Everything Comes from Hashem: Avraham's Coin

1“And these are the names of Bnei Yisrael who came to Egypt; with Yaakov …”¹ Notice the wording in light of a teaching of Chazal: wherever the Torah says ve'eileh, “and these,” with an added vav, it comes to add to what was said before.² What, then, does our verse come to add to what we were told earlier, in the book of Bereishis?

2aThe Midrash says: “‘And these are the names …’ This is what is written, ‘He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him early.’ This teaches you that whoever holds back discipline from his son will see him go bad in the end, and will come to hate him. So we find with Yishmael …: Avraham did not discipline him, and he went bad … What did Yishmael do? When he was fifteen years old, he began to bring an idol from the market. He would make sport with it and worship it, as he had seen others do. At once, ‘Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Avraham, making sport …’ And ‘making sport’ means nothing but idol worship, as it says, ‘and they rose up to make sport.’ At once, ‘she said to Avraham, Drive out this maidservant and her son,’ lest my son learn his ways. At once, ‘the matter was very bad in Avraham's eyes …,’ because Yishmael had gone bad. ‘And God said to Avraham, Let it not be bad in your eyes …’ From here you learn that Avraham was secondary to Sarah in prophecy.”³ So far the Midrash.

2bThis is very puzzling. As is well known, Avraham Avinu recognized his Creator when he was only three years old.⁴ He rejected idol worship and used to smash idols to pieces.⁵ How, then, can the Midrash say that when Avraham saw idol worship in his own home, he kept silent and did not protest?

3We can explain this by first citing what my holy ancestor, zy"a, wrote in his sefer Toldos Adam.⁶ He was explaining Rashi's comment on Avraham's words to his guests, “and wash your feet”: “He thought they were Arabs, who bow down to the dust of their feet, and he was careful not to bring idolatry into his house.”⁷ My holy ancestor asked: how can we imagine people so foolish as to treat dust as an idol? He answered that it is a principle of faith in Hashem and His providence that “a person does not so much as bruise his finger below unless it is decreed upon him from Above.”⁸ So we must know that the strength to work for a living comes entirely from the power of the Creator. It is forbidden to think, “My strength and the might of my hand made me this wealth.”⁹ Only Bnei Yisrael can grasp this; the nations lack the understanding to recognize it. That is what is meant by their bowing down to the dust of their feet. They would say that what they achieve with their feet, going out to work and bringing home food for their household, comes by their own strength, and that is a kind of idol worship. That is the gist of his words.

4The sefer Beis Yaakov explains the Midrash we cited in this same way: Yishmael began to bring an idol from the market and would make sport with it and worship it, as he had seen others do. These are his words: “We may find a hint here: tzelem, ‘idol,’ has the same numerical value as kesef, ‘money.’¹⁰ This is the meaning of ‘When he was fifteen years old he began to bring an idol from the market’: he earned money in the market on market day. ‘And he would make sport with it’ means that it gave him very great joy. ‘And worship it’ means that he had a strong lust for money, which is a kind of idol worship. At once ‘Sarah saw’: Sarah our mother saw that this was truly a kind of idol worship, ‘and she said to Avraham, Drive out this maidservant and her son.’ ‘The matter was very bad in Avraham's eyes’: the verse says ‘in Avraham's eyes’ because to Avraham it did not seem as bad as it did to Sarah, since Avraham was secondary to Sarah in prophecy, as the Midrash there explains. So a person should keep far away from the idolatry of money, and it will be good for him.” So far his words.

5Following this, we can explain a saying of Chazal: “The coin of Avraham Avinu: an old man and an old woman on one side, and a young man and a maiden on the other side.”¹¹ It comes to teach us this. Just as in old age a person no longer has the strength to toil for his living, and no longer credits his life and livelihood so much to his own strength, so even in the days of his youth, when he is full of vigor and toils for his living, he should know that the truth is not as it looks to the eye. His livelihood does not come to him because of his toil; it comes from Hashem, “Who gives you strength to make wealth.”¹²

6This is what our verse hints at: “And these are the names of Bnei Yisrael who came to Egypt …,” with the added vav that adds to the ones before. Avraham Avinu planted this knowledge, that everything comes from the Creator, in his descendants who came to Egypt, the place of “the nakedness of the land”¹³ and of materialism. That is why the verse says ve'eileh, adding to the ones before: those who came to Egypt also reached this level. They walked in the path of those who came before them, the ways of the holy Avos, knowing that everything comes from the power of Hashem, blessed be He.

7May Hashem grant that we be privileged to reach this level, and through it bring the redemption near. Amen, may it be His will.