“The survivor came and told Abram the Hebrew...”
Abraham is called “Abram the Hebrew” (אברם העברי). The sages provide several explanations for this adjective, “the Hebrew”:
“[He] came and told Abram the Hebrew”: Rabbi Yehudah, Rabbi Nechemiah, and the sages [disagree]. Rabbi Yehudah says: [he is called “the Hebrew” because] the entire world is on one side, and he is on the other side [the word for “on one side” is מעבר]. Rabbi Nechemiah says: [Abram is called “the Hebrew”] because he is of the descendants of Ever [the son of Shem, the son of Noah]. The sages say: he is from the other side of the river, and he speaks in the Hebrew tongue.
There are three opinions and four explanations in this Midrash. Let us look at them more closely and see how they correspond to the four letters of God’s essential Name, Havayah.
We will begin with the sages’ opinion, which really presents two different but related explanations. Both the sages’ explanations make use of a purely linguistic approach to understanding this word. The first explanation they offer is that “Hebrew” (עברי) alludes to Abraham having come from the other side of the river, the other side of the Euphrates. In Kabbalah, the sefirah of understanding is described as “the breadth of the river.” Thus, coming from the other side of the river is a metaphor for drawing down the light of the sefirah of understanding and this explanation corresponds to the first hei of Havayah. Furthermore, the very concept of space (Abraham’s place of birth, where he comes from) is associated with the sefirah of understanding.
The second explanation offered by the sages is that Abraham speaks the language of the Hebrews. Speech is always described as the manifestation of the sefirah of kingdom, which is many times called “the world of speech” in Kabbalah. Thus, this explanation corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom and to the final hei of Havayah. Thus, we have that both of sages’ explanations are related to language and to the two hei’s in Havayah, which in Kabbalah are also described as the mother and the daughter, as the prophet says: “Like the mother is the daughter.”
Rabbi Nechemiah’s explanation corresponds to the sefirah of wisdom. One numerical connection between Abraham and Ever and wisdom is that Ever, Abraham’s teacher was the 14th generation of mankind. Abraham was the 20th generation. Both 14 and 20 are values of fillings of the letter yud (יד and יוד, respectively), which represents wisdom. In addition, the sum of Abraham (אברהם) and Ever (עבר) is 520, which is also the product of the filling of the letter yud (יוד).
