Parshas Lech Lecha
I will bless those who bless you… and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you” (Bereishis 12:3). The words v’nivrechu vecha the Torah uses not only mean that the families of the earth will be blessed through you, but also that they will be grafted onto the Jewish people. When other nations see that by simply blessing Avram, they too will be blessed, they will want to convert to Judaism. Jews by birth who may be practicing Judaism out of habit will be strengthened in their commitment to Torah by the fresh enthusiasm and conviction of such converts.
As a result of the gifts Pharaoh lavished on them, both Avram and Lot became extremely wealthy. But they related to their wealth very differently. “Avram was exceedingly wealthy, in livestock, silver and gold” (13:2). In describing his wealth, the Torah uses the word kaveid me’od which means his wealth was heavy on him. Avram considered his wealth a burden. From the word me’od we learn that he suffered from this burden, (Midrash Rabbah, Bereishis 9:8). Avram did not need all that wealth to live, and he understood that G-d had deposited it in his bank account in trust for other less fortunate people. He was now burdened with the responsibility of finding those people and making sure he fulfilled the mission G-d had placed on him as G-d’s paying agent. Shlomo hamelech’s warning that riches hoarded by their owner are to his misfortune” (Kohelet 5:12) did not apply to Avram.
With Lot it was different. Although we are told that Lot too had cattle and places of abode (Bereishis 13:5), we do not find the words kaveid me’od. For Lot, whatever he had was welcome, but it was not enough. He was the perfect example of Natan HaBavli’s adage that whoever has 100, desires 200. And so, in addition to the abundance he already had, he sent his animals to graze in the fields of others. This caused strife between Avram and Lot.
“Let us not quarrel,” says Avram, “for we are brothers” (13:8). Avram and Lot were not brothers; they were uncle and nephew, relatives. But what Avram meant is that even though we have to part ways to end the strife, I will always be there for you in times of crisis when you say “ach” and groan in pain (Rashi, Bereishis 7:23). Avram would always be there for Lot to step into the breach, as he did when he waged war with the five kings and rescued Lot from captivity.
G-d promises Avram (Bereishis 13:15) that He will give him the Land forever. What happened to that promise? True, we are no longer in Eretz Yisrael, but it is still and always will be our Land. Nobody can take that ownership right away from us, even as they squat in our Land. A yerusha can be taken away, but not a nachala. Unlike the land of Moav, which changed ownership when conquered by Sichon, the ownership of Eretz Yisrael belongs to us, irrespective of who has possession of it.
That the Land belongs to us even as we live in the Diaspora is confirmed by the very next pasuk in which G-d says, “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth.” When the Jews live in Israel, they are not compared to the dust of the earth. They are compared to the stars of the Heavens. It is only when they are living in the Diaspora that they are compared to the dust of the earth, because everybody treads on them. The juxtaposition of these two verses, one guaranteeing that Eretz Yisrael will be our Land forever and the other telling us that we will be like the dust of the earth, proves that the Land belongs to us forever, irrespective of where we live.