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God reveals to Abraham what he intends to do because he knows ideas, books, or initiatives are only fully appreciated after they die.
that Abraham will feel responsible for the entire world and be driven Suddenly their influence increases tremendously.
to pursue justice even if it means confronting God in prayer. Abraham Paradoxically, Sarah’s death leads to Abraham’s first purchase of
does not disappoint: “Abraham drew near and said: Will You also land in the Land of Canaan: a life-affirming symbol that Abraham and
destroy the righteous with the wicked ... far be it from you to do after Sarah’s descendants will eventually inherit the entire Land of Israel.
this manner to destroy the righteous with the wicked ... will not the Abraham’s purchase of the Cave of Machpelah and the surrounding
Judge of all the earth do justice?” (Genesis 18:23-25) land for 400 silver pieces (Genesis 23:14-16) alludes to this as the
Abraham continues modeling the importance of praying for others Sages teach that the borders of the Land of Israel are 400 parsah
when later in the portion he prays that God heal Abimelech and his (a measure of distance) by 400 parsah (Megillah 3a). Furthermore,
people. Even though the horrible illness, which swept the nation and the Zohar (1:128b) explicitly states that the Cave of Machpelah is a
prevented them from having children, seems to have been a punishment microcosm for the entire land of Israel.
for Abimelech taking Sarah (Genesis 20:17-18), Abraham’s prayer is These 400 pieces of silver also allude to the Zohar’s tradition
answered and the people are healed. Parenthetically, the very next (1:123b) that the soul has access to 400 worlds of Divine pleasure in
verse states that God remembered Sarah and she conceived and gave the World to Come. Thus, the Land of Israel – as symbolized by the
birth. The juxtaposition of these two verses teaches the Sages that Cave of Machpelah – can be understood as the place where Divine
if you pray for others, especially if they have a similar ailment, God pleasure and revelation are most accessible. The Land of Israel
will answer your own prayers first.
serves as a bridge between the physical and the spiritual, between
The intimate connection between Abraham’s prayers and the this world and the World to Come. It is the place where the fine line
Mashiach is hinted to by a beautiful remez (allusion). The same between life and death is transcended. (For a more comprehensive
Hebrew word for “drew near” is used to describe both Abraham’s explanation of how all the concepts represented by the number 400
approaching God to plead for Sodom and Judah’s approaching the intricately connect, see Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh’s The Hebrew
Egyptian ruler (Joseph) to plead for his brother Benjamin (Genesis Letters, pp. 324-337.)
44:18). As mentioned above, “the actions of the fathers are a sign We can now understand the Sages’ declaration that anyone who
to the children” (Sotah 34a; “The Trials of Abraham”), thus on a walks even four cubits in the Land of Israel will merit the World to
spiritual level Abraham’s drawing near to God and pleading for Come, for the Holy Land is the very gateway, the portal, to a higher
Sodom paved the way for Judah’s ability to draw near and plead dimension.
for his brother. Since Judah is the progenitor of the Mashiach, via
King David, perhaps it was this very act of courageous pleading with
Joseph that activated the spark of Mashiach in Judah’s soul. Indeed,
Kabbalah and Chassidut teach that this very meeting between
Joseph and Judah was the archetypal meeting of the two Messianic
figures mentioned in the Talmud (Sukkah 52a) and other sources: the
Mashiach from the house of Joseph, who will precede the individual
we commonly refer to as the Mashiach, a descendant of the house of
David.
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