Wait.. Is Lot Even Chosen?
Parshat Lech Lecha starts off with a lot of the adventures of Avraham and Lot. It seems like they really went through a lot together.
At the beginning of the Parsha, Lot went with Avraham and Sarai to the place that Hashem commanded Avraham to go. During this time, Hashem promises Avraham that He will give Avraham's offspring the land. The funny thing is, Avraham was 75 at the time and he didn't have any children. So what is this promising that Hashem is doing? I don't think that Avraham ever doubted Hashem, and at that exact moment that Hashem promised the land to Avraham's children, Avraham's instinct must have been to think that Hashem was referring to Lot. Lot, after all, was his nephew. Avraham probably acted as a surrogate father to Lot after his father died, so it would only make sense that Lot would inherit the land which Hashem is promising to Avraham.
After the whole Egypt-ordeal, Avraham Sarai and Lot travel up from Egypt with lots ( ;) ) of money. Now something weird happens... Avraham and Lot can't live together because they are having issues with their property. Their shepherds got into a fight over the land. Avraham was trying hard not to argue and wanted to settle it. The result was not so great though.
Lot lifted his eyes and chose the land that reminded him of Egypt: ie. He chose the place that was dependent on consistent floods. As opposed to Israel, which depends on rain- which means that one must to goods deeds to receive the rain- Lot chose a place far away from God.
This is the end of a great friendship. As it says: "Thus they parted, one from his brother (13:11)." There is no denying the close connection Avraham and Lot had. They were in a sense, like brothers, or even like father and son. Lot chose his way, though, and chose to move away from Avraham. Despite all of this, when Lot is in danger later on, Avraham still saves him which proves that though they parted ways, they were still family.
Remember at the beginning of the post/journey when Hasem promised Avraham's children that land? And we were all like "that's for sure Lot"? But Lot isn't here anymore! Ahh...
After Lot left- and the the Torah literally says "after Lot had parted from him (13:14)"- Hashem makes Avraham the same promise he made to him before. He tells Avraham that his children will inherit the land. Why repeat it? Well, the passuk really answers itself. It is to emphasize that the promise was made exclusively to Avraham's decedents. Which would not include Lot. Well, this is fun foreshadowing. I guess Avraham is going to have some decedents soon...!
Questions to Ponder
1. What do you think about Lot? Are we too hard on him? or maybe not?
2. The Sforno says that the renewed promise was deferred until Lot's departure "otherwise it would have inflamed Lot's greed even more." Do you think this is a fair assumption?
3. What do you think Avraham was thinking when Hashem made him these promises? Do you think that he thought he was going to have kids?
Just wanted to say: I love this picture. I love how you always include pictures, it makes the blog so much more eye catching.
ReplyDelete1. I suppose in a way we are a little hard on him. After all, Lot is just human. He gets money, and he wants fertile land so he can have more money. It's only natural. And the fact that he wanted to go to a land that would have rain and good weather rather than going to Israel and not having rain isn't bad. In fact, the other day I said to Rabbi Maimon, "Israel is in a bad location! It never rains in Israel." Indeed, Lot grew up in a world of people who didn't believe in G-d, and just because he went to Sidom doesn't mean he gave that up. So he isn't as horrible as we think.
2. Beats me..
3. I bet he was trusting in what G-d said, because it's G-d. If G-d appeared to me I'd faint and then just take everything G-d would say as fact. However, the fact that Avraham needed to be reassured might show us that he did have doubts... And probably he didn't think he was gonna have any kinder