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Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Lech-Lecha 4

Here we finish the aftermath of Avram's war with the four kings, then cover Bereshis 15:1–6: Hashem's "do not fear," Avram's worry about having no heir, the night Hashem took him outside to look at the stars, and his faith. It opens with the laws of redeeming captives and the six things Avram gained by going to war, including the reward of six mitzvos for refusing even a thread or a shoelace. Two ideas keep coming back. The first is that merit is real and can be used up, which is why Avram was afraid after a miraculous victory. The second is that a Jew is not ruled by the stars or by the angels placed over the nations, because Hashem watches over him directly. It closes with the Ramban's reading of "he counted it as righteousness": Avram saw the promise as Hashem's kindness, not as something he had earned.

The pesukim

Bereshis 15:1

אַחַ֣ר ׀ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֗לֶּה הָיָ֤ה דְבַר־יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם בַּֽמַּחֲזֶ֖ה לֵאמֹ֑ר אַל־תִּירָ֣א אַבְרָ֗ם אָנֹכִי֙ מָגֵ֣ן לָ֔ךְ שְׂכָרְךָ֖ הַרְבֵּ֥ה מְאֹֽד׃

After these events, God's word came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Fear not Abram, I am your shield. Your reward is very great."

After these events, Hashem's word came to Avram in a vision: "Do not fear, Avram. I am your shield; your reward is very great." The timing is strange. You would expect to hear "don't be afraid" before going out against an army of 800,000, not after already beating it. But the victory itself left Avram with new fears: he might have killed innocent people, the dead men's relatives might take revenge, and he might have used up his merit on the miracles. Hashem's two phrases answer all of them. "I am your shield" covers every danger from outside, and "your reward is very great" tells him his merit is far from used up.
Bereshis 15:2–3

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אַבְרָ֗ם אֲדֹנָ֤י יֱהֹוִה֙ מַה־תִּתֶּן־לִ֔י וְאָנֹכִ֖י הוֹלֵ֣ךְ עֲרִירִ֑י וּבֶן־מֶ֣שֶׁק בֵּיתִ֔י ה֖וּא דַּמֶּ֥שֶׂק אֱלִיעֶֽזֶר׃

Abram said, "O Lord, God, what will you give me if I remain childless? The heir to my household will be Damascus Eliezer."

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אַבְרָ֔ם הֵ֣ן לִ֔י לֹ֥א נָתַ֖תָּה זָ֑רַע וְהִנֵּ֥ה בֶן־בֵּיתִ֖י יוֹרֵ֥שׁ אֹתִֽי׃

Abram continued, "You have given me no children. A member of my household will inherit what is mine."

Avram answers: "Hashem, what will You give me if I remain childless? The heir to my household will be Eliezer of Damascus." Eliezer was his servant. He goes on: "You have given me no children, and a member of my household will inherit what is mine." This time he means his relative Lot. Hashem has just promised him a very great reward, and Avram is asking what such a reward is worth with no child to carry it forward.
Bereshis 15:4–5

וְהִנֵּ֨ה דְבַר־יְהֹוָ֤ה אֵלָיו֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר לֹ֥א יִֽירָשְׁךָ֖ זֶ֑ה כִּי־אִם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יֵצֵ֣א מִמֵּעֶ֔יךָ ה֖וּא יִֽירָשֶֽׁךָ׃

Suddenly God's word came to him: "That one will not be your heir! One born from your own body will inherit what is yours."

וַיּוֹצֵ֨א אֹת֜וֹ הַח֗וּצָה וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ הַבֶּט־נָ֣א הַשָּׁמַ֗יְמָה וּסְפֹר֙ הַכּ֣וֹכָבִ֔ים אִם־תּוּכַ֖ל לִסְפֹּ֣ר אֹתָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֔וֹ כֹּ֥ה יִהְיֶ֖ה זַרְעֶֽךָ׃

He then took [Abram] outside and said, "Look at the sky and count the stars. See if you can count them." [God] then said to him, "That is how [numerous] your descendants will be."

Hashem's word comes to him: that one will not be your heir; a son from your own body will inherit you. Then Hashem takes Avram outside and tells him to look at the sky and count the stars, because that is how many his descendants will be. Avram was a master astrologer, and his stars showed no sign that he would ever have children. So "He took him outside" means: step out of astrology. The stars have no power over Avram or his children, because Hashem runs their lives directly. The lesson for us is that whatever the stars seem to say, a Jew who fears Hashem, prays, does good deeds and learns Torah can change it.
Bereshis 15:6

וְהֶאֱמִ֖ן בַּֽיהֹוָ֑ה וַיַּחְשְׁבֶ֥הָ לּ֖וֹ צְדָקָֽה׃

[Abram] believed in God, and He counted it as righteousness.

"And he believed in Hashem, and he counted it as righteousness." Aryeh Kaplan's translation reads it simply: Hashem counted Avram's faith as righteousness. The Ramban reads it so that Avram is the one counting: he counted the promise itself as tzedakah, a kindness from Hashem rather than something he had earned. A person as great as Avram knew how exactly Hashem judges the great, and he feared that a single sin could cancel the promise. Once he understood that Hashem was promising out of mercy, he believed it completely, whatever might happen later.

English from The Living Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, used with the permission of the Kaplan family. Hebrew: Miqra according to the Masorah (CC BY-SA).

Takeaways

  • Redeeming a captive comes before ordinary charity, because the captive lives with the fear of death at every moment.
  • Miracles draw on your account of merit, so don't walk into danger counting on one; save your merit for the good.
  • A Jew is not ruled by the stars: Hashem watches over us directly, and prayer, good deeds and Torah can change what seems fixed.
  • The closer you are to Hashem, the more seriously you take His standards, and the more you rely on His kindness rather than on your own perfection.
  • Refusing to take even a thread from the wrong source earned Avram's children mitzvos for all time.
Going deeper— the stories, Kabbalah and the reasons behind the reasons

Avram's journey so far

  • Avram left Charan for Canaan at age 75 and built altars between Beis El and Ai. He kept moving south toward the Negev, and a famine took him down to Egypt.
  • In Egypt Pharaoh took Sarai and was struck with plagues for it. He then sent Avram and Sarai away with honor.
  • Back at Beis El, Lot's shepherds quarreled with Avram's, and Lot split off and chose Sodom. Avram walked the land, acquiring it, and settled in the plains of Mamre by Chevron.
  • Then four kings beat five and took Lot captive. Avram went after them with 318 men or fewer, won, and on the way back was greeted near Jerusalem by Malki-Tzedek and the king of Sodom. He refused to take anything, "not a thread or a shoelace," so that no one could say the king of Sodom had made Avram rich.

Why redeeming a captive comes before charity

  • The Me'am Loez teaches that if you must choose between giving charity and redeeming a captive, redeeming the captive comes first.
  • The reason is that charity helps someone who is poor, while a captive suffers far more. He knows he could be killed at any moment, and that is worse than poverty.
  • If the captive has a wealthy relative who can redeem him, the duty falls first on that relative, not on everyone else.
  • If the captive has money of his own but cannot reach it in captivity, once others redeem him he must pay them back.

Six gains from the war: proof of the furnace and an offer of kingship

  • The four kings, Amrafel (who is Nimrod), Aryoch, Kedorlaomer and Tidal, had about 800,000 men. Avram set out with 318, many of them turned back, and he was left with Eliezer and a few others. Six benefits came to him because he put himself on the line.
  • First benefit: years earlier, in Ur Kasdim, Nimrod had thrown Avram into a furnace and Hashem saved him. People wondered whether it had been a trick. When a handful of men beat 800,000, everyone saw that Avram was not a magician but truly connected to Hashem.
  • Second benefit: the king of Sodom met Avram in "Emek Shaveh, which is Emek HaMelech" (14:17). There all the nations cut down many pine trees, built a large platform, set Avram on it, praised him and asked him to be their king.
  • The two names of the place tell the story. "Emek Shaveh" can be read as the valley of agreement, where everyone agreed as equals, and it is also called "the king's valley" because they agreed that Avram should be king. The Torah does not say whether he accepted.

A battle until midnight, and a redemption at midnight

  • Third benefit: in 14:15 it says "the night was divided" for Avram, and some commentaries explain that the battle lasted until midnight.
  • Because Avram put himself on the line and fought until midnight, Hashem promised that his descendants would be redeemed from Egypt at midnight. That is when the firstborn of Egypt were struck.

Shem's bread and wine: a lesson in the Torah's secrets

  • Fourth benefit: Malki-Tzedek, king of Shalem (Jerusalem), is Shem the son of Noach, and he served as a priest even though there was no Temple yet.
  • The Torah could have said he made Avram a feast. It says "bread and wine" because he was teaching Avram the hidden meaning of bread and wine: the showbread in the Temple, the flour offerings, and the wine poured on the altar. They ate together while Shem taught Avram secrets of Torah and Kabbalah.
  • Many of the people Avram had just killed were Shem's own descendants. Shem felt very bad, because Avram held him responsible for them: he had spoiled them and not given them a proper education when they were young.

How Shem lost the priesthood

  • Shem showed that he was glad the wicked had been punished by blessing Avram. In the end, the high priesthood would pass from Shem's other descendants to Avram's.
  • But Shem got the order wrong. He said "Blessed be Avram to God Most High," naming Avram before Hashem. Avram asked why he was blessing the servant before the master.
  • At that moment the priesthood passed from Shem to Avram. That was Shem's punishment.

Not a thread or a shoelace: six mitzvos as a reward

  • Fifth benefit: because Avram would not take even a thread or a shoelace from the king of Sodom, his descendants were given six mitzvos: the blue thread of tzitzis, the straps of tefillin, yibum (levirate marriage), the Mishkan, the sacrifices, and the three pilgrimage festivals of Pesach, Shavuos and Sukkos. The Gemara in Chullin 89a names the first two; Bereishis Rabbah 43:9 gives the rest.
  • The thread and the strap match his words directly: a thread for tzitzis and a strap for tefillin. For yibum, the link is chalitzah, the ceremony that releases a widow from yibum, where she removes the brother-in-law's shoe; Bereishis Rabbah makes exactly that connection. It also reads the thread as the colored wool threads of the Mishkan and the red line around the altar for the sacrifices, and the shoelace as the footsteps of those going up for the festivals.

Four kings hint at four empires

  • Sixth benefit: the verse stresses "four kings against the five." The Ramban learns from this wording that Hashem was hinting to Avram about the four great world empires his descendants would face: Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome.

Avram's seven fears after the victory

  • Innocent blood: in a war many of those killed were not fighters, such as cooks, quartermasters or unwilling conscripts. Avram was tormented by the thought that he had killed innocent people and would be punished. Hashem assured him that every one of them was completely wicked.
  • Lost offspring: perhaps the wicked men he killed would have had righteous children. "Your reward is very great" tells him he loses nothing, because no good people would have come from them.
  • Revenge: the dead men's children and relatives might come after him, and open miracles do not happen every day. To this Hashem says, "I am your shield."
  • Wealth from the wicked: he had recovered the loot the four kings took from Sodom and did not want to grow rich from wicked people's property. That is why he gave it all back, even though he did not have to.
  • Spent merit: by being saved through miracles he might have used up his merit.
  • Noach's covenant: Hashem had promised Noach not to destroy his descendants, yet these kings were Noach's descendants and his merit did not protect them. Avram feared that his own promises might one day fail the same way, so Hashem assured him that his merit is great and the promises to him will stand.
  • Shem's curse: Shem had blessed him outwardly, but Avram had just killed many of Shem's descendants and feared Shem might still bear him ill will and curse him. Shem had in fact been glad that the wicked were punished, and to this fear too Hashem answers, "I am your shield."

Miracles cost merit

  • Each of us has an account of merit in Heaven, and good deeds add to it. When a miracle saves us we spend from that balance, like tokens used up in an online account.
  • The Gemara (Taanis 25a) tells that Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa and his wife lived in deep poverty. He prayed and was given a leg of a golden table. Then his wife saw in a dream that in the World to Come the righteous would eat at golden tables with three legs, and theirs would have only two. She asked him to pray for it to be taken back: better to suffer now and keep the full reward later.
  • The lesson: miracles are never free. Don't put yourself in dangerous situations and spend your merit; save it for the good things you want Hashem to do for you.

Ten levels of prophecy

  • Tanakh uses ten words for prophecy, and they are ten levels: vision (chazon), speech (dibbur), saying (amirah), influx (hatafah), prophecy (nevuah), command (tzivui), burden (massa), parable (mashal), metaphor (melitzah) and allegory (chidah).
  • Until now Avram's prophecies came at night, in dreams. From here on Hashem spoke to him by day as well.
  • Our verse uses both of the top two, "the word (dvar) of Hashem came to Avram in a vision (machazeh)." For Avram the experience was intense, overwhelming and frightening.

Avram the astrologer and the three angels

  • Avram could read the future in the stars, and his stars showed no sign that he would ever have children. In fact they showed the opposite. That pained him deeply.
  • So the only heir he could see was "a member of my household," his relative Lot. Hashem sent him three angels, one after another, to assure him Lot would not inherit him.

"He took him outside": out of astrology

  • The Torah usually doesn't tell us whether someone was inside or outside. So why mention that Hashem took Avram outside?
  • Because it means: step out of astrology. Hashem was saying, look at the stars all you like, they have no power over the Jewish people.

Seventy angels for the nations, Hashem Himself for Israel

  • When Hashem scattered humanity into seventy nations after the Tower of Bavel, He cast lots among seventy angels and gave each one a nation to oversee. In effect He put the nations in their angels' hands.
  • The Jewish people were not part of that lottery. Hashem chose them for Himself, with no angel, energy or force in between, and watches over them directly. This direct care is called hashgachah pratis.
  • For the rest of the world, the angels' rule shows up as nature. Being in the right place at the right time, or the wrong one, really does decide what happens.
  • For a Jew, nothing is fate. Every moment is chosen and directed by Hashem, and even when the stars predict harm, prayer, good deeds and Torah can change it, because we are connected to the One above it all.

"Ein mazal l'Yisrael" — so why say mazal tov?

  • The saying is "Ein mazal l'Yisrael": the Jewish people are not under the rule of mazal, the influence of the stars. So why do we wish each other mazal tov?
  • Because mazal still exists in the world; a Jew can rise above it. Exactly where the line falls is hard to draw, so this stays an open question.

Jupiter, fear of Heaven, and the night of Pesach

  • Jupiter was the rising star when Avram fought the kings, and it helped him win. Jupiter was also Avram's own star: its influence points west and is cold, and that coldness keeps a person from having children.
  • The Gemara in Shabbos 156b says that one who fears Hashem need not pay attention to these signs. That seems to be the line: someone who fears Hashem and knows He is King stands above astrology.
  • Hashem told Avram He would turn his star around and change his and Sarai's names, and then they would have children. The names are not changed here; it is only a promise for now.
  • The Me'am Loez adds that Hashem showed him all the paths of the heavens, star beyond star, so he could see they could not be counted. That is how many his descendants would be.
  • This happened on the night of the fifteenth of Nisan, the future night of Pesach, and it calmed Avram's fears. It joins a growing list of events in this parsha that took place on that night: Pharaoh took Sarai on the night of Pesach (12:15), and Og brought Avram the news that Lot had been captured on the eve of Pesach (14:13).

The ocean parable: why the great fear Hashem's judgment

  • Why would Avram need to "believe" after receiving the highest level of prophecy? Picture the windy, rough-water days in Miami. Tourists rent jet skis, head into the high waves with no experience and get thrown around, while locals keep their boats docked because they know how dangerous the ocean is.
  • In the same way, people who don't know Hashem assume everything will be fine because He is merciful. People who know Him understand that He demands perfection, most of all from the greatest people.
  • So Avram thought he had no children because of some sin he must have committed, and he feared a promise made to him could be lost if he ever fell short. That is the background to the Ramban's reading of 15:6.

Better no children than wicked ones

  • Another commentary explains that when Hashem promised him children, Avram worried what kind they would be. Wicked children cause pain to many people, during their lives and after, so he felt it was better to have none.
  • Eliezer was a good disciple who passed Avram's teachings on to others, and Avram had taught him the secrets of the Torah because there was no one else to teach. Avram wanted a son for a while before he died, so he could teach him the mysteries himself; otherwise Eliezer would be the only heir to his teachings.
  • Hashem answered that one born from his own body would be his heir, and promised that Avram would live long enough after his son was born to teach him all his wisdom.
Review questions
  1. Why does redeeming a captive come before giving charity, and when does the duty fall on a relative or on the captive himself?
  2. Why did Hashem tell Avram "do not fear" only after he had won the war? Name three of his fears and the phrase that answers each.
  3. What did Shem teach Avram through the bread and wine, and how did Shem lose the priesthood?
  4. Which six mitzvos came as a reward for "not a thread or a shoelace"?
  5. The Torah rarely says whether someone was inside or outside. What does "He took him outside" teach about the Jewish people and the stars?
  6. In "he counted it as righteousness," who is counting according to Aryeh Kaplan and according to the Ramban, and what does the Ramban's reading show about Avram?
Sources
  • Me'am Loez — the main text: the laws of redeeming captives, the six gains from the war, Avram's fears, the levels of prophecy, astrology and Jupiter, and the night of Pesach
  • Ramban — the four kings as a hint to four world empires; Bereshis 15:6, Avram counting the promise as Hashem's kindness
  • Chullin 89a — tzitzis and tefillin as the reward for "not a thread or a shoelace"
  • Bereishis Rabbah 43:9 — yibum, the Mishkan, the sacrifices and the festivals from the same words
  • Shabbos 156b — one who fears Hashem need not pay attention to the stars
  • Taanis 25a — Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa and the golden table leg: miracles are paid for out of a person's reward
  • Aryeh Kaplan's translation — Hashem as the one who counted Avram's faith as righteousness