission. 
 
 For the morning star arose? " What ! " said Jacob, "art thou 
 then a thief, that thou art afraid of the day ? " But the angel 
 replied, " At the rising of the morning star it is my first turn 
 since my creation to sing ' The Song ' (the Sheerah) * before 
 God." And Jacob said : 
 
 I will not let thee go except thou bless me ; that is to say, except 
 thou confirmest the blessings which my father bestowed upon 
 me. And the angel said : — 
 
 28 Thy name shall be called 710 more Jacob, but Israel. _ Israel 
 shall be thy name, because thou hast ruled as a prince with Esau, 
 with Laban, and with angels. Thou shalt be called no more 
 
 Mammon of the. Righteous is more beloved unto them than their own 
 bodies. Chullm, fol. 91A. 
 
 1 Ibid. 1133n XD3 by. 
 
 ^ There are seventy nations of the world represented by seventy princes, 
 of whom Esau {i.e. Edom or Rome) was one, and each prince has a repre- 
 sentative angel, the one referred to in the text being Esau's. 
 
 •'' A.V. " For the day breaketh." 
 
 ^ Every devout Jew daily repeats the m^E', " The Song," as contained 
 in Exod. v. 1-19. The angels in heaven have to repeat daily their song, 
 but as here stated, not by all, but it would seem by turns of different hosts. 
 
204 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 Jacob, which means " False;' that is to say, thou hast taken 
 the blessing by falsehood; but Israel shalt- thou be called, 
 which showeth that thou hast taken the blessings with princely 
 power ! 
 
 The angel confirmed the blessings, and hence it is said : 
 " Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob," i that is to say, that 
 which Jacob did to Esau and Laban, was all with truth and 
 without deception. 2 
 
 The Midrash says : The likeness of Jacob was engraved 
 on the Throne of Glory. " As a prince hast thou power with 
 God," for thy likeness is on the Throne of Glory. 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : The angel said unto Jacob, " Thou 
 hast no need to fear me," '■'■for the morning star arose" and 
 the (heavenly) princes and angels have no power with men at 
 daytime. On this, 
 
 29 Jacob said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And the 
 angel answered. Why askest thou my name ? An angel has no 
 fixed name, but is named after his errand. 
 
 The B'chai writes : The angel said, " We do not tell our 
 names, we do not wish to make ourselves respected as though 
 we do things of ourselves, we only perform God's command." 
 
 Some say : The angel said, " Ask me not my name ; for be- 
 cause I could not prevail against thee, it would be my disgrace 
 that it should be known who I am." 
 
 The Chizkflni writes : The angel said, " Thou needest not 
 know my name, 'thou hast prevailed' (and that is enough for 
 thee to know)." 
 
 31 The sun rose upon him. Rashi asks : Did then the sun 
 rise upon Jacob and not upon the whole world ? The answer 
 is : For the sake of Jacob the sun rose before the time, in 
 order that he should be healed ' of his lameness. We find the 
 same when Jacob came out of Beersheba, the sun set before 
 the time, for his sake.'' 
 
 ' Micah vii. 20. ° Vide Isa. v. 20, 21. 
 
 ■' F?*Mal. iv. 2. " Vide icf-Ym-Wy ante. 
 
GENESIS XXXII. 2Z-XXXIII. 7. 205 
 
 ■ 32 Therefore, let the children of Israel not eat the hinder part 
 of cattle till they extract the sinews. (A.V. " Therefore the 
 children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank.") This 
 is because the angel touched the sinew which shrank.^ 
 
 The Chizkuni says : The Israelites are condemned not to 
 eat the hind quarter, because they (Jacob's sons) had X^it Jacob 
 alone in the field, and he was consequently smitten in the 
 thigh. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac says : The angel caused Jacob to halt 
 or limp, thus to oblige him to bow down to Esau, for a limping 
 man seems to bow down, hence it is said : " And bottled himself 
 to the ground smen times" 
 
 Chapter XXXIII. — 2 And he put the handmaids, and their 
 children foremost. He placed Bilhah and her children fore- 
 most, then followed Zilpah and her children, afterwards came 
 Leah and her children, and at the very last he placed Rachel 
 and Joseph, because, he greatly .loved Rachel. 
 
 3 And he passed over before them. Before them all, for he 
 thought, let Esau first fight with me. 
 
 4 And Esau ran to meet 'him, and embraced him, and fell on 
 his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 
 
 6 Then the handmaidens came near, they and . their children, 
 and they bowed themselves. 
 
 1 And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed 
 themselves ; aiid after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they 
 bowed themselves. Rashi writes: Of all, the mothers are men- 
 tioned before their respective children ; but of Rachel, Joseph . 
 is mentioned before her, because she was very pretty, and 
 Joseph placed himself before her, that Esau the wicked should 
 not see her. EsaU then asked Jacob : 
 
 ' To this day the hind quarters of a clean quadruped is forbidden food 
 to the Jews, unless the objectionable sinews are first extracted. This 
 operation is called porging, and is an art which requires much study, and 
 is not to be practised by any Jew without a special licence from the chief 
 'Rabbi. See To/. Afij^., p. 84, 16. 
 
o6 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 8 Who is all this troop which I met ? Rashi writes : Esau 
 ad met many companies of angels, who had beaten his fol- 
 )wers, and asked them " whose are ye ? " They replied, 
 
 Esau's." The angels then continued to beat them. They 
 len said, " But he is the son of Isaac, and Abraham's grand- ■ 
 3n." The angels still continued beating them. When they 
 aid, " He is Jacob's brother," the angels left off beating them, 
 nd said, " Ye are of our people." 
 
 J Let it he thine what is thine. Here Esau approved of the 
 lessing (to be the property of Jacob) ; and here Jacob was 
 lessed by Isaac, by the angel, and by Esau- (as well). 
 
 10 And Jacob said . . . Receive my present, for because 
 have seen' thy face it is as though I had seen thine angel. 
 
 'he reason why Jacob mentioned unto Esau that he had seen 
 is angel, was to inspire him with fear, and with the thought : 
 f he was delivered from my angel, I can do nothing unto him.' 
 
 1 1 And he urged him, and he took it. And Esau said, " I 
 ill do thee a good service, and will go with thee "; but Jacob 
 lid, "Thou knowest that I cannot go at thy pace." 
 
 13 For the children are tender and small, and the sheep are 
 oung. The B'chai says : It is stated in the Midrash, that Esau 
 lid to Jacob : " Let us divide between us this world and the 
 orld to come." Jacob replied: "My '■ children are tender,^ and 
 eak in the (performance of the) precepts, and if they are to 
 ave this world also, then they will not be able to endure the 
 a,ins of hell (in the next world)." Hence — 
 
 14 Let my lord, L pray thee, pass over befo?-e his servant ; that 
 to say. Take for thyself the share of this world ; and L will 
 
 ad 'on softly, I will go with my children into captivity, until 
 come tmto my lord unto Seir ; that is, when Messiah will 
 
 Dme, as it is stated in Scripture : " And saviours shall come 
 
 p on Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau; -and the 
 
 ingdom shall be the Lord's." 1 
 \(i So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir. He 
 > Obad. 21. ■ . ■ . 
 
GENESIS XXXIII. S-XXXIV. i. 207 
 
 returned alotu ; his four hundred men separated from him, 
 and God gave them their reward (for so doing). When David 
 killed the people of Edom, God delivered four hundred of 
 them.i 
 
 1 8 And Jacob came intact to the city Shechem. Entire, with 
 the knowledge of the Law, not having forgotten anything in 
 the house of Laban (where he had not much time for study) ; 
 entire, with his money, for the amount of the presents given to 
 Esau was restored to him ; afid entire in his body, that he be- 
 came cured of the lameness which the angel had caused him. 
 
 19 And he bought a parcel of a field at Shechem, and on it he 
 built an altar unto God. 
 
 Chapter XXXIV. — i Aiid Dinah the daughter of Leah 
 went out."^ Rashi writes : ScrvptxiXQ sa.y% The daughter of Leah, 
 and not the daughter of Jacob, to show that Dinah was a goer 
 out, as her mother Leah, for Leah luejit out to meet Jacob, and 
 said unto him, " Thou must come in unto me, for surely I 
 have hired thee with my son's mandrakes ; " ^ and Dinah went 
 oiit to see the daughters of the land, and Shechem the son of 
 Hamor took her by force (without hire). 
 
 The B'chai says : Jacob was punished, because he hid 
 Dinah in a box, that Esau should not take her for a wife ; but 
 God said unto Jacob, " Thou didst not wish to give her to 
 Esau, who was circumcised', one shall be with her who is not 
 circumcised, and this was Shechem the son of Hamor." 
 
 It is said in a Midrash : * If a woman sits at home, she 
 atones for the sins of her whole household quite as much as _ 
 the altar atoned for the sins of the whole world ; as Scripture 
 says: "Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of 
 
 ' Vide I Sam. xxx. 17. 
 
 ^ Jewish chronology states that Dinah was then nine or ten years old, 
 and her brothers Simeon and Levi were at the most thirteen and fourteen. 
 
 ^ Chap. xxx. 16. ' 
 
 In Jewish, literature we often meet with the phrase, "It is said in a 
 Midrash," without giving the title, fol. or col. 
 
2o8 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 thine house." i As a vine that grows in the house and the 
 branches thereof extend out of the house, so shall thy wife be 
 always in the house, and her children shall extend over the 
 world to study the Torah (the Law). " Thy children shall be 
 Uke olive plants " ; that is to say, all trees but the olive tree 
 receive the ingrafting of other branches, so shall thy wife be 
 modest, and shall not unite herself to another husband ; thus 
 shall she be worthy that her children shall be anointed with 
 holy oil. * * * * 
 
 Therefore Scripture likens children to olives, for as olives 
 are at first bitter, and in the end sweet, thus likewise to bring, 
 up children is very bitter, but, when they grow up, and turn 
 out well, they are very sweet. 
 
 6 And Hamor the father of : Shechem went out unto Jacob to 
 commune with him. The Midrash writes : Hamor told him, 
 "Thy grandfather Abraham was a prince, and I too am a 
 prince." 
 
 3 And his soul clave unto Dinah. Shechem attached him- 
 self unto Dinah. The B'chai says : Shechem suggested to her, 
 i' Thy father has no fields, and if thou marry me thou wilt 
 have many fields." 
 
 7 And the sons of Jacob came out of the field. The Chizkuni 
 writes : As soon as the sons of Jacob learnt that their sister 
 was defiled, they at once came from, the field and lamented 
 that so great a disgrace should befal the daughter of Jacob ; 
 for at that time even idolaters had not done such a wicked 
 :hing, and especially to such a worthy man as Jacob. 
 
 And Hamor came to Jacob and his sons, and said unto 
 :hem, " Give your daughter to ray son for a wife, and as much 
 noney as you wish for a marriage-settlement I will give." 
 
 13 And the sons of Jacob atiswered Shechem and Hamor his 
 "ather deceitfully. For great shame Jacob himself could not ' 
 mswer, and therefore were his children obliged to answer. 
 The sons of Jacob thought to themselves : We may deceive 
 
GENESIS XXXIV. 1-25. 209 
 
 them, because they defiled our sister. They proposed to them 
 that the whole population of the city should submit to circum- 
 cision as a first condition, intending to kill them should they 
 not submit to the condition ; and should they submit to it, 
 they intended to come upon them on the third day after cir- 
 cumcision, when they would be particularly weak, and slay 
 them. So writes the Chizkuni and also the B'chai. And the 
 children of Jacob said : 
 
 1 6 Then luill loe give our daughters tmto you, and ive will 
 take your daugliters to us. Rashi writes: The sons of Jacob 
 spoke to Shechem and Hamor thus: "We will give our 
 daughters to you, but such only as we choose to give ; and 
 your daughters we will take, but such only as we choose. The 
 choice should belong to us." But when Shechem and Hamor 
 'came to persuade the citizens about circumcision, they reported 
 the reverse of this, and said : 
 
 2 1 Let us taJie tiieir daughters to ics for wives, such as we 
 wish to take, and give tliem our daughters, such as we wish to 
 give; with us shall be the option, only let us circumcise. 
 
 24 A7id every male was circumcised ; all that went out of 
 tJie gate of his city. The Chizkuni observes : Here it is said, 
 "All that-Kwz/ out of the gate of his city,", and of Sarah it is 
 said, " All that went in at the . gate of his city " ; ^ .because 
 Shechem forced all that went out to be circumcised against 
 their will, but of Sarah all came in willingly to show kindness . 
 towards Sarah. 
 
 25 And it came to pass on the tJiird day, wlien tliey were 
 weak, Simeon and Lai" took tiieir swords', and- safely came 
 upon the city, and slew them, and they took away their goods 
 and their money, and their sister, and went away. 
 
 The Chizkuni says : They killed them, because they heard 
 that they had repented being- circumcised, and also because 
 
 ' Chap. x.\iii. 10, anU. 
 
 • Who were only thirteen or fourteen years old. Vide Note to ver. 1, 
 ante. 
 
 P 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY- 
 
 shechem and Hamor made a false statement to the citizens, 
 md reversed the condition, as we -have above stated, and 
 Shechem and Hamor told them that all the money and goods 
 of the children of Jacob would belong to them. There- 
 fore they killed them, and relied on the meats of Jacob (to 
 save them from the consequences of their crime). . The 
 B'chai writes : They therefore came upon them on the third 
 day, because everything that is third is weak. Tuesday, the 
 third day of the week, is weak for (sick) people. Our sages 
 aave therefore ordained that the national delegates in the 
 Temple should not fast on Sundays, because Sunday is the 
 :hird day after the creation of man,i for Adam was created on 
 Friday, Sunday being the third day after his. creation, and man 
 :herefore is weak on that day. And therefore also do we smell 
 spices at the end of the Sabbath when the Sunday begins, in 
 3rder to refresh the soul with a good smell. 
 
 The Raniban asks with reference to Rashi's saying, that at 
 that time the idolaters-did not follow whoredoms : Is it not said 
 ibout the Canaanites : " For all these abominations have the ' 
 lien of the land done"?? The Toldoth Yitzkhac ^replies 
 ;hus : In Jacob's time the idolaters were' pious, because it 
 ivas not very long after the Deluge, which was brought on in 
 consequence of whoredom ; but in the. time of Moses, long 
 after the Deluge; and. the cause of it forgotten, they did follow 
 whoredoms. SRouldest thou ask : . If the idolaters of the time 
 ivere pious, why then were Abraham and Isaac so much afraid 
 that their wives would be taken away from them? The answer 
 is this : Such beauties as Sarah and Rebekah were not to be 
 round in all the world, so that kings lusted after them. • 
 
 30, 31 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ye have' troubled 
 me to wake me contemptible among the i7ihahitanis of the land 
 
 ' Vide Treasures of the Tabu., p. 130, Note, where one of the reasons 
 'or not fasting on Sundays is D^li'lJil 'JSD, ;.(?. "because Christians make 
 :heir festival on that day. 
 . ^ Lev. xvii. 27. 
 
GENESIS XXXIV. z^-XXXy. 5. 
 
 .- . -. and. they shall gather themselves together against me, 
 and slay me. . . . And they said. Should it be dealt with 
 our sister as with an harlot ? The B'chai writes : The law- 
 fulness ^ of the children of Jacob slaying the whole city, of 
 Shechem was, because the' inhabitants practised whoredoms 
 and robbery more than the whole world ; also because it was 
 reported, that as soon as they were healed from the circum- 
 cision they would slay all the household of Jacob. Hence 
 Simeon and Levi slew the whole city.^ 
 
 Chapter XXXV. — i Arid God said unto Jacob, Arise, go 
 lip to Bethel. Rashi says : It is therefore said, " Arise," which 
 means (in the original) stand 7ip, because God told him, " Thou 
 hast delayed fulfilling thy vow to bring a Corban (an offering), 
 and therefore hast thou been punished by Dinah being taken 
 by Shechem. Now, get up, and go to Bethel^ and bring thy 
 Corban." 
 
 The Chizkuni asks : Rashi stated before, that Jacob was 
 punished because he would not give Dinah to Esau in order 
 that she should make him pious, and now he states that he 
 was punished becaiise he delayed to bring his Corban ; how is 
 that? The reply is: Both these things caused him to be 
 punished. 
 
 2 Then Jacob said_ to his childreii. . . . Put aioay the 
 strange g^ds that are among you, for we must go to offer 
 sacrifices, and it must not be said that we sacrifice to strange 
 gods. 
 
 - And change your garments ; that is to say, put off the 
 garments of idolaters. 
 
 4 And Jacob ]iid the strange gods under the oak, as he could 
 not cast them into the sea, for he was far from it. 
 
 5 And the terror of God was upon the cities that ivere round 
 about them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. ' The 
 Toldoth Yitzkhac says: The cities round about were angry 
 with the Shechemites because they circumcised themselves and 
 
 1 IR'n. ^ See note to Chap, xxvii. 45. 
 
RABBINIC A L COMMENTA R V. 
 
 came Jews, and had cast away their god ; hence they did 
 t pursue after the sons of Jacob, find therefore it is said "t/ie 
 ■ror of God," that is, the anxiety about their gods, was upon 
 em. 
 
 8 Deborah RehekaNs nurse died. Rashi asks : How does 
 sborah come to be in Jacob's house? The answer is: 
 ;bekah sent her to L'aban to fetch Jacob home, and she died 
 L the road, and he buried her. At the very time of her burial 
 : learned that his mother Rebekah had died. 
 In a Midrash it is stated : When Rebekah died, people said, 
 A.braham is dead, and Isaac is blind, and Jacob is away in ' 
 idan-Aram, who then can bury her but Esau ? and (in that 
 ,se) she will be cursed in having had such a bad- son," and 
 erefore they buried her at night; and hence Scripture is 
 ent about her death; and hence, also, Jacob called the 
 ace Allon-bachuth, which means, " tivo laeepings " (two occa- 
 Dns for Weeping) : (i) he wept, because (on that spot) he 
 ;ard of his mother's death ; and (2) he wept, because she was ■ 
 iried without honour (and at night). 
 
 It is asked : What advantage is there in the silence about her 
 ;ath ; if it were thought that she' were alive would she not be 
 irsed that she had such a bad son ? The answer is : It is 
 -id: " T/toii shalt not curse the deaf;"^ one that does not 
 2ar, but not one that is dead : hence Scripture is silent, and. 
 DCS not mention that' Rebekah is dead. 
 
 9, 10 And God bkssed fiit'n, and condoled with him in his 
 ourning, and said, "Thy name shall not be called Jacob, 
 hich means Falsehood, that thou hast taken, the blessings with 
 Isehood but* /«-««/ shall be thyname, which means a Prince." 
 he B'chai and the Chizkflni say: Thy name shall not be 
 icob only, but at tirhes thou shalt also be called Israel ; thou 
 lalt tave both names. 
 
 16, 17 And Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour, and 
 ■e midwife said unto her, Fear not, thou shalt have a son. 
 ' Lev. x'lx. 14. 
 
GENESIS XXXV. 5-22. 213 
 
 Our sages say : With each son of Jacob was born a female, 
 but with Benjamin was born two females. 
 
 The Midrash Rabbah tells a story about two disciples of 
 Rabbi Jehoshua, who disguised themselves in Gentile clothes 
 that they. should not be recognised as Jews, because there was 
 an edict to kill such Jews as refused to worship idols. An 
 official found them and thus addressed them : " I know that ye 
 are Jews ; why do ye disguise yourselves ? why do ye not 
 rather give yourselves up for God's sake ? " They replied : " It 
 is not lawful to kill oneself, hence we do what we can to save 
 ourselves, perhaps they may not recognise us." The official 
 replied : " Well, I will ask you something out of your Torah ; if 
 ye can reply to it, then I will do you no harm. The text of 
 Scripture says : When Rachel was in hard labour her midwife 
 told her. Fear not, thou shalt have a son. What relief.was it 
 to her in her distress whether she would have a son or not ? " 
 The disciples replied : "A midwife ought to speak kind words 
 to a woman in hard labour in order to cheer her, which would 
 refresh her body in pain." 1 
 
 And Jacob buried Rachel in the way to Ephrath, which was 
 only about an acre apart from that place. He wished, to 
 bring her into the town, but because she died in confine- 
 ment she was not fit to be brought in. Hence he buried her 
 on the road, and — 
 
 20 Jacob- set a pillar iipoiv her grave. The B'chai says : It 
 is an honour for women to be buried on the very sp6t where 
 they die rather than that they should be carried over fields. 
 
 2 2 Reuben went and lay with Bilhah. When Rachel died, 
 Jacob took his bed which used to be in her tent and placed it 
 in that of Bilhah. This displeased Reuben, and he threw out 
 the bed, and said unto Bilhah : " Thou wishest to be equal to 
 my aunt Rachel, but she was a lady and thou art a servant. 
 
 ■ It vs hard to see the point of this. If the official let them off with this 
 answer, he was very easily satisfied. 
 
14 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 Vnd because he thus profaned the bed of his father, Scripture 
 ecords it as if he had been lying with her.i 
 
 The Ramban writes: Reuben profaned the bed because 
 le reasoned with himself thus : "I am firstborn, and as 
 ;uch I ought to have two portions, or shares, in my father's 
 property, but if he should have more children, my share in the 
 Droperty will be less. Leah is now too old to have children," 
 md Zilpah may have been dead at that time, therefore he 
 ■emoved the bed of Bilhah. 
 
 And Israel heard it. Jacob heard that Reuben threw out. 
 ;he bed ; yet he was not very angry with him, as he was the 
 irst of all his children , 
 
 Noiv the sons of Jacob were twelve. The text shows that 
 ;hey were all equally pious, for Reuben did not sin. The text 
 ilso tells us that he had no more children, only twelve.^ 
 
 27 -And Jacob came luifo Isaac his father, unto Mamre, imto 
 the city of Arha. It is therefore not said that he came unto 
 his mother, because she was dead, although Scripture is silent 
 about it, as we have, stated above. 
 
 29 And Isaac died . . . and Esau and Jacob hwied him. 
 The Chizkuni says : Esau is here mentioned first, because 
 facob showed him honour, for he feared him, because he had 
 said, "When my father dies, then will I slay my brother 
 [acob)." Of Abraham it is said: "Isaac and Ishmael buried 
 lim." ^ Isaac first, because he was born of Sarah, a lady ; but 
 [shmael was born of Hagar, a servant. 
 
 Chapter XXXVI. — 2 Esau took a wife, Aholibamah. 
 Rashi says : This is Judith mentioned in Toldoth •* (name of 
 
 ^ In the Talmud we are distinctly told : Whoever says that Reuben 
 iinned is decidedly in error. Shahbath, fol. 55B. 
 
 ° According to the Jewish chronology of Rab. David Ganz, all the sons 
 Df Jacob, except Benjamin, were born in Padan-Aram, in the space Of 
 seven years only. 
 
 ^ Chap. XXV. 9. _ 
 
 * Chap. xxvi. 3, anie, Tinin*, literally, a Jewess, or in connection with 
 I noun it means Jewish. 
 
GENESIS XXXV. 2Z-XXXVI. 24. .215 
 
 the section), but her real name was-Aholibamah. He gave 
 her the name Judith' to show that she was pious, and held the 
 Jewish religion, in order (the easier) to deceive his father. 
 
 3 And Bashemath, Ishmaers daughter. And he took another 
 wife, whose name was Bosmas, the daughter of Ishmael. And 
 the reason why, in Toldoth,^ when Esau married her he called 
 \\ex M'ahalath, is, because it was one of the three things, which 
 insure the forgiveness of sins ; i. when one becomes a Jewish 
 proselyte by embracing Judaism ; 2. when one rises to great- 
 ness; and 3. when one marries a wife. Hence -he called her 
 Mahalath because her sins were forgiven. ^ 
 ■ 12 And Timna was concubine to Eliphdz. Scripture shows 
 us, although she was of royal descent, yet she attached herself 
 to Eliphaz as a mere concubine, simply because he was a 
 descendant of Abraham. 
 
 24 This was that Anah that invented the mules in tlie wilder- 
 ness ; for he crossed an ass with a mare, and the result was the 
 birth of the mule. 
 
 The mules are therefore called (in the original) Yeimin* 
 (terrors), because man has a great dread of a mule, for his 
 kick is incurable. 
 
 The Chizkuni asks : Were there not mules in the time of 
 Isaac; of the dung of whose mules it was said, that it was 
 more productive than the gold and silver of Abimelech ? The 
 answer is : -There were formerly also mules, but the ass and 
 the mare in that case had crossed on their own account 
 (without human intervention). 
 
 ' Chap, xxviii. g, ante. 
 
 2 ".Mahalath " is a play on the Hebrew word HD \\hich means " to for- 
 give." A proselyte is like a new born child (sinless). Bechoroth, fol. 47A. 
 Rising to greatness or dignity, a Rabbi, a. Bridegroom, a President of a 
 College, a Warden of a Synagogue, and the like ; such it is said in the 
 Talmud, are not raised to dignity or greatness unless all their sins have 
 been forgiven them. ; ITlliW b l"? r'?niIO S"i<« xhr^h rh\)l Dlt* fX 
 Sanhedrin, fol. 14A. 
 
 2 Dp.'', probably an abbreviation of D'')3't5, Emim, /.f» Terrors. 
 
2i6 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY- 
 
 A mule can have no offspring, because God would not have 
 it that creatures should perpetuate any that He had not 
 created. The blessing which God had bestowed upon His 
 creatures, that they should increase and multiply, does not 
 extend to those which spring from two different species. 
 
 End of the Eighth Section. 
 
 Chapter XXXVII. — i And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein 
 his father was a stranger. The B'chai writes : The righteous, 
 man is like a stranger in this world. A stranger, having no 
 friends, no house and no fields, thinks only to provide himself 
 with food, and to wander about ; so likewise is the pious man — 
 he thinks only of death, and prepares of his provision for the 
 v^z^,'Ca?A.\% good works. Hence the text says: "Jacob dwelt 
 in the land as 3, stranger," just like his fathers before him 
 dwelt in the land as strangers in the world, and had only 
 thought of the other world. 
 
 In the preceding section the text speaks of the children of 
 Esau, but says very little about them, for it does not wish to 
 say much about the wicked ; but when it comes to the chil- 
 dren of Jacob it records what happened to them. 
 
 There is a parable : A man lost a pearl in the sand, he took 
 a sieve and sifted the sand, and when he found the pearl, he 
 threw away the sand and took up the pearl. 
 
 2 These ai-e the generations of Jacob. These are the things 
 which happened to the children of Jacob. The first thing is : 
 Joseph was seventeen years old and fed his father's sheep, and 
 the lad was brought up with the children of Bilhah and Zilpah. 
 And the text says : 
 
 And the lad, that is to say, he was young, and hence it was 
 no disgrace to him to be with such associates as the children of 
 Bilhah and Zilpah when they were feeding his father's flocks ; 
 he, Vfas a lad, too young. So writes the Chizkuni. But Rashi 
 writes:' 
 
GENESrS XXXVI. 24.-XXXV//. 3. 217 
 
 ■ And the lad, he acted as a young child ; he adorned his 
 person and smoothed down his hair, and continually associated 
 with the children of Bilhah and Zilpah ; for all the other child- 
 ren considered them to be low and kept aloof from them, but 
 Joseph the Righteous associated with them. 
 
 And Joseph brought 2inio his father their evil report. What 
 Joseph" j-(7?<:' in the children of Leah he related to his father. 
 Rashi observes ; Of Joseph it is said, "And Joseph brought 
 unto his father their evil report;" but of the spies it is said, 
 "And they brought up an evil report of the latid;" this is 
 because Joseph was pious and only told what he saw, and no 
 lie ; but the spies brought up an evil report of what they had 
 not se.en. 
 
 Joseph was mistaken in his brethren. He saw them slaughter 
 a cow, in which they found a living calf, and this, without first 
 slaughtering, they used as food. He, not knowing'the law that 
 such a calf was lawful for food without slaughtering, reported 
 to his father that they were eating " Flesh with the life there- 
 of; "i as also that they called the sons of the handmaids 
 (Bilhah and . Zilpah) slaves. As to his report about their 
 adultery, fOr that (report) his master's wife wished to commit 
 adultery with him. 
 
 .3 Aiid Israel loved Joseph more than all his children. The 
 
 'Chizkuni writes : All the brethren hated Joseph. The children 
 
 of Leah hated him, because the father loved him more than 
 
 all ; the children of Bilhah and Zilpah hated him, because 
 
 he spoke evil of the children of Leah." 
 
 Rashi and the B'chai say : It is therefore stated, " These are 
 the generations of Jacob, Joseph" because all the service Jacob 
 rendered to Laban was for the sake of Rachel, and Joseph was 
 Rachel's son ; and also because Joseph had the physiognomy 
 of Jacob, and all the good qualities of all the brethren were in 
 Joseph. The birth-right of Reuben was given to Joseph ; the 
 
 ' *nn |D "I3X as It is technically called in the Talmud, and which was- 
 forbidden food even to Gentiles. Gen. ix. 4. 
 
m8 • RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 prophecy of Levii was in Joseph, for he prophesied unto 
 Pharaoh that there would be a famine ; the royalty of Judah 
 was in Joseph, for he was a ruler in Egypt ; the wisdom of 
 Issachar "- was in Joseph, for it is said of him : " There is none 
 so discreet and wise as thou art." * 
 
 All that happened to Jacob happened to Joseph. Esau 
 wanted to kill Jacob, and the brethren wanted to kill joseph.- 
 The mother of Jacob was barren, and so was also the mother 
 of Joseph. Jacob was born circumcised, so likewise was 
 Joseph.* The mother of Jacob had hard labour and had 
 only two sons ; this, likewise, was the case, with the mother 
 of Joseph. Angels visited Jacob, and so also was Joseph 
 ■visited by them. Through a dream Jacob came to all his 
 property, and so also Joseph. 
 
 The Ramban asks, on Rashi's remarks : If Joseph spoke evil 
 only against the children of Leah, why then did the sons of 
 the maidservants consent to his being slain and sold ? for they 
 were four in number, and Reuben, who did not consent, 
 makes five, and with Joseph it makes six ; surely these six 
 •could have defended themselves against the rest of the 
 brethren. The answer is : The sons of the maidservants hated 
 him because he spoke evil of them also. The B'chai and 
 Chizkftni write in the same manner. 
 
 And Israel loved Joseph more than all his children. The 
 Toldoth Yitzkhac says : It is usual when one is a tale-bearer 
 he is much disliked for it, hence Scripture says with reference 
 to Jacob, although Joseph brought him slanderous tales, he did- 
 not love him for that., but " because he was the son of his old 
 ■age" (which means) because he \Vas clever in the Torah.^ 
 
 y Moses, the father of the prophets, was a descendant of Levi. 
 
 - 1 Chron. xii. 32; ^ Chap. xli. 39, ante. 
 
 * Avothd. Rail. Nathan, ch. 2. ■ . _ 
 
 ° To an outsider this rendering of □''ilpT p is quite obscure, but to the. 
 Rabbinical Jew it is as clear as the day, and as witty as it is clear. JpT means 
 •an Elder, and by the usual twist of the Rabbis, D^JIpt ]3 is read D^Jpf pi 
 
GENESIS .XXXJ'II. 3-7. 21 J 
 
 4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him 
 more than all his brethren, they hated him. The Toldo.th 
 Yitzkhac asks : Is it right because the father loved Joseph that 
 they should therefore hate him? AVhat had he done? The 
 <inswer is this : The brethren said, " Had not our father listened 
 to Joseph's slander, we should not have cared about it, for he 
 ■would have been only a fool for his tale-bearing ; but now^ 
 seeing that after his evil speaking our father loves him so 
 much, we feel persuaded that our father accepted his slander." 
 Hence they hated him. 
 
 And he made Mm a shirt of many colours. The father made 
 Joseph a silk- shirt, and from this shirt came upon him all 
 troubles. From this do our sages (infer and) teach, that it 
 is not lawful to make for one child better clothes than for the 
 others, that there should be no jealousy among them. 
 
 The word Pasim (in the original), i.e. " many colours,^' points 
 to his troubles. (By Notricon) the letter P is Potiphar ; the 
 letter S stands for Sochrim ; the letter I is Ishmaelites ; and 
 the letter M points to the Midianites ; 1 that is to say, to 
 these Joseph had been sold. 
 
 And could not speak peaceably with him. Rashi says : The 
 text shows us that the brothers were righteous men, and could 
 not speak with the mouth otherwise than they felt in their 
 heart ; they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto Imn. 
 
 5 And Joseph dreamed a dream., and he told it to his brethren, 
 in the hope that they would not hate him when he told them 
 that he would be a lord, not because of his father's love, but 
 because of the providence of God. 
 
 The Chizkuni says : The first dream was not true, and there- 
 fore it was not recorded. ' 
 
 7 For behold, we were binding sheaves of corn in the field, 
 audio, my sheaf arose, and remained standing upright, but your 
 
 i.e. a son of the Elders, in other words, a disciple of the wise, hence 
 ^^ clever in the law." 
 
 ' D^ano ,Di'?Ny»B'* .onniD /"iQ''t2iD=n'Ds. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 sheaves stood round in a circle and bowed down to my sheaf. 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac says: The sheaves went about and 
 refused to bow down to his sheaf, but they were obliged to 
 do so. 
 
 Another explanation is : They went about his sheaf as 
 servants go about their master to serve him. 
 
 Another explanation is : Your sheaves stood round about, 
 they became diminished ; that is to say, the dream indicated 
 that in time when the famine should prevail, he who would 
 collect corn besides Joseph would have his corn rotten. And 
 hence was the dream about sheaves of corn, to show that on 
 account of their coming after corn, the brothers would have to 
 bow down to Joseph. 
 
 8 And his brethren said unto him, Shalt thou indeed reign 
 over us ? For they knew that the dream signified that he 
 would be a king. 
 
 The B'chai observes : Although they hated Joseph, God 
 caused them to interpret the dream in his favour. 
 
 And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his 
 words ; because he often repealed his dreams and boasted 
 about them. 
 
 9, I o And he dreamed yet another drecim , . . and he 
 told it to his father, and to his brethren. He dreamed that the 
 sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to 
 him. 
 
 And his father rebuked him, and said unto him .' , . 
 Shaii I and thy mother and thy brethren come and bow dawn 
 to thee ? " Thy mother is already dead, and therefore thy 
 dream is a lie. " All this Jacob said, in order that his brethren 
 should not hate him ; but Jacob himself knew that it was true. 
 The moon, which signifies the mother, was meant for Bilhah, 
 who reared him as a mother. Our sages say that in every 
 dream, though the dream be ever so true, there 'is some folly 
 mixed up with if, and thus it was in this dream ; though it 
 was perfectly true, about the mother it was folly, Jacob knew 
 
GENESIS XXXVII. 7- 
 
 this, but wishing to avert the hatred of the brethren, he 
 remarked accordingly. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : The first dream was sheaves 
 of corn, and the second stars, because in the first instance 
 they were to come to buy. corn as common men, but on the 
 second occasion they came with honour, as signified by the 
 .stars, themselves glorious objects. In the first dream Joseph 
 did not see the sun and the moon, because the first time the 
 brethren alone were to come into Egypt ; but the second time 
 they all came, and the father and Bilhah. And now it- is 
 plain why Joseph related the second dream to his father, and 
 riot the first, because the first dream indicated that the brethren 
 alone would Jiave 'to bow down to him.' 
 
 The-Imrae Noam says : In the first dream it is said, " made 
 obeisance to my sheaf," but in the second it is said, " made 
 obeisance to me" and it is not said, Made obeisance to my 
 star; this is because at first the brethren did. not recognise 
 •Joseph, and they bowed down to him for the sake of the corn 
 he had, and hence it is said, " to my sheaf" ; but the second 
 time they knew that he was Joseph, hence it is said, " made 
 obeisance to me" on account of my honour. 
 
 Another explanatfon is : The stars are in heaven, and he 
 could not say to my star, for it would have been impossible to 
 distinguish which was his star ; but a sheaf he could hold in his 
 hand, and say "to my sheaf." 
 
 12 To feed their fathef s flock ; and they fed themselves also, 
 eating their father's sheep without his knowledge. Hence in 
 the Torah there is- a dot on the particle which marks the 
 atcusative case (the sheep),^ in order to show that they fed 
 themselves on the sheep, .and thereby they did great evil, for 
 they feasted themselves with their father's -sheep, and sold 
 their brother" Joseph. • • . ' 
 
 13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Noiv thy brethren are 
 pasturing in Shechein, and I -will send thee unto them — to see 
 
 ' ;Xi' fix 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 what they are doing, — and Joseph said, BeJiold, I am ready.- 
 Although Joseph knew that the brethren hated him, and 
 there was danger in his going to them, yet in honour aijd 
 obedience to his parent he went. 
 
 14 So he setit him otii of the vale of Hebron. That is to say, 
 God had so ordained that through this accident Israel came 
 into the captivity of Egypt, in fulfilment of the deep counsel 
 of God communicated to Abraham (who was buried at He- 
 bron), that his children would be in the captivity of Egypt 
 four hundred years. . 
 
 The Book of Jasher says : Because they were coming from 
 the field later than usual, Jacob feared' lest the people of 
 Shechem came to war with them, and hence he sent Joseph to 
 see how they were. 
 
 15 And a certain man found him. That was the angel 
 Gabriel. The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : It is customary when 
 a man has lost his way, to ask people to direct himj but people 
 never ask a wanderer what he seeks : but. here a certain man 
 asks Joseph, " What seekest thou 1 " It must have been then 
 an angel, who desired to lead him to his brethren, that he might 
 come into Egypt. 
 
 Another explanation is this : Joseph aslced the man to tell 
 him where his brothers were pasturing, . but did not ask him 
 first whether he knew where they were ; it is clear therefore that . 
 Joseph was aware that it was an angel, who knew where his 
 brothers were. 
 
 It may also be inferred that this was no other angel than 
 Gabriel, for here it is said : "And a man found him," and 
 Gabriel is called man, for it is written, "The man Gabriel."^ 
 
 17 Ajtd the man said, They are departed hence. Rashi 
 
 . asks : Joseph asked the angel where his brethren were, arid thfe 
 
 angel ought to have answered that question ; what need had 
 
 ' Dan. ix. 21. We have it several times in the Tahiiud, that God is also 
 called /«(Z«, and it is proved from Exod. xy. 3 : " The Lord is a man of 
 war." 
 
GENESIS XXX.Vn. l-\-2Z. 
 
 he to add, " They departed Iwice " ? Jhe reply is : The angel 
 told him not to go to -his brethren, for they departed /;^«<rcV 
 that is to say, they departed from hrotherhood ; for '■^ hence" ^ 
 (in the original) is equivalent to twelve, that is to say, they do- 
 not wish to be twelve brothers,. for they do not like thee for a 
 brother. But Joseph did not listen to this, and went to his 
 brethren in obedience to his father. 
 
 It is asked : Jacob having (no doubt) accompanied Joseph 
 (partof the way at starting), why then was he unfortunate on 
 the road ? much rather ought " the accompanying " have been 
 helpful to him. The reply is : Jacob intended that Joseph 
 should go only to Shechem, and with that intention he accom- 
 panied him; but Joseph went beyond Shechem, hence "the 
 accompanying" was of rio avail to him. Providence so shaped 
 the intention of Jacob in order that Joseph should come to 
 Egypt. 
 
 18 They conspired against him to slay hint. The brethren 
 made up their minds to kill Joseph, but not wishing to do so 
 with their own hands, they set fierce dogs upon him (to tear 
 him to pieces) ; but God helped him, that the dogs did him no 
 harm. Hence they said r 
 
 ■20 . Come now, therefore, and let tis slay him ; " being saved 
 from the dogs, let iis kill him." " But God said, " Well, we shall 
 see what will become of his dreams ;" that is to say, his dreams 
 show that ye can do him no harm, but he will be a ruler over 
 you. 
 
 21 And when Reuben heard it, and wished to deliver him from 
 their hands, he said, Let us not kill a soul. Reuben wanted to 
 make his brethren believe that he hated Joseph, that they 
 might listen to his cbunsel, therefore he said, were he even a 
 stranger it does not behove us to. kill any one, and hence he 
 did not say, Let us not shed his blood ; but he simply said : 
 
 22 Shed no blood, " of any man, for God will punish you ; I 
 say this, .oot because I love Joseph, but I mean it for your 
 
 . ' nt = 12. I'iile List of Numerals, p. xii. 
 
224 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 good." Reuben reasoned with himself thus : " I am the eldest 
 son, and therefore my father will be angry with mi that I did 
 not deliver him." So writes the B'chai. 
 
 Cast Mm into a pit. The-Chizkuni asks : What was the use 
 of siich advice since there were serpents ^ in the pit ? The 
 answer is : Reuben advised he should be cast into. a pit, and 
 intended, when the brethren went away, to take him out and 
 restore him to his father. But the brothers took him out of 
 the empty pit and cast him into a pit of serpents, hence it is 
 said (ver. 29), " Reuben returned unto the pit ; and he found 
 Joseph not there." •- 
 
 21, 20, And they stript Joseph of his silk shirt , . . And 
 they took him and cast him into a pit. Simeon took hini and 
 cast him into the pit. 
 
 And- the pit was empty, there was no water in it. It is 
 asked : It is stated the pit was empty, then we know of course 
 that there was no water in it ; but why is it stated that there 
 was no water in it? The answer is : The text shows us that 
 water was not in it, but serpents were there. But the brothers 
 had not seen the serpents, for they were in their holes, other- 
 wise they would not have cast him in. 
 
 In the same sense writes also the Chizkiini, and says : Had 
 there been water in the pit they would not have cast Joseph 
 into it, for they said (ver., 27), " Let not our hand be upon 
 him " — to kDI him. 
 
 The Ramban observes; The serpents fled into their holes; 
 for had they not done so, and had the brethren noticed that 
 they did not harm Joseph, they would have comprehended 
 that Joseph was a pious man, and would not have sold him. 
 
 25 And they sat down to eat bread. They sat down to eat at 
 soiTie distance in order not to hear the cry of their brother. 
 Then came Ishmaelites froin Gilead, carrying wax, sealing-wax 
 and old wine, and were going to Egypt. 
 
 Rashi says : The text states what wares the Ishmaelites were 
 ' See comment on verses 23 and 24. 
 
GENESIS XXXVII. 22-2S. 225 
 
 carrying, to show forth the merit of Joseph ; for the Ishmaehtes 
 always carried such goods as stink, but now they providentially 
 had such as had a good odour, in order that the righteous 
 Joseph should not be annoyed by a disgusting smell. 
 
 The brethren cast Joseph into the pit naked, without a shirt ; 
 but when the Ishmaelites pulled him up from the pit, the 
 brothers saw the shirt (on him), and quarrelled with the Ish- 
 maelites about it, saying. We have sold hi??i without a shirty 
 Then the Israelites gave them shoes for the shirt. Thus writes 
 the Imrae Noam. 
 
 27 And his brethren were content. And the hx&'Cax&n obeyed 
 Judah, and sold Joseph for d slave ; " for," said they, " the 
 children of Abraham are to be (captives) in the captivity, and 
 as he also is a son of Abraham, perhaps he will mediate and 
 suffer for us all." "' 
 
 28 And they drew and lifted zip Joseph out of the fit. Rashi 
 says : The brethren drew Joseph out of the pit and sold him 
 to the Ishmaelites, and these sold him to the Midianites, and 
 these again sold him into Egypt. But the Chizkiini and the 
 B'chai write thus : The Midianites came near the pit, and on 
 
 • hearing Joseph's cry, they drew him out of it, and then sold 
 him to the Ishmaelites, who left him in pledge witli the Midi- 
 anites, and they together with the Ishmaelites sold him into 
 Egypt ; hence it is said, " And the Midianites sold him unto 
 Potiphar," and it is also said : " And Potiphar . . . bought 
 him of the Ishmaelites." •' But the explanation is, that he was 
 sold by both. As to what Joseph said to his brethren when 
 he made himself known to them—" I am Joseph your brother, 
 whom ye sold into Egypt,"* — he meant to say: "By your 
 casting me into the pit, I was sold into Egypt"; but the 
 
 1 Yet in Yezmiwlh, .fol. 79A, we are told that three marks characterize 
 the Jews ■: they are compassionate, they are modest, and they are benevolent. 
 
 2 As much as to say : Perhaps " the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity 
 of us all " (Isa. liii. 6). " It is expedient for us that one man should die 
 for the people, and that the whole nation perish not " {John xi. 50). 
 
 5 Verse 36, and chap, xxxix. i. * Chap. xlv. 4, 
 
 Q 
 
226 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 brethren did not know what had become of him. When ' 
 Reuben returned to the pit, and did not find Joseph there, 
 all the brethren thought that a wild beast had devoured him, 
 for they knew not that the Midianites had got him out of 
 the pit. 
 
 Another explanation is : Potiphar noticed that Joseph was 
 very handsome, and he thought he is not a slave, but he must, 
 have been stolen ; he then said to the Midianites, you must 
 give me a surety that he was not stolen, and they brought the 
 Ishmaelites for surety; hence says the text: "And Potiphar 
 bought him of the Ishmaelites^' that is to say, Potiphar bought 
 him because the Ishmaelites were surety. 
 
 Rabbi . Israel writes : The Ishmaelites together with the 
 Midianites bought Joseph from his brethren ; for the Ishmael- 
 ites gave a sum of money for him, and the Midianites having 
 drawn him up from the pit, and kept him in their possession, 
 had a legal claim upon him ; and as they could not come to 
 terms with the Ishmaelites, they proposed : " Let us lead him 
 into Egypt and there sell him." The Ishmaelites thus got 
 back their capital, and the Midianites got the profits. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : The Midianites, acting as 
 brokers to the Ishmaelites, drew up Joseph out of the pit to 
 show how handsome he was, as it is the custom of brokers to 
 show up the goods they are commissioned to sell. Therefore, 
 says the text : "And there passed by Midianites, and they drew 
 up Joseph, and sold him to the Ishmaelites," that is to say, 
 they were the brokers ; and they again sold him to Potiphar, 
 that is to say, the Midianites were the same brokers again, for 
 the Ishmaelites told them, " As ye were brokers and helped us 
 to buy him, be brokers and help us to sell him again." So 
 write the (general) commentators. 
 
 Another explanation is : The Ishmaelites gave the money for 
 Joseph, but they proposed to the Midianites, " We know that the 
 Egyptians will not buy him, because he is circumcised, and they 
 will suspect that circumcision is a defect * * * ; therefore 
 
GENESIS XXXVII. 28-32. 227 
 
 ye take Joseph and sell him as if he were yours, and we will 
 testify that circumcision is only a custom which is observed 
 also by us Ishmaelites, and yet we have children." "And the 
 Midianites sold him to Potiphar," and afterwards, says the 
 text, " Potiphar bought him of the Ishmaelites^'' that is to say, 
 the Ishmaelites were the real owners (and had a right) to sell 
 Joseph, but the Midianites were the brokers (who sold him).i 
 
 For . twenty pieces of silver. The brothers sold him for 
 twenty pieces of silver in weight. The Chizkuni and the 
 B'chai write : God said : " Ye have sold Joseph, who is a first- 
 born, for twenty pieces of silver in weight, which is five selas,- 
 therefore ye shall redeem your firstborn for five selas.^ 
 
 29, 30 IVlien Reubeti returned unto the pit . . . he rent 
 his clothes, . . . and said, The child is not here, and 1, 
 whither shall I go ? How can I come to my father ? for I am 
 the eldest son, and my father will lay all the blame upon me ! 
 
 The Chizkuni writes: Reuben was aware that his father 
 would say : "Thou hast killed him, because .the birthright was 
 taken from thee and given to Joseph." 
 
 And where was Reuben when the brethren sold Joseph ? 
 (Reply) On that day he was waiting on his father ; for every 
 day the sons waited on him by turns. On that day also he 
 did penance for having profaned the bed of his father. 
 
 31, 32 And they killed a kid . . . and pierced the silk 
 shirt,^ and dipped the shirt in Mood, in order that it might be 
 thought that a wild beast had devoured him. 
 
 ' The conflicting account in the text as to the parts played by the Ish- 
 maelites and Midianites in this drama, has puzzled a great many commen- 
 tators ; but no Gentile that we know of has ventured on such a far-fetched . 
 explanation as this. 
 
 ' Selah is the name of a Jemsh-coin, which, according to the Jerusalem 
 Talmud, seems to be identical with the shekel of the Pentateuch. In 
 
 Kidd. I, D'y^D mini ainsB' D^'ppcj' "ps. 
 
 ^ K«V/(; Num. xviii. 15, 16. 
 
 '' The rendering in the A.V. " And they sent the coat," is here ren- 
 dered, " and they pierced, etc." HpK', shalakh, means " to send," and TV>^ 
 
22S RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 The Chizkflni writes : The text means (not pierced but), 
 they sent the shirt on through a messenger, for they feared 
 to bring it themselves because the father would charge them 
 with killing him, because they hated him. 
 
 The B'chai says : It is necessarily to be inferred that they 
 sent the shirt through a messenger, because it is said : " Is the 
 shirt thy son's ? " for had the brothers themselves brought it, 
 they would have asked, " Is this shirt Joseph's ? " for it is not 
 usual to say before a father, " thy son's." 
 
 33 And Jacob knew it, and said, An evil beast hath devoured 
 him. The Midrash observes : He thus predicted that Potiphar's 
 wife, who is likened to an evil beast, would bring a false accu- 
 sation against him, for which he would be cast into prison. 
 
 34 And he mourned for his son many days ; that is to say, 
 twenty-two years, and this he deserved, because he was at 
 Laban's and on the road two and twenty years, and had not 
 honoured his father Isaac ; for the fourteen years he served for 
 his wives, six for the sheep, and two years he was on the 
 road, together make twenty-two. 
 
 35 A7id all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort 
 him. The B'chai says : " His daughters " means Dinah and 
 Sarah the daughter of Asher.i But Rashi says : With each 
 son was born a daughter, which he married. So says Rabbi 
 Yehudah. But the Ramban says ; The six sons of Leah 
 married the daughters which were born with the other six 
 sons, and the others married the daughters which were born 
 with the sons of Leah.' 
 
 shelakh, means "a sword." (See Job xxxiii. l8, and Joel ii. 8.) Now in 
 Jhe Hebrew text "inplJ"! is in the A.V. rendered, " and they sent," which 
 is quite correct ; but our commentator renders the same, " and they 
 pierced," and we have no difficulty in admitting that this is also possibly 
 correct, and for the following reason : Shelakh means a sword ; by turning 
 the noun into a verb, we should have then to sword, just as we turn the 
 noun spear into the verb to spear The passage might then read thus : 
 ' ' And they s worded the coat " ; in other words, " they pierced the coat." 
 
 ' Num. xxvi. 46. 
 
 2 It need hardly be said there is no warrant for this in the sacred text. 
 
GENESIS XXXVII. 32-35. 229 
 
 Rabbi Neliemiah says : The sons of Jacob married women 
 of Canaan, and the text calls them daughters, because it is 
 usual also to call a son's wife daughter. 
 
 But he refused to be comforted. Rashi asks : The Gemara 
 says : God had decreed that the dead should be forgotten 
 from the heart (of the living),i why then did Jacob weep so 
 long, and refused to be comforted i The answer is : The decree 
 refers to the dead; but Joseph was yet alive, and hence he was 
 not forgotten from the heart, and Jacob continued to weep. 
 The question is : If the dead be forgotten, and Jacob could 
 not forget Joseph, why did he not conclude that he must 
 be still alive? The answer is : Jacob did conclude as much, 
 but he thought that he must be in a prison and in distress, and 
 therefore he lamented so much. 
 
 For I will go down into the grave unto my son 7nourning. I 
 will mourn for my son till the grave, that is to say, I will not 
 forget my son till I die ; or grave means Gehenna (Hell), for 
 Jacob said, " God promised me that none of my children 
 should die during my lifetime, and that was to be a sign that I 
 should escape hell ; but now when Joseph is not (alive), I fear 
 that I shall descend into hell. 
 
 The Eben-Shoab writes : Jacob mourned so much for Joseph, 
 because he was not yet twenty years old, and no man is 
 punished for his sins if he is less than twenty years old ; he 
 must then have died on account of the sins of his father, and 
 hence he mourned so much. 
 
 The Debek Tov asks : Jacob was fourteen years in the Beth 
 Hammidrash of Shem and Eber, during which time he had 
 not honoured his parents, why was he not punished for that ? 
 The answer is : The parents waived the honour due to- them, 
 because they wished him to study the Torah. But why was 
 he punished for it when at Laban's, since his parents ordered 
 him to go there ? The answer is : Rebekah soon sent Deborah 
 
 1 P'sachim, fol. 54B. 
 
230 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 to fetch him home, but he tarried at Laban's to marry his 
 daughters, and therefore he was punished. 
 
 Thus his father wept for him. The grandfather, Isaac, 
 wept for the sorrow of Jacob, for he knew that Joseph was 
 alive. God also revealed the secret unto Benjamin that 
 Joseph was alive, and (for the merit, of keeping the secret) his 
 stone in the breast-plate was called Yoshpeh (Jasper), ^ which, 
 consists of two (Hebrew) words, Yesh Peh, i.e. he has a mouth 
 but has not betrayed that Joseph was alive. 
 
 Chapter XXXVIII. — i And it came to, pass at that time, 
 that Judah ivent down from his brethren. When the brethren 
 saw the great distress of their father they lowered Judah down 
 Irom his position, for they said unto him: "Thou art the 
 chief brother among us ; thou hast told us he should not be 
 killed, and we obeyed thee ; hadst thou told us we should 
 restore him to the father, we would have obeyed thee. 
 
 Thus then Judah was separated from his brethren, and he 
 married a wife, the daughter of a merchant,^ and he had three 
 children by her. 
 
 7 And Er, JudaKs firsthoxn, was wicked in the sight of the 
 Lord, for he did not wish his wife to become pregnant, as she 
 was very handsome, and would lose her beautiful looks, and 
 hence " The Lord slew him." 
 
 This was the sin of the generation at the time of the Deluge. 
 
 8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, 
 and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother, that they 
 should be called after thy brother's name. Onan thought, . 
 " What ! I should beget children to be called after my brother's 
 name ? " Therefore he also would not have his wife to become 
 pregnant, and the Lord slew him also. 
 
 1 1 Then 'said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law. Remain 
 a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown, and 
 
 1 Vide Exod. xxviii. 15-21. Yoshpeh consists of two Hebrew words 
 ng V)\ i.e. there is a mouth. 
 
 '•^ A.V. A certain Canaanite. 
 
GENESIS XXXVn..ze,-XXXVin. I6. 
 
 he will marry thee. But he had no thought of giving her unto 
 Shelah, because two of her husbands had died already, and 
 he feared lest Shelah should die also, and the law is, if two 
 husbands die, the woman may act marry a third. 
 
 The Ramban asks : Why did not Judah at once tell her 
 that he would not give her Shelah, because her two husbands 
 had died ? The answer is ; Shelah was in duty bound (by law) 
 to marry her ; but Judah thought, because he was yet young 
 and incompetent to have children, perhaps he also would die 
 like his brothers. 
 
 When Tamar saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not 
 given unto him to wife, . she put off her widow's garments, 
 assumed a fine dress, covered herself with a veil, and sat in 
 an open place on the road by which Judah had to pass, for 
 she was anxious to have children by Judah. And Judah 
 passed by her, and took her to be an harlot, not recognising 
 her, because she had covered her face. Thus writes Rashi. 
 
 But another explanation is : Because she was very modest, 
 she was in the habit of covering her face when at the house 
 of her father-in-law, and therefore he did not recognise her 
 that she was Tamar. From this we learn that a man should 
 be in the habit of (personally) knowing his female relatives, in 
 order not to fall into sin with them. And Judah said : 
 
 1 6, etc. Go to, I pray thee, etc. " Get ready ; I will come in 
 unto thee." She said, "What wilt thou give me for it ? " And 
 he said, " I will send thee a kid from the flock." And she 
 said, "Give me a pledge." And he said, "What pledge shall I 
 give ? " Tamar said, " Thy signet-ring, thy staff, and thy 
 fringed garment ; " for she thought, when I take hold on the 
 fringed garment, the fringes will (miraculously) strike him on 
 the face, (admonishing him) not to commit adultery ; as it once 
 happened that one gave a harlot four hundred gulden for her 
 hire, but when he came to her, the fringes struck him on the 
 face, till he separated himself from her."'^ 
 
 ' The details of this legend may be seen in the Talmud, Minachoth, fol . 
 
RABBINICAL- COMMENTARY. 
 
 Tamar took in pledge these three things to prove that her 
 intention was not that of a harlot, but of a pious daughter of 
 Israel, about to be married with the usual nuptial canopy and 
 consecration."^ She took the signet in place of the wed- 
 ding ring (in token of formal and legal consecration) ; the 
 staff was the support of the nuptial canopy ; and the fringed 
 garment as a covering of the canopy. It is still the custom 
 in Germany to make the Chupah (the Baldachin or nuptial 
 canopy) of a (Tallith) garment with fringes, 
 
 1 8 And he gave it to her, and came in unto her, and she con- 
 ceived by him ; and it is therefore said, And she conceived to 
 him^ i.e. she gave birth to him such righteous men as he was.^ 
 
 19-24 Tamar went home and put on the garments of her 
 widowhood. And Judah sent the kid, to receive the pledges from 
 her, but she was not found . . . It was told Judah, saying, 
 Tamar thy daughier-in-laia hath played the harlot, and 'she is 
 with child. And Judah said, Let her be burned. Rashi writes : 
 
 44A. An English translation of the same will be found in the Library 
 of the British Museum (also in a few private libraries), in the unpublished 
 edition of tny Gen. ace. to the Talmud, p. 106. 
 
 1 ptj'npi nsin. 
 . 2 1^ -inni. 
 
 3 Meaning that Pharez and Zarah, in spite of their illegitimacy, were 
 equal in piety to Judah, and were quite as righteous as he. 
 
 Though bastards were forbidden to enter the congregation of the Lord to 
 the tenth generation (Deut. xxiii. 2), yet the Talmud tells us that n"mtOD 
 I'lXn DV J"0? mip. A /«?-OTa' bastai-d is higher than a high priest who 
 is not learned; and that O'ltOO nntOO f|D3, money makes even bastards 
 legitimate. Horayoth, fol. 13A ; Kiddushm, fol. 71A. 
 
 In Ben Sira, a little Hebrew book published at Leghorn about fifty-three 
 years ago, by Rabbi Solomon Zalman, on the very &rst page we are 
 seriously informed that Ben Sira, Rav Pappa and Rabbi Zira were born 
 out of -wedlock by z'mOTao</«^^ conception, and "«// were very pious, per- 
 fectly righteous, and great sages in the Law." ' 
 
 Among other curious apothegms in the Talmud, the following runs thus 
 D*np3 D*"HDD 'PkJ' pi1. Most bastards are cunning. Sophrim, chap. 
 XV. Hal. 10. We often hear one Jew address the other : " What a bas- 
 tard you are ! " meaning : What a cunning fellow you are I 
 
■ - GENESIS XXXVin. 16-26. 233 
 
 She was the daughter of Shem, who was a priest, and a priest's 
 daughter committing adultery is to be burned. 
 
 The Ramban ■ says i In some countries it is the common 
 practice, when a married woman is unfaithful, she is given up 
 into the hands of her husband to do with her as he pleases ; 
 and as Tamar was virtually like a married woman, for Shelah 
 had to marry her, therefore he ordered her to be burned. 
 
 25 When she was brought forth to be burned, she sent to her 
 father-in-law, saying, By the man, whose these three things are, 
 am I with child. For she thought, if Judah will confess, well 
 and good ; if not, let me be burned rather than put him to 
 shame. From this have our sages learned, that better is it 
 for a man to throw himself into a fiery furnace than that he 
 should bring shame upon his neighbour in public.^ 
 
 The Baal Hatturim says : Judah did not order Tamar to be 
 burned, but to be branded on her face, the mark of a harlot. 
 
 Discern I pray thee: Tamar said, "Recognise, I pray thee, 
 whose are these, the signet-ring, and the staff, and the Tallith, 
 or fringed garment." 
 
 26 And Judah recognised (them) and said: She is right! 
 from me has she conceived. Rashi writes : A Bath-Kol from 
 God, i.e. (a voice from heaven) had said : " Even thus I willed 
 it, that Judah should be with Tamar, in order that pious men 
 should come from her ; because she was a modest (or virtuous) 
 woman when^at the house of her father-in-law, therefore shall 
 she be the ancestress of kings of Israel."^ 
 
 The Ramban writes : Judah said, " She hath been more 
 righteous than II for my intention was adultery ; hers was to 
 perform the precept of the Levirate Law," for it was the custom 
 for any relation, even a father-in-law, to observe the Levirate 
 Law. Thus writes also the Chizkuni : The reason why they did 
 not bum Judah for committing incest with his daughter-in-law 
 
 ' Berachoth, fol. 43B. 
 
 ' Tamar was counted worthy to be the ancestress not only of kings, but 
 also of prophets, and Isaiah descended from her. Soteh, fol. ice. 
 
234 liABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 was, because, she having no children, it was lawful for him to 
 marry her. Such was the custom at that time. 
 
 The Chizkdni gives also another explanation : Because 
 Tamar was yet a virgin, and (in fact) not yet the wife of his 
 children, therefore he might lawfully have married her. 
 
 Yet another explanation gives the Chizkuni : Judah said, 
 " Tamar was 7-ight; for fear lest Shelah would do as his brothers, 
 and she never have any children, she was right to wish to have 
 children from me." 
 
 Another explanation is : "She is right, from me;" i.e. on 
 account of me she must remain right ; for if I in the least 
 condemn her, the same condemnation extends also to me. 
 
 The B'chai quotes a Midrash, that Sam the wicked ^ had hid- 
 den away the three pledges, that Tamar should not find them, 
 that she might be killed. Tamar then prayed unto God that 
 three souls might not be lost, namely she herself, and her twin 
 children. God (heard her prayer and) sent the angel Gabriel, 
 who found the pledges, and produced them before the judges. 
 
 And he knew her again no more. He was afraid, because she 
 had been the death of her two previous husbands, and he was 
 also ashamed, because she was his daughter:in-law. So writes 
 the Chizkuni. 
 
 But some of the sages say ; That the meaning of the text is, 
 He no more left off knowing her. 
 
 27, 28, etc. And, behold, twins zvere in her womb. And it 
 came to pass . . . that the one put out his hand, and the 
 midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, as a sign 
 that this is the firstborn : This came out first. Afterwards he 
 drew back his hand and his brother came out, and he was 
 called Pharez, that is. Breaking forth with force, that is to say, 
 before his brother. Then came out the child with the scarlet 
 thread, and they called him Zarah, that means, " to shine," 
 because the scarlet thread was shining upon him. 
 
 1 This is the abbreviation of Sammael, the wicked angel. See p. 198, 
 note, afite. 
 
GENESIS XXXVin. iS-XXXIX. 6. 235 
 
 Chapter XXXIX.— i And Joseph ivas brought down into 
 Egypt, into the house of Potiphar, and everything he did 
 prospered in his hand. 
 
 3 And his master saw that the Lord was with him. Rashi 
 says : This means that the master noticed how Joseph con- 
 tinually mentioned the Name of God. 
 
 Another explanation is : God placed continually a cloud 
 near Joseph, which followed him about whither he went, and 
 thus the master observed that God wasVith him. 
 
 4, 5 And he made him overseer over his whole house, and over 
 his treasures. And the Lord blessed the master for the sake 
 of Joseph. And the master entrusted to him all he had in the 
 house, and in the field, taking no account of him, because he 
 saw that the Lord was with him. 
 
 The B'chai says : That which the text expresses, " in the 
 house, and i?i the field," shows that Joseph was one year in the 
 house of Potiphar, as one works six months in the field and 
 six months in the house. After that he was twelve years in 
 prison.; in all, from the time he left his father till he became 
 a ruler, was thirteen years. Joseph ought to have been only 
 eleven years in the house of Potiphar, as the eleven stars 
 indicated that in eleven years he would be a ruler ; but because 
 he trusted to the chief butler that he would mention him to 
 Pharaoh and set him free from prison, and had not relied 
 on God to help him, therefore he was two years more in 
 prison. 
 
 6 Save the bread which he did eat. Rashi says : The master 
 placed everything in his hand except his wife. The Ramban 
 and the Chizkuni say : The Egyptians do not allow a Jew to 
 touch their bread, as it is said, " Because the Egyptians 
 might not eat with the Hebrews "3I hence it is said, " And he 
 left all that he had in Joseph's hand . . . save the bread 
 which he did eat." 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : " The Lord made all that he 
 ' Chap. xlii. 32. 
 
236 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 did to prosper in his hand,^^ means, on whatever thing Joseph 
 laid his hand there was luck in it. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac gives another explanation : It is 
 customary for a merchant sometimes to reserve his goods in 
 order to derive profits from the same ; but Joseph had great 
 luck, so that his goods passed quickly from his hands. 
 
 The Ramban gives another explanation : The master found 
 that Joseph took nothing from what was his, " save' the iread 
 which he did eat," and he did not follow any pleasures, although 
 he had all in his hand, such was his faithfulness to his master. 
 
 And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favotired. He was 
 very handsome, and on that account the wife of Potiphar 
 wished for his company. 
 
 The Midrash says : Joseph, noticing that his master had a 
 great regard for him, he began to adorn himself God said, 
 " Thy father mourns, and thou adornest thyself? I will set thy 
 master's wife on thee, and by that means thou shalt come into 
 prison." 
 
 7, 8 A)id she said. Lie with me. But he refused, and said 
 unto his master's wife : " My master is usually always with thee, 
 and how shall I lie with thee ? " 
 
 The Ramban writes : The text says, " his master's wife," to 
 show that although she was his master's wife, and Joseph had 
 to fear her, in this case he feared her not, but feared God. 
 The B'chai quotes a Midrash, that the image of his father 
 appeared unto Joseph, and said unto him, "Thy brothers' 
 names will be engraved on the (stones of the ephod) garment 
 of the High Priest when he offers sacrifices, and if thou 
 sinnest thy name shall not be engraven among theirs." ^ 
 
 1 This is evidently borrowed from the Talmud, where it runs as follows : 
 At that moment the image of his father appeared in the window, and 
 cried, "Joseph, thy brothers' names will be engraved on the stones of the 
 ephod, and thine among them ; dost thou wish it to be erased ? and dost 
 thou wish to be called an associate of harlots ? " As it is written (Prov. xxix. 
 3I, " And he that associates with harlots, wastes his substance." -Imrae- 
 
GENESIS XXXIX. 6-10. 237 
 
 9 But thee, because thou art his wife. The Toldoth Yitzkhac 
 gives this explanation : Joseph said, " My master hath given all 
 he hath to my hand, even thee ; when thou needest dress and 
 ornaments thou must come to me, and I have the power to 
 supply thee or not ; ' but thee,' to lie with thee I have not the 
 power, 'because thou art his wife.'" 
 
 The B'chai and the Toldoth Yitzkhac quote a Midrash, that 
 the master's wife said unto him : " There is no one here, why 
 wilt thou not (come) ? " He replied, " Even widows and virgins 
 are unlawful for us, how much more so thou as a married 
 woman." 
 
 And sin against God. The Chizkuni observes : When she 
 said, "There is no one here," he. replied, "God knows all 
 things." But Rashi says : Joseph replied, " Among you also 
 it is forbidden to commit sin with a married woman ; " for 
 adultery was forbidden to the children of Noah. 
 
 ■ 10 To lie with her, or to be with her. Joseph would not lie 
 by her in this world, nor be with her in the world to come ; 
 for he who lies by a married woman goes with her into hell. 
 
 The B'chai writes : There are three parties in the world 
 considered virtuous — A landowner who duly pays the tithes, 
 an unmarried man who lives among harlots and does not sin 
 with them, and a poor man who restores a valuable thing 
 entrusted to his care.^ 
 
 Thus it was with Joseph ; when only seventeen years of age 
 he resided among the ha.rlots in Egypt, and was virtuous and 
 did not touch them. His master's wife dressed him in pretty 
 shirts; in the morning a clean shirt, and in the evening 
 another ; and she flattered him, for she saw by the stars, that 
 she would have children by Joseph. But the stars had 
 indicated that he would have children by her daughter, for 
 Joseph proselytised his master's daughter, and married her. 
 
 diateiy yp-ip3 in» fV'i njn*^'? \TW\> n3K'K> nnB>p in'Ka asTii n*» 
 : in' 'jniD's pan iniKn nxvi. soteh, foi. 36B. 
 
 ^ P'sachim, fol. I13A, with some variation. 
 
238 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 11 And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went 
 into the house to do his business. The Chizkuni remarks : That 
 the text tells us of the piety of Joseph, in that he went in on 
 business only, and that at daytime, when it is not customary to 
 be with a- strange woman ; but his master's wife manifested 
 great boldness, and was inclined to sin even at daytime. 
 
 Rashi says : About this time there was an Egyptian festival, 
 and all went to their place of worship ; but his master's wife 
 . pleaded inability to go, for she thought, now is the time to 
 persuade Joseph, and she said unto him that there was nobody 
 at home, and that it was a good time to lie with her, catching 
 hold by his garment, and saying, " Thou must lie with me !" 
 
 1 2 And he left his garment in her hand and ran out into the 
 street. Because they were alone in one room, therefore he ran 
 out. 
 
 The B'chai says : That was a proper act on the part of 
 Joseph in showing due honour to his master's wife, in that he 
 did not force his garment out of her hand. 
 
 14 And she called to her household. The Chizkuni says : 
 She called to her household and told them that Joseph took 
 off his garments and wanted to violate her, but when she 
 began calling for help, he left his garment and fled. When the 
 master came and embraped and kissed her, she told him : 
 
 19 After this manner did thy servant do to me, and when I 
 began to call he fled out. 
 
 20 And he put him into prisoii. Tiie Chizkuni writes : They 
 did not kill him, because there were no witnesses. The Gemara 
 says : Joseph was brought before the king to be judged. The 
 angel Gabriel disguised himself as a prince, and said to the 
 king, " If the truth is to be ascertained, let both their garments 
 be brought and examined ; if her garments are torn, then he is 
 guilty ; but if his, then she is guilty." The priests who sat in 
 judgment declared him innocent, because his garments were 
 found torn ; but, said they, if he be acquitted it will be a 
 disgrace for the woman, who will be stigmatised as a harlot, 
 
GENESIS XXXIX. ii-XL. 14. 239 
 
 therefore let him remain in prison. Because the priests judged 
 justly, Joseph gave them bread enough in the time of famine, 
 when he became ruler.^ 
 
 . And he was there in the prison where the princes used to be 
 confined, where it was quite light. And 
 
 2 1 77?^ Lord was with Joseph in prison. 
 
 Chapter XL. — i After these words, of Petiphar's wife, 
 which made people talk a great deal about Joseph, God caused 
 the butler of the king and his baker to offend the king of Egypt, 
 in order that- people should talk of them and forget Joseph. 
 These the king imprisoned. But the butler was Hberated, 
 because his offence was not serious ; a fly was found in the 
 king's cup of wine, which could not be prevented, and possibly 
 it might have fallen in while the the cup was in the king's 
 hand. But the baker had more seriously offended ; a lump 
 of clay was found in his bread, and he was hanged. 
 
 These two royal officers were imprisoned in the same prison 
 as Joseph, and the governor of the prison charged him to wait 
 upon and serve them ; and' they continued a year in prison. 
 
 5 And. they dreamed a dream, each his own dream and the 
 interpretation of his fellow' s dream. 
 
 6-8 And Joseph came in nnto them in the morning, and 
 behold they were sad. And he asked them. Why are ye so sad ? 
 And they said unto -him. We have dreained a dream, and there is 
 no interpreter of it, because we are in prison. Thus writes the 
 Chlzkuni. 
 
 Joseph said : Tell me the dream, perhaps God will grant that 
 I shall be able to interpret it. 
 
 9-14 The chief butler told his dream to Joseph : In my dream 
 a vi?ie was before me. And in the vine were three branches, 
 and they blossomed and the grapes soon ripened. I took the 
 grapes and pressed them into the king's Cup which I gave into 
 Pharaoh's hand. Joseph said : The three branches are three 
 days, for yet in three days shall Pharaoh restore thee unto 
 
 1 Chap, xlvii. 22. 
 
240 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 himself, and thou wilt be a butler by hirn as heretofore. But 
 think on me, and show kindness unto me, and cause me to be 
 freed from this prison. 
 
 15 For I was stolen from the land of the Jews ;'^ and because 
 he was not ashamed to tell among the Egyptians that he was 
 from the land of the Jews, therefore he was worthy to be buried 
 in the Land of Israel.^ 
 
 16-19 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was 
 good. Rashi says : Because he dreamed of the interpretation, 
 that the butler would come out of prison in peace. 
 
 And he said unto Joseph : I dreamed that I carried on my 
 head three baskets of bread, and in the uppermost basket there 
 were all manner of bakemeats for the king, and a bird was 
 eating it. And Joseph said : The ttiree baskets are three days, 
 for yet in three days shall Pharaoh order thee to be hanged, 
 and the birds will eat thy flesh. 
 
 20 And it came to pass the third day was the day when 
 Pharaoh became king, and he made a grand banquet for his 
 servants, and restored the butler to his former butlership, but 
 he hanged the baker. 
 
 23 The chief hitler remembered not Joseph, and the good 
 he had done him in interpreting his dream favourably ; he 
 remembered not to do him some good turn for his kindness, 
 but forgat him. And because Joseph, trusted in the chief 
 butler, he remained in prison two years longer. Hence let us 
 learn to rely no more on any one but on God ! 
 
 End of Section IX. 
 
 Chapter XLI. — i And it came to pass at the end of two 
 years, of Joseph's punishment (because he trusted in the chief 
 butler), Pharaoh dreamed a dream. The Chizkuni writes ; That 
 
 ' Hebrews. This is a liberty with the original text. 
 The Talmud says: Whosoever is buried in the Land of Israel, is 
 buried, as it were, beneath the altar, etc. Kethuboth, fol. IIIA. , 
 
GENESIS XL. \\-XLT. 7. 241 
 
 but for his offence he would have had twelve tribes, like his 
 father ; but he lost ten, and had only two (Ephraim and 
 Manasseh). And it was also (divinely) decreed that he should 
 be ten years in prison, and an addition of two years, because 
 he trusted in the chief butler. At the end of that time — 
 
 Pharaoh dreamed, and behold, he stood over the river} The 
 B'chai and the Toldoth Yitzkhac write : In the whole of this 
 chapter, " Pharaoh king of Egypt," does not occur, because his 
 fall came by means of this river. In the first of the ten plagues 
 this river was turned into blood.^ Hence in the dream of his 
 standing by the river, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is not mentioned, 
 because, by this river his kingdom was spoiled. But as soon 
 as mention is made of Joseph, that he is about to be a ruler, 
 mention is also made of Pharaoh, as king of Egypt (ver. 46). 
 In honour of Joseph he is called king ; that is to say, he is a 
 king and made Joseph a ruler, and Scripture shows us that his 
 kingdom had an existence, because of Joseph's advice to him 
 to provide corn for the famine. 
 
 It is not said that he stood by the shore of the river, but that . 
 he stood over the river,^ because Pharaoh made himself god, 
 and said that he was over the river, that is to say, he created 
 it ; and what he thought of, that he dreamed, that he stood over 
 the river. 
 
 But God terrified Pharaoh with dreams, and made his wise 
 men fools that they should not know the interpretation thereof, 
 in order that Joseph should interpret it and- become a ruler. 
 And Pharaoh saw in the dream that — 
 
 2-7 There came up out of the river seven cows, ve?y fat and 
 healthy, and fed on the bank. After- that canie up seve?i other 
 cows, lean and dry ; and the seven lean cows swallowed the 
 
 * A.V. " by, the river." ^ Exod. vii. 20. 
 
 3 It is not said in the text "lIST! nStJ* 71?, i.e. ©n the bank or rhargin of 
 the- river, but it'issaid "IINin 75?, over the river, for it might so be rendered 
 if it suits a purpose, as we have seen a similar instance in chap, xviii. 2, 
 when it is stated that the angels stood IvJ?, over Abraham. 
 
242 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 seven fat ones, and it could not be discovered tliat tliese were 
 in the belly of those. Pharaoh woke up, and slept again, and 
 dreamt a second time that seven ears of corn came up upon 
 one stalk, full and good, and after them sprung seven empty 
 ones. And Pharaoh awoke and saw that it was a dream which 
 needed to be interpreted. 
 
 The Chizkfini asks : Why is it not said of the first dream, 
 " And, behold, it was a dream" which also needed to be 
 interpreted ? The reply is : There was nothing so marvellous 
 in the first dream, when the lean cows did eat up the fat ones, 
 because cows have mouths ; but the ears of corn having no 
 mouths, it was a great marvel to Pharaoh when they swallowed 
 up the other ears of corn, and it frightened him. 
 
 8 And it came to pass in the morning, that his spirit was 
 troubled. He was frightened and gasped for breath. The 
 B'chai writes : Pharaoh had not forgotten bis dream, like 
 Nebuchadnezzar,! because, had Pharaoh forgotten his dream, 
 and h^d'he asked his wise men to find it out, then the chief 
 butler would not have mentioned Joseph, for he would have 
 thought, Joseph can only interpret a dream, but is unable to 
 tell it, hence God caused that Pharaoh should not forget the • 
 dream. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar would not tell the dream, for he thought, 
 " If I tell the dream, then many wise men will interpret it,"each 
 in a different way, and I shall not know which is the true 
 interpretation ; therefore I will not tell it, and the wise man 
 who can tell it, will certainly be able 'to interpret it." Thus 
 write the Chizkflni, the Toldoth Yitzkhac and the Imrae 
 Noam. The last two give also another explanation : Nebu- 
 chadnezzar's dream referred to a distinct future of several 
 thousand years, and if Daniel had to interpret only, 
 Nebuchadnezzar would not have believed him, for he would 
 have said, " Who can tell if this be true ? " Now when Daniel 
 told the dream itself, his interpretation was accepted as true. 
 1 Dan. ii. 5- . 
 
GENESIS XLI. 7-12; 2« 
 
 But Pharaoh's dream referred to a tinje near at hand, and the 
 interpretation could be tested whether it were a true one or 
 not ; hence Pharaoh did not forget the dream. 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac further asks : Why did not Pharaoh 
 kill the wise men who could not tell the interpretation, whilst 
 Nebuchadnezzar killed his wise men who did not know the 
 dream ? The answer is this : The wise men of Nebuchadnezzar 
 consulted the king to slay the (Jewish) priests who, if he had 
 not killed them, would have told him the dream by means of 
 the Urim and Thummim ; therefore said Nebuchadnezzar, " It 
 was through you that I killed the priests, tell me therefore the 
 dream, if not, I will kill you." 
 
 9,12 Tlien spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh : I and the 
 baker dreamed a dream in prison, and there was with us a 
 young man, a /era, a semant to the captain of the guards Rashi 
 says : The kindness of the wicked is not altogether hearty. 
 The chief butler, who wished to do Joseph a kindness to get 
 him out of prison, said, " He is a young man, and not fit to be- 
 a ruler ; he is a Jew, and does not know our language ; and he 
 is a servant, and with us it is a law that no servant can be 
 king." 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : The chief butler was afraid, if Joseph 
 became a ruler, he would be angry with him, for having left 
 him so long in prison, therefore he spoke evil of him. 
 
 It adds another explanation : The chief butler was afraid 
 that Pharaoh would be angry, that such a respectable rhan 
 should have been left so long in prison. 
 
 But the Toldoth Yitzkhac. writes the contrary : The chief 
 butler certainly desired to do a kindness unto Joseph, so that ■ 
 he should become a ruler ; hence he said unto Pharaoh, that 
 Joseph was a wise man and a prophet ; he was a young man, 
 and had not much learning, but he knew how to interpret a 
 
 ' D'n3tOn "W. We give the rendering of this term as found in the 
 A.V., but it might also be rendered j -The chief cooli, the chief butcher, 
 or chief executioner. 
 
244 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 dream, and therefore he must be a prophet. " Shouldst thou 
 say, he is a necromancer, then I tell thee, that he is a Jew, to 
 whom necromancy is forbidden. Shouldst thou say that he 
 is of some high officials who study wisdom, then I tell thee, 
 that he is a servant. Shouldst thou say that he is servant to a 
 master who studies wisdom, then I tell thee, that he is servant 
 to the chief butcher (A.V. captain of the guard), who never 
 learnt wisdom." 
 
 IT, As he interpreted to us, so it was. The Midrash Rabba 
 says : A woman once came to Rabbi Eliezer and said, " Rabbi, 
 I have seen in a dream that the beam of my house broke 
 down." The Babbi told her, " Thou- wilt have a son, and 
 he will live ; " and as he interpreted so it was. On another 
 ■occasion the same woman came to the school of Rabbi EKezer 
 to inquire the meaning of a similar dream. The Rabbi being 
 absent, his disciples asked her to tell them the dream. And 
 she said, " I dreamt that the beam of my house broke down." 
 They interpreted this that her husband, would die. The 
 woman began to cry, and meanwhile the Rabbi arrived, and 
 asked why she cried. The disciples told him the nature of 
 her dream and of their interpretation -of it. The Rabbi ex- 
 claimed : " Ye have killed this woman's husband, for all dreams 
 follow the mouth," that is, according to the interpretation of a 
 dream, so is the reaUsation of it, as it is said in the text : '^As 
 he interpreted to us, so it was." i 
 
 But there was none that could inteipret them unto Pharaoh, 
 so that the interpretation should enter his heart. He dreamed 
 the dream with its interpretation, but he only remembered 
 
 ' Dreams play a great part in orthodox Judaism. A dream is the 
 sixtieth part of prophecy, and he who passes seven nights without dream- 
 ing deserves 'to be called wicked. The Talmud has a good deal to say 
 about good and bad dreams, and the Jewish Liturgy for the Festivals, 
 whilst the priests spread out their hands to bless the people, supplies a 
 very solemn prayer with special reference to dreams. "Lord. of the 
 Universe ! I am thine, and my dreams are thine ; I have dreamed a dream, 
 and. know not what it is," etc., etc. 
 
GENESIS XLI. 12-18. 24s 
 
 the dream. The philosophers told him that he would have 
 seven daughters, and seven daughters he would bury, but he 
 could not accept this interpretation, for his heart palpitated 
 (with fear). 
 
 The B'chai and the Toldoth-Yitzkhac ask : Why did not 
 the wise men know that the cows were a sign of scarcity and 
 plenty, for they are employed in ploughing ; and then the 
 ears of corn were a sign of veritable corn ? The answer is : 
 God made the wise men fools, that Joseph should come and 
 tell the dream. 
 
 14 And they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. Our 
 sages learn from this, that from trouble soon comes deliverance; 
 from the dungeon he was made a ruler. 
 
 And he shaved himself, and changed his raiment. Rashi 
 says : Although he did not know that he was about to_ be 
 liberated from prison, yet he shaved himself in honour of 
 royalty.^ 
 
 15, 16 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I heard say of thee, 
 that thou canst understand a dream and interpret it. And 
 J'oseph answered, saying, It is not in me such wisdom, but 
 may God send an answer by my mouth concerning the peace 
 of Pharaoh, that I should be able to tell thee the meaning of 
 this dream. 
 
 The B'chai says: Pharaoh and his people imagined that the- 
 world was governed by the seven stars, and not by God ; hence 
 Pharaoh thought that the seven ears of corn indicated that; 
 the seven stars would bring plenty and famine ; therefore 
 Joseph first said, that God would answer respecting the peace 
 of Pharaoh, that is to say, do thou not imagine that the stars 
 do anything, but all things are done by God. 
 
 17, 18 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, 
 seven cows fat and good-looking. The B'chai asks : Why does 
 Pharaoh state the dream to Joseph in terms different from 
 
 ^ It is strange that no explanation is offered of Joseph following a fashion 
 contrary to the law of Judaism. 
 
246 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 those employed before ? The answer is this : The sages say, 
 Joseph, said to Pharaoh, " Thou hast not seen 'fat and good- 
 looking,' but ' good-looking and fat ; ' " and Pharaoh marvelled 
 and said unto Joseph, "Hast thou been in my dream, that thou 
 knowest all things ? " Hence it is said further on, that Pharaoh 
 had said, " Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this" that 
 is to say : God made it known unto thee what I have dreamed. 
 And Joseph said : 
 
 25 The dream of Pharaoh is one. "Think not because thou 
 hast dreamed of seven cows and then of seven ears of corn, 
 that this is two dreams ; it is but one dream, and God showeth 
 by the seven fat cows and the seven full ears, seven years of 
 plenty ; and by the seven lean cows and empty ears is shown 
 that after the seven years of plenty there will be seven years 
 of famine." 
 
 32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice, 
 it is because God will shortly bring it to pass. The Chizkuni 
 asks : Joseph also dreamed twice respecting his brethren, why 
 was not his dream shortly brought to pass ? The answer is 
 this : Joseph did not dream twice in one night ; but Pharaoh 
 having had both dreams in one night, they were speedily ful- 
 filled. 
 
 33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and 
 wise, who shall be able to provide the country with sufficient 
 bread, and the rest should be sold (to other countries). He 
 is a wise man who knows what is to be done to preserve the 
 grain from rotting ; and Pharaoh set that man over the land 
 of Egypt to collect the gold and silver into the treasury of the 
 
 king. 
 
 34 Let Pharaoh appoint such a man, and let that man 
 appoint officers to collect corn. Each shall give a fifth part 
 into the' king's treasury. Though formerly a tenth was only 
 given, now a fifth was needed, that the people should not have 
 to starve in the time of famine. 
 
 3S> 37. 38 ^'^ them gather all the food, and lay up corn 
 
GENESIS XLT. 18-45. ' 247 
 
 And the counsel was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and 
 in the eyes of all his servants. And Pharaoh said, Is there to 
 be fou7id such a mari as this in whom is the prophecy of God ? 
 The Ramban writes : Because the Egyptians hate the Jew, so 
 that when a Jew touches their bread they hold it for unclean, 
 Pharaoh thought that the Egyptians would not approve the 
 appointment of Joseph as Viceroy, and therefore he was 
 obliged to state that amongst the Egyptians no such wise man 
 was to be found. 
 
 39 And Pharaoh said utito Joseph, Forasinuch as God hath 
 showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou 
 art ; therefore thou shalt be a lord over my people. 
 
 42 And Pharaoh took off his signet-ring from his hand, and 
 put it upon Joseph's hand, and said, 'Thou shalt be ruler, only 
 in the throne will I be greater than thou'. 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : Pharaoh thought to himself, " I will 
 test Joseph, lest he does not give a true interpretation and 
 seek« only to free himself from prison. I will therefore make 
 him a prince, and if the interpretation be not true, he will not 
 accept the position of a prince, because he could not retain it." 
 And lu put a gold chain about his neck. 
 
 43) 44 And he made him ride in the second chariot which he 
 had, and they cried before him. Here rides the you7ig ruler ! And 
 Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Without thy knowledge none shall 
 take up a sword in his hand. 
 
 45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name, Zaphnath-paaneah, 
 which means. He reveals hidden things like a prophet. 
 
 And he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah. 
 He was called Potipherah, because he crammed calves for the 
 worship of the stars (idolatry); as also because he was a 
 eunuch, * * * he became a priest, who has no wife. 
 
 The Chizkuni remarks : Joseph married the daughter of 
 Potipherah, in order to prove that he was innocent in relation to 
 his wife ; for it would not then have been lawful for him to 
 marry her daughter. 
 
248 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 .The Chizkiini and the B'chai write also : That Asenath was 
 the daughter of Dinah, which she had by Shechem. Her 
 brothers wished to kill her for the disgrace, but Jacob suspended 
 on her a Kamea, or charm, on which he wrote: "He who 
 marries her, let him know that he is matrimonially allied to 
 Jacob ; " and then he drove her from his house, and she hid 
 herself among thorns, hence she is called Asenath or Osenath. 
 Smeh, in the Holy Tongue, means, thorn. The angel Gabriel 
 brought her into the house of Potipherah, whose wife adopted 
 her for a daughter, and brought her up. When Joseph took 
 a journey over Egypt, all women went out to meet him, and to 
 admire his beauty. Each woman threw to him some article of 
 adornment, but Osenath, having nothing else, threw to him the 
 Kamea, which proving that . she was a grandchild to Jacob, 
 Joseph- took her to wife. Subsequently, when Jacob came to 
 visit Joseph in Egypt, he asked him, who were his cliildren ; 
 and he showed him the Kamea which Jacob had written.^ 
 
 48 And the food of the field which was round about. They 
 took of the soil on which the corn grew and mixed it with the 
 corn as a preventative of its becoming rotten. 
 
 50 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of 
 famine came. * * * * 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : Was not Jochebed born in the gate of 
 Egypt between the walls on their arrival in Egypt at the time 
 of the famine ? The answer is this : Joseph was obliged to 
 separate himself (from matrimonial duties) because he knew 
 the distress of his father and brethren, but when Levi saw that 
 they were well off, and had no need of anything, therefore he 
 did not separate himself from his wife ; and he was not in duty 
 bound to do so on account of Joseph's distress, for on account 
 of an individual one need not separate. The Debek Tov 
 says : Joseph having had all the corn in his hands, and heard 
 the cry of the people, he was obliged to separate. 
 
 I The whole of this is a laboured attempt to gloss over the obvious but 
 unwelcome fact, that Joseph married an alien. 
 
GENESIS XLI. 45-56. 249 
 
 55 What he says to you, do. Rashi, in reference to a Midrash, 
 says : When the people came to Joseph, he said unto them, 
 " My God will not feed those who are not circumcised, go 
 therefore and be circumcised, and I will give you bread." 
 They then went to Pharaoh and told him that Joseph bade 
 them be circumcised. Pharaoh asked them : " Why have ye 
 not collected corn in the years of plenty ? " The reply was : 
 " We have collected corn, but it became rotten. Pharaoh 
 further asked : " Where is the bread which ye have baked ? " 
 They answered : " It has- become rotten in the basket." 
 Pharaoh then said, " Go therefore to Joseph, and be circum- 
 cised for the sake of bread, because what Joseph says, that 
 must be ; he ordered that the corn should become rotten, and 
 it was so ; and if he should decree that we die, we all must 
 die!"i 
 
 The Baal Hatturim remarks : The word Lachem, i.e. (to you) 
 has the same numerical value, ninety, as the word Hamillah, 
 i.e. the circumcision, and then it is said : " do,^' that is to say, 
 " He bids you to be circumcised. Do I" (do his bidding). 
 
 56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth ; first 
 it was hard upon the poor, and then also upon the rich. And 
 
 1 Even the common talk of the disciples of the wise, says the Talmud, 
 is worthy of study. This little sentence is proverbial among the learned 
 Jews, and has an important significance on which it would be hard to 
 enlighten an outsider, who probably will smile or sneer when he reads the 
 above paragraph, apparently so stupid, or at least, only common talk of 
 the disciples of the Rabbis. The orthodox Jew, however, sees in this 
 paragraph what others are unworthy to see. He sees in Joseph a type of 
 the modem orthodox Jew, and in Pharaoh of the modern kings and queens 
 of the world. Pharaoh said to his people, "What he says to you, do." 
 Virtually the nations of the world are told the same by their respective 
 reigning sovereigns, because the sons of Jacob have the sinews of war and 
 the granaries at their disposal — life and death is in their hand — and Pharaoh 
 said, significantly hints our commentator in the above paragraph, " if he 
 ' should decree that we die, we all must die," Yes, we must die, for it is 
 written (Job xxii. 28), " Thou shalt also decree a thing (here on earth), and 
 it shall be established unto thee " (from heaven). See Taaniih, fol. 23A. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt, for what they did 
 eat, did not satisfy their belly. 
 
 Chapter XLII. — i When Jacob saw thai there was corn in 
 Egypt. It ought to have been said, he heard ; but he saw 
 prophetically that he had a hope in Egypt, for the word Sheber 
 {i.e. corn) also means hope?- 
 
 Jacob said to his sons, Why do ye (look one upon aiiother ? A. V.) 
 make yourselves lean and are unwilling to go to Egypt for 
 corn ? Thus writes Rashi. 
 
 Rashi gives another explanation : Why should you appear 
 before the children of Esau and of Ishraael as if ye were 
 satiated ? For though ye have yet enough corn, ye ought to go 
 to Egypt for corn for the sake of (other) people. Thus writes 
 also the Chizkuni. 
 
 The B'chai on behalf of Rabbi Chananel writes : Jacob said 
 unto his children, " Why are ye to be seen together ? Separate 
 yourselves one from another." 
 
 The Ramban writes: Jacob said, "Why should ye be seen 
 here ? Why will ye not go for corn ? " 
 
 The Midrash writes: Jacob told them, "Ye should not all 
 enter by one gate, lest ye be under the influence of an evil eye, 
 for ye are mighty and handsome people." ^ 
 
 3 The brethren of Joseph were ten. It is said the brethren of 
 Joseph, and not " the sons of Jacob," because they had repented 
 
 ' "l5ti' in Hebrew means corn, but by changing the punctuation of the 
 first letter and the vowel points of the word, "13t?' becomes "132'; the mean- 
 ing of the first is corn, and of the second hope ; thus completely altering 
 the sense of the text. Strange, that a Jewish transcriber of the Law would 
 rather chop off his hand than alter " one jot or one tittle " of a letter, but 
 the expounder of the Law constantly alters the true meaning of Scripture. 
 Thus, to this day, they "strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel" {Matt, 
 xxiii. 24). If they deal so with their sacred writings, what can fie expected 
 of them in their general literature ? " I would rather believe a Hottentot 
 than a Jew," said the late Captain Layard, who knew what he said, for he 
 had much dealing with our Hebrew brethren. 
 
 ^ In consequence of being looked irpon with an evil eye, it is believed 
 the strong and handsome man may become weak and ugly. 
 
GENESIS XLl. ^e-XLII. 3. 251 
 
 having sold their brother, and they said, " We will ransom him 
 for much money, if we. find him." 
 
 The B'chai says : They therefore went ten in number, that 
 they might be able to have Minyan J for prayer that God 
 would send to them their brother Joseph. 
 
 The Ramban writes : They went ten brothers, because the 
 first dream was to be fulfilled, that the brothers alone should 
 bow down to him. When Joseph saw that Benjamin was not 
 with them, he thought that if the dream was to be fulfilled, 
 eleveti brothers must bow down to him ; but as there were not 
 yet all the eleven, he would not make himself known to them, 
 and contrived so to treat them as to force them to bring 
 Benjamin to make up the number eleven, and thus to solve the 
 first dream. He hoped that the second dream would also soon 
 be fulfilled by the coming of his father and mother.' Had not 
 the fulfilment of the dreams been Joseph's particular aim, he 
 would not have distressed his brethren and his father. He 
 would have sent a letter to comfort his aged father with the 
 tidings that he was alive and a ruler in Egypt, from whence to 
 Hebron, where Jacob resided, was only six day's journey. Had 
 the distance been a thousand miles off, Joseph would still have 
 
 ' Minyan (I'^f?) means a legally convened congregation of not less than 
 ten adult males : women, slaves and minors, be their number ever so great, 
 are not considered fit to be members of a Jewish congregation. Ten men, 
 and never less, is the orthodox minimum for a congregation. The Talmud 
 says, in Meggillah, fol. 3B : What entitles a place to rank as a large 
 town? pj'pDa TVSf^ m E^C "pS, i-e. "When there are in it ten Batlanim, 
 less than that number the place is only a village. Now in places where 
 there are not ten Batlanim, i.e. idlers ox men of leisure, always free and 
 ready to form a Minyan, without which no public worship can be held, 
 a Minyan has often to be hired by the year, or only by the week, in order 
 to secure a legal congregation to have public worship. Much money is 
 expended every year by the synagogues to hire worshippers, and we 
 may be sure hired worshippers are very regular in attending the morning 
 and evening prayers ! and very few synagogues are shut up for want of a 
 congregation. " But money answereth all things." Ecc. x. :9. 
 
 ^ His mother was dead ! 
 
252 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 sent a letter to his father, but he saw that the fulfilment of the 
 dream in their land was impossible, for his father and brethren 
 would not bow down to him there. "But because I am ruler in 
 in Egypt," said he, " and they would not recognise me, there can 
 be no humiliation on their part to bow down to me." Especially 
 when he saw that there was a great famine in all countries, 
 and they would be obliged to come to him. 
 
 5 And the sons of Isi'ael came among those that came, for 
 they disguised themselves, to escape being looked upon with an 
 evil eye. 
 
 6 And Joseph was governor over the land of Egypt ; he sold 
 corn. The Ramban says : He himself sold the corn. He 
 ordered all granaries to be locked up except the one which he 
 himself attended, in order that his brethren should have to 
 come to him alone personally, for he himself received the 
 money from the hands of each. 
 
 The Ramban gives yet another explanation : Joseph himself 
 did not sell corn, but he commanded the governors to open 
 stores of grain separately in every land, and the children of 
 Jacob were sent las deputies from the whole land of Canaan, to 
 arrange that a store should be opened in their land. 
 
 7 And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them. Fearing 
 lest they should know him also, he put on a Ticrkish i head- 
 dress and covered his forehead and part of his face, and spoke 
 very roughly unto them and with anger. He asked them, 
 "Whence are ye?" They replied, "From the land of 
 Canaan." Then he knew right well that they were his 
 brethren, and hence it is again repeated. 
 
 8 And Joseph knew his brethren, for now he recognised them 
 thoroughly. The Chizkuni says : He thoroughly recognised 
 them because they called each other by their names. Fearing 
 to make himself known unto them lest they should disperse in 
 the world and not return to their father, he thought (of a plan) 
 that they should bring Benjamin. 
 
 ' Though there were no Turks there. 
 
GENESIS XLII. 3-9. 253 
 
 But they k?iew him not, because when he departed from 
 them he was beardless, and now he had a beard ;i they were 
 recognised by him because they had beards when "they p.arted 
 with him. So says Rashi. 
 
 But .the Ramban says : Because Joseph expected that his 
 brethren would come, therefore he searchingly looked at them 
 and recognised them ; but his brethren did not expect Joseph 
 to be the ruler of Egypt, and therefore they did not scrutinize 
 him, and they knew hint not. 
 
 The Chizkiini says: Because Joseph had assumed the name 
 Zaphnath-paaneah, therefore they knew him not; but they 
 having retained their old names, he knew them. 
 
 ' The Midrash says : Joseph knew his brethren ; when they fell 
 into his hands he pitied them as a brother, but when he fell 
 into their hands, they knew him not to have pity on him as on 
 a brother, and they sold him. 
 
 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams. When he saw his 
 brethren bow down to him, he thought, now are my dreams 
 being fulfilled. And he said unto them : " Ye are spies, to see 
 the, tiakedness of the land are ye come." 
 
 . The Midrash, and also Rashi, and the Chizkiini, and the 
 B'chai write : Joseph had given strict orders that none should 
 be admitted through any gate, till his own and his father's 
 name, and his place of abode were written down. Every 
 evening the guards brought the written reports, as to who 
 entered the city, unto Joseph. When the sons of Jacob arrived, 
 each entered through a separate gate writing down his own and 
 his father's name. In the evening ten books, with the names 
 of the ten sons of Jacob, were brought unto Joseph, and. he 
 at once ordered- that all. the grain stores except one should be 
 elosed, to the manager of which he gave the books with the 
 following order : " When these men come unto thee, send 
 them to me." The manager waited three days, but they came 
 not. Then Joseph took ten mighty men from the house of 
 1 Yevamoth, fol. 88a. 
 
254 RABBINTCAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 Pharaoh, and ordered them to search all Egypt for his brethren, 
 and they were found in the market of harlots, where they 
 searched for Joseph. They thought, because he was so very 
 handsome, he probably was bought for immoral purposes. 
 The ten mighty men took hold of them and brought them 
 unto Joseph, and he said unto them ? " Ye are spies, to see the 
 nakedness of the land ye are come, to see how to conquer it, for 
 ye entered it by ten different gates." 
 
 The B'chai says : Joseph took a cup and tapped on it, and 
 said, "My cup tells me that ye are spies." They replied, "Our 
 father ordered us not to enter together through one gate." 
 Joseph then asked them, " What were ye doing in the market 
 of harlots?" They replied, "We lost something, and we 
 searched for it there." He then said, " My cup again tells 
 me that two of you have killed all in the city of Shechem." 
 They were then much frightened, and said, "We are twelve 
 brethren, and our father sent ten to buy corn, because, on 
 account of the famine, there are many robbers on the road ; 
 and were we strong, two of us would have been enough to 
 send." 
 
 The Toldoth-Yitzkhac asks ; What kind of answer was this ? 
 Joseph charged them that they were spies, and to this charge 
 they replied : " We are all one maris sons J" The answer is' this : 
 They said, " We are all one maris sons ; is it conceivable that 
 a father would send all his children when there was danger- of 
 their being taken for spies ? he would send only one." Joseph 
 said : . 
 
 14 That is that I spake unto you, that ye are spies, for spies 
 •would not receive a stranger among them for fear lest, when 
 ■ caught and tortured, he should betray all the rest, whereas 
 one brother would give his neck and not betray the others. 
 
 Another explanation is this : Because they stated that one, 
 ^' the youngest is with our father, and one is not," therefore 
 Joseph said, " The one must be a pious man and obeys his 
 father, not to be a spy ; but y£ are scorners and disobedient to 
 
GENESIS XLII. 9-24. 255 
 
 your father, for if ye were not spies your brother would also 
 have come. By the life of Pharaoh, ye shall tiot go forth hence, 
 {except your youngest brother come hither)." 
 
 Another explanation is this : Joseph asked them, " Should 
 you find Joseph, and much money is demanded for him, would 
 ye ransom him ? " They replied, " We will ransom him for 
 any amount of money that may be asked." Joseph then said, 
 "Supposing they should not wish to give him up to you, what 
 would you do?" They said, " We would give our necks for 
 that." Joseph then said, "That is that which I spake unto you, 
 that ye are spies" 
 
 The B'chai writes : That what Joseph swore hy the life of 
 Pharaoh, that they were spies, that icas false ; but that which 
 he swore, that they should not go forth hence, that was true, for 
 he meant that all should not go forth, for one was to be kept 
 behind as a pledge. Joseph said : 
 
 16-20 Send one of you and let him fetch Benjamin your 
 youngest brother, but ye shall be kept in prison till he is brought 
 hither, and thus we shall see that ye are not spies; and' he 
 imprisoned them all. On the third day Joseph came unto 
 them and said : " I fear God I therefore let one of you remain 
 in. prison, and ye all go to your father and carry the corn, but 
 bring your youngest brother unto me." A7id they did so. The 
 B'chai says : They all said, "We are prepared, take of us any 
 one thou pleasest." 
 
 24 And he took from them Simeon, and bound him before- 
 their eyes. This he did to frighten them ; but as soon as they 
 had left he unbound him and gave him to eat and to drink. 
 He took Simeon, because Simeon had with his own hands 
 thrown him into the pit. 
 
 Another explanation is this : Joseph thought to himself that 
 it is desirable to have Simeon separated frorn Levi, because 
 •thej two being such mighty men as to be able to ^slaughter the 
 whole city of Shechem, he feared lest they might kill him also. 
 
 The Chizkiini writes : Joseph had had the intention to take 
 
256 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 Reuben, because he was the eldest brother, as it is customary 
 to take the leader of a guilty company ; but as Reuben had 
 said, " Shed no blood," and as Joseph had heard that Reuben 
 and his brethren had repented of their having sold him, he 
 therefore did not take Reuben. 
 
 The B'chai writes : And took from them Simeon. Joseph him- 
 self took Simeon, but the brethren would not give up any one 
 ■ of them as a hostage. From this we learn, that if a highway- 
 man says : " Give up one of you to be killed, if not I will kill 
 you all," they should give themselves all up to be killed rather 
 than one to be slain. 
 
 And they said one to another. We are verily guilty concerning 
 our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when we 
 had thrown him into the pit, and he prayed to us to let him 
 go, and we would not hear. 
 
 The B'chai says : These pious men knew their sins, and 
 they repented, and from this it is to be inferred that they did 
 not sell him, but only threw him into the pit, otherwise they 
 could not have accomplished their repentance till they had 
 ransomed him. 
 
 The Toldoth-Yitzkhac asks : Why they had not repented 
 whilst they were in prison ; why had they done so after they 
 were set free? The answer is this : Because Joseph, had said, 
 " I fear God, and will not afflict you." They then said, " He is 
 an idolater, and yet he has compassion on us (strangers)'; and 
 we are Jews, and Joseph was our own brother, and yet we 
 .had no pity on him." 
 
 2 2 And Reuben answered them, saying. Spake I not unto 
 you. Do not sin against the child, and ye would not hear ? 
 Therefore, behold, also his blood is required. " Although we did 
 not kill him with our own hands, in the sight of God it is as 
 if we had done so, because we knew that he was not. accus- 
 tomed to suffer afifliction (and we have bitterly afflicted him)." 
 All this they spake in the holy tongue. And 
 
 23 They knew not that Joseph understood (the holy tongue), 
 
GENESIS XLII. 21-37. 257 
 
 for he spake unto them by an interpreter. Joseph had his son 
 Manasseh as interpreter between him and his brethren. As 
 he himself did not speak to them, they thought that Joseph 
 did not understand the holy tongue. When Joseph heard 
 that his brethren repented having sold him, he turned away 
 and wept. 
 
 25 Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, with- 
 out measure, and to lay the money under the corn without 
 their knowledge. The second time Joseph commanded the 
 restoration of their money, and provision for their journey, to 
 show them that he had no hatred towards them, and that he 
 only wished they should bring their brother. 
 
 27 And as one of them opened his sack. On the road Levi 
 opened his sack to feed his ass, and he espied the money in 
 his sack ; and all the brethren were afraid, and exclaimed, 
 " What is this that God hath done unto us ? that our money is 
 in our sacks ! " 
 
 When they came to their father they told him all, and he 
 said unto them, " Ye have killed me !" 
 
 36 Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take away 
 Benjamin also; for he suspected that they had sold Simeon, 
 and wished to sell Benjamin also. 
 
 37 And Reuben said unto his father. Slay my two sons, if I 
 bring not Benjamin to thee again ; deliver him into my hand. 
 Jacob replied : "Thou art a firstborn fool ! If Benjamin does 
 not return, should I slay my grandchildren also ? They are as 
 dear to me as my own children." 
 
 The Toldoth-Yitzkhac writes : Reuben said, " Slay my chil- 
 dren ; " so that if Jacob should say, " They are also my chil- 
 dren," he should be able to reply, "and Benjamin is my brother, 
 and a brother is a nearer relation than a grandchild. Brother 
 with brother is first with first (degree) ; but a grandchild and 
 his grandfather are first and second ; therefore, as a matter of 
 course, I will take good care and bring Benjamin back." But 
 Jacob did not give heed to these words. 
 
 s 
 
258 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 Chapter XLIII. — 9 / will be surety for him. . Judah 
 reasoned with his father : " If Benjamin go with us there is in- 
 deed a doubt whether he will .return ; but if he does not go 
 with us to bring corn, and it is impossible for us to go without 
 him, then it is quite certain that we shall all die of hunger ; 
 therefore it is better that Benjamin should go with us. I will 
 be surely for him. I am surety to bring thee Benjamin and 
 place him before thee, and if not, let me be sinful all my days. 
 And had we not lingered, surely now we had returned this 
 second time." 
 
 The B'chai writes : The brethren suffered hunger, but waited 
 till the father himself consented for them to take with them 
 Benjamin. And Jacob told his children these five things : 
 I. They should take a handsome present of fruit and good 
 wine to honour the lord of Egypt. 2. They should take 
 double the amount of money taken before, lest the price of 
 corn had risen. 3. To take with them the money they found 
 in their sacks, lest the Egyptians had forgotten (to retain it). 
 4. To take Benjamin with them ; and 5. To pray. 
 
 14 And God Almighty give you mercy and grace before the 
 man who is set over the corn, that he may send away your other 
 brother out of prison, that is, Simeon. He did not utter the 
 name of Simeon, because he hated him for the slaughter at 
 Shechem, and if he had had corn he would not have sent 
 Benjamin, and would rather have left Simeon in prison. So 
 writes the Ramban. 
 
 Rashi writes : " Your brother" refers to Simeon, " other " 
 refers to Joseph. He thought, perhaps Joseph is yet alive, and 
 he prayed that God might release him (if in prison). When 
 the brethren came unto Joseph — 
 
 16 And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the 
 ruler- of his house, Bring these men home. And he ordered 
 Manasseh to slay a (clean) beast, for- the children of Jacob do 
 not eat without legal slaughtering ; and ordered the purging of 
 the sinews of the meat, as is the custom of the Jews. 
 
GENESIS XLIII. 9-33. 259 
 
 For these men shall dine with me at noon. The B'chai says : 
 Princes and judges dine at noon, for they have not the time to 
 eat early. 
 
 18 And the men were afraid, because they were brought into 
 JosepKs house; for it was not to be expected that travellers 
 should put up at Joseph's house ; and they said among them- 
 selves, "It must be on account of the money which we found 
 in our corn, that he may have an occasion against us to take 
 us for bondmen, and our asses." 
 
 19-23 And they came to the steward of Joseph's house and 
 said: "We pray thee, we bought corn here before, and when 
 we came to an inn, we each found his money in his sack, and 
 now we have brought back that money, and other money to 
 buy corn. We know not who put the money in our sacks." 
 The steward said, " Fear not, your God, and the God of your 
 fathers, hath given you the money ; but the money for the corn 
 came to my hand." And he brought Simeon out unto them. 
 
 25 And they made ready the present, and when Joseph came 
 they bowed down to him and presented it. He asked them 
 whether their father was in good health, and they said that he 
 was ; and they again bowed down to him, because he was so 
 gracious as to ask after their father's health. 
 
 29-32 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother 
 Benjamin, his mother's son, and he asked. Is this your younger 
 brother of whom ye spake unto me i They said, "This is he." 
 And he said; God be gracious unto thee my son. He was 
 greatly touched with compassion over Benjamin, and he 
 entered into a chamber, where he wept. Then he washed his 
 face and came out and ordered to lay the table, for him by 
 himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians of 
 his household by themselves, for the Egyptians do not eat 
 with a Jew, because the Jews eat mutton, whilst the Egyptians 
 worship sheep. 
 
 33 And they sat before him, the first according to his birth- . 
 right, and the youngest accordi?tg to his youth. Joseph took the 
 
26o RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 cup in his hand, tapping on it, and calling out : " Reuben, 
 Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, being of one mother, 
 take your seats together " ; and so with the rest. When he 
 came to Benjamin he said : " Thou hast no mother and I have 
 no mother, sit next to me." And the brethren marvelled one 
 at another. The Toldoth Yitzkhac says: They wondered 
 from what nation he was, " For," said they, " he does not eat 
 with us, nor with the Egyptians." 
 
 34 And he took and sent messes unto them from before him ; 
 and to Benjamin he gave five messes : one portion such as the 
 brethren received, one portion Joseph gave him, and one 
 Osenath gave, and Manasseh and Ephraim gave him each a 
 portion, making in all five times as much as the others had. 
 
 And they drank and were merry with him. The brethren 
 were tipsy with Joseph ; for Joseph had vowed never to drink 
 wine till he should see his brethren and knew if his father 
 were still alive. Now having seen and heard what he wanted 
 to know, he indulged in wine. The brethren had also vowed 
 to abstain from wine till they learned where Joseph was, and 
 although, as yet, they did not know this, they drank wirie out 
 of fear, lest Joseph should charge them to be spies, who fear 
 to drink in order not to let out their secrets. Hence out of 
 fear of danger they drank wine. 
 
 Chapter XLIV. — i And he commanded the steward of his 
 house to fill their sacks with corn, as much as they can carry, 
 more than the value of their money, and he put every ma?i's 
 money into his sack. And they should be told, " Because 
 Joseph has suspected you as spies, he therefore begs you to 
 accept the money, and to forgive him." 
 
 The Ramban and the B'chai write : Had the money been 
 put into the sacks without their knowledge, as in the case of 
 the cup, they would have been able to plead : " We have not 
 stolen the cup, but it came into our sacks without our know- 
 ledge, just as the money which we gave into thy hands came 
 into our sacks." 
 
GENESIS XLIII. 33-A'Z/K lo. 261 
 
 Joseph had ordered the cup out of which he drank to be 
 put into the sack of Benjamin. The Chizkflni says : He gave 
 this order, because he thought perhaps the brethren had 
 brought a stranger in the place of Benjamin; hence he 
 ordered that the cup should be found with him, and if they 
 offered their necks for him, then he would be sure that it was 
 Benjamin. ' 
 
 3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away. 
 Our sages learn from this : That a town should be left when it 
 is already light of day, and a town should be entered when it 
 is light of day. ^ 
 
 4 And ftot yet far off. Joseph ordered to pursue them, in 
 order that they should not have the trouble of returning from 
 a distance, and say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil 
 for good hy stealing the cup ? 
 
 5 Verily this is the cup in which my lord drinkeih, and he 
 who stealeth from a king's table is guilty of death. 
 
 And whereby indeed he divineth. And whereby he practises 
 witchcraft, and it is highly prized by him. 
 
 The Ramban says : The pursuer told them, " That my lord 
 consulted the soothsayers, and they informed him that the 
 cup is with you." The brethren answered, " Is it likely we 
 should steal the cup, when we restored the money we found in 
 our sacks." 
 
 9 With whomsoever thou findest the cup, let him die, and also 
 we will be thy lord's bondsmen. The pursuer said, "It is true, 
 when stolen properly is found with a company, all ought to be 
 taken for bondsmen, but I will deal kindly with you," and 
 
 10 He with whom the stolen C2ip is found shall be my servant, 
 
 ' This is a really ingenious suggestion ; but it quite overloolcs the fact 
 that Joseph had recognised Benjamin, as he had recognised the other ten 
 brethren. The real motive is betrayed in verses 16, 17: "He with 
 whom the stolen cup is found shall be my servant ; " Joseph's first idea 
 being to keep his own brother back and let the others go. 
 
 ' Rashi in Taanith, fol. I OB. 
 
262 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 and ye shall be blameless, and free to depart in peace to your 
 father. 
 
 The Ramban says : The brethren spake thus, " When 
 stolen property is found with one of a company, all the rest 
 are not guilty ; but we are eleven brothers, and if thou findest 
 the theft with any one of us, we all shall submit to be servants." 
 Then the pursuer said : 
 
 Let it be according to your words. " It is true, as you say, 
 that when stolen goods are found with one of a company, all 
 the rest are not guilty; therefore I will declare you not all 
 guilty, but with whom I find the theft, him will I take for a 
 servant." 
 
 1 2 And he searched and began at the eldest, and ended with 
 the youngest, in order that they should not suspect that it was 
 he who had put the cup into Benjamin's sack. The cup was 
 found in Benjamin's sack. The brethren felt ashamed and 
 beat him, and taunted him thus : " Thou wast born to be a 
 thief, for thy mother Rachel stole Laban's images." But be- 
 cause they suspected him without cause, he was worthy of the 
 Temple being built in his portion of land. Ye have done evil 
 in so doing. 
 
 15 Then they rent their clothes. Because they caused their 
 father to rend his clothes on account of Joseph, therefore God 
 punished them measure for measure. But Benjamin, who 
 rent his clothes without cause, became worthy that from him 
 should descend Mordecai, who wore royal garments in the 
 time of Ahasuerus.i The pursuer was Manasseh, and because 
 he caused the brethren to rend their garments, his inheritance 
 was torn and divided, so that his property was half beyond 
 Jordan and half in the land of Israel.^ 
 
 14 And they fell before him on the ground. The brethren, 
 and Benjamin too, fell before Joseph to the ground, thus ful- 
 filling the dream where the eleven stars worshipped him. 
 
 16 What shall we say unto my lord? "What shall we say 
 
 ' Esther viii. 15. ' Josh, xviii. 7. 
 
GENESIS XLIV. 10-16. 263 
 
 respecting the money which first came into our sacks without 
 our knowledge ? What shall we speak 1 or how shall we 
 clear ourselves ? God has found occasion to punish us for 
 our transgressions." 
 
 The Eben Shoab asks : Why did Joseph wish to send away 
 his brethren without Benjamin, and thus distress his father? 
 and why did he not at once make himself known that he was 
 Joseph ? The reply is this : Joseph knew that it was very 
 difficult for Jacob to leave the land of Israel for the " outside 
 of the land" therefore he himself did not wish to cause Jacob 
 to come to Egypt ; but as Judah had provoked him with 
 harsh words, he felt obliged to make himself known. Through 
 this accident Jacob came into Egypt, and Joseph thought that 
 it was all from God, and that he was blameless. Jacob in- 
 quired of God whether he should go down into Egypt, and 
 the Divine reply was, '■^ Fear not to go down into Egypt." For 
 twenty-two years had God hidden from Jacob that Joseph was 
 in Egypt, for it was not yet the time of the captivity of Egypt, 
 because Isaac was yet alive. Jacob was not to come into 
 Egypt, and this fact that Jacob could not come into Egypt on 
 account of Isaac being yet alive was known to Joseph, hence 
 he asked his brethren, "Is your grandfather well?"^ This 
 means to say: Joseph told his brethren that they were spies; 
 they said that they were come from respectable people, Abra- 
 ham and Isaac, hence 'he asked them, "Does your grandfather 
 Isaac live yet?" to which they answered, "Thy servant, our 
 father, is yet alive" thus giving him to understand that the 
 grandfather was not alive, for they would not plainly communi- 
 cate bad tidings. From this we learn that bad news should not 
 be told plainly, but under disguise, as we find an example in 
 
 ' Chap, xliii. 27. The accents on Iptil D3''35< rather favours the read- 
 ing of grandfather, though the context does not. Both the A.V. and 
 the New Revision of the Old Testament seem to have overlooked the 
 accents of the two Hebrew words, which ought to have been rendered 
 "your aged father," and not "your father, the old man." 
 
264 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 the Gemara, where it is stated that Rabbi Chiyah asked Rav, 
 " Is my father alive ? " he replied, " Thy mother is ahve," in 
 order that he should understand that his father was not alive, i 
 Behold, we are my lord^s servants, both we, and he also with 
 whom the cup is found. The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks : What 
 need was there to say, " And he also with whom the cup is 
 found " should be a servant ? Could it have been otherwise ? 
 The answer is : They said, "God punishes us because we sinned 
 in selling Joseph, therefore we will all be servants ; and not 
 only we, but he with whom the cup is found, though he was 
 not present at the selling of Joseph, shall also be servant." 
 And hence they said, " both ive," that is to say, we also, who 
 have done no sin in the matter of the cup, shall be servants. 
 
 1 7 And he said, God forbid that I should do so, and take you 
 all for servants, but he in whose possession the cup is found 
 shall be a servant, and ye go in peace to your father. 
 
 End of Section X. 
 
 1 8 Then Judali came near unto him. Judah approached 
 Joseph with soft words to soften his anger, as it is written; 
 " A soft answer turneth away wrath ; " ^ in order that Joseph 
 should have compassion on them. 
 
 Judah, however, prepared himself to argue legally, either in 
 kindly words or in warlike discussion, and hence he said : " In 
 me, my lord ! " ^ " In me wilt thou find all, either judgment, 
 or kindly words, or if it comes to war thou wilt also be unable 
 to prevail against me." 
 
 Another explanation is: Judah said, " /« me, mylord/ltt 
 the sin of the cup be. I will be servant in his place. And if 
 
 ' Vide 2 Sam. xviii. 20-27. To this day the Jews are very particular 
 as to the wording and manner of communicating to a friend or neighbour 
 any bad news. 
 
 ^ Prov. XV. I. 
 
 3 In A. V. "Oh, my lord." But the original 'JIK ^ literally means, 
 " In me, my lord." 
 
GENESIS XLIV. 16-27. 265 
 
 thou wilt ask, why I plead for him more than all the brethren, 
 it is '■because thy servant became surety for the lad unto my 
 father, that I will bring him home ; ' and thou art esteemed 
 in my sight even as Pharaoh." 
 
 Another explanation is : " Thou art even as Pharaoh. If 
 thou retainest Benjamin thou wilt be punished as Pharaoh was 
 punished for retaining Sarah one night ; he was smitten with 
 leprosy, so likewise wilt thou be smitten with leprosy." 
 
 Another explanation is : " Thou art even as Pharaoh, who 
 does not keep his word, and like him thou dost not keep thy 
 thy word ; for thou hast said that thou wilt do kindness unto 
 Benjamin, but now thou art distressing him." 
 
 Another explanation is : " Thou art even as Pharaoh. If 
 thou wilt provoke me I will kill thee with Pharaoh, and I will 
 begin with thee ! " Judah said unto Joseph, " Evidently from 
 the first thou camest with a false pretext : " ' 
 
 19 My lord asked his servants. Have ye a father, or a 
 brother 1 " What need hadst thou to ask us this ? Did we 
 seek to take a daughter of thee ? But because thou didst ask, 
 we told thee the truth, that we have an aged father and a 
 younger brother, and one brother is dead!' In the former 
 section (ch. xlii. 18) they said, "And one is not," i.e. he was 
 lost ; but now they feared to say : " and one is lost," lest 
 Joseph should say : " Seek and search for him and bring him 
 hither." Therefore they said : " We have learned that he is 
 dead. Thou hast said : ' Bring hither your younger brother,' 
 and we said : ' If the lad leaves his father, the father may die 
 of sorrow, as well as the lad.' Thou then didst say : ' Ye 
 shall not see my face, except your younger brother be with you! ^ 
 When we came to our father and told him all this, he said : 
 
 27 Ye well know that my wife bare me two sons, Joseph and 
 
 Benjamin. Joseph is not, and if. ye take Benjamin also from 
 
 me, and if, God forbid ! some accident befalls him on the 
 
 road, as it did to his brother, then I shall die of grief ; because 
 
 ' Chap, xliii. 3. 
 
266 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 •when Benjamin is with me, he comforts me for his mother and 
 his brother, and if you lose him it will be to me as if they all 
 three had died on one day." 
 
 The B'chai writes : Judah said unto Joseph, " Beware of my 
 father, for he cursed Rachel who stole the images of Laban, 
 and she died on the road in consequence ; and if thou take 
 away Benjamin he will curse thee also. Mind also, two of our 
 brethren overthrew the city of Shechem on account of Dinah, 
 who is but a woman, how much more will they destroy all 
 Egypt on account of Benjamin, who is a man ! and who is 
 holy, because the Temple will be built on his share of the 
 land. Therefore deliver him up to us ! " 
 
 32 For thy servant became surety for the lad, saying. If I 
 bring him not unto thee, then . let me be sinful to my father in 
 both worlds, in this and in the world to come ! Joseph re- 
 plied, " I see by my cup that ye have sold a brother, why hast 
 thou not been surety for him ? " When Judah heard this, he 
 said to Naphtali,! " Go and see how many markets and streets 
 there are in Egypt." Naphtali went and came and said, " There 
 are twelve markets." Judah said, "I take upon me three 
 markets to kill all the people in them, and ye take each one 
 market to destroy." The brethren said to Judah, " If thou 
 destroy Egypt it will be as much as if thou destroy the whole 
 world, for everybody lives by Egypt." Judah then began again 
 to quarrel with Joseph,, and said, " From the very first thou 
 earnest with a false accusation, and hast charged us that we 
 were spies, and then that we stole the cup. I swear by my 
 father, as thou hast sworn by Pharaoh, that I will draw my 
 sword and strike off thy head ! I will open my mouth and 
 swallow thee up ! " Joseph said, " I will stop up thy mouth 
 with a stone." Judah : " The fire of Shechem yet burns within 
 me, I will dye all Egypt with blood !" Joseph : "Ah yes, ye 
 were dyers of old ! Ye have dyed in blood the shirt of Joseph, 
 
 ' Because he was more swift-footed than any of his brethren, and Jacob 
 himself compares him to " a hind set loose." 
 
GENESIS XLIV. 2-j-XLV. 3. 267 
 
 and ye told the father that a wild beast devoured him !" When 
 he said this, all the brethren agreed to destroy Egypt. Joseph 
 feared, and made himself known to them. He ordered out all 
 who were present except the brethren, that they should not be 
 put to the blush before the Egyptians that they had sold him. 
 It would also have been a disgrace to him for the Egyptians 
 to know that he had such brethren ; and the Egyptians would 
 not have allowed them to dwell in Egypt. He also ordered 
 them out, because many officers of Pharaoh had interceded 
 for Benjamin, and as he could not refuse them he ordered 
 them out. 
 
 Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmaini says : Joseph was placing 
 himself in great danger in ordering all out when he made 
 himself known to his brethren. How is it that he did not 
 fear that they might kill him and no one would have known 
 about it ? 
 
 The Midrash writes: Joseph said unto them, "Ye say Ben- 
 jamin's brother is dead, I will show him to you ; " and he began 
 calling " Joseph ! " His brethren looked about in every direc- 
 tion ; and Joseph said, " Why do ye look about ? I am 
 Joseph." His brethren could not answer him for fear. 
 
 Rabbi Yochanan observes : If the brethren could not 
 answer Joseph when he showed them their sin, how much 
 more in the Day of Judgment, when God will show the people 
 their sins, will they be unable to answer ! 
 
 Chapter XLV. — 3 Doth my father yet live ? The Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac writes : Although the brethren had already informed 
 him that their father was alive, Joseph asked again, "Doth my 
 father yet live ? " because he thought the brethren would be in 
 fear of their lives for having sold him ; therefore he said (to 
 reassure them), " My father is yet alive ! Even Esau would do 
 no harm to Jacob so long as Isaac was alive, in order not to 
 distress him, how much more will I do you no harm (in order 
 not to distress my father) ! " When Joseph saw that they were 
 troubled in his presence, he said : 
 
268 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 4, 5 Come near to me, . . . I am Joseph your brother, 
 whom ye sold thither. Fear not, for God sent me here to 
 nourish and to maintain you. 
 
 8 So now, it was not you that sent me hither, but God. And 
 this ye can understand from the fact that ye sold me for a 
 servant, but God made me ruler in Egypt. 
 
 And they came near. The B'chai says : Joseph addressed 
 them : "I am Joseph your brother ; though you sold me I 
 am still your brother, and I will not lord over you." And they 
 came near him. 
 
 The Eben Shoab writes : And after that his brethren talked 
 with him. They requested him not to tell Jacob that they 
 had sold him, for they feared he would curse them. And 
 Jacob never knew it. Thus also writes the Ramban : for had 
 Jacob known about the selling of Joseph, he would before his 
 death have commanded Joseph to forgive them. Joseph did 
 not make it known to his father lest he should curse the 
 brethren. 
 
 9, 10 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, 
 that God hath made me lord of all Egypt, and come immediately, 
 and I will settle thee in the best of the land, that is Goshen. 
 
 1 1 And there will I nourish thee, lest thou come to poverty. 
 The Ramban writes : Joseph did not maintain his father in 
 the land of Canaan, because he feared that the king with the 
 princes would say that he intended to establish stores there 
 and reside there. 
 
 12 And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother- 
 Benjamin, that I am your brother, for I speak with you in the 
 holy tongue (Hebrew). 
 
 The Chizkilni writes ; Although the Egyptians had circum- 
 cised themselves for the sake of corn, yet the circumcision 
 was a real sign that he was Joseph, because he was lord over 
 the corn and was otherwise rich, and had no need t6 circum- 
 cise himself for the sake of corn. Hence he said, ^'And, behold, 
 your eyes see, my glory, that I have no need to circumcise for 
 
GENESIS XLV. 4-14. 269 
 
 the sake of getting corn ; thus it must necessarily be that I 
 am a Jew, your brother." ^ 
 
 And the eyes of my brotJier Benjamin, He put the brothers 
 on the same footing, meaning, "As I have no hatred against 
 Benjamin, for he was not present when I was sold, so likewise 
 have I no hatred against you." 
 
 The Chizkiini writes : Joseph said to the brethren, " If ye 
 will not tell your father that I am alive, because you have 
 sworn not to tell him, let Benjamin tell him, for he did not 
 swear." 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac asks : What was there for a sign in 
 his speaking the holy tongue, for might not many Egyptians 
 have been able to speak it ? The answer is : Joseph said, 
 " Go tell your father to come here, for yet there are five years 
 of famine, and if ye do not believe it you can see with your 
 eyes that the eleven sheaves, which intimated the eleven 
 brethren, would bow down to me, has been fulfilled ; and 
 thereby you may know that what I say about the five years 
 more of famine is also true. // is my mouth that speaketh 
 unto you ; that is to say, you can comprehend that what my 
 mouth speaketh is true. Therefore bring my father to me, 
 and I will maintain him." 
 
 Rabbi Israel writes : Joseph said, " / a/n Joseph, doth my 
 father yet live V That is to say, " I Joseph am yet alive, but 
 I do not know if my father is yet alive with his prophecy ; for 
 if he be yet alive with his prophecy, he would have known that 
 I am yet alive." 
 
 14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamiris neck, and wept, 
 because the two temples that will be built in Benjamin's 
 portion of land will be destroyed. And Benjamin wept upon 
 his neck, because of the destruction of the Tabernacle of 
 Shiloh, which was to be in Joseph's portion of land.^ 
 
 ' In Avoth d'Rab. Nathan, chap. ii. it is stated that Joseph and Balaam, 
 among others, were born circumcised, though Balaam was a Gentile and 
 not a Jew. ^ Meggillah, io\. i6b. 
 
270 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 15 Moreover he kissed all his brethren, to show that he had 
 no hatred against them. 
 
 1 6 And the fame thereof was heard in PharaoKs house, that 
 Joseph's brethren were come, and Pharaoh and his princes re- 
 joiced, for till now they were ashamed, thinking that Joseph, 
 a servant, was ruling over them ; but now, seeing that he had 
 worthy brethren, and a much esteemed father, it pleased them 
 well. 
 
 The Midrash writes : And the fame thereof was heard in 
 PharaoKs house. When Joseph made himself known to his 
 brethren, they wanted to kill him. An angel came and threw 
 them about in every corner of the house. Judah began to 
 roar, and all the walls in Egypt tumbled down. Other evils 
 happened ; Pharaoh was thrown from his throne and all the 
 mighty men of Egypt were terrified. 
 
 17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren. 
 Lade your beasts and go, get you unto the land of Canaan. 
 Pharaoh knew that Joseph was meek and scrupulously trust- 
 worthy, and that of himself he would send nothing, hence he 
 ordered that corn should be sent into the land of Canaan, and 
 to bring Jacob and his household into Egypt. 
 
 18 And ye shall eat the fat of the land. The sages say : 
 Pharaoh prophesied that when Israel 'Should be redeemed 
 (delivered from captivity) they would empty the land of Egypt 
 of all that is valuable.!" 
 
 2 1 And Joseph gave them wagons. Joseph gave them a 
 sign to take to Jacob by which he would believe that he was 
 Joseph. When Jacob accompanied Joseph (on the occasion 
 when he sent them to visit his brethren), he taught him that 
 it was a meritorious act to accompany a traveller, to protect 
 him from robbers on the way. Hence says the Torah : If one 
 be found slain in the land, the nearest people shall behead a 
 
 1 Vide'E.yiai.. xii. 35, 36. There' was not a single individual in Israel 
 who had not ninety Libyan donkeys laden with the gold and silver of 
 Egypt. Bechoroth, fol. 5B. 
 
GENESIS XLV. 15-22. 271 
 
 heifer as an atonement, and say : We have not shed this blood.^ 
 for we have accompanied the traveller and have given him 
 bread for the journey. Hence says the text : And Joseph gave 
 them heifers ; that is to say, he sent to his father a sign, viz. 
 that he taught him the law of the beheaded heifer when he 
 took his departure from him. 
 
 22 To all of them he gave each ma7i changes of raiment, be- 
 cause they all rent their garments about the cup, and they 
 were ashamed to wear them. 
 
 But to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, be- 
 cause he was not present at the selling of Joseph. To the 
 brethren he gave no money in lieu of a fine. When one sells 
 a man for a slave he must give (a fine) thirty pieces of silver,^ 
 and as they were ten brothers, the amount of the fine due was 
 three hundred pieces, which sum he gave to Benjamin. So 
 write the B'chai and the Chizkuni. . 
 
 But the Toldoth-Yitzkhac writes : He gave three hundred 
 pieces of silver, because he spoke three evil things before his 
 father against his brother, and the law is, when one speaks evil 
 against his fellow, he is to give one hundred pieces of silver. 
 He did not pay this sum to the brothers, because they had 
 sold him. 
 
 And five changes of raiment. One, because he rent his 
 garment (about the cup) ; and one, because he was his brother 
 of one mother ; and one, because the cup was placed with 
 him, and he was made a thief; and two more, ^'■double" be- 
 cause he made him a thief, therefore he paid " double^'' which 
 a thief has to pay.* Thus write the Chizkfini and the B'chai. 
 
 The Toldoth-Yitzkhac writes : Joseph intimated by the five 
 
 1 Vide Deut. xxi. 1-9. 
 
 ' nbjl? Agalah,ra&3.n'i "a wagon," and H?)??, Eglah, means "a heifer." 
 The Hebrew original is of course "wagons," and this is only another of 
 those numberless instances of liberties taken with the Massoretic pointing, 
 so as to give an entirely different meaning to the word. 
 
 ' See Exod. xxi. 32. ■* See Exod. xxii. 4. 
 
272 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 changes of raiment that out of Benjamin would come Mordecai, 
 who would in the presence of the king Ahasuerus wear five 
 royal garments.^ 
 
 23 And to his father he sent ten asses laden with victuals 
 and good old wine and all kinds of eatables to be had in the 
 world, and goodly fruit. 
 
 And all the brethren went on their return to their father, 
 and Judah went with Benjamin, because he was under oath 
 to bring him back. The B'chai writes : Although Judah 
 brought him, yet on account of the anathema attached to 
 the oath, his bones did not rest in his coffin for forty years, 
 because he ought not to have been surety on the condition of 
 anathema, for Joseph might have prevented Benjamin's re- 
 turn, and therefore he was punished. 
 
 24 Joseph said u?ito them, See that ye fall not out by the way. 
 "See that ye be not afraid on the way. Although ye carry much 
 valuable property, and now being a time of famine when much 
 robbery occurs, yet ye need not fear, because / am sending 
 you, and in all parts people are afraid of me." 
 
 He also told them : " See that ye do not quarrel by the way, 
 charging one another to have spoken evil of Joseph and to 
 have been the cause of selling him." 
 
 He further told them : " See that ye do not study much (the 
 Halachah) ^ by the way, lest you wander." 
 
 The Imrae Noam says : Jacob had no need to warn his 
 sons not to get into deep study (of the Halachah) by the way, 
 because they had no corn, and therefore, of course they would 
 not be disposed to study ; for as our sages say : If there is no 
 meal, there can be no study of the Law.^ 
 
 Some sages say : Joseph admonished them and said, " When 
 you study on your journey, do not in. the midst of your study 
 
 ' See Esther viii. 15. The five garments are thus explained: i. Blue; 
 2. white ; 3. a crown of gold ; 4. a garment of fine lineii ; and 5. one 
 of purple. ' See Taanith, fol. lOB. 
 
 3 min pS nop pS DN AvoIH, chap. iii. 
 
GEIfES/S XLV. 22-XLVI. i. - 273 
 
 indulge in idle talk, saying, What a beautiful tree this is ! 
 What a handsome field that ! " ^ And this is what the Gemara 
 means when it says : Do not engage in a matter of Halachah,^ 
 that is, do not in the midst of study indulge in idle talk, but. 
 study earnestly, 
 
 Joseph also told them not to walk quickly, because- quick 
 walking takes away the light of t-he eyes ! ^ For Joseph 
 thought : They will be sure to run to tell their father the good 
 news, and hence he admonished them not tc walk quickly. 
 
 26 And they told him, Joseph is yet alive, and is governor 
 over all Egypt. And his heart became altered, for he would 
 not believe them. But When they told him the sign about the 
 Torah (Law) he tau|^ht him on parting,* he then believed 
 them, and ■ 
 
 27 The spirit of Jacob their father rei'ived. The spirit of 
 prophecy rested again upon Jacob ;'for all the time he knew 
 not of Joseph the spirit of prophecy had departed from him, 
 as we see that Joseph was for twenty-two years in Egypt, and 
 
 ■though only five days' journey from Jacob, yet Jacob did not 
 know of him. So writes the Tanchuma. 
 
 28 // is enough ; Joseph my son is yet alive I It is enough 
 even if he were not a governor. So writes the Chizkuni. 
 
 But Rabbi Israel writes : Esai* was nartied Rav {i.e. in We- 
 hxtvi " e7iough" ; see xxxii. 9), and he rejoiced when Joseph 
 was lost, for he was an adversary unto Esau ; therefore now 
 Jacob exclaimed, Rav {i.e. " enough "), " thou Esau, rejoice 
 not, for Joseph my son is yet alive." 
 
 Chapter XLVJ. — i And Jacob took his journey to Beer- 
 sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. 
 From this we learn that one is bound to honour his father 
 more than his grandfather, and therefore Jacob mentioned by 
 
 ' See Avoth, chap. iii. 
 
 ' n^'pn nana ipDunn "ps, Taanitk, foi. iob. 
 
 2 A wide step deprives a man of a five-hundredth part of the light of his 
 eyes. Ibid. ^ See p. 271, ««/«. 
 
 T 
 
274 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 ■the sacrifices his father Isaac an'd not his grandfather Abra- 
 ham. 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : Jacob offered sacrifices in Beer-sheba, 
 because his father Isaac had done so there, and therefore he 
 mentioned Isaac and not Abraham. 
 
 Jacob offered sacrifices, because he' foresaw that his children 
 would be in the captivity of Egypt, and he offered sacrifices 
 and prayed that God would deal kindly with his children in 
 the captivity. And God said unto Jacob : 
 
 3 / am God, the God of thy father, whom I forbade going 
 into " the Outside Land," but thou fear not to- go down itito 
 Egypt. The Chizkuni says : Jacob feared to go into Egypt, 
 because the captivity of Egypt, about which God spake unto 
 Abraham,^ would then commence. But God said unto him, 
 " If thy children be in bondage, they shall nevertheless have that 
 which I promised them, viz. that in bondage they shall become 
 a, great people." 
 
 4 J will go down with thee into Egypt ; and I will also surely 
 bring thee jip again ; that is to say, I will redeem thy children 
 from thence, and thou also shalt not remain there, but be 
 brought up and be buried in the land of Israel. Hence it is 
 said: " I will also surely bring thee up" i.e. the twelve tribes^ 
 will also be brought up and be buried in the land of Israel, 
 and afterwards I will bring thein into the world to come 
 (heaven). 
 
 7,3 it is said " I" for it shows that for the sake of the merit 
 which Israel will have when they accept the Decalogue, which 
 begins with "7," they will be worthy to go up into the land of 
 Israel, and into the world to come. And (it shows also) as 
 God was with Israel in the captivity of Egypt, so likewise was. 
 
 ' Chap. XV. 3. 
 
 2 The twelve sons of Jacob are often called " the twelve tribes." 
 
 3 133X is the primary and fuller form of 'JX, and both have the same 
 meaning, /. In the Pentateuch the former form occurs more often than in 
 other books of the O. T., and the Decalogue begins with it ; also this text, 
 "I will go aown," mN »33X. 
 
GENESIS XLVI. i-io. 275 
 
 He with them in the captivity of Babylon, and is also in the 
 captivity of Edom, to preserve them at all times ; and because 
 God thus preserved them in Egypt, from seventy souls they 
 became six hundred thousand men. 
 
 The B'chai writes : A Rabbi once preached, and as the 
 people were inatt.entive, and many fell asleep, and he was 
 anxious to arouse them, he called out, " There was a woman in 
 Egypt who gave birth to six hundred thousand children ; " and 
 they all woke up and eagerly asked who that woman was. 
 " Jochebed," said he, " gave birth to Moses, who, with his 
 good works, outweighed the 600,000 men, that is, all Israel." 1 
 
 And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. The Chizkuni 
 writes : God promised Jacob that when he died, Joseph would 
 be alive, and he should put his hand upon Jacob's eyes, as it 
 is the custom to shut a dead man's eyes, it being very dis- 
 respectful to leave them open. God also told him that Joseph 
 would carry him with great honour to the land of Israel. 
 
 6 And they took their cattle., and their goods, zvhich they had 
 gotten in the land of Israel, but the goods which Jacob had 
 gotten in Padan-aram he gave to Esau for his share in the cave 
 where their fathers were buried ; for Jacob said, " The money of 
 the outside land is offensive to me ; "^ and he placed before Esau 
 a large heap of gold and silver, -and said unto him, " Take this 
 for thy share in the cave." Although Jacob had much regard 
 for his property, as we have seen him return for some small 
 jugs which he had forgotten (on the other side of Jabbok),^ — 
 and it should be so, for money honestly got is got with diffi- 
 culty — but the money which he acquired abroad, and on account 
 of which he had forsaken the Holy Land of Israel, that money 
 he would not have, and he gave it away to Esau. 
 
 10 And Shaul, the son of a Canaanitish woman. The text 
 counts the children of Jacob, and records that a son of the 
 children of Simeon, whose name was Shaul, was the son of the 
 
 ' SxnB" ^3 njJ3 ^1pE> ntJ'D. Moses was equivalent to all Israel. 
 Tal. Misc., p. 322. ^ Vide Chap, xxxii. 22-24. 
 
276 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 Canaanitish woman. This is the son of Dinah, who conceived 
 by. Shechem, who was a Canaanite. For Dinah would not 
 leave Shechem's house, lest no one would marry her, till 
 Simeon swore that he would marry her ; and he kept his oath, 
 and had by her a son Shaul. 
 
 Although Dinah was his sister, yet he married her ; for with 
 each brother was born a female twin, which he (subsequently) 
 married. The text does not say distinctly that they married 
 their twin sisters, but it is said (ver. 26), "all the souls that 
 came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides 
 Jacob's son^ wives" and from this it is understood that the 
 women also came out of his loins, and each son took his twin 
 sister for a wife. 
 
 All the souls (of Jacob's family) were seventy, and with Ja- 
 cob they were seventy-one. Thus there were in Egypt seventy 
 elders, and Moses was' over them. Also there are seventy 
 angels round the throne of Glory, and God is over them all. 
 
 12 And the sons of Judah, Er and Onan. The Chizkuni 
 writes : The reason for -counting Er and Onan, who died 
 before corning to Egypt, was because Judah had been the 
 cause of all the children of Jacob coming into captivity ; for 
 had he prevented the brethren selling Joseph, they would not 
 have had to come into Egypt, and as he had given cause for 
 mourning, God said, " Even when thy father will be in joy,'thy 
 children who died shall be mentioned, in order that thou also 
 shalt mourn." ^ ■ 
 ' 12 The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife. Of none is it said 
 "Jacob's wife" but of Rachel, because He loved her more 
 than all other wives. 
 
 26 And all the souls were threescore and six. The term 
 " souls " (in the original) is in the singular,_^ but of Esau, whose 
 family were but six, the text uses the same term in the plural? 
 
 ' For God pays measure for measure. 
 
 ^ B'SJ Nephesh, i.e. soul or person, sing. 
 
 3 Chap. xxvi. 6, niCJ'SJ Nephashoth, i.e. souls or 'ge.xsom, phiral. 
 
GENESIS XLVr. 10-30. 277 
 
 The reason is this : Esau, and each of his family, worshipped a 
 separate idol, therefore \h& plural was used ; but Jacob and his 
 children served one God, as if all were one person, hence the 
 sifigular is used. 
 
 28 And Jacob sent Judah before him, to show the way to 
 Goshen, to avoid going through the (chief) city, Egypt y Thus 
 writes the Chizkiani ; but Rashi says : He sent him before to 
 find a proper place where to study the Torah. 
 
 29 And Joseph made ready his chariot. Joseph himself 
 personally got ready his chariot to go and meet his father. 
 Rabbi Yehudah says : Two individuals have had such great 
 honour as no other man. One is Jacob ; for when Joseph went 
 to meet him all the Egyptian princes went also with great 
 pomp : and the other was Jethro ; when Moses our Rabbi went 
 to meet him all Israel went also to meet him, and he too had 
 great honour. 
 
 And Joseph, fell on his neck and wept. The Ramban says : 
 It cannot be that Joseph was so ill-mannered as to fall on his 
 father's neck ; he ought to have stooped down before him with 
 reverence. But the explanation is, that Jacob fell on the neck 
 of Joseph, and wept on his neck again, as he wept when he lost 
 him. He despaired of ever seeing him, and now he found him 
 a ruler, therefore he wept for joy, as the manner of old people 
 is to weep in their sorrows and in their joys. 
 
 30 And Israel said unto Joseph, Now I shall die but once. I 
 thought I should die twice, once in this world and once in the 
 world to come ; that God would punish me for having sent 
 thee away, and caused thy death and the departure of the 
 Shechinah as well ; but now, because thou livest, I shall die 
 but once in this world. Thus writes Rashi. 
 
 But the Toldoth Yitzkhac writes : Jacob said, " Ever since 
 they brought me the shirt pierced, I was as one that is dead ; 
 
 ' D'TSD Mitzra-yim, i.e. Egypt, being in the dual form, probably sug- 
 gested the idea to the commentator that the proper name Mitzra-yim was 
 common to both the land and to the chief city of the land. 
 
278 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 but now seeing thee alive, I also live, and shall not die till my 
 time comes." 
 
 31-34 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I will go up and 
 tell Pharaoh that my father and my brethren have come, and 
 when he asks you what tradespeople ye are, say that ye tend 
 sheep, hke your fathers, and say that ye have so many sheep 
 that ye have no time to do anything else. 
 
 The Chizkfini says : Joseph had ordered them to say that 
 they tended sheep, in order not to lower him in the estimation 
 of Pharaoh, and as shepherds Pharaoh could make nothing of 
 them. 
 
 Rashi says : He told them to say that they tended sheep, 
 because the Egyptians worship sheep, and hate shepherds, be-, 
 cause they beat the sheep when they wander from the track. 
 Shepherds hold that sheep are nothing [Divine], and Pharaoh 
 would not engage them in his service. 
 
 Chapter XLVII. — 2 And Joseph took five of his brethren 
 who were not so strong and so handsome as the rest, and 
 placed them before Pharaoh. He did not take the strongest, 
 that Pharaoh might not make them commanders over his 
 army. 
 
 Joseph presented Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Benjamin, and 
 Issachar, because they were the weakest ; and when Pharaoh 
 asked them what their occupations were, they said, "We tend 
 sheep, and we came here because there is no pasture in the 
 land of Canaan, and we desire to settle in the land of Goshen." 
 Pharaoh told Joseph, "Let thy brethren and their households 
 settle in Goshen, and settle thy father wherever thou art 
 pleased. If thou knowest strong men among them, make them 
 chief shepherds over my flocks ; for my flocks are fed in the 
 wilderness, where there are wild beasts, and those that keep 
 them need to be strong." 
 
 7 And Joseph brought Jacob his father, and set him before 
 Pharaoh. Jacob saluted Pharaoh, and Pharaoh asked him, 
 ' JIo7a old art thou ? " and Jacob replied, " I am not old, but 
 
CENES!S XLVI. zo-XLVII. 7. 279 
 
 trouble makes me look old, and my parents were older than 
 I am ; only I have been a pilgrim all my life, wandering about 
 from one city to another, and as yet I have had no good 
 fortune. 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : God said unto Jacob, " I have de- 
 livered thee from Esau, and from Laban, and from Shechem, 
 and I have given thee back Dinah and Joseph, and yet thou 
 sayest that few and evil have been thy years ? Therefore will 
 I shorten thy life, as compared to the life of thy fathers, by 
 thirty-three years, for the thirty-three words ^ which thou didst 
 speak too many. From this we learn that a man ought to 
 praise God even when things do not go so well with him ; he 
 should not speak against God, for whatever God does He does 
 for the best. 
 
 The Imrae Noam writes : Because Jacob said that he would 
 remain in Egypt only till the famine was over, and would 
 afterwards return to the land of Israel, therefore Pharaoh 
 asked him, "How old art thou l Dost thou expect yet to 
 live so long and to return, after the famine, to the land of 
 Israel?" 
 
 The Midrash writes : The same Pharaoh was (on a visit) to 
 Abimelech when Abraham was there. The entrance door to 
 Abimelech's house was low, and an idol was placed over it, so 
 that when one entered he had to stoop and bow down before 
 the idol. But when Abraham had to enter, the door lifted 
 itself up to a proper height, and he had no need to bow down. 
 At Pharaoh's also was such a door, with such an idol over it, 
 and when Jacob had to enter, the door lifted itself up, hence 
 
 ' Evidently instead of wordi it should be letters, for all the words 
 Jacob spake to Pharaoh were twenty-one, and these were not all " too 
 many." The thirty-three letters constitute the following Hebrew words : 
 
 'D'' nX irt^n k'?1 "n »JB> iD» rn D^Vn tsyo, i.e. " Few and evil have 
 the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days 
 of." These, then, are the thirty-three letters which Jacob had spoken too 
 many, and for which he forfeited thirty-three years of his holy life. Surely 
 " death and life are in the power of the tongue " (Prov. xviii. 21). 
 
28o RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 tlie question of Pharaoh, '■'How old art thou?" for he thought 
 him to be Abraham, because the door lifted itself up as he 
 entered. 
 
 lo And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Because in Egypt there is 
 no rain to water the fields; he blessed him that the Nile 
 should rise towards him ^- and water the fields. 
 
 1 2 And Joseph nourished his father arid his brethren and all 
 their household with bread sufficient even for the little chil- 
 dren, who crumble and waste much bread. 
 
 14-18 And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found 
 in the land of Egypt, and in the lajid of Canaati, for the corn 
 which they bought, and brought the money into Pharaoh's 
 Ireastiry. And when the money failed, they came to Joseph and 
 said, Give us bread, for why should we die in thy presence, for 
 the money faileth. Joseph said, " Give up your cattle," and for 
 the' cattle he gave them bread for a whole year, at the end of 
 which he took their fields in exchange for corn. 
 
 The Ramban writes : The Egyptians said, " The money 
 failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan." What 
 did it concern them that the money failed in the land of 
 Canaan ? But (the reply is) : They said to Joseph, " The money 
 has now failed in every land, and no one will now buy the 
 corn ; give us the corn,, for why should we die for nothing ? " 
 
 19 Give us seed, to sow our fields. Although Joseph said, 
 "And yet there are five years of famine, in the which there 
 can be no ploughing nor sowing," but now hav.ing given them 
 corn, people may still say that Joseph was not a genuine 
 prophet The explanation is : When Jacob came to Egypt, 
 the Nile rose to meet him, and watered all the fields, so that 
 the officers of Pharaoh said the blessing came for the sake of 
 Jacob.^ 
 
 The Ramban says: When Jacob died, the five years of 
 
 ' Rashi says : When Pharaoh came to the Nile, it always rose to meet 
 him, and thus the land was watered. 
 
 ' This explanation explains nothing, and the whole paragraph is obscure. 
 
GE.VES/S KLVII. 7-28. 28 1 
 
 famine commenced, to fulfil the seven years foretold by Joseph; 
 but when Jacob the righteous was yet in the world, the bless- 
 ing was with him in it.^ 
 
 Buy us and our land for bread. . They said, " Buy us for 
 servants." The Ramban says : It is stated further on that he 
 bought the land only, because the Egyptians desired that 
 Joseph should buy them for servants to serve Pharaoh, and to 
 buy the land for himself But Joseph said, " I will not buy 
 the land otherwise, except ye be sold with it to till it." Hence 
 it is stated that he bought the land as real property, and men 
 as serfs attached to the land. Joseph said, " I ought to give 
 you only a fifth part of the produce to live upon, and four 
 parts ye should give to Pharaoh, because both you and the 
 land are his; but I will deal mercifully with, you, and take 
 only a fifth for Pharaoh, and four parts ye shall take, as if ye 
 were landed proprietors, on condition that ye serve Pharaoh 
 and till the land/t?r ever!' 
 
 Joseph fearing if every one remained on his land, the com- 
 pact might in process of time be forgotten, and the people 
 would refuse paying a fifth unto Pharaoh, therefore 
 
 2\ He removed them from one city to another, in order that 
 no one should remain on'his land. 
 
 22 For the priests had a portion. Bread was given to the 
 priests from the king's table. 
 
 End of Section XL 
 
 28 And Jacob lived. Solomon says in Proverbs, " In the 
 way of almsgiving is life."^ He who gives alms lives long. 
 Alms is above all the constellations : when a constellation 
 
 ' This seems to suggest that the blessing of plenty did not cease till 
 Jacob died, otherwise this paragraph is as obscure as the one preceding. 
 /^/flV chap. 1. 21. 
 
 " Prov. xii. 28. In the A.V. it is, "In the way of righteousness is 
 life." The Hebrew word HplV means righteousness, but the Rabbinical 
 Jews give it also the meaning of alms, almsgiving, charity. A chapter on 
 Alms will be found in Treasures of the Talmud. 
 
282 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 indicates that a certain man will not live long, through alms- 
 giving he may have his life prolonged. Hence our sages have 
 said: Great is charity, she reaches to the throne' of glory; 
 that is to say, she is higher than all the constellations. Thus 
 we find in this section that Jacob had no longer to live, but 
 because he had maintained Joseph seventeen years — for Joseph 
 was of that age when he was parted from his father — he was 
 worthy to live seventeen years longer, to be maintained by 
 Joseph, for God rewards measure for measure. 
 
 So the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven 
 years. There is no blank space between this section and the 
 one preceding it (as is usual), but it is stopped up.i This is 
 because in this section is recorded the death of Jacob. When 
 he died, the eyes and hearts of Israel were closed up on 
 account of the afflictions of the captivity. 
 
 Another explanation is : Because Jacob intended to reveal 
 the end of the captivity, the Shechinah departed from him, 
 that he should not tell when the advent of the Messiah would 
 be, and therefore this section was closed up. 
 
 The Midrash says : Jacob saw that in the names of his 
 children there were neither the letter Cheth nor the letter Teth.^ 
 which two letters make the word khet (sin). He wanted to 
 reveal the end, but seeing that the letters Koph and Tzaddi are 
 also not (to be found in the names of his children), and these 
 two letters make the word ketz {end), he therefore did not 
 reveal the end, and hence this section is closed up. 
 
 29 And the time drew, nigh that Israel must die. Jacob, 
 feeling that his physical powers were leaving him, and that he 
 must soon die, sent for his son Joseph, to adjure him that he 
 should carry him to the land of Canaan and bury him there. 
 
 ' The Pentateuch is divided into fifty-two sections, and the divisions of 
 these sections are invariably indicated by a blanlc space marked in the 
 centre by three solitary letters, either three S B Q, technically called 
 Pethuchoth = opened up, or three D D D, called Sethumoth=closed up. 
 The open space thus marked is in the present case omitted. 
 
GENESIS XLVn. 28-31. 283 
 
 The B'chai writes : The text says, " and Jacob lived," and 
 afterwards it says, " Israel must die." Because Jacob means 
 footstep, indicative of things terrestrial, but Israel means some- 
 thing of a superior nature, and points to things celestial, hence 
 when he came to Egypt to nourish his body, it is said, " and 
 Jacob lived "; but when his soul was about to separate from 
 the body and begin to live the real life in another world, he is 
 called Israel. 
 
 And he called his son Joseph. Although Reuben was the 
 firstborn and Judah the (family) governor, he called his son 
 Joseph, because he was ruler in Egypt, and had the power to 
 convey his remains to Canaan ; and said — 
 
 Deal kindly and truly with me. The kindness done towards 
 the dead is true and disinterested kindness, for one cannot 
 expect to receive anything in return. 
 
 . Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt, i. Because the dust of 
 Egypt will be smitten with the plague of lice,i and the lice 
 would creep over my body. 2. Because when the dead in 
 the outside land will rise at the advent of the Messiah, they 
 will have to roll under mountains and through caves, to reach 
 the land of Israel, which will be very painful to them 2 j and 
 3. That the Egyptians might make an idol of me. 
 
 31 And he sware unto him. The Ramban writes : Jacob 
 feared that Pharaoh would wish to have him buried in Egypt 
 
 ' Exod. viii. 17. 
 
 ^ For the same reason Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel 
 that they would not leave his bones outside the land of Israel. Kelhuvoth, 
 fol. iiiA. To this very day among the Polish Jews the dead are provided 
 with Utile wooden forks, for their long subterranean journey, with which 
 
 at the sound of the (PlTJ lE'ltJ') great trumpet, they are to dig and burrow 
 their way from where they happen to be buried till they arrive in the land 
 of Israel. To avoid this underground journey, there are many who on 
 the approach of old age emigrate to the Holy Land, that they may die 
 there, and there rest until the morning of the resurrection, which will take 
 place at the advent of the Messiah, when the great trumpet shall sound 
 and the dead shall rise. 
 
284 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. ' 
 
 in order to secure his merits as a protection or patron for his 
 people, therefore Jacob took an oath of Joseph, which oath 
 Pharaoh would not break.^ 
 
 The Eben Shoab writes thus : During seventeen years of 
 Jacob's sojourn in Egypt, no woman miscarried, and no man 
 had the tooth-ache. * * * 
 
 The Eben Shoab writes, that the word vay'khi ^ {i.e. and 
 he lived, namely Jacob) amounts (numerical value) to four 
 and thirty ; that is to say, the real life of Jacob was thirty- 
 four years ; seventeen years from the day Joseph was born to . 
 the day he was lost, and the seventeen years, which he was 
 with him in Egypt, but the rest of his years were not real 
 life. 
 
 The B'chai writes": Jacob was afraid to lie in Egypt lest 
 they should make him into a god, and God punishes the gods^ 
 as we.ll as those that worship them. 
 
 Jacob therefore also ordered that he should be buried in 
 the land o'f Israel, because the earth of the land of Israel 
 atones for sin, as it is written ; " The people that dwell therein 
 shall be forgiven." * There also is the gate of heaven through 
 which the prayers (of the righteous) pass, and through which 
 his soul would soon enter. 
 
 1 will lie with my fathers. Rabbi Yitzkhac learns from this, 
 that on the day a man dies he knows whither he will go ; 
 hence Jacob said first : " I will lie with my fathers,'^ and after- 
 wards he said : " Thou shall' carry me to the land of Israel, 
 for," said he, " my soul will soon come to my fathers." 
 
 Also when a man dies at sea, or in the desert, he must 
 finally come to his fathers. Jacob said : " Bury me in their 
 burying place where my fathers were buried." From this we . 
 
 ' Vide chap. 1. 6. 
 
 2 Tl'l =34. See List of Numerals, p. xii. 
 
 3 Exod. xii. 12. 
 
 •• Isa. xxxiii. 24. See also Deut. xxxii. 43, as explained in Treasures oj 
 the Talmud, pp. 283, 284. 
 
CEA-ESIS XLVII. 31. 285 
 
 learn that the righteous should be buried by the side of the 
 righteous, and the wicked by the side of the wicked.^ 
 
 / 7uill do as thou hast said. That is to say, " In accordance 
 with the oath thou hast imposed on me, I will do, and will 
 carry thee to the land of Canaan. I likewise will take an oath 
 of the tribes, that they shall (eventually) bury me in the land 
 of Israel." 
 
 And Israel bowed himself uf on the bed's head, for the Shechi- 
 nah rests' "at the head of the sick man's bed.^ 
 
 ^ Not even the notoriously wicked by the side of those that were less 
 wicked.. Two enemies are also not to be buried "together because fJNC 
 "VV nni3D Dn? ]'X DniQ3, i.e. for even in death they have no rest to- 
 gether (they quarrel). Yorah Deah, sec. 362. 
 
 ' For it is written (Ps. xli. 3), " God will support him on the bed of 
 illness." Shahbath, fol, I2B. 
 
 It appears, however, from another part of the Talmud, that "Israel 
 bowed himself" to Joseph, and not to the Shechinah, thus illustrating the 
 Talmudic proverb still current amongst the Jews : " When a fox is in the 
 ascendant, bow down to him." Meggillah, fol. i6b. 
 
 Jacob, in the act of obeisance to Joseph, must naturally have been 
 "leaning upon the top of his staff'' (Heb. xi. 21), and not " upon the bed's 
 head." The letters of the Hebrew' word, which means either "staff" or 
 "bed," are precisely the same, viz. il t3 O, Afem, Teth, He, and the New 
 Testament reads the word of these three letters, nt30 Matteh, which 
 means " staff," \i\A the Jewish Massorah punctuates the same word dif- 
 ferently.and reads it niSP Mittah, whieh means " bed." 
 
 The Revisers, in their new Version of the Old Testament, have adopted 
 the reading of the Jewish Massorah, and, no doubt, this will please the 
 Jews. But still more will it please the Jews when they find that the proper 
 name of Jehovah, out of superstition read by them Adotiai, has been 
 rendered in the Revised Version of the Old Testament, "Lord." This is 
 a very grave mistake which cannot be sufficiently regretted, — 1st, because, 
 . whatever the real meaning may be, Jehovah does not mean "Lord" ; 
 and 2ndly, because, Jehovah being a proper name of the Divine Being, it 
 ought never to be translated at all. Adam and Noah, Abraham, Isaac 
 and Jacob, Moses, Aaron and Samuel, Davtd and Solomon, and many 
 others, are all proper names with their respective meanings, yet when the 
 personages bearing these names are spoken of in Scripture, their names are 
 left untranslated. What warrant then is there to translate into tlie vulgar 
 tongue the sacred name oi Jehovah 1 Above all, what warrant is there lb 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 Another explanation is : He bowed himself (in grateful 
 
 , acknowledgment) that, from the beginning unto the end, his 
 
 bed was perfect, that from it came no wicked child,, for all his 
 
 children were righteous ; even Joseph, though he was among 
 
 idolaters, still was righteous. 
 
 Here then the whole dream of Joseph was fulfilled ; for the 
 sun, indicative of the father, had also bowed down to him."^ 
 
 Chapter XLVHL— r And it came to pass after these words, 
 it was told unto Joseph, Behold thy father is sick. The Chizkuni 
 writes : From the creation of the world down to the time 
 of Jacob, no man had ever been sick; ^ when one finished his 
 course here below, he sneezed, and fell down and died, even 
 in the street or on the road. But Jacob. prayed that he might 
 be sick before his death, in order that he should" be able to 
 communicate to his children his last will and testament. God 
 heard his prayer, and he became sick. Hence when one. 
 sneezes we must say " Assutha /" which means, To your good 
 health P 
 
 Jacob sent Ephraim,.who was constantly with him, to tell 
 Joseph that his father was ill. The Eben Shoab writes : 
 Joseph kept himself continually aloof from his father in order 
 to avoid entering into a conversation as to how he came into 
 Egypt, for he never would tell him that ; but he always said that 
 
 give a false nndei-ing ai Jehovah It is written that Jehmah is our God, 
 and by Him only shall we make mention of His name '(without changing 
 Jehovah into Adonai), Isa. xxvi. 13. And again ; "O give thanks unto 
 Jehovah, 1Dti>i INIp, call ye (Him) by His name," and not by the name 
 substituted by Jewish superstition. See Ps. cv. I. 
 
 ' Evidently the comment means to say, For the father, as indicated by the 
 sun, had also bowed down to him. But where is the mother, as indicated 
 by the moon ? For an answer to this we must wait (invN ^'X'Vf IJJ) till 
 Elijah comes. 
 
 2 The Talmud adds to this, that down to the time of Elisha, recovery 
 from sickness was unknown. Bava Meizia, fol. 87A. 
 
 3 This is observed among-the Jews of all classes to this day, especially 
 among mothers, when their infants sneeze. 
 
GENESIS XLVII. zi—XLVIII. 7. . 287 
 
 he lost himself on the road and wandered about. Although 
 this was a lie, for the sake of peace a lie may be told.^ 
 
 2 And Israel strengthened himself and sat upon the ied; for 
 although Joseph was his son, yet he was a ruler, therefore he 
 did him honour, even as Moses our Master did honour unto 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 The Chizkuni wTites : Jacob sat up to show that he was in 
 'his right mind as a man in good health ; for a sick person who 
 gives a gift may on recovery repent, and plead that he was not 
 in a proper state of mind when he made the gift. Hence 
 Jacob sat up to show that he was well enough to bless Joseph's 
 children, without being able to recall the blessing. 
 
 And Jacob said: " God told me that besides Benjamin I was 
 to have two tribes more, and as I have no more children but 
 Benjamin, I therefore know that one tribe must be divided 
 who lyill receive two shares in the land of Israel. This gift 
 I give unto thee Joseph. Ephraim and Manasseh shall receive 
 two shares in the land of Israel, as Reuben and Simeon. This 
 he did in honour of Rachel ; because Joseph was her firstborn, 
 therefore he gave him two shares. 
 
 7 And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by 
 me. " I know that thou art not pleased with me for troubling 
 thee to carry me to the Land of Canaan, as thy mother Rachel 
 died on the road, and I did not bury her in the cave of the 
 fathers, nor carry her to the city of Bethlehem near the spot 
 where she died. But know thou, ' that God ordered it so ; 
 for when Israel will be carried irfto captivity by Nebuzaradan," 
 and pass that way, Rachel will arise from her grave, and pray 
 unto God, and God will hear her prayer." ^ 
 
 The Chizkuni writes ; Jacob did not bury Rachel in the 
 
 ^ pjXt X'Vh P'K IVD jyO pjyn Di'?K' pS- This Jewish dogma is quite 
 proverbial just as here quoted from the text. This ancient Rabbinical 
 doctrine is here taught in modern language, Jewish jargon, that also 
 women and children may read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it. 
 
 ' 2 Kings XXV. II. 
 
 ' See Jer. xxxi. 15-17. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 cave, because at that time Esau claimed a right to the cave, 
 and hence Jacob's right to it was not settled yet. But when 
 he buried Leah, the case was settled ; Esau left the cave to 
 Jacob alone. 
 
 Another explanation, is : The spot of Rachel's burial is in 
 her own children's portion of land, and it is an honour to her 
 to lie there, whereas the cave is situated in the land of Judah, 
 in the portion of Leah's children, and it would not have been 
 an honour to Rachel had she been buried there. 
 
 Another explanation is : Because Rachel died when giving 
 birth to Benjamin, and consequently she was' in such a state 
 as to make it necessary to bury her on the spot where she 
 died in order to preserve her shroud unsoiled. 
 
 The Chizkuni and the Toldoth Yitzkhac question Rashi's 
 statement as to Rachel's not being buried in the land of Israel, 
 for we find that she was buried in the land of Canaan. The 
 answer is : She was not buried in a town but in a field. ' 
 
 The Ramban writes : Jacob did not bury Rachel in the 
 cave, because he felt ashamed that two sisters should lie with 
 him in the same cave. He" buried Leah there, because he 
 married her first, lawfully. 
 
 ?> And Israel beheld Joseph's sens. The Chizkfini asks : 
 As Jacob could not see, how is it that he beheld Joseph's 
 sons ? The reply is : He recognised Joseph by the voice, and 
 by force of reason he understood that tjiey were Joseph's sons. 
 
 Jacob wishing to bless the children, the Shechinah departed 
 from him, because out of Ephraim were to come forth Jero- 
 boam and Ahab, two wicked kings ; and of Manasseh were 
 to come forth Jehu with his wicked children. 
 
 And he said, " Who are these that are not worthy to be 
 
 blessed?" 
 
 9 And Joseph said, " They are viy sons, which I have begotten 
 
 1 His marrying Racljel was unlawful, and deprived him of the privilege 
 of blessing the cup of salvation at the Messianic banquet. Psachim, fol. 
 119B. Vide Gen. ace. to Talmud, 337, v. 8. . 
 
GENESrS XLVin. 9-14. 289 
 
 in proper wedlock," and he showed him the marriage contract. 
 He prayed; and the Shechinah again resting on Jacob, he 
 said, " Bring them unto me, and I will bless them." 
 
 10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age. The Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac writes : The text mentions that Jacob could not see, 
 because it is usual, when one wishes to bless another, to fix his 
 eyes upon him, in order that the blessing should rest upon 
 him; but as Jacob could not see, he asked that they should be 
 brought near, so that he could lay his hands upon them, and 
 thus cause the blessing to rest on them. In the present age, 
 when so few men have good eyes, we are obliged to bless by 
 the laying on of hands. ^ 
 
 11-14 A7id Israel said unto Joseph., I had not thought to see 
 thy face, and God hath showed me also thy seed. And he kissed 
 them. And Joseph brought them out from between Jacob' s knees, 
 in order to place them properly ; Manasseh on the right hand 
 of Jacob, because he was the firstborn, and Ephraim on the 
 left, to bless them. 
 
 Guiding his hands wittingly. Jacob understood that Joseph 
 would place Manasseh on his right hand and Ephraim on his 
 left, but a-s he prophetically foresaw that out of Ephraim would 
 come forth better children than from Manasseh, he wittingly 
 crossed his hands, and laid his right hand on the head of 
 Ephraim. Not wishing to put Manasseh to shame by ordering 
 him to change place with Ephraim, he left them as Joseph had 
 placed them, guiding his hands wittingly, placing the right 
 hand on Ephraim. Because Manasseh was the firstborn, Jacob 
 would not disgrace him by making him -change his place to- 
 wards his left hand. 
 
 The Chizkuni and;the B'chai write : Although Manasseh was 
 the firstborn, and Jacob ought to have blessed him with the right 
 
 ' When a holy Rabbi is to bless a female, he generally puts his handker- 
 chief on her head before laying on of his hands, and thus avoids coming in 
 contact with a woman, whom he is bound to look upon HXIV N7D nOriD, 
 as a leather bottle full of filth, etc. Shabbath, fol. 152A. 
 
 U 
 
290 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 hand, yet he did not do so, because he prophetically foresav 
 that the .children of Ephraim would be better than the childrei 
 of Manasseh ; hence he blessed Ephraim with the right hand 
 
 1 6 Let them gro7v (as fish) i into a multitude in the midst o 
 the earth. Jacob blessed them to increase abundantly, like thi 
 fish in water, that they should not be susceptible to the effect: 
 of an evil eye, as the fish are sheltered from its effects. 
 
 17 When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upm 
 the head of Ephraim, it displeased him ; and he held up hi 
 father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim' s head unto Manai 
 seh's head. 
 
 19 His father said, "I know it, my son, I know it, that Manas 
 seh is the firstborn ; he also shall become a great people ; but ih 
 younger brother shall be greater than he ; for out of Manasse] 
 shall come Gideon, through whom God will work a miracle unt 
 Israel ; ^ but out of Ephraim shall come Joshua, who will caus 
 Israel to inherit the land, and will teach' them the Tora 
 (Law) ; and will fight with the idolaters, and will cause the su 
 to stand still in Gibeon, so that the day will be longer for h: 
 sake, that he may be able to destroy the idolaters ; and wi 
 cause the moon to stand still in the valley of Ajalon,^ in th 
 midst of battle, that it shall not be night." 
 
 The Ramban writes : Joseph was troubled that Jacob lai 
 his right hand on Ephraim, because he thought that he w£ 
 not prophetically inspired, but laid his right hand on th 
 younger by mistake, and hence he feared that the blessing 
 would have no effect, because they were bestowed in mistake 
 But Jacob told him, "I am not rnistaken; I know it, my son, 
 know it, that this is the elder." 
 
 The Toldoth Yitzkhac writes: Joseph waited till after tl 
 first blessing before he attempted to change his father's hand 
 because he thought that Jacob intended to honour both ; tl 
 
 ' UTI from the verb n31, to increase in number, as fish. In Engli 
 there is no verb equivalent to this Hebrew verb. 
 
 ' See Judg. vi. 37-40, and vii. 22, etc. ' Josh. x. 12, 13. 
 
GENESIS XLVIII. n-XLIX-.z-, 291 , 
 
 one he would bless with the right hand, and the other with a 
 greater blessing ; but observing that he blessed both alike, he , 
 felt concerned that he had laid his right hand on Ephraim. 
 But Jacob said : "/ kyiow if, my son, I know it: I know two, 
 things; I know why I lay my right hand on the head of 
 Ephraim, and I know that I have not blessed Manasseh more 
 than Ephraim. I will bless Ephraim yet more. When Israel- 
 will bless their children, they shall say, 
 
 20 God make thee as Ephraim and as Manassehi Ephraim- 
 shall be said before ManaSseh." Thus writes the Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac. 
 
 The B'chai writes : The meaning of " And he set Ephraim 
 before Manasseh," is, he placed him as a servant before a 
 master, to wait upon him. He said, " Thou art the younger 
 and Manasseh is the elder, therefore thou art to do him honour." 
 
 When Jacob had done blessing Manasseh and Ephraim, he 
 also blessed Joseph separately, and communicated to him about 
 the captivity and the redemption from it, and that God would 
 redeem Israel. 
 
 22 One portio7i above thy brother. Jacob said unto Joseph, 
 I have given thee the birthright. Thou shalt have a portion' 
 more above thy brother, that Ephraim and Manasseh shall take 
 in the land two portions, just as Reuben and Simeon, when the 
 land is taken from the Amorites, And because I trouble thee 
 to carry me into the land of Canaan, I will give thee for that 
 the city of Shechem, and there shalt thou be buried. 
 
 Chapter XLIX. — t And Jacob called his sons, and wanted 
 to tell them what would come to pass in the last days. He 
 wanted to tell them when the Messiah would come ; but the 
 Shechinah departed from him, and he began speaking other 
 words, and said : 
 
 3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, thou mightest have been 
 worthy to have over and above thy brethren the birthright, 
 the dignity of the priesthood, and the power of roya'ty. The 
 Toldoth Yitzkhac says : Because Reuben was the first seed, 
 
292 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 he ought to have had the priesthood, to receive the first o 
 the corn, the first of the dough, and the first of the sacrifices 
 Then, because at that time (just before Reuben was born) 
 Jacob was very powerful — for he took off the stone fron 
 the mouth of the well, which, many. people unitedly could no 
 do — and he married Leah, and immediately he had by he 
 Reuben, the very first of his strength; therefore, Reubei 
 ought to have had the kingship, for a king ought to be strong 
 and have a strong heart to carry on war. " This thou oughtes 
 to have had over and above thy brothers ; but why shouldes 
 thou not have it ? Because 
 
 4 Unstable as water hast thou been with thy wrath to run ii 
 haste, therefore thou art not worthy to be a king. 
 
 And thou shalt not have the birthright either, because tho> 
 hast interrupted the nuptial bed of thy father and Bilhah, fo: 
 thou hast said that thou art the firstborn, and the less childrei 
 there will be, the more property will come to thee, therefon 
 thou shalt not have the birthright. 
 
 And also _the priesthood thou shalt not have, because thoi 
 hast profaned and made unholy the bed of thy father, and thoi 
 shalt be unholy." The Chizkuni says : From the time tha 
 Reuben had committed that sin with Bilhah,i Jacob neve: 
 came to her again. 
 
 > And yet the Talmud says plainly : X^N irX NDH piN"! lOlN'n ?; 
 nyitO, i.e. Whoever says that Reuben has sinned, is decidedly in error 
 Shabbath, fol. 55B. Had Reuben been a son of Esau (a Gentile), anc 
 ' hot a son of Jacob, the Rabbis would have shown him no such favour. 
 (See footnote on p. 166, ante.) ■ A son of Esau, however, on reading thi; 
 passage from the Talmud, might pertinently ask : Does the Talmud reall) 
 mean what it says respecting the crime of Reuben, or does it say what i 
 does not mean ? Anyhow, it implies either that sin is not sinfuU or tha 
 falsehood and truth are synonymous. It is quite true that the Talmu( 
 {Bdva Metiia, fol. 59A) endorses the " Yea, yea, and Nay, nay," enforce( 
 in the Gospel (Matt. v. 37) ; but in numerous instances, perversion of trut; 
 is distinctly taught by precept and example. (See p. 124 note, ante. 
 Hence, even from a moral point of view, the superiority of the Gospel ove 
 the Talmud is plain and manifest. 
 
GENESIS XLIX. 3-5. 293 
 
 He went up to my couch. This was addressed by Jacob to 
 the rest of his children. "You see, he went up to my couch, on 
 which I used to he." The B'chai observes on, Because thou 
 wentest up to thy father's bed, " thou hast profaned two beds ; 
 one was the resting place of the Shecinah on the bed, and my 
 own resting place." 
 
 The Midrash says : Jacob said to Reuben, " Thou shalt not 
 be cured of the disgrace till Moses our Master counts thee 
 Urst among those that shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce 
 the curse : Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife}- Then 
 will all Israel know that because thou wert first placed to curse 
 others for that sin, thy sin had been forgiven thee." 
 
 5 Simeon atid Levi are brethren of one mind, one in counsel 
 respecting Shechem and Joseph. " Ye need not have slain the 
 inhabitants of Shechem, because the people had been circum- 
 cised, and probably would have become genuine Jews." 
 
 Another explanation is : Simeon and Levi are brothers, and 
 as Such they would have given their lives for their sister Dinah; 
 " hut," said he to them, " in the case of Joseph ye were not 
 like brothers should be, for ye cast him into the pit, and ye 
 sold him." Hence Joseph in Egypt cast Simeon into prison 
 to atone for his sin of selling him. 
 
 Instruments of cruelty are in their habitation. Ye have 
 robbed Esau of -his sword; your business is not to go about 
 with the sword like Esau, for it was his blessing to commit 
 murders with the sword. ^ 
 
 Let my soul not come into their secret. In the secret plot of 
 Zimri let me have no part, when the tribe of Simeon will 
 be gathered together and bring a Midianitish woman before 
 Moses, and ask him ; " Is it, or is it not, lawful to have her ? 
 ■ If thou say. She is unlawful, who t^en permitted thee to take 
 the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian?" Jacob said: 
 
 ' Deut. xxvii. 13, 20. 
 
 = IXD nin'vi TiviiB* IS?! D'D 7Nr ly ivivJ nana 'n fN dsi. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 29, and footnote, ante. 
 
294 'RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 "In this act let my name not be mentioned, as it is said 
 ' Zimri., the son of Salu, a prince of the chief house of the Simeon 
 ites.' " 1 And there Jacob's name is not mentioned. " Anc 
 also in the contention of Korah, a descendant of Levi, lei 
 my name also not be mentioned," as it is written; " Korah 
 the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi," ^ and heu 
 also it is not added, " the son oi Jacob." 
 
 7 Cursed be their anger, God grant that they should have nc 
 mouth to curse, in order not to be able. to effect anything ir 
 their anger ! Thus writes the Chizkuni. 
 
 But Rashi writes : Although they deserved to be cursed, ye 
 Jacob did not curse them, but their anger. 
 
 I will divide them in Jacob, that of the tribe of Simeon shal 
 be the supply of teachers of children and of scribes, who (bein; 
 always poor)-' will be scattered. To Levi he made the posi 
 tion of being scattered more honourable ; they were to scatte 
 themselves on the threshing-floors to collect oblations anc 
 tithes. 
 
 When Judah observed that the father rebuked the brethrei 
 
 1 Num. XXV. 14. 
 
 - Ibid. xvi. I. 
 
 ' In olden times the men of the Great Synagogue observed twenty-fou 
 fasts, that the scribes of books, Phylacteries, etc., might not become rich, le; 
 in becoming rich they might be tempted not to write any more. Psachim 
 fol. 50B. In our own days, schoolmasters and scribes are always poor, an. 
 the former are proverbially considered foolish, generally knowing nothin: 
 beyond the Bible and the Talmud to a very limited extent. A simpleton 
 or a good-for-nothing, or idle fellow, is usually stigmatised as a " Schwan 
 Melamed," i.e. literally " a tail schoolmaster," or a fool. 
 
 If a well educated Jew comes to poverty and is obliged to turn school 
 master, few Jews would trust him with the education of their children, fc 
 fear lest they should hear things of their Melamed which they had bette 
 not know. The Talmud says in Berachoih, fol. 28B, p DD''33 \^ir. 
 tVJnn ie Restrain your "children from meditating-w &n>tor«, sa; 
 Rashi in loco. Do not, says Rashi, habituate them in Scripture more tha 
 enough, because it draws away into heresy. Enlightened schoolmaste 
 are apt to teach the Scripture more than the Talmud, and of course that 
 more than enough according to orthodox Judaism. 
 
GENESIS XLIX. 5-9. 295 
 
 with hard words, he began to retreat, but the father recalled 
 him with kindly words and said-: 
 
 8 Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee ; thy hand shall be in 
 the tieck of thine enemies, for they shall flee from thee in war, 
 and turn their back to thee ; thy father's children shall bow 
 down before thee. He said : " Thy father's children" because 
 he had many wives, and had children by each, and he intended 
 that all his children, though not of one mother, should bow 
 down to him. 
 
 9 fudah is a lion's whelp. Jacob prophesied that out of 
 Judah should come David. He will at first be as a young lion, 
 and will in the time of Saul lead Israel to fight in battle ; and 
 then, on Saul's death, he will be an old lion, he will be a 
 king himself. 
 
 From the prey of my son thou art gone up?- " I suspected thee 
 that thou didst make a prey of my son and kill him, but it was 
 not so ; thou hast delivered him from death, and hast said, 
 ' What profit is it if we slay our brother 1 ' ^ And at the affair 
 of Tamar thou didst confess that she was with child by thee, 
 and thus saved her from death, therefore thou wilt have the 
 merit that out of thee shall come king Solomon, in whose 
 days Israel will have rest." Thus Rashi and the Chizkftni 
 write. 
 
 From the prey of my son thou art gone up, means : In rapine, 
 my son, thou excellest ! and thou art expert to make prey of 
 thine enemies and to kill them. 
 
 The question on Rashi is asked : Why did Jacob praise 
 Judah for having said, " What profit is it if we slay our 
 brother 1 " since the Gemara says. He who praises Judah for 
 this saying is in error ; ^ for he said, " What profit is it if we 
 
 ' A.V., From .the prey, my son, thou art, etc. 
 
 ' Chap, xxxvii. 26. 
 
 ' y»i12 T"n miiT ns "jiaon 7D, i.e. He who praises Judah (for it) 
 is a contemner. Sanhedrim, fol. 6b. The commentator misquotes the 
 Gemara by changing the term |'S3D into nyiI3. 
 
29'5 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 slay our brother ? " which is as much as to say, had there been 
 a profit it would have been right to -slay him. Can this be 
 conceivable ? Hence it is thus explained : Judah said, " What 
 profit is it if we slay a man even if he were not our brother? 
 and especially he being 6ur brother, even if we were to profit 
 much money, we still ought not to slay a brother. And that 
 which Reuben counselled you, not to shed blood with your 
 own hands, but to cast him into a deep pit, that was also not 
 right, for he is our brother. Cain slew his brother Abel, and 
 the earth would not receive his blood which continually cried 
 • from the ground ; " i and hence Judah said, " What profit is it 
 if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood 1 if the deep pit 
 does in a manner conceal his blood, the blood will still cry 
 from the ground." 
 
 The Talmud says : For the words, " what j>rofit," we ought 
 to praise him, but for the rest of the words (of that text) Jacob 
 praised him and said, " From the prey of my son thou ex- 
 cellest, because he is my son, and thou art my son, ye are 
 brothers, and as thou wouldst not make him a prey, thou art 
 greatly praised for it." 
 
 10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah. The kingdom 
 of the tribe of Judah shall not depart, nor the princes in the 
 land of Israel which are of the tribe of Judah, until Shiloh come ; 
 and this shall be //// the King Messiah come whose Kingdom 
 it is ; and all shall bring gifts and sacrifices unto Him. 
 
 The B'chai writes : " Until Shiloh come" means, that the 
 kingdom of Judah shall last till Moses comes to be king, as it 
 is written in the text, " And he was king in Jeshurun," ^ i.e. 
 And Moses will be king over Israel. Shiloh having the same 
 numerical value as Moses,^ it refers to Moses. 
 
 The B'chai gives yet another explanation : The sceptre (of 
 
 1 Chap. iv. 10. ' Deut. xxxiii. J. 
 
 » In the Ethics of the Fathers we are told : niX-iaiD niNnDa'ai 
 riDDD^, i.e. And Gematrias are ornaments of wisdom.; of course, not ex- 
 cepting 3tl3 S<nDDU3 nin', the numerical value of each being 35. 
 
GENESIS XLIX. 9, 10. 297 
 
 royalty) shall not be bestowed on Judah until the Tabernacle 
 of Shiloh shall be destroyed, and then will Samuel anoint 
 David, a descendant of Judah, as king. 
 
 And yet another explanation gives the B'chai : The sceptre 
 shall not depart from Judah for ever^ reckoning from the time of 
 the Messiah's advent, but before that event it might depart for 
 a time, for Ad^ (the word rendered until) means /(??- ever. 
 
 The B'chai also says : " Until Shiloh come" refers to Moses, 
 and it intimates, as he had led Israel out of Egypt, so likewise 
 will he and Elijah lead them out of the last and final. captivity 
 — for Shiloh is numerically equivalent to Moses— as the 
 Midrash Rabthi says : God will say unto Moses, "As thou hast 
 sacrificed thyself for Israel in Egypt, thou shalt also, when 
 Elijah leads Israel from their final captivity, come with him," 
 for it is written : " The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind 
 and in the storm." '^ Whirlwind means Moses, who was cast 
 into the water among the bulrushes ; ' and storm means Elijah, 
 who entered heaven alive in a storm. 
 
 The B'chai remarks on : "From the prey, my son, thou art 
 gone up:" because Judah delivered Joseph from the pit that 
 he should not die there, therefore God delivered Daniel, a 
 descendant of Judah, from the lion's den ; and because Judah 
 confessed that Tamar was with child by him, and thus he 
 rescued her with the twin-children from the fire in which she 
 was about to be burned, therefore God delivered Hananiah, 
 Mishael and Azariah, who were descendants of Judah, from 
 the furnace, out of which they came alive. Also all the 
 temples were and will be built by Judah. The first temple 
 
 ■' TV, For ever, everlasting, eternity ; — till, until, unto, to, towards. 
 ^ Nahum i. 3. 
 
 ^ nSID, Suphah, whirlwind, and tJlD, Suph, tiulrush ; the similarity of 
 the letters and almost of the sound of the two Hebrew words is here made 
 to mean what it does not mean. Cases like this are innumerable. mjJD, 
 Saarah, means storm, tempest, and is rendered in the A.V., 2 Kings ii. i, 
 whirlwind, and in Nahum, storm. 
 
RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 was built by Solomon, a descendant of Judah, and the seco 
 temple was built by Zerubbabel, also a descendant of Dav 
 The third temple will be built by Messiah, who will also 
 of the tribe of Judah. 
 
 11 Binding his foal unto the vine. There will be in t 
 land of Judah (when Messiah comes) grapes so large that 
 ass will have to be harnessed to each grape to remove it.i 
 
 12 And his teeth white with milk. There will be such ; 
 abundance of milk that the teeth will be white on account of 
 
 The B'chai observes : In this section relating to Judah a 
 to be found all the. letters of the (Hebrew) alphabet except t 
 letter Zain (and Zain means, weapon), which shows that all t 
 battles which the kingdom of the House of David won, we 
 not won by weapons, but in the name of God ; and hence 
 the name of Judah are all the letters of Jehovah, besides tl 
 letter Daleth.^ The Daleth being the fourth letter of tl 
 (Hebrew) alphabet, showeth that he was the fourth son 
 Jacob. Moreover the kingdom of Judah is likened to tl 
 sun, as it is written : " And his throne as the sun before me;' 
 for as the. sun was created on the fourth day, so likewise w 
 Judah the fourth son of Jacob ; and as th.e sun when shinii 
 by day endeavours to shine more and more, so likewise w 
 the kingdom of Judah endeavour to become ever greater.* 
 
 13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea, and car 
 
 ' In the Talmud it is stated that each vine in the land of Israel will 
 future produce so many grapes that it will require two asses to carry ther 
 The size and weight of each grape is not stated. On the same page, ho\ 
 ever, we are informed that in future, which is always understood to he tl 
 time of the Messiah, the stem or the straw of wheat will be as lofty as 
 palm tree, arid a grain of wheat will be as big as two kidneys of a great 
 A Divine wind will open the grain, and man will have no trouble to c( 
 lect the flour, which will eome out of it as out of a bag. The land of Isrj 
 will also produce. cakes and ready-made garments n^O ''731 niSpDV 
 All this and a great deal more will be found in Kethuboth, fol. 1 1 IB, a 
 in other parts of the Talmud. 
 
 2 min' = nin' + l. ' Ps. Ixxxlx. 36. < See2Sam. Ui. i. 
 
GENESIS XIJX. lo-ij. 299 
 
 merchandise in ships, and will maintain Issachar, who will study 
 the Torah. The reward of Zebulun is greater than that of 
 Issachar, for if he gave him no food he would not study; 
 and hence the section relating to Zebulun stands before that 
 relating to Issachar, and shows that the reward of him who 
 helps forward the study of the Law, and maintains the young 
 men who study the Law, for God's sake,- is greater than the 
 reward of those that study.^ 
 
 14 Issachar is a strong ass. He is like the ass, who has 
 large bones and litde flesh ; so are they who study the Torah, 
 they have but little flesh on their bodies, for the Torah weakens 
 their strength and their flesh diminishes. 
 
 Couching down between the market places? As an ass 
 travels day and night, and when he tests he does so between 
 the market places of the town (not under shelter in a stable), so 
 also are the disciples of the wise, — they rest neither day nor 
 night, but study the Torah, and rest not in their beds, 
 
 15 And he saw that rest was good. He saw that in order 
 to be able to study the Torah, rest from commerce and war 
 is required ; and hence we pray in the Shemonah Essrah : ^ 
 " Oh restore our judges as aforetime, and our counsellors as 
 at the beginning ; remove from us sorrow and sighing !" which 
 means that God should settle us in Jerusalem and remove 
 from us sorrow, then shall we have rest and understanding 
 to study, as it is written: "For the earth shall be full of the 
 
 ' The Talmud says : Whoever gives his daughter to (one that studies 
 the Law) a disciple of the wise, manages the mercantile affairs of the dis- 
 ciples of the wise, and allows them the free enjoyment of his goods ; him 
 Scripture considers as if he had cleaved to the Shechinah. Kethubolh, 
 fol. 3B. 
 
 ^ A. v., two burdens. New Revision : the sheepfolds. 
 
 ■* mtyj? njlDB* Shemonah Essrah, i.e. eighteen; a prayer consisting of 
 eighteen blessings, daily repeated, in silence at the morning, afternoon, 
 and evening services, tn a standing upright position. The Talmud states 
 that twelve elders, and among them several prophets, took part in compos- 
 ing this prayer, technically called Shemonah Essrah, Meggillah, fol. 17B. 
 
30° RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 knowledge of the Lord:"i when the Messiah comes all ■ 
 be able to study the Torah ; hence before the blessing, " 
 restore," etc., stands the blessing, " Oh sound the gr 
 trumpet as a signal for our' freedom," etc., which shows tl 
 when the great trumpet shall be sounded, and the Mess: 
 comes, then will be (universal) understanding rightly to juc 
 and to study. 
 
 And bowed his shoulder to bear. This teaches us that 
 disciple of the wise must be able ''to bear" when he is treat 
 with contempt. 
 
 And became a servant unto tribute. Issachar will be trib 
 unto Israel; and will teach them, and will decide their religic 
 disputes. 
 
 The Midrash says : " Issachar is a strong ass" means tl 
 the ass occasioned the birth of Issachar; for when Jacob cai 
 from the field on an ass, and Leah hearing the ass bray, we 
 to meet Jacob, ^ and told hip, "I have hired thee to be wi 
 me this night ; " she conceived Issachar. 
 
 1 6 Ban shall judge his people. The mighty Samson, of t 
 tribe of Dan, will be a judge over Israel, and will lead the 
 as a king. He will slay many of the Philistines, not with a 
 weapon, but with the jawbone of an ass three thousand men.' 
 . The text likens Samson to a serpent; for as a serpent mov 
 silently and kills many people, so Samson went alone, witho 
 any noise, and slew many of the Philistines. 
 
 Another explanation why he is likened to a serpent is : I 
 cause as a serpent has a sting of fire, so also Samson burm 
 the corn of the Philistines.' He caught three hundred foxe 
 and bound firebrands to their tails, and drove them into tl 
 corn of the Philistines, and burned it.* When the Philistin 
 
 ' Isa. xi. 9. 
 
 ' In the Talmud this interesting event is thus stated. The ass caus 
 the birth of Issachar, for it stopped providentially at Leah's tent, a 
 detained Jacob there. Niddah, fol. 31A. 
 
 ' The Bible says only one thousand. Judg. xv. 16. * Ji^g. xv. 4, 
 
GENESIS XLIX. 15-18. 301 
 
 became aware of this, they made war with Israel. Three 
 thousand men of Israel came to bind and deliver Samson to 
 the Philistines, saying, "They want thee only, and no other man." 
 And Samson said unto them, " Swear unto me that ye your- 
 selves will not kill me, and I will let you bind me." They 
 swore that they would do him no harm, and then they bound 
 him with two new thick ropes, and carried him to the Philis- 
 tines. When the Philistines saw Samson being carried, they 
 trumpeted and danced for joy. But the Spirit of God came 
 upon him, and the ropes on his hands became as burnt flax, 
 and he was at once released. He then took a jawbone 
 of an ass,- wherewith he slew three thousand men of the 
 Philistines. 
 , After this Samson felt very thirsty, and having nothing to 
 drink, he prayed to God and said : "Lord of the Universe ! Thou 
 hast delivered me, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into 
 their hands?" Then God wrought a miracle that water came 
 out of the jawbone as from a fountain, and Samson drank and 
 remained alive. It is also stated in Scripture, that when 
 Samson and his parents went to Timnath, and a lion met and 
 roared against him, that the prophetic spirit of the Lord came 
 upon him and he tore the liOn as one would tear a kid, and he 
 had no weapon with him. 
 
 The Midrash writes : The text likens Samson to a serpent, 
 because a serpent has no feet, and Samson was lame in his 
 legs.i 
 
 ]8 I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord?' Jacob foresaw 
 that Samson would be the last judge of Israel. Although 
 Samuel was judge after him, yet he had not so much fighting 
 as Samson had ; and Jacob said, " Although Samson will die 
 
 ' Balaam was lame in one of his legs only, but Samson in both legs. 
 So says the Talmud. Soteh, fol. lOA. 
 
 ' These words of the dying Patriarch are repeated by pious Jews every 
 morning and evening all the year round. - In the morning, immediately 
 after reciting the creed, i.e. " The Thirteen Fundamental Articles of 
 
302 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 fighring in the war, yet I trust in Thee, O God, that thou wi 
 continue to save us from our enemies." Thus writes ti 
 Ramban. 
 
 Rashi says : Samson himself said, "/ have waited for ti 
 salvation, O Lord" when he took hold of the pillars of tl 
 house, and prayed that God would help him to overthrow i 
 and avenge Himself on the Philistines, although he himse 
 
 Faith, " this scripture text is repeated three times in Hebrew, and as mai 
 times in Chaldee, each time differently worded, as follows : — 
 
 i.e. " For Thy salvation have I waited O L'ord ! 
 I have waited O Lord ! for Thy salvation. 
 O Lord ! for Thy salvation have I waited. " 
 It will be observed in the above Hebrew and Chaldee passages, that inste; 
 of n'ln; Jehovah (translated Lord), J^ sounding V^Ya, is employed. Tl 
 new name of the Deity in place of Jehovah is the almost universal practi 
 throughout the Jewish Liturgies, excepting in the Karaite Liturgy, whe 
 'V has been adopted. Compared with Jehovah, or with any other Divi 
 
 ■ CO 
 
 name which occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures, 'I/ alone seems to be t 
 real Shem-Hammephorash, because all the names are communicable a 
 capable of being pronounced, and this alone cannot be uttered and is qu 
 Ineffable. 
 
 In the evening, before retiring to rest, this Scripture text is again repeat 
 in the same manner as in the morning, but in Hebrew only. Then t 
 following is recited three times also in Hebrew: "In the name of ( 
 F« Ya the God of Israel, on my right hand is Michael, and on my 1 
 Gabriel; before me is Ariel, and behind me Raphael; over my head is 1 
 Shechinah of God." About the Shechinah see footnote on page 138 ant 
 
 As the name (J^) Y' Ya is nowhere even once mentioned in the Bible, a 
 as it cannot be an abbreviation of (nini) Jehovah, because the latter 
 written with one Yod only, and the other is with two Yods, the natu 
 question now is: Who is Y'-Y P.'i or What is it an abbreviation of? 1 
 Secret of Jehovah hidden and concealed under the two Yods of Y=Ya set 
 to be peeping out from under the Rabbinical veil of mystery, and all t 
 is now wanting is a hand to roll the veil aside and bring the hidden sec 
 to light. See Acts xx. 27 = Luke xi. 52. 
 
GENESIS XLIX. 18-21. 303 
 
 would be killed at the same time, about which he was not 
 concerned, as it is written, " Let me die with the Philistines!" 1 
 
 19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him. Jacob said, "That the 
 tribe of Gad would cross the Jordan with his brethren to fight 
 against the idolaters, of whom he will slay a great many, and 
 then he will return from the land of Israel and conquer his 
 portion in the outside land, and come home in peace without 
 losing a man of his." ^ 
 
 20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat. His land shall be 
 fat with an abundance of olive trees to supply the world with 
 oil.3 . 
 
 21 Naphtali is a hind let loose. Jacob said to Naphtali, 
 that his land will ripen its fruits as quick as a hind runs. 
 
 He giveth goodly words. Blessings will be said over his 
 fruits. Another interpretation is : Jacob prophetically foretold 
 that ten thousand men of Naphtali would run as quick to fight 
 with Sisera as a hind runs quick. He giveth goodly words ; 
 this refers to the song of Deborah and Barak, in consequence 
 of the quickness of Naphtali to fight. 
 
 The Midrash says : Esau would not allow Jacob to be buried 
 in the cave, and the swift -footed Naphtali, who could run as 
 quick as a hind, was sent to Egypt to bring the title deed 
 which proved that Esau had sold the portion in the cave.* 
 
 The Ramban and the Toldoth Yitzkhac write : Naphtali 
 was likened to a hind, because it is the custom to train hinds 
 to carry letters. When a hind is born with the king of the 
 North, he sends it to the king of the South, who trains it, and 
 when he wishes to send a letter to the king of the North, he 
 binds the letter to its neck, and thus good news is conveyed, 
 which is the meaning of " He giveth goodly words." 
 
 ' Judg. xvl. 30. 
 ^ Josh, i 12-16 ; xxii. 6. 
 
 ' The land of Asher produced oil like a well, I"TO3 )DEi "^VO, 
 Menacholh, fol. 85B. See also Tal. Misc., 278, 22. 
 * See Tal. Misc., 186. 
 
304 RABBINICAL COMMENJARy. 
 
 The Imrae Noam says : " Naphtali ts a hind set loosed' 
 goes quick, for no man detains him, because, he giveth goo 
 words to every man he meets. 
 
 2 2 Joseph is a fruitful son, a fruitful son to the eye?- Jose 
 is a graceful-looking son ; in the sight of every one who s 
 him he was graceful. 
 
 The daughters step over the wall? The daughters of Eg) 
 stepped over the walls to look at the beauty of Joseph. 
 
 Another interpretation pf "Joseph is a fruitful son^' is : Wh 
 Esau came and saw all the wives and their children, Jose 
 placed himself in front of his mother,^ and so stretched a 
 expanded himself, that Esau should not be able to see h 
 and take her, for she was very beautiful. Therefore s; 
 Jacob : " Because thou hast thus stretched and expanded tl 
 self, thou art worthy that all women should be eager to £ 
 thy beauty." Thou art above the eye, that is to say, thou w 
 be so worthy that the evil eye will never affect thee. 
 
 The B'chai writes : The text repeats twice the express! 
 "fruitful son" to show that from the two sons of Joseph mu 
 people would be multiplied in Israel, even as Moses express 
 it ; " They are the ten thousand of Ephraim, and they are i 
 ten thousand of Manasseh." * The daughters step over the wc 
 The daughters of Egypt stepped over the walls to see t 
 beauty of Joseph ; but Joseph himself was very modest ai 
 never looked at any woman ; hence he deserved to attain 
 royalty. 
 
 The Midrash says : Joseph was a fruitful son means, tl 
 because of the kine ^ which Pharaoh saw in his dream, Jose 
 attained to greatness and became ruler. 
 
 23 They sorely grieved him ; namely Potiphar and his wife 
 
 • A. v., a fruitful bough by a well. ° A.V., whose branches. 
 
 ' At the meeting of Jacob and Esau (Gen. xxxiii. 2) ; Joseph was at t 
 time a mere child. _ ^ Deut. xxxiii..l7. 
 
 5 ni"l3 Paroth, i.e. kine : ITliS, Porath, j.^. fruitful. By a play on th 
 two word's the Midrash interprets the text to mean what it does not mes 
 
GENESIS XLIX. 21-27. 305 
 
 They shot at him ; i.e. they quarrelled with him, viz. his 
 brethren. 
 
 The dividers hated him ; namely the brethren, who had to 
 divide with him the inheritance, hated him.i 
 
 24 But his bow was set in strength ; that is to say, he be- 
 came a ruler. 
 
 And the arms of his hands were adorned with fine gold ; the 
 king put on his hand the gold ring. All this Joseph had 
 
 From the hands of the mighty God of Jacob ; from thence he 
 was counted worthy to be lord over Israel, "and Joseph was 
 also therefore called " The Stone of Israel," because each of 
 the twelve tribes of Israel had a stone in the breastplate of 
 the High Priest, on which each had his name engraved." 
 The stone of Joseph was the onyx. The two stones on the 
 shoulders of the ephod which the High Priest wore, were 
 onyxes, on which all the names of the twelve tribes were 
 engraved.^ As the onyx was the stone allotted to Joseph, and 
 as on this particular species of gem ^1 the tribes of Israel 
 were engraven, therefore was Joseph called, " The Stone of 
 Israel." 
 
 25 From the God of thy father, who shall help thee. All this 
 came from God, and because thou hast always, been with 
 God, and wouldest not sin with Potiphar's wife, therefore the 
 Almighty shall bless thee, with blessings of the breasts and of the 
 wombs, that is to say : Husbands and wives that will come 
 out of thee will never neglect their children, and out of thee 
 there wiU be many children in the world. 
 
 26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings 
 of my progenitors. " My blessing is stronger and better than 
 theirs, for God blessed me without measure." These blessings 
 shall be on the head of Joseph. 
 
 2 7 Benjamin shall ravin also as a wolf Jacob prophetically^ 
 foresaw that the tribe of Benjamin woiild be obliged to catch 
 
 ^ See the rendering in the A.V. 
 
 ' Exod. xxviii. 21. ' Ibid, xxviii. 9-12. 
 
3o6 RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 wives, for on account of the concubine of Gibeah they were 
 Cherem (under ban), and as none were allowed to give the 
 wives, they were obliged to catch them "^—as a wolf. 
 
 In the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shi 
 divide the spoil. In the morning: First will be king Saul, 
 the tribe of Benjamin, who will take the property and tl 
 money of the idolaters. And at night: And finally will 1 
 Mordecai and Esther, of the tribe of Benjamin, who will tal 
 the money and the property of Haman. 
 
 28 And this is it that their father spake unto them and bless 
 them. Thus the text shows us that although Jacob blamf 
 • several of his children, he nevertheless blessed them all alik 
 Jacob in his last will said : 
 
 ^29 I am to be gathered uuto my people, bury me with ti 
 fathers in the cave. The Ramban says : Although Josej 
 alone was sworn to carry him to the cave, yet all his childn 
 had to carry him there. 
 
 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife ; the. 
 they buried Isaac and Rebekah hjs wife. He says : " There thi 
 buried Isaac," though he himself buried him ; but because Ess 
 also aided him, he would not mention himself coupled wil 
 Esau, and hence he said, " They buried." 
 . And there I buried Leah. " Thus I got a legal right in tl: 
 property of the cave, that Esau might not claim the same," f( 
 the cave could not hold more than three couples ; for th: 
 reason Joseph did not order his remains to be buried in th 
 cave. 
 
 When they canied Jacob to be. buried, Tzepho, the son c 
 Eliphaz, the grandson of Esau, came with a large number ( 
 people, and fought a battle with Joseph. and his people. Bi 
 Joseph, without losing one of his men, was victorious and toe 
 Tzepho and his chiefs prisoners, and he kept him in prison i 
 Egypt till he died. 
 
 ' F/</^ Judg. xix.-xxi. God is said to have been studying the subje 
 of the concubine of Gibeah. Gillin, fol. 6b. 
 
GENESIS XLIX. 27-Z. 7. 3°? 
 
 33 And Jacob yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto Ms ■ 
 people. The Gemara says: No death is mentioned, because 
 Jacob did not die.^ 
 
 The Ramban, the Toldoth Yitzkhac and the B'chai write : 
 As his body was embalmed with spices to preserve it, he 
 must have died ; but as Jacob was very holy, his soul remained 
 in his body as still living, and this is the meaning of the 
 Gemara, ." Jagab did not die." 
 
 Another interpretation is this:- Because Jacob had instructed 
 disciples in the Torah, and whenever something is repeated in 
 the name of a deceased teacher, his lips move in his grave,^ 
 as if he were alive, therefore death is not mentioned of 
 Jacob. 
 
 Chapter L. — 3 And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy 
 days; forty days during the operation of embalming, and thirty 
 days the (usual period of) mourning. The physicians embalmed 
 Israel. 
 
 5 In the grave which I have digged for me.. Joseph said unto 
 Pharaoh, "Jacob has ordered in his will : Ye shall bury me in 
 the cave which I have bought for me." It is therefore said (in 
 the- original) Carithie^ which means heaped, for Jacob took 
 gold aiid silver and laid it before EsaU in a heap, and said, 
 "Take this for thy share in the cave."* 
 
 6 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Go tip, and bury thy father, 
 according as he made thee swear. "Had he not made thee swear, 
 I would not have let thee go; but I cannot order thee to break 
 an oath, because thou wilt then also break the oath which I 
 made thee swear, not to reveal that I am' unable to speak 
 Lashon-hakodesh, i.e.. the holy tongue." 
 
 7 And Joseph went tip to bury his father. Nine groups 
 went up in procession, i. Joseph alone. 2. The princes of 
 
 1 n» k"? 1313s apVl pnii 'n -|»S, le. Rabbi Johanan says: our fatter 
 Jacob did not die. Taanith, fol. SB. He still lives in bis children, 
 
 ' nipi nuan rninsE'. vevamoth, foi. 97A. 
 
 ' A. v., I have digged, * Vide xlvi. 6, ante. 
 
3oS RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 "Pharaoh. 3. The' elders. 4. The chieftains of Egypt. ; 
 Joseph's household. 6. His brethren. -7. His father's hous( 
 hold. 8. People in carriages. 9. A great many people 
 foot. 
 
 9 It was a very great company ; for the angels followed -afte 
 the people. The sam'e angels that watched over Jacob durin, 
 his life' watched over him after his death.i 
 
 io The threshing-floor of Atad. All the kings of Canaan an 
 of Ishmael came to fight and dispute the burial, but when the 
 saw Joseph's crown suspended from the coffin, they all su! 
 pended their own crowns also.^ Hence the name of the place 
 " Tlw threshingfloar of Atad" which means, as a threshing-floc 
 is surrounded by a hedge, of thorns, so was Jacob's coffi 
 surrounded by Gro^vns. 
 
 12 And his sons did unfo him according as he commander 
 them. The first thing he^' commanded was, that iione of hi 
 grandsons should carry him, because some of them were of th 
 daughters of Canaan ; ^ also that no Egyptian should carry hi 
 coffin. He also commanded that three of his sons should g 
 on each side (of the coffin). In the same order as they wer 
 by the coffin, they subsequently went in the desert by the Ar 
 of the Covenant. He commanded also that Levi should nc 
 carry him, because his children would carry the Ark of th 
 Covenant. Joseph, he ordered not to carry him, because h 
 was a ruler, and in their place should be Ephraim an 
 Manasseh. 
 
 14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his .brethren, an 
 all that went up with him to bury hts father. Rashi remarks 
 When the funeral procession started, the Egyptians went befoi 
 the brethren, but on the return the brethren went before th 
 Egyptians, because the Egyptians having noticed that all tl 
 
 ' Comp. Jude 9. 
 This story, considerably varied, arid more fully described, in Soieli, ft 
 13A, may be read in Talm. Misc., 186. , 
 
 ' Vide-Ay'x. 10, antt. . . • 
 
GENESIS L. 7-17. 309 
 
 kings suspended their crowns in honour of Jacob, they showed 
 honour to the children of Jacob, by letting them go before. 
 
 15 Joseph's irethren saw 7iow that their father was dead, 
 because Joseph dined now at a separate table, they thought 
 that he hated them and would avenge himself on them. But 
 Joseph had no such intention. 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : On the way to bury Jacob they came 
 to the pit into which Joseph was cast. Joseph stopped there 
 and blessed God who miraculously helped him out of the pit. 
 The brethren noticed this, and began to fear that Joseph, 
 being now reminded of the afi9ictions he suffered at their hands, 
 would avenge himself on them. Therefore they commissioned 
 the children of Bilhah ^ to say unto Joseph : — . 
 
 16 Thy father did command before he died, that Joseph should 
 forgive them for their having sold him. Although that was a 
 lie, for Jacob knew nothing of his having been sold; and he 
 knew also that Joseph was a righteous man and would not 
 return evil for evil"; yet, for the sake of peace, a lie maybe told 
 when it does no one any harm.^ 
 
 17 The servants of the God' of thy father. The Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac observes : They said, " Forgive the trespass of the 
 servants of the God of thy father" because at the recognition 
 Joseph told them: "It luas 7Wt you that sent me hither, but 
 God sent me before you to preserve you." ^ Hence they pleaded, 
 "we have not sinned in selling thee, for we have been only the 
 messengers and servants of God in doing so. 
 
 The B'chai remarks : The brethren prayed him for forgive- 
 ness, but we do not find that he did forgive them ; and the 
 Gemara says : AVhen one sinneth against his fellow man, even 
 his repentance is of no help to him, until he first appease his 
 offended fellow man.' But they died and did not obtain 
 
 ' It is inferred from Gen. xxxvii. 2, tliat Joseph was brought up by 
 Bilhah, and hence her children were more intimate with Joseph than the 
 rest of the brothers. ' See note to xlviii. i ante. 
 
 ' 1"Un nX nVTtJ' IJJ. Voma, fol. 85B. ■> Chap. xlv. 7, 8. 
 
3oS RABBINICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 'Pharaoh. 3. The elders. 4. The chieftains of Egypt. 5. 
 Joseph's household. 6. His brethren. .7. His father's house- 
 hold. 8. People in carriages. 9. A great many people on 
 foot. 
 
 9 It was a very great company ; .for the angels followed -after 
 the people. The same angels that watched over Jacob during 
 his life watched over him after his death.i 
 
 io Tke threshing-floor of Atad. All the kings ©f Canaan and 
 of Ishmael came to fight and dispute the burial, but when they 
 saw Joseph's crown suspended from the coffin, they all sus- 
 pended their own crowns also.^ Hence the name of the. place, 
 " The threshmg-floffrof Atad,''' which means, as a threshing-floor 
 is surrounded by a hedge, of thorns, so was Jacob's coffin 
 surrounded by crowns. 
 
 1 2 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded 
 them. The first thing he^ commanded was, that hone of his 
 grandsons should carry him, because some of them were of the 
 daughters of Canaan ; ^ also that no Egyptian should carry his 
 coffin. He also commanded that three of his sons should go 
 on each side (of the coffin). In the same order as they went 
 by the coffin, they subsequently went in the desert by the Ark 
 of the Covenant. He commanded also that Levi should not 
 carry him, because his children would carry the Ark of the 
 Covenant. Joseph, he ordered not to carry him, because he 
 was a ruler, and in their place should be Ephraim and 
 Maijasseh. 
 
 14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and 
 all that went up ivith him to bury Ins father. Rashi remarks : 
 When the funeral procession started, the Egyptians went before 
 the brethren, but on the return the brethren went before the . 
 Egyptians, because the Egyptians having noticed that all the 
 
 ' Comp. Jude 9. 
 This story, considerably varied, and more fully described, in Soteii, fol. 
 13A, may be read in Talm, Misc., 186. 
 ' Videy.\\\. 10, ante. 
 
GENESIS I.. 7-17. 309 
 
 kings suspended their crowns in honour of Jacob, they showed 
 honour to the children of Jacob, by letting them go before. 
 
 1^ Joseph's brethren saw now that their father was dead, 
 because Joseph dined now at a separate table, they thought 
 that he hated them and would avenge himself on them. But 
 Joseph had no such intention. 
 
 The Chizkuni writes : On the way to bury Jacob they came 
 to the pit into which Joseph was cast. Joseph stopped there 
 and blessed God who miraculously helped him out of the pit. 
 The brethren noticed this, and began to fear that Joseph, 
 being now reminded of the afflictions he suffered at their hands, 
 would avenge himself on them. Therefore they commissioned 
 the children of Bilhah ^ to say unto Joseph : — . 
 
 16 Thy father did command before he died, that Joseph should 
 forgive them for their having sold him. Although that was a 
 lie, for Jacob knew nothing of his having been sold; and he 
 knew also that Joseph was a righteous man and would not 
 return evil for evil"; yet, for the sake of peace, a lie may be told 
 when it does no one any harm.^ 
 
 1 7 The servants of the God of thy father. The Toldoth 
 Yitzkhac observes : They said, " Forgive the trespass of t/ie 
 servants of t/te God of tliy father^' because at the recognition 
 Joseph told them : " // ^uas not you that sent me hitJier, but 
 God sent me before you to preserve you^' ^ Hence they pleaded, 
 "we have not sinned in selling thee, for we have been only the 
 messengers and servants of God in doing so. 
 
 The B'chai remarks : The brethren prayed him for forgive- 
 ness, but we do not find that he did forgive them ; and the 
 Gemara says : When one sinneth against his fellow man, even 
 his repentance is of no help to him, until he first appease his 
 ofifended fellow man.' But they ' died and did not obtain 
 
 ' It is inferred from Gen. xxxvii. 2, that Joseph was brought up by 
 Bilhah, and hence her children were more intimate with Joseph thaji the 
 rest of the brothers. ^ See note to xlviii. i ante. 
 
 ' nan on rVi'y^ ly. Yoma, fol. 85E. ■* chap. xlv. 7, 8. 
 
INDEX I. 
 
 Passages of Scriptur 
 
 Exodus. 
 
 i. 12 
 
 
 
 
 13. 
 
 14 
 
 
 . ii. 13 
 
 
 
 iii. 16 
 
 
 
 
 iv. 20 
 
 
 
 
 vi. 20 
 
 
 
 
 vii. 20 
 
 
 
 
 viii. 17 
 
 
 
 
 X. 23 
 
 
 
 
 xii. 12- 
 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 
 35, 
 
 36 . 
 
 
 40, 
 
 41 
 
 
 ' XV. I- 
 
 19 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 XX. 2 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 xxi. 32 
 
 
 
 xxii. 4 
 
 
 
 . 6-14 
 
 
 xxviii. 9- 
 
 -12 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 xxxi. 16 
 
 
 
 
 Leviticus. 
 
 ii. 13 
 
 
 xiv. 2 
 
 
 
 
 xvi. 31 
 
 
 
 
 xvii. 11 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 
 xviii. 12 
 
 
 
 
 xix. 14 
 
 
 
 
 xxii. 18- 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 xxiii. 32 
 
 
 
 
 (juotcd or referred to in this -uork. 
 
 PACE 
 
 183 
 
 56 
 115 
 192 
 
 135. 156 
 241 
 
 283 
 
 3 
 
 284 
 
 171 
 
 270 
 
 69 
 
 203 
 
 222 
 
 I, 120 
 
 18 
 
 155 
 271 
 271 
 178 
 305 
 305 
 69, 157 
 
 4 
 
 113 
 
 • 18 
 
 91 
 35 
 210 
 156 
 212 
 125 
 18 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 
 PACE 
 
 iii. 12, 45 
 
 • 174 
 
 XV. 20, 21 
 
 
 
 . 26 
 
 38 . . 
 
 
 
 54- Si 
 
 xvi. I 
 
 
 
 ■ 294 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 xxi. 17 
 
 
 
 ■ 99 
 
 xxiv. 9 
 
 
 
 . 164 
 
 XXV. 10 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 . 14 ■ 
 
 
 
 • 294 
 
 xxvi. 46' 
 
 
 
 . 228 
 
 xxviii. 15 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 Deuteronomy. 
 
 
 ii. 9 . 
 
 . Ill 
 
 vi. 4-9 . 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 8 . 
 
 
 
 . 81 
 
 X. 8 . 
 
 
 
 ■ 174 
 
 xviii. 4 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 xxi. 1-9 . 
 
 
 
 .. 271 
 
 xxiii. 2 
 
 
 
 ■ 132 
 
 XXV. 9 
 
 
 
 . 81 
 
 xxvii. 13, 20 
 
 
 
 • 293 
 
 x.xviii. 8 
 
 
 
 • 199 
 
 32 • ' 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 XXX. 20 
 
 
 
 • 65 
 
 xxxii. 43 
 
 
 
 21, 284 
 
 xxxiii. 5 
 
 
 
 . 296 
 
 17 • 
 
 • 197. 
 
 3°4. 311 
 
 xxxiv. 6 
 
 
 
 . 311 
 
 
 32 
 
 
 XXX. 
 
 20 
 
 
 xxxii 
 
 43 
 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 5 
 17 
 
 
 xxxiv. 
 
 6 
 
 
 , 
 
 12, 
 
 16 
 
 X. 
 
 12, 
 
 13 
 
 xviii. 
 
 7 
 
 
 xxii. 
 
 6 
 
 
 Joshua. 
 
 303 
 290 
 262 
 303 
 
314 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 
 
 Judges. ■ 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 Job. 
 
 t-ACE 
 
 vi. 37-40 
 
 
 . 290 
 
 XV. 15 
 
 
 • 173 
 
 vii. 22, 
 
 26 
 
 
 '. 290 
 
 xxii. 28 
 
 
 ■ 249 
 
 XV. 4, 5 
 
 ,16 
 
 
 . 300 
 
 xxix. 18 
 
 
 . 28 
 
 xvi. 30 . 
 
 
 
 • 303 
 
 xxxiii. 18 
 
 
 . 228 
 
 xix. to xxi. 
 
 
 -. 306 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ruth. 
 
 
 
 PSALM£. 
 
 ' 
 
 iv. 18 
 
 
 • 
 
 • 19 
 
 xxi. 4 
 xxii. 20 
 
 
 • 58 
 12 
 
 
 I 
 
 ■ Samuel. 
 
 
 xxiv. I 
 
 
 15 
 
 i. 19 
 
 
 . 
 
 • "5 
 
 XXXV. 17 
 
 
 12 
 
 ii. 21 
 
 
 
 • "S 
 
 xii. 3 
 
 
 ■ 28s 
 
 iii. 3 
 
 
 
 . 128 
 
 Ix^'iii. 18 
 
 
 99 
 
 ix. I, 
 
 2 
 
 
 . 182 
 
 Ixxxv. II 
 
 
 iq, II 
 
 x. 16 
 
 
 
 . 182 
 
 Ixxxix. 36 
 
 
 , 29S 
 
 xvi. 2 
 
 
 • 
 
 . lOI 
 
 xc. 4 
 
 
 • 23 
 
 XXX. 17 
 
 
 
 . 207 
 
 xcii. I 
 c. 3 
 
 
 36 
 ■ 138 
 
 
 2 
 
 Samuel. 
 
 
 ciii. 13 
 
 ' 
 
 25 
 
 ii. 21 
 
 
 
 • "S 
 
 civ. 15 
 
 
 S3 
 
 iii. I 
 
 
 
 . 298 
 
 cv. I 
 
 
 286 
 
 xviii. 20-27 
 
 
 . 264 
 
 cvii. 6 
 
 
 65 
 
 xxii. 27 
 
 
 I Kings. 
 
 • 177 
 
 cxvi. II 
 
 15 
 cxix. 81 
 
 
 9- 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 xii. 28, 
 
 29 . 
 
 • 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 cxxviii. 3 
 
 
 208 
 
 xvii, 2?. 
 
 
 * • 
 
 . 1S5 
 
 cxlv. 
 cxlvii. 19 
 
 
 121 
 197 
 
 
 2 Kings. 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 197 
 
 ii. I 
 
 
 
 • 297 
 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 
 
 • 74 
 
 
 
 
 iv. 17 
 
 
 
 . 185 
 
 
 Proverbs. 
 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 •.- i8s 
 
 
 
 
 xvii. 24, 
 
 30 . 
 
 
 •• 71 
 
 vi. 23 
 
 . 
 
 3 
 
 XXV. II 
 
 
 
 . 287 
 
 viii. 22 
 X. 2 
 
 • 
 
 I 
 65 
 
 
 I C 
 
 hronicles. 
 
 
 xii. 28 
 
 
 281 
 
 xii. 32 . 
 
 
 • . ■ 
 
 . 218 
 
 xiii. 20 
 
 XV. I 
 
 
 63 
 
 264 
 
 
 .] 
 
 SSTHER. 
 
 
 xviii. 21 
 
 
 279 
 
 ii, 5. 
 
 
 , 
 
 .. . 182 
 
 XX. 6 
 
 
 4J 
 
 7. 
 
 . 
 
 
 . 182 
 
 7 
 
 . 
 
 41 
 
 10. 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 182 
 
 xxiii. 29 
 
 
 52 
 
 viii. 15. 
 
 
 
 262, 272 
 
 xxix. 3 
 
 
 236 
 

 ^ 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 
 315 
 
 
 ECCLESIASTES. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 Nahum. ■ 
 
 PAGE 
 
 i. 5 • 
 
 
 128 
 
 i-3 
 
 . 
 
 ■ -297 
 
 iii. I . 
 
 . 
 
 40 
 
 
 Haggai. 
 
 
 V. 10 . 
 
 . . 
 
 150 
 
 ii. 9 
 
 , 
 
 • 14 
 
 vii. 26 . 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 Zechariah. 
 
 
 X. 19 . 
 
 Isaiah. 
 
 251 
 
 ix. 9 
 
 Malachi. 
 
 . 200 
 
 i. 14, 
 
 IS- • ,• 
 
 135 
 
 iv. 2 
 
 
 . 204 
 
 iii. 16 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 Matthew. 
 
 
 V. 20, 
 vh 3 
 
 21 . . . . 
 
 204 
 
 108 
 
 V. 37' 
 viii. 13 
 
 I ... 
 
 . 292 
 21 
 
 X. 5 
 
 
 201 
 
 14 
 
 . 
 
 21 
 
 xi. z 
 
 • 
 
 15 
 
 xxiii. 24 
 
 
 . 250 
 
 9 
 
 
 300 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 xxi. 13 
 
 
 119 
 
 
 Luke. 
 
 
 14 
 
 . 
 
 119 
 
 xi. 52 . 
 
 • 
 
 . 302 
 
 xxvi. 13 
 
 . 
 
 286 
 
 
 John. 
 
 
 xxviii. 7 
 
 
 54 
 
 xi. 53 ■ . . 
 
 . 
 
 . 225 
 
 xxxiii. 24 
 
 . 
 
 284 
 
 
 Acts. 
 
 
 liU. 6 
 
 . 
 
 225 
 
 XX. 27 . 
 
 
 . 302 
 
 Ix. 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 Romans. 
 
 
 
 Jeremiah. 
 
 
 iii. 8 . 
 
 • . 
 
 ■ 41 
 
 V. 31- 
 
 • 
 
 102 
 
 vii. 22, 23 
 
 . 
 
 12, 49 
 
 vii. 16 . 
 
 
 170 
 
 ix. 6-8 . 
 
 
 • 173 
 
 xvii. 12 . 
 
 - 
 
 Z 
 
 X. 2 . 
 
 
 . 184 
 
 XXX. l"5-l 
 
 ? • • • 
 
 287 
 
 xii. IS, 16 
 
 . 
 
 . 123 
 
 
 Daniel. 
 
 
 I 
 
 Corinthians. 
 
 
 ii. 5 . 
 
 
 . -242 
 
 vi. 3 . 
 
 . . 
 
 . 201 
 
 iii. 20 . 
 
 • 
 
 . 48 
 
 XV. 45 . 
 
 . • ■ 
 
 ■ IS 
 
 iv. 13 . 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Titus. 
 
 
 ix. 21 . 
 S. 20, 21 
 
 • 
 
 . 222 
 . 196 
 
 ii. 14 . 
 
 Hebrews. 
 
 . 184 
 
 xii« 4 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 . 201 
 
 vii. 3 - 
 ix. 22 . 
 
 
 . .80 
 91, 127 
 
 
 Joel. 
 
 
 xi. 21 . 
 
 
 . 28S 
 
 ii. 8 . 
 
 Amos. 
 
 . 228 
 
 xiii. 2 . 
 
 James. 
 
 . 96 
 
 vi. 6 . 
 
 
 • 54 
 
 iv. 17 . 
 
 . 
 
 • 13 
 
 
 Obadiah. 
 
 
 
 Jude. 
 
 . 308 
 
 i. 21 
 
 . 
 
 . 206 
 
 va: 9 • 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 MiCAH. 
 
 
 
 Revelation. 
 
 
 vii. 20 . 
 
 
 . 204 
 
 xii. IS, I 
 
 6 . . . 
 
 . 123 
 
INDEX II. 
 
 TJie references in this Index are to page, or to note, or to page and note. 
 
 Abel, 33, 34, 35, 296. 
 
 Abiinelech, 72, 73, 112, 113, iig,' 
 
 151, 158,215, 279. 
 Abraham, 14, 42, 43, 55, 58, 60, 
 
 63> 67, 69, 73, 82, 103, 109, 
 
 112, 120, 123, 130, 150, 15s, 
 
 156, 163, 172, 208, 215, 279. 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 99. 
 Adah and ZillaTi, 37. 
 Adam, 3, 13, 14, 15, 19 and «., 20, 
 
 21, 22, 24, 29, 30, 36,38, 49, 
 
 55. 125, 130, 132, 164. 
 Adler, the Rev. Dr., 150??. . 
 Adultery, or Fornication, 40, 71, 
 
 158, 210, 231, 237. 
 Advent. See Messiah. 
 Advice, or Consultation, 8, 79, 224. 
 AfHiction, 83;^., 102, 133, 256. 
 Ahab, King of Israel, 47. 
 Akiva, Rabbi, 17, 124K. 
 Alms, or Charity, 41, 65, 86, 103, 
 
 281 and n. 
 Altar, 21, 6l, 125, 207, 240«. 
 Amen, 6 IK. 
 
 Ammon and Moab,.iii. 
 Amram, 135, 156. , 
 
 Anecdotes, or Legends, 5.8, 15, i6«., 
 
 39, 40, 53. and «., 58, 71,76,77, 
 
 91, 123, 213, 231, 244, 275, 279. 
 Angel of Death, the, 19, 34. 
 
 Angels, 9, II, .12, 13, 40, 57, 6IK., 
 72, 95,, 99, 100, 106, 108, leg, 
 119, 140, 172, 196, 2g3, 204, 
 206, 307. 
 
 Anger, 24, 33, 185, 294. 
 
 Antoninus, the Emperor, 16, 153. 
 
 Apostate, 'or Apostatise, 76«. 
 
 Arabs, 97«. 
 
 Ariel, 302«. 
 
 Ark of Noah, 43. 
 
 Asenath, Joseph's wife, 247, 248. 
 
 Ass, the, 24, 215, 27072., 29Sand 71., 
 299, 300. 
 
 Astrologer, or Astrology, 827/., 237. 
 
 Atonement, 21, 91;/., 127, 207, 284. 
 
 Atonement, the Day of, 16, l8«., 
 62K., 91. 
 
 Baccol, the name of Abraham's 
 
 . daughter, I33«. 
 Balaam, 164, 269«., 301;;. • 
 
 Banquet. See Feast. 
 Bastards, 232K. 
 
 Bath Kol. See Voice from heaveli. 
 Bears, 45, 'Ji.n. 
 Beauty, or Beautiful, 69, 112, 210, 
 
 226, 230, 254, 304. 
 Bees, 103. 
 
 Bee-ah, I52«., IS7«. 
 Benjamin, 21 3, 2I4«., 230, 266. 
 
 3i<i 
 
INDEX. 
 
 317 
 
 Betrothal, 144, 145. 
 
 Bible, the, 294H. 
 
 Bilhah, 185, 214, 220, 221. 
 
 Binding of Isaac, the, 12OK., 130, 164. 
 
 Birds, immortal, 28 and n. 
 
 Birthright, 155, 160, 163, 217, 291, 
 
 292. 
 Blessing, 8, 9, IJ, 39. .55. 64. 72. 
 
 151, 159. 164. 172. 191. 2§I, 
 289, 291, 293. 
 
 Blessing?, the Eighteen, 72«., 299«. 
 Blind, 37, 160. 
 Bones, 26, 27,.3io. 
 Breast-plate, the, or Ephod, 230, 
 
 236 and K., 305. 
 Bride and Bridegroom, 146, 179, 
 
 181, 2I5«. 
 British-Museum, library of the, 232«. 
 Butchers, anecdote of, 15, 83»«. 
 Buying and Selling, 130, 167, 187, 
 
 221, 225, 226, 281, 307. 
 
 Cain, 33, 34, 35. 296- 
 
 Cakes, 298«. 
 
 Camels, 136, 178, 200, 201. 
 
 Candles, 147. 
 
 Captivity, 69, 71, 74, 86, 222, 225, 
 
 297. 
 Caves, 85, 130, 132, 187. 
 Clialdee Language, 6l«., 302f;. 
 Charity, or Benevolence. See 
 
 Alms. 
 Charms, 20?z., 248. 
 Chassidim, 69K. 
 Children, 20»., 50, sr, 129; 184, 
 
 I93«., 202, 208. 
 Circumcision, 79, 9°. 93. "7. 207, 
 
 209, (of Jacob and Joseph) 218, 
 
 226, 249, 268. 
 Citron-tree, the, 27. 
 Coat of Adam, the, 56. 
 Commandments. Sec Precepts. 
 Comparison, 106, 182, 256. 
 
 Compassion, 118, 124, 182, 225?/. 
 Condemned Souls, 6i«. 
 Creation, I, 2, 3, 20, 22, 85. 
 Cuiming, 232». 
 Cup of Blessing, of Wine, 20;/., 52, 
 
 65. 99. 239. 
 Cup of Salvation, 288/2. 
 Curses, 35, 39, 52, 55, 57, 64, 142, 
 
 162, 164, 194 and «., 212, 265, 
 
 293. 294- 
 Customs, I4«., 207Z., 52j 74;?., 76, 
 
 77. 99. ioo»-. '34. i55. 167, 
 181, 226, 232, 233, 258, 303. 
 
 D. 
 
 Daniel, 242, 297. 
 
 Daughters, 39, 40, 61 ?«., (Abraham's) 
 133, 140, 186, 187, 195, 207, 
 
 228, 229, 245, 247, 299/;. 
 David, 23, 58, 7o». 
 
 Day or Night, S, 6, 7. 
 
 Day of Atonement. See Atone- 
 ment. 
 
 Day of Judgment, 188, 267. 
 
 Death, or Dead, 9, 10, 23, 26, 49, 
 58, 60, 65, 129, 147, 150, 155, 
 
 229, 283, 284, 286. 
 Deception, or Deceiver, 74, 164, 
 
 I76and«., 177, 182, 197, 204, 
 208. 
 Decrees, 42, 87, 229, 241. 
 Deformity, Defect, Blemish, Flaw, 
 
 179, 20OK. 
 Deluge, the, 40-50, 72K., 150. 
 Devil, the. See Satan. 
 Disciples of the wise, 232K., 249K., 
 
 299 and «., 300. 
 Digestion, 153. 
 
 Dinah, the Daughter of Jacob, 186, 
 187, 202, 207 and «., 208, 211, 
 248, 266, 276. 
 Divorce, 70 and n., 88, 112, 154, 
 
 182, 188. 
 Dogs, 36, 51, 223. 
 
3i8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Dreams, 220, 221, 240, 241, 242, 
 
 Feasts, Banquets, 16, 91, 1 17, 121. 
 
 244;;. 
 
 Fig-tree, the, 27. 
 
 Drunkenness, or Intoxication, 52, 
 
 Fire, 20. 
 
 S3 and n, iii. 
 
 Fire from heaven, i8«.' 
 
 Duality in Unity, 1 38. 
 
 Firstborn, 15s, 156, 214, 227, 257. 
 
 
 Fish, 7, 8, 16. 
 
 E. 
 
 Forgiveness, See Pardon. 
 
 Eagle, the, 24. 
 
 Fornication. Set Adultery. 
 
 Edicts, 213. 
 
 Fqrtune-teller, i6«. 
 
 Edrehi, Dr., \^n. 
 
 Fox, the, 28572. 
 
 Eggs, 28«., 115K. 
 
 Free Masons, "j^n. 
 
 Eliezer, Abrahiim's servant, 76, 79, 
 
 Free Will, 12, 13. • 
 
 8-4, 122, 134, 141. 
 
 Fringes, 54, 81, 231.. 
 
 Elijah the Prophet, 38, 47, 185, 
 
 Furnace, 48, 71, 78, 233. 
 
 286«., 297. 
 
 
 Elishathe Prophet, 74/;., 185, 286«. 
 
 G. 
 
 End, the, 282. 
 
 
 Enoch, 38. 
 
 Gabriel, the angel, 95, 162,. 183, 
 
 Envy, 184. 
 
 222, 234, 238, 248, 30272. 
 
 Er, 230, 276. 
 
 Gamliel, Rabbon, 39. 
 
 Esau, the wicked, 32, 6i«., 87, 141, 
 
 Garden of Eden. See Paradise. 
 
 ISI> IS3> i6o> i6i.«-> i66«.. 
 
 Garments (of Adam and Esau), 161, 
 
 179«., 201, 267, 277, 303, 306. 
 
 164, 181 (of Gentiles), 211, 
 
 Esther, Queen, 66, 306. 
 
 213, 238, 29872. 
 
 Ethics of the Fathers, 296)/, 
 
 Gate of Heaven, 284. . 
 
 Eve, 21, 25, 27, 29, 32. 
 
 Gematria (or numerical value), xii., 
 
 Evil. See Good. 
 
 3, 12, 19, 65, 79, 86, 93,11772., 
 
 Evil eye, 86 and n., 89, 250 and n.. 
 
 129, 156, 196, 22372., 249, 284, 
 
 252, 290, 304. 
 
 296 and 72., 297. 
 
 Evil Inclination. See Yetzer- 
 
 Generation of the Confusion of 
 
 harrah. 
 
 Tongues, 56, 57. 
 
 Evil Spirits, 20«., 53, I7i«. 
 
 Genesis, unpublished edition of my 
 
 Example, 292/?. 
 
 23272. 
 
 Eyes, 273.' ' \ 
 
 Gentiles, or Idolaters, I, 40, (pious) 
 
 
 6172., I2I72. 
 
 F. • 
 
 Giants, 40. 
 
 Faith, 84. 
 
 God, 6, 7, 25, 28, 40, 7672., 85, 93, 
 
 Falsehood, Lies, etc., 9, 17, 27, 
 
 94, 100 and 72., 112, 127, 134, 
 
 I02«., 204, 287, 292?/., 309. 
 
 135, 164, 17172., 233, 236, 245, 
 
 Family connection, 135, 248. . 
 
 30672. 
 
 Famine, 68, 71. 
 
 Gog and Magog, '54. 
 
 Fasts, 49, 210 and «., 294«. 
 
 Gold and Silver, 76, 27072. 
 
 Feasts, or Festivals, 6, 15, 71, 78, 
 
 Good and Evil, 9, J2, 13, 21, 22, 
 
 100, 107. 
 
 34, 76"., 95. 144- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 319 
 
 Good News, 303. 
 
 Good Works, 54, 63, 67, 148, 184, 
 
 216,275,311. 
 Gospel, superiority of the, 292«. 
 Grace after Meals, 99 and n. 
 Grapes, 298. 
 Greatness, 215 and n. 
 Guests, Visitors, or Strangers, 74K., 
 
 98, 99, 103.' 
 
 IT. 
 
 Habhdalah, 20 and n. 
 
 Hagar, 88, 89 and n., 90, 118, 147, 
 
 214. 
 Hananiah, Michael, and Azariah, 
 
 48. 297- 
 Hands, laying on of, 289 and n. 
 Hannah, 115)2. 
 
 Heaven and Earth, 4, 56, 85. 
 Hebrew I^anguage, 57, 71, 256, 
 
 257, 268, 302?i., 307. 
 Hebron, 132, 143. 
 Hell, 5, 10, l8«., 20, 34, 61 and « , 
 
 94, 164, 206, 229, 237. 
 Hezekiah, King, 52. 
 High-priest, 232«. 
 Highwaymen, 83«., 256. 
 Holy Land. See Land of Israel. 
 Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, 22, 168. 
 Honey, 85, 103. 
 Honour, of Guests, 98. 
 Honour, of Parents, 60, 169, 198, 
 
 222, 223, 228, 229, 273. 
 Honour, of Wives or Women, 72, 
 
 73. 213. 238. 
 Horse, the, 24, 84. 
 Hospitality, 94, 96, 98, 120. 
 HO. (Nin Who is HO ?) 138//. 
 
 I. 
 
 Idolaters. ■ See Gentiles. 
 
 Idolatry, Idols, 42, 56, 58, 80, 160, 
 
 178, 193, 213. 
 Ignoramus. See Unlearned. 
 
 Illness, or Sickness, 102, 286. 
 Immaculate Conceptic(f, 232«. 
 Incense, 148, 160. 
 Influence, Astral, 83«. 
 Inns, 74 and k., 120. 
 Intention, 232, 233. 
 Interpretation of Scripture, Rules 
 
 for, 63«. 
 Intoxication. See Drunkenness. 
 Investment, 199. 
 Irith. See Lot's wife. 
 Isaac, 66, 92, 100, 117, 121, 130, 
 
 135, 141, I46and«., 151, 157, 
 
 172, 215. 
 Ishmael, or Ishmaelites, 61;^,, 87, 
 
 89«., 90, 98, 117, 118, 121, 
 
 151, 152, 224, 225. 
 Israel, why Jacob was called, 283. 
 Israel, II, 18, 20//., 56, 57, 72, 
 
 75«.,76«., 80, 86,87, 173, 199, 
 
 201, 202, 205, 271//. 
 
 Jacob, 32, 66, I02j 151, 154, 190, 
 201, 206, 207 (the meaning of), 
 212, 277, 282, 283, 307 and «. 
 
 Jacob's dying words, 301 «. 
 
 Jacob's Likeness, or Image, 204, 
 236 and K. 
 
 Japheth, 54. 
 
 Jealousy, 22, 6i«., 70, 98, 157.. 
 
 Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, 47. 
 
 Jehovah (njn^), i38«., 149;/., 
 
 185, 28S«., 298, 302«. 
 Jerusalem, 299. 
 Jews, Modern, I20«., I24»., 244, 
 
 247, 249«., 25o«. 
 Jewels, Pearls, Precious Stones, 
 
 etc., etc., 16, 45, 177, 216. 
 Joseph, 66, 101?;., 156 and n., 169, 
 
 188, 197, 216, 218, 225, 235, 
 
 249«., 252, 270, 304. 
 Joseph the Sabbatarian, l6«. 
 Joshua, Rabbi, 40. 
 
320 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Judali, 230, 233, 265, 270, 272, 
 
 276, 295,and n, 
 Judith, 215. 
 Jupiter, 83«. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kadish, or Prayer for the dead, 6i«. 
 Kadmon (the meaning of), 76 and n. 
 Karaite Liturgy, 302?; . 
 Keturah, 92, 147, 148, 149. 
 Kindness^ 137, 143, 243, 283. 
 Kings or Princes, 67, 68, 72, 78, 
 
 80, 93, 147, 243, 292. 
 Kingdom of Judah, 298. 
 Kingdom of.Esau and of Israel, 200. 
 Kii-jath-arba, 129. 
 Kissing, I77- 
 Korah and his party, 5. 
 Kurdistan, 7i«. 
 
 L. 
 
 Laban,. 140, 144, 145, 175, 177, 
 
 178, 190, 191, 193. 
 Lamech, 36, 37. 
 Land of Israel, or Holy Land, 47, 
 
 S7«., 60, 72«., 87, 156, 172 and 
 
 n., 173, 196, 240and«., 263, 
 
 283, 284, 298. ■ 
 Languages, 45, 55, 57. 
 Law, the whole, r, 6i«., 63, 117, 
 
 155, 156, 197- 
 Law, Scrolls of the, 65 and n. 
 Law, ObseiTing and teaching the, 
 
 66, 67. 
 Law, Studying the, 7, 11, 31, 34«., 
 
 98 and K., 163, 172, 208, 229, 
 
 299. 
 Layard, Captain, 25o«. 
 Leah, 178 and «., 179, 182, 300. 
 Legends. ^^« Anecdotes. 
 Leprosy, 73, 1 13, '265. 
 Letters of the Alphabet, xii., i, 2D, 
 
 21, 92, 282, 298. 
 
 Levirate Law, 233. 
 
 Levites, 183. 
 
 Lies. See Falsehood. 
 
 Life, 65, 129, 173. 
 
 Life, Eternal, 58, \2\n. 
 
 Light, 2, 6, 20. 
 
 Likeness of Jacob, 204. 
 
 Lions, 45, 46, 301. 
 
 Liturgy, the Jewish, 2^n., 302;?. 
 
 Lot, 68, 72, 76, 78, 80, 106, 107, 
 
 108, 109, no. 
 Lot's Daughters, 107, no, in. 
 Lot's Wife, log, no. 
 Love, 180, 182. 
 Luck, good or bad, 15, 20«., 65, 82, 
 
 143«., 186, 236. 
 
 M. . 
 
 Machpelah, the Cave of, 132, 176, 
 
 187. 
 Magistrates, 76. 
 Mamre, a friend of Abraham, 78, 
 
 79 and «., 94. 
 Man, 7, 9, 12, 13, 21, 22, 26, 27, 
 
 40, 41, 44, 46, 50, 51. 
 Mandrakes, 187, 207. 
 Manna, 97, no. 
 Marriage, 32?/., 135, 144, 147. 152. 
 
 215,248. 
 Marriage Contract, 72, 149, l6l, 
 
 162, 289. 
 Mars, 83K. 
 
 Masons. See Free Masons. 
 Massorab, the Jewish, 285«. 
 Measure for Measure, Sgn., 97, 170, 
 
 181, 262, 282. 
 Mediation, 225. 
 Meditation in Scripture, 294K. 
 Melchizedek, 80, 81. 
 Mercury, S3«. 
 Merits, 15, 60, 61 and n., 8r, 85, 88, 
 
 99, i°3> (join') '°S, '06, 109, 
 
 122, 125, 143 and«., 210, 230, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 321 
 
 Messiah, the, 2, 15, 19, 58, 6i«., 
 200, 206, 2S2, 283, 291, 296, 
 298, 300. 
 
 Methuselah, 44. 
 
 Michael, the Angel, 37, 161, 
 
 302«. 
 
 Miracles, 48, 59, 74, 80,84, 88, 92, 
 
 112, 115, 142, 147, 290, 301. 
 Minyan, 137, 251 and n. 
 Miscarriage, 284. 
 Mnemonics, I57«. 
 Misquotations, 106, III«., I49«., 
 
 i5o»., 295K., 300, 30I. 
 Mistake, a grave, 285«. 
 Modest, or Modesty, 69, III, 138, 
 
 139, 146, 201, 231, 304. 
 Money, 20«., 64, 103, 109, 150, 
 
 177. I99> 202 and «., 207, 232 
 
 «., 275; 
 Moon. See Sun. 
 
 Moriah, Mount, 122, 123, 130, 171. 
 Moses, 5, II7«., 153, 193, 275 and 
 
 n., 293, 296, 297. 
 Mourning, 129, 155, 276, 307. 
 Mules, 159, ii5, 216. 
 Murder, or Murderer, 35, 37, 49, 
 
 50, 155 and».,209, 293. 
 Musical Instrum'ents, 37, 161. 
 
 N. 
 
 Name of God, i.38«., 149, 150, 163, 
 173. 23s. 28s«., 298, 302«. 
 
 Names, Good or bad, etc., 64, 65, 
 67, 82, 92, II3«., I49K., 160, 
 204, 253, 28s«., 294, 298. 
 
 Nations, the, 57, 2oyn., 249K. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, 48, 242, 243. 
 
 Necromancy, l8«., 244. 
 
 Negroes, 55. 
 
 Neubauer, Dr. Ad., I7». 
 
 New Moon, 6. 
 
 New Name of God, 302«. 
 
 New Testament sentiments, 124K. 
 
 New Year, 115K., I20n., 127. 
 
 News, Communication of bad, 263, 
 
 26411., of good, 273. 
 Nimrod, 32, 55, 56, 59, 68, 77, 84, 
 
 167. 
 Nile, the, 280 and k. , 311. 
 Noah, 9, 14, 38, 41, 42, 43, 45-49, 
 
 52. 53j 105- 
 Nose, the, 46. 
 Notricon, or Acrostics, 10, 11, 79«., 
 
 i2o«., I57n., 219. 
 Numerical Value. See Gematria. 
 
 O. 
 
 Oath. See Swearing. 
 Obedience, 107, 126. 
 Oblivion, 57«., 229. 
 Offering. See Sacrifices. 
 Offering of Isaac, the, 63, 135. 
 Og, King of Bashan, 72«. , 78, 117. 
 Oil, 53, 61, 85, 208, 303. 
 Old Age, 102, 133. 
 Olives, 99»., 208. 
 Olive-tree, 61, 208. 
 Omens, good or bad, 5, 39K. 
 Onan, 230, 276. 
 Oppression, 89^. 
 
 P, * 
 
 Palm-tree, 298K. 
 
 Pappa, Rav., 232tt. 
 
 Parables, or Similes, 11, 61, 63, 
 
 84, 103, 137, 208, 216. 
 Paradise, or Garden of Eden, 21, 
 22, 33, 48, 53, 60, 135, 141, 
 146, 162, 164. 
 Pardon, or Forgiveness of Sin, 16, 
 20«., 36, 91, 127, 215 and «., 
 309. 
 Partnership, 11, S3 and K. 
 Peace, 51, 56, (for the sake of), 
 
 100 and n., 172, 287, 309. 
 Pearls. See Jewels. 
 Penance, 227. 
 Pentateuch, the, 2. 
 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Pharaoh, 113, 158, 241, 265, 
 
 270, 
 
 Providence, 163, 219, 223, 
 
 225, 
 
 307- ' 
 
 
 300». 
 
 
 Pharez and Zarah, 154, 232«., 
 
 234- 
 
 Psalms, the, 36. 
 
 
 Phlebotomist, 76, 83K. 
 
 
 Punishment, l6»., 31 (eternal). 
 
 5i«., 
 
 Phylacteries, 81, 93. 
 
 
 109, no, 169, 186, 202, 
 
 207, 
 
 Physiognomy, 151, 217. 
 
 
 229. 
 
 
 Pious (men or women), 10, 
 
 170, 
 
 Purgatory, 10, 21, 62«. 
 
 
 17.6, 184, 210, 232 and n. 
 
 233. 
 
 
 
 238, 256. 
 
 
 Q- 
 
 
 Planets. See Stars. 
 
 
 Quarrel, or Strife, 5, 9, 11, 12 
 
 ,24, 
 
 Play upon words, I02;«., ia\n., 
 
 S6»., 59, 75. 122, 152, 
 
 159, 
 
 io8«., ii7»., i89»., 2 
 
 7i»., 
 
 164, 171, 225, 266, 272 
 
 , (in 
 
 304«. 
 
 
 the Grave) 28s». 
 
 
 Pleasures, 69«., 236. 
 
 
 Questions and Answers, 1, 12 
 
 . 17. 
 
 Pliny, I7«. 
 
 
 40. 
 
 
 Poison, 140. 
 
 
 R. 
 
 
 Poor, the, or Poverty, 77, 86, 
 
 103, 
 
 
 I76«., 237, 294 and «. 
 
 
 Rabbah bar bar Channah, 5, 8 
 
 
 Potipherah, 247. 
 
 
 Rabbi, the Holy, 16, r53. 
 
 
 Praising men, 44, 103. 
 
 
 Rachel, 82, II5«., 175, 184, 
 
 187, 
 
 Prayer, 6, 43, 6i«., 65, 98»., 
 
 IDS, 
 
 193, 194, 205, 262, 266, 
 
 276, 
 
 116, 118, 135, 146, 152, 
 
 153.- 
 
 287. 
 
 
 154, 158K., 170, 185, 287 
 
 
 Rainbow, 51, l6o;2. 
 
 
 Precepts, or Commandments 
 
 26, 
 
 Raphael, 95, 302K. 
 
 
 41, 98and«., 123, 139, 
 
 156, 
 
 Rebekah, 128, 131, 138, 139, 
 
 152 
 
 197. 
 
 
 and »., 162, 210, 212. 
 
 
 Predestination,' 144, 152. 
 
 
 Rebellion, 55, 56. 
 
 
 Prevarication, I24«., 163. 
 
 
 Redeemer of Israel, 66. 
 
 
 Priest, or Priesthood, 81, 1 
 
 6o«., 
 
 Redemption, 3, 291. 
 
 
 184, 292. 
 
 
 Religion, 69, 71, 93, 215. 
 
 
 Princes, Celestial, 196 and »., 
 
 198, 
 
 Religious Disputes, 300. 
 
 
 203 and K , 204. 
 
 
 Remission of Sins, 9I»., 127K. 
 
 
 Proclairning the Name of God, 67, 
 
 Repentance, 23, 33, 36, 40, 45 
 
 , 46, 
 
 68. 
 
 
 84, 151, 256, 309. 
 
 
 Procreation, 9, 51, 64, l<,1n 
 
 , 180 
 
 Reproach, 1 88. 
 
 
 and n. 
 
 
 Resurrection, <he, 283 and n. 
 
 
 Promises, Divine, 131, 174, 229. 
 
 Revision, the New, 263«., 285 
 
 n. 
 
 Pr&phetic, 162, 176, 182, 188 
 
 228, 
 
 Revival of the Dead, 125. 
 
 
 250, 269, 289, 290. 
 
 
 Reuben, 187, 214, 227, 256, 
 
 291, 
 
 Proselyte, or Proselytise, 66 
 
 , 68, 
 
 292«. 
 
 
 215,237. 
 
 
 Rewards, 15, 35, 42, 54, 67, 
 
 74«., 
 
 Prosperity, 199. 
 
 
 81, 182, 202, 207, 299, 31 
 
 I. 
 
 Proverbs, Sayings, etc., I70«.,I 
 
 98«., 
 
 Riches, or Rich, 15, 67, 73, 
 
 83«., 
 
 22S«,, 232»., 233, 285». 
 
 
 133, 159- 
 
 
INDEX. 
 
 323 
 
 Righteous, the, 2, 10, 22, 41, 52, 
 53, 97, 104, 105, 128k., 150, 
 164, 185, 201, 202, 285. 
 
 Righteousness, 83, 182. 
 
 Robbers, or Robbery, 42, 56, 75, 
 161, 193, 211. 
 
 Rock, or Well in the Wilderness, 
 
 the, 97. 99- 
 Rolling underground of the Dead, 
 
 283 and n. 
 Rome, 203 ». 
 
 S. 
 
 Sabbatarian, Joseph the, i6k. 
 
 Sabbath, the, 14-18, 26, 93, 156 
 and n. 
 ■ Sacrifices, 2, 4, 6, 7, 33, 35, 44, 47, 
 85, 91, 121, 155. 
 
 Salt, 4, 26, 109, 154. 
 
 Sanabatyon, the River, 17. 
 " Sammael, the Wicked Angel, 132, 
 198 and «., 234 and n. 
 
 Samson, 300, 301 and n. 
 
 Samuel the Prophet, ioi»., I28«. 
 
 Sarah, 60, 65, 66, 70, 71, 73, 88, 
 89, 91. 99. "2. "3. 128, 129, 
 147, 151, 209, 210, 214. 
 
 Satan, or Devil, 34, 53K., 121, 123, 
 I 66k. 
 
 Schoolmasters, 294K. 
 
 Secrets, 230, 302K. 
 
 Serpent, the ; or Serpents in gen- 
 eral, 7, 27, 29, 31, 224. 
 
 Shechem, 207, 266. 
 
 Shechinah, the, 2, 29, 30, 51, 91, 
 96, 109, 138 and K., 160, 285 
 and K. , 289, 291, 299K., 302K. 
 
 Shem and Eber, 54, 58, 117, 153, 
 169, 172, 229. 
 
 Shiloh and Moses, 296. 
 
 Shimon ben Zachai, Rabbi, 52. 
 
 Sickness. See Illness. 
 
 Sign, Marks, or Tokens, 6, 51, 83, 
 181, 229, 232, 233, 270. • 
 
 Simeon and Levi, 207/2., 209, 211, 
 
 255. 293. 294- 
 Similes. See Parables. 
 Sin, 9, 10, 23, 31, 32,- 40, 69, 70, 
 
 81K., 84, 207, 229, 231, ■zqin., 
 
 293. 309- 
 Sinew, the Ischiadic, 205 and n. 
 Sira, Ben, 232K. 
 Slander, 217, 218, 219. 
 Sleep, 25, 123, 164, 171, 172. 
 Sneezing, 286 and n. 
 Sodom and Gomorrah, 76, 103. 
 Sons, or Male Children, 61 and n., . 
 
 148. 
 Soul, the, 9, 10, 12, 14, 22, 26, 
 
 45, 46, 6IK., 210. 
 Spices, 14, 17, 20, 22, 63, 210, 307. 
 Spies, 217, 254. 
 Spirit of God, the, 2. 
 Stars, Planets, etc., 82, 84, 173, 245. 
 Stone of Israel, the, 305. 
 Stones, 85, 171, 175. 266. 
 Straw of Wheat, the, 298H. 
 Suicide, 51, 213. 
 
 Sun and Moon, 6, 7, 45, 71, 83;;., 
 85, no, 171, 204, 220, 290, 
 298. 
 Sunday, 210 and n. 
 Swearing, or Oath, 120K., 124;;., 
 
 127, 134. 170. 255, 266. 
 Swords, 37, 72, 73. 167, 293. 
 Symbolical Indications, 139. 
 Synagogue, Men of the Great, 2g4H. 
 
 Tables of the Covenant, 139. 
 
 Tabor, Mount, 44K. 
 
 Tailor, a Pious, 16. 
 
 Talmud, Translation of the, 150;/., 
 
 294«. 
 Tamar, 154, 23 1, 233, 234. 
 Temple, the, 2, 3, 14. 34. 266, 
 
 269, 298. 
 Temptation, 34 and k. 
 
324 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Terah, 58, 60, 84, 86. 
 Text differently worded, a, 302«. 
 Thieving, Tliief, 83;?., 262. 
 Throne of Glory, I, 10, 203, 204, 
 
 276, 282. 
 Tithes, 8l, 154, 158, 237, 294. 
 Tooth-ache, 284. 
 Tower of Babel, 56. 
 Travelling, or Journeying, 64, 69, 
 
 74, 141, 143, 170, 171 and K., 
 
 193- 
 
 Travelling Underground. See Roll- 
 ing. 
 
 Tree of Knowledge, the, 13, 19, 
 21, 22, 23, 27. 
 
 Trials of Abraham, 63, 71, 93- 
 
 Tribes, the Ten, \1n., 54. 
 
 Troubles, 202, 245. 
 
 Trumpet, the Great, 2S3«., 300, 
 
 Truth, 9, 10, ioo«. , 163, 204, 2g2«. 
 
 Tubal Cain, 37. 
 
 Twins, 276. 
 
 Type, or Typical, 249^. 
 
 V. 
 Vengeance, 36, 50. 
 Venus, 8372. 
 Vicarious Merit, 284. 
 Vine, the, or Vineyard, 27, 52, 
 
 53?!., 61, 208, 298. 
 Visiting the Sick, 98K. 
 Voice from Heaven, or Bath Kol, 
 
 122, 126, 144, 233. 
 Vows, 211, 260. 
 
 U. 
 
 Unanimity, I5«. 
 
 Underground Travelling. See Roll- 
 ing. 
 Unicorn, the, 44. 
 Universe, \'j\n. 
 
 Unlearned, or Am-haaretz, 232«. 
 Urim and Thummim, 243. 
 
 W. 
 Walls of Egypt, the, 270. 
 War, 56, 57, 133, 292. 
 Washing of Hands, 99«. , 140. 
 Water, 52, 97, liS, 123. 
 Weapons, 37. 
 Wedding-ring, 232. 
 Weeping, 130, 131, 178, 212, 277. 
 Who is V^Ya? 302«. 
 Wicked, the ; or Wickedness, 21, 
 
 25, 41, 45, 52, 78, 87, 97, 164, 
 
 194, 243, 285. 
 Will of God, 233. 
 Wine, 52, 53, III, 164, 167. 
 Wisdom, 130, 137, 140, 27i«. . 
 Wives, 24, 25,- 26, 29, 37, 38, 51, 
 
 69«., (honour to) 72, 73, 88, 
 
 (bad) 133, 149, 306. 
 Woe ! 39, 52, 58. 
 Women, 25, 26, 27, 31, 69 and n., 
 
 i9Sn., 202, 207, 213, 251?/., 
 
 Work, or Labour, 7. 
 
 World, the, i, 2, 3, 20, 39, 42, 52, 
 
 6 IK., 75«. 
 World to Come, the, 21, 25, 60, 
 
 68, 82, 9S«., 152, 206. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Y'^Ya (t:), who is? 302?;. 
 Yea, Yea ; Nay, Nay, 292«. 
 Yehoshua ben Levi, Rabbi, 52. 
 Yetzer-harrah, or Evil Propensity, 
 9, 12, 21, 33, 34, 49, 173. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zarah. See Pharez. 
 Zerubabel, 6l«., 298. 
 Zillah. See Adah. 
 Zion, Mount, 206. 
 Zira, Rabbi, 232??. 
 Zoar, 109. 
 Zohar, the Holy, 12OK. 
 
 EutUr & Tanner, 7 he Selwood Prtnttng Jf'Qris, Frame, and London. 
 

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