Parsha Insights Chaii Sorah 2006

**Please note: Due to a shortage of free time this week, many non Biblical quotations in this post were written from memory and should not be relied upon for accuracy. **

"The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land'-he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.” (Gen 24:7)

From this verse, we learn that God “took” Avraham from his place of birth. (while debatable in the English above, there can be no question about this from the original Hebrew). Presumably, though debatable, this is referring to God’s command to Avraham in 12:1 to leave his native land and travel to Israel. The implication of both our verse and 12:1 is that while Avraham was still living in his place of birth, God commanded him to move to C’naan. This, however, is contradictory to the story presented in chapter 11 which says that Avraham was not living in his place of birth at the time of the commandment. The story presented in chapter 11 is as follows.

Avraham starts out in Ur Cassdim. Terach and Avraham, of their own volition, travel to Charan. There, in charan, not ur cassdim, (chapt 12), God commands him to leave charan and go to Israel.

A further problem is that Gen 15:7 says, “I am the Lord who took you out of ur cassdim.” But, didn’t Got take him out of Haran based on the story in chapt 12?

And, a final problem from our parsha once again. 24:4 seems to imply that Avraham was born in the place that B’tuel lives in our parsha. If Avraham was born in Ur Casdim, that means that B’tuel lived in Ur Casdim (our parsha just says he lived in Aram Nahraim, unclear where that is). But, in next week’s parsha we learn that Lavan lives in Charan. How did he get from Ur Casdim to Charan? Of course, the simplest answer to this question is that he moved and this may be supported by the fact that he is called Lavan haarami. Generally, the name of a place serving as a surname suggests the individual at hand moved from one place to another and was identified by his place of origin.

The commentators have offered numerous answers to these problems from a traditional standpoint. Below, I’ve outlined the 4 that I consider the most plausible or famous, though there are many more.

1. (My personal favorite) Most of these questions have “balabatish” answer. Perhaps “place of birth” is a general term referring not to a specific local, but to all of Babylon. Though, this does not explain Gen 15:7 that singles out ur cassdim specifically.

2. Ibn Ezrah and Rasag suggests that perhaps the story in 12:1 actually took place before chapter 11 meaning, it was actually in response to God’s command that Avraham left Charan. There are 3 huge problems with this argument though. Firstly, the focus on Terach and not Avraham in 11:31 suggests that that travel was not in response to a Divine decree. Secondly, 12:4 which specifies Avraham’s age when leaving Charan, not Ur Casdim, suggests the command was given in Charan. Thirdly, if God had commanded Avraham in Ur Cassdim to go to Israel, why did Avraham stop over in Charan?

3. Rashi understand 12:1 as meaning, distance yourself even further from your place of birth. This line of reasoning however, does not explain 15:7. It is also a textual stretch.

4. Ramban, in a typical stroke of creative brilliance, suggests that perhaps Avraham was born in Haran, then moved to Ur Cassdim, then back to Haran. Again, this does not explain 15:7. And, you’ve got to admit, it’s sort of corny.

There are may other traditional answers. Perhaps 15:7 refers to a miracle of the burning furnace. Perhaps 24:4 is giving the eved two choices, either charan or ur cassdim. But, these are all very weak answers.

For the DH though, most of the questions don’t even get off the ground since chapt 11 is P and 24:4, 24:7 and 15:7 are all JE. The only question above that is not based on a contradiction between chapt 11 and another verse is that the union of 24:7, 24:4 and 15:7 implies that b’tuel lived in ur cassdim when we know Lavan lived in Charan. But, this is by far the weakest question of the bunch because Lavan could have moved.

That particular question though, is equally strong for the DH as for the traditional view. General positing of multiple authorship, not following the DH strictly might answer this question and indeed many scholars have argued on linguistic grounds that Gen 24 has a very late date, but that question is beyond the purview of our current discussion. If and when we ever finish our analysis of the DH, I would hope to continue this discussion by exploring other viewpoints with in biblical criticism.

A gut shabbos to all.