The
Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s
family, and go to the land I will show you.” Genesis 12:1
Netziv
comments that the intention is not for Abram to reach the Land of Israel,
“Since he already knew the Land’s qualities and yearned for her, as the verse
has already stated: (Abram set out with his father Teraḥ ‘To go to the land of
Canaan.’” [Genesis 11:31] Rather, the explanation of “The land I will show you”
is that “Within that land, I will show you which direction to turn, as the
verse states ‘To the land of Moriah.’” [Genesis 22:20]
Rabbi Menaḥem Kasher,
in his work Torah Shleima, quotes the manuscript of Midrash Or
haAfela, which states: “‘To
the land I will show you’ refers to the land of Moriah.”
Based upon the above, we understand
that the purpose of Abram’s journey from his country, his relatives and his
father’s house was specifically to reach Mount Moriah, and this was the Divine
designation for this journey.
Indeed, eight verses after we read
God’s call on Abram to go to the land which He will show him, the verse informs
us that “Abram traveled, continually traveling southward.” Rashi comments: “All
of Abram’s journeys were to the south of the Land of Israel, the direction of
Jerusalem.”
It is not surprising
that the Divine designation of our Father Abraham’s first journey is Mount
Moriah. Mount Moriah includes the holiest spot in the world, the Foundation
Stone, the site of the Holy of Holies and the place from which God commenced
creation. [Mishna, Keilim 1:6; Babylonian Talmud, Yoma
54b] Maharal of Prague’s approach is that the sanctity of the
Land derives from the fact that the Holy City, and in particular, the Temple
Mount, the holiest place in the world, are located within her. Thus, in order
to benefit from the Land’s sanctity, Abraham needed to reach its ultimate
source: Mount Moriah.
Thus, the destination of Abram’s
journey was Mount Moriah.
No comments:
Post a Comment