ספר בראשית

Regardless, of where that Rashi may be, both in our ‎chapter as well as in Exodus 6,8 G’d speaks about the gift of the ‎land of Canaan becoming an inheritance. If Terach had been ‎involved in the matter, why would G’d have to “give” the land to ‎Avram first? In his commentary on Choshen Mishpat, on the ‎section dealing with the laws of inheritance, the author of ‎‎Meirat Eynayim states that the expression ‎ירושה‎, ‎inheritance, in legal parlance, applies only to property inherited ‎from one’s biological father. From the wording in Exodus 6,8 as ‎well as from the wording in Genesis 15,18 it is clear that G’d ‎considers Himself as Avram’s “father” in the matter of bestowing ‎on him the “gift” of the land. His offspring, or the part of his ‎offspring to whom he deeds it, will henceforth “inherit.” It. When ‎Avram heard this, he was unclear if he had understood correctly, ‎as he had never heard of an inheritance originating as a gift. ‎Hence he asked ‎במה אדע כי אירשנה‎, by what legal process can I be ‎sure that it will be mine as something to bequeath?” In other ‎words, “who is my father from whom I can inherit this land?” ‎Avram’s question reflects his awareness that “his father” in this ‎instance could not possibly be Terach. In response to Avram’s ‎concerns, G’d answered him: “You shall be aware that your ‎descendants in their formative stages will experience both being ‎strangers and even slaves until at the end of the 400 years, I will ‎judge the people who have subjugated them and treated them ‎cruelly, so that they will leave that land with vast possessions.” ‎G’d’s message to Avram is that the Exodus of this people from the ‎land of their oppression will be due to their being his direct ‎descendants. His very birth paved the way for the Jewish people ‎to come into existence and to in due course accept the very ‎Torah that Avram had already been observing without having ‎been commanded to do so.In light of this, your very birth ‎through Divine input of some holy spirit, seeing that I am your ‎‎“father,” enables Me to speak to you of “inheriting” the land that ‎I am promising to your descendants.” G’d implied that Avram had ‎been quite correct in surmising that Terach had nothing to do ‎with the events occurring in Avram’s future.‎ The author refers to his exegesis of a statement in Baba ‎Batra 117 where the Talmud states that the so-called ‎‎“inheritance” of the Israelites being given the land of Canaan, is ‎quite different from ordinary inheritances. Normally, the living ‎inherit the dead. In the case of the Israelites receiving ancestral ‎land in the Land of Canaan, the dead inherited the living. The ‎‎“normal” process of inheritance is based on the son being a ‎branch of the father, [the father being the trunk. Ed.] The trunk ‎‎(father) provides the elements that enable the branch to achieve ‎its perfection (producing fruit). This parable does not fit the ‎Jewish people and its development. In the history of the Jewish ‎people, the “dead” are the generation of the Israelites that ‎experienced the Exodus as adults, who although not physically ‎living to experience the conquest of the land, “inherited” it, ‎since, but for their existence the next generation could not have ‎taken possession of this land.