ספר בראשית

An alternate approach to the line: ‎במה אדע כי אירשנה‎. There is ‎no question that Avram did not request a sign from G’d as proof ‎that his as yet unborn descendants would inherit the land of ‎Canaan.The idea that his claim to the land of Canaan could be ‎remotely due to his having Terach as a father never even ‎occurred to him. If we needed proof of that, we need only recall ‎the Talmud B’rachot 16, according to which the Jewish ‎people have only three patriarchs and 4 matriarchs. The title ‎‎“patriarch” implies that one is the “root” of the son whom one ‎has sired by means of transmitting seed from the brain, the seat ‎of one’s intelligence, which transmits it to the semen. It follows ‎that the thoughts that preoccupy the father at the time when he ‎engages in marital relations are transmitted through his semen to ‎the ovum upon merging with it. If the father-to-be thinks holy ‎thoughts at the appropriate time, some of these will be ‎transferred to his seed, etc. There can be little doubt that ‎Avraham was not the product of a father who entertained such ‎godly thoughts when he helped conceive him. How could he ‎therefore be considered a patriarch of the Jewish people? Terach ‎was wholly consumed by thoughts and desires centered around ‎the physical part of his existence on earth. If his offspring was of ‎a diametrically opposite orientation this could not have been ‎attributed to his biological father at all. It must have been due to ‎G’d’s desire that with the development of the fetus resulting in ‎Avram, G’d intended to lay the foundation of a Jewish nation. We ‎can think of it in terms of G’d providing some additional spiritual ‎light to His universe at the time of Avram’s birth. He was ‎destined to become a new type of “tree of life,” albeit outside the ‎boundaries of Gan Eden. According to Ari’zal, Terach ‎and his wife became the “go-between” before this light could be ‎made available in the terrestrial domain of the universe in order ‎to assuage the feelings of Satan, who would otherwise have ‎accused G’d of having favoured the creatures in the “lower” part ‎of the universe. The fact that Terach, i.e. what he represented as ‎a merchant of idols, sired Avraham according to the norms ‎prevailing in our part of the “lower” universe, deprived Satan of ‎the opportunity of accusing G’d of such favoritism of the human ‎race versus other loftier regions and their inhabitants. [I have not ‎seen the words of the Ari’zal, but I trust that I have ‎understood them correctly. Ed.] The essential thing to remember ‎is that the actual birth of Avram was a result through ‎intervention by Divinely inspired intelligence.Terach does not ‎feature at all in the ‎אב‎ part of Avram’s name; no part of his ‎intellect provided the characteristic in Avram’s personality that ‎enabled him to develop as he did.[It is important to ‎remember, especially for people who have little background in ‎kabbalah, that the idea of G’d predetermining a person’s lifestyle ‎and his abilities has been spelled out in the Bible when G’d told ‎Jeremiah that He had destined him to be the prophet during the ‎period when the Temple was in danger of being destroyed. G’d ‎was nearing the end of His patience with the Jewish state of that ‎period even before he had been conceived. (Jeremiah 1,4) Ed.] In ‎spite of all the reasons for disqualifying Terach from being given ‎any credit as the indirect founder of the Jewish people, the fact ‎that Avram had spent 9 months inside the womb of his mother ‎after she had been impregnated with his semen, Avram was ‎required to undergo 10 “tests,” in order to cleanse himself ritually ‎from the spiritual contamination he experienced in his mother’s ‎womb.Rashi [not found there, Ed.] writes about this ‎aspect of the ten trials Avraham had to undergo in his ‎commentary on Exodus 6,8 ‎נתתי אותה לכם מורשה אני ה'‏‎, “I have ‎given it to you as an inheritance, I am the Lord.” [The ‎contradiction in this verse is obvious; since when is an ‎inheritance “given?” it is transmitted from father to son upon ‎the father’s death! Ed.]