“And predatory birds swooped down upon the pieces, and Avram shooed them away.” (Beraishis 15:11)
Hashem told Avram He was going to give him and his myriad descendants the land of Israel, from the Nile to the Euphrates. Avram mustered the temerity to ask Hashem, “How do I know I will inherit [the land]?”
In response, Hashem told Avram to take a number of animals and split them in half, and lay them on the ground with a path between them. Avram and Hashem’s countenance would pass between them. This was known as the ‘bris bain habesarim,’ the covenant between the parts. (Rashi points out that these animals represented various korbanos the Jews would sacrifice in the future.)
One would imagine that at such an august moment, when Hashem promised His protection to Avram and his descendants; that they would one day inherit them the land He had given them that day, there would be no vultures or carrion assaulting the animals, just as no flies were attracted to the blood of sacrifices in the Bais HaMikdash. Why would these birds come, and force Avram to shoo them away?
The Midrash in several places, and the Gemara as well, quotes Hashem as saying, “Chaval al d’avdin v’lo mishtakchin,” “Woe upon [the loss of] those who are gone but not forgotten.” He continued, “Many times I appeared to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov with the Name which conveys restriction, and they never questioned Me.” This was after Moshe asked Hashem about the plight of the Jews and the seeming indifference of Hashem. Though the Avos experienced difficult times, they never questioned Hashem’s attributes and trusted Him completely.
Avraham was told to go to Canaan, and suddenly there was a famine there. He went to Egypt where his wife was kidnaped. When they finally had a child, he was told to sacrifice him, and when Hashem stopped him, Avraham came home to find that his wife Sarah had died. Despite having been promised the land, he bought the land to bury her at an astronomic price and didn’t have second thoughts about it.
This unshakeable faith is what Hashem missed with the passing of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, and it is incumbent on all of us to try to emulate it. But what does that have to do with the vultures? Everything.
Avraham said, “How do I know that I will inherit the land?” Instead of doubting Hashem, Avraham was asking for confirmation that his children would merit this great gift. How could he be sure they would be good enough?
Hashem told him to split the animals. When he did, birds of prey came and Avram shooed them off. Hashem said, “There! You see? You didn’t ask why I didn’t protect you from these birds. Instead, you did what had to be done! It is precisely the unquestioning faith you have in Me in which will ensure your children inherit the land.”
A twelve-year old boy decided that he would grow long payos, sidelocks, which are a fulfillment of the mitzvah not to ‘destroy’ the hair of the head at the temples. Though he came from a Chasidic background, this was still highly unusual at the time he did it, back in the 1950’s. It wasn’t common for Jews to be so “noticeably” Jewish.
He explained his reasoning. He loved Westerns but felt that the movies were a distracting force in his studies. He knew that if he wore long payos he would be too embarrassed to go into a theater. At the end, this young man grew to be a great Talmid Chacham - because he knew how to force his own hand.
©2024 – J. Gewirtz
