ספר בראשית

Avram’s deeds, the ten tests G’d subjected him to, all of which ‎he passed with flying colours, became the foundation stone of the ‎Jewish people. Had it not been for this, the Jewish people would ‎not have been witnesses to the ten plagues with which Gd smote ‎the Egyptians, nor would they have qualified for G’d personally ‎addressing them when He gave the Ten Commandments. This ‎assured Avraham his place as the founding father in the hierarchy ‎of the Jewish people, and therefore as a participant in the Exodus ‎from Egypt. In His answer to the question of ‎במה אדע כי אירשנה‎, ‎‎“How will I know that I will inherit it,” G’d assures him that he ‎will be no less entitled to a share in the Holy Land than the ‎people who physically marched out of Egypt in Moses’ ‎time.’’G’d entertaining the thought that there would develop a ‎Jewish nation, and that this nation would proclaim Him as their ‎G’d, etc., would result in generating the necessary response in the ‎form of a deed in producing the required souls, ‎נשמות‎. This ‎‎“thought” is expressed in the first two letters of Avram’s name ‎אב‎. ‎When G’d had that thought about a Jewish nation, He referred to ‎Avraham as ‎אב‎, not to Terach. A son’s claim to life in the world ‎after death is based on the spiritual merits possessed by his father. ‎Something similar occurs when the mother entertains the ‎appropriate thoughts at the time of marital union with her husband. ‎Such thoughts influence the baby to be born from that union, either ‎positively or negatively. By telling Avram details about how his ‎descendants would develop into a people, G’d also implied that ‎contrary to what Avram might have hoped, his father [at that time ‎still very much alive. Ed.] would not be part of that chain. [When ‎we speak of Terach, Avram’s father in the Haggadah shel ‎Pessach every Seder night, the author has drawn a dividing ‎line between Terach and Avraham. Ed.]‎