[Avodah] akeidah

[T613K at aol.com]

In Avodah Digest, Vol 26, Issue 224 dated 11/10/2009 R' Eli  Turkel  
writes: 



[1]  Rashi brings that the 2 "boys" (naarim) were Eliezer and  Yishmael.
Interesting that
after being evicted Yishmael is now a servant  of Abraham. Chumash itself 
only
notes that Yishmael came to Abraham's  funeral not anything in between.
Accepting the other midrash that Yitzchak  was 37 then Yishmael was 37+15=51
not exactly a "naar". Elizer was also  obviously not a "naar"

[2] One of the big questions is whether Abraham  lived in Hebron or Beer
Sheva at the time
and where was Sarah at that  time, seems like she was in Hebron and
Abraham in Beer Sheva.
-- 
Eli  Turkel

 
 
>>>>>
[1] The word "na'ar" seems to refer not only to a young person but to a  
person who is subordinate in some respect to the godol or zaken -- the  
servant, attendant or student is a na'ar, no matter how old.  See Shmos  33:11, 
where Yehoshua is called a "na'ar"  -- "Vediber Hashem el  Moshe...umeshorso 
Yehoshua bin Nun *na'ar* lo yamish mitoch ha'ohel."  
 
It is clear that Yehoshua is called a na'ar to indicate that he was Moshe's 
 subordinate, attendant and student.  
 
How old was Yehoshua at this time, when he is called a na'ar?  Well,  this 
is after the chet ha'egel and before the chet hameraglim.  In Yehoshua  
14:7, Yehoshua says, "Ben arba'im shana anochi bishloach Moshe eved Hashem osi  
miKadesh Barnea leragel es ha'aretz" -- "I was forty years old when Moshe 
sent  me to spy out the Land."  So when he was referred to as a na'ar,  a 
little bit before the incident of the meraglim, he was maybe 39 years  old.
 
[2] A casual reading of the pesukim makes it sound like Avraham was living  
in Be'er Sheva and Sarah was living in Chevron when she died!  Rashi  
anticipates this, apparently, because he talks at length, in two different  
places, about where Avraham lived and for how long -- showing that Avraham and  
Sarah did not actually live apart!
 
First you want to look at Bereshis 21: 33-34.  "Vayita eshel biVe'er  
Shava...vayagar Avraham be'eretz Plishtim yamim rabim."  Rashi says there  that 
Avraham lived in Chevron for 25 years, and then, after the destruction of  
Sedom, he moved away from that area and lived in Be'er Sheva for 26 years.   
Then he moved back to Chevron, twelve years before the Akeida.  Plainly,  
Avraham and Sarah were living in Chevron at the time of the Akeida.
 
Then you want to look at Ber. 22:19 where it says, right after the akeida,  
"....vayelchu yachdav el Be'er Shava vayeshev Avraham biVe'er Shava."  On  
the words "Veyeshev beVe'ere Shava" Rashi says, "Lo yeshiva mamash, sheharei 
 beChevron hayah yoshev" -- When it says, "He lived in Be'er Sheva" Rashi 
says  "Not actual living" -- i.e., he just stayed there for a while, maybe 
only a day  or two -- "because he was living in Chevron at the time."   Rashi 
here  again repeats that Avraham was living in Chevron at this time and had 
moved from  Be'er Sheva to Chevron already twelve years previously.
 
Now when just a few pesukim later, it says that Sarah died and that  
"Avraham came to Chevron to eulogize Sarah and to cry for her" -- Rashi fills in  
where Avraham came /from/ -- namely, from Be'er Sheva.  If at this point  
you remember (you are already in a new parsha, a week later, though it's only  
been a few  pesukim in the Chumash) --if you remember Rashi's whole  
cheshbon about Avraham living in Chevron and only going to Be'er Sheva for a  
short while after the Akeida -- you get a sense of the grief and shock that  
Avraham must have felt when he heard the news of his wife's unexpected death -- 
 and hurried home from Be'er Sheva to bury her and to mourn for her.   
Certainly when he left home with Yitzchak, he expected to be mourning a death -- 
 but he never expected that it would be his beloved wife's death that he 
would be  mourning!
 
(A question Rashi doesn't answer is, why did Avraham go to Be'er Sheva  
after the Akeida instead of returning straight home?  A helpful note in the  
A/S Chumash cites Ramban:  "He went there to give thanks to G-d at his  
eshel.")
 

--Toby  Katz
==========

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