Inheriting the Redemption We Cannot Earn

1“How shall I know that I shall inherit it?” [Bereishis 15:8]. All the early commentators try to explain this verse, because on its plain meaning it is very strange. How could Avraham Avinu, the first of the believers, ask a question like this, as if he doubted Hashem's promise?

2aPerhaps, in my limited understanding, we can explain it as follows. An inheritance never lapses. Every son inherits his father, and so on to the end of all generations. Even a son who goes bad still inherits his father by Torah law [cf. Bava Basra 133b]. The Zohar draws a well-known distinction between two ways of receiving something: “he inherits it” and “he earns it.” An inheritance comes through the merit of the fathers, even when the heir himself is not worthy. Earning applies only when a person is worthy in his own right. We have explained before that the holiness of Shabbos comes to us as an inheritance, as we say in the Shabbos prayers: “Who gives rest as an inheritance to His people Israel, in His holiness, on the holy Shabbos day.” It comes to us as an inheritance, through the holiness of His Name, not because of our preparation or our deeds, but only through the holiness of the Giver. This is the “inheritance without boundaries” that Chazal promise to one who keeps Shabbos (Shabbos 118a). It comes from the power of Hashem's own holiness, not from our side as receivers, and holiness that comes from the Infinite One has no end and no limit.

2bThis is why Avraham asked for a sign and a covenant at the moment Hashem showed him how harsh the exiles would be. He saw our oppression, our distress and suffering, and how confused our minds would become. He understood that we would not have the strength or the clarity to earn the complete Redemption on our own merit. It could come only as an inheritance, through the holiness of the goodness and compassion of our merciful Father, the Giver. Then, even in such a state, we would still merit the complete Redemption through His great mercy and kindness. Then He will “remember the covenant of the fathers for the children” [cf. Selichos], because we will be children who inherit. This is what the covenant was about, as the Midrash Rabbah explains (Bereishis Rabbah 44:15–16)¹: “‘But the bird he did not divide’ [Bereishis 15:10]. R' Abba bar Kahana said in the name of R' L.²: The Holy One, blessed be He, showed him that whoever stands up against the wave is swept away by it, and whoever does not stand up against the wave is not swept away. ‘Birds of prey came down on the carcasses’ [Bereishis 15:11]. R' A. said³: Avraham took a stick and struck at them, but they would not be beaten off. Even so, ‘Avram drove them away (vayashev)’: he brought them back through teshuvah⁴. R' Azariah said: When your children become like carcasses without sinews or bones, your merit will stand for them.”

2cHere is what the Midrash means. R' Abba bar Kahana is saying that the deeds of the fathers, and Avraham's own deeds, will stay with Israel so firmly that they will see themselves as “dust and ashes” [Bereishis 18:27], like Avraham. They will know that “you are the fewest of all peoples” [Devarim 7:7], chosen because you make yourselves small (Chullin 89a). They will bow their heads to every wave [cf. Yevamos 121a], and in this way they will come through the harshness of exile and merit the Redemption. R' Assi adds that Avraham could not drive off the birds and keep the troubles from coming. What he did achieve is that Israel will merit teshuvah even in the great darkness that is to come. R' Azariah adds that Hashem promised him that even if they are like dead carcasses, with no holy life left in them at all, Avraham's merit will still stand for us. Because an inheritance never lapses, we will merit the complete Redemption. But there is a condition. Even if, Heaven forbid, they are like carcasses without sinews or bones, without any spark of holy life, they must recognize how low they have fallen, that “their soul is bowed down to the dust” [cf. Tehillim 44:26], like “dust and ashes.” We truly are dust and ashes. We have no deeds with which to lift ourselves up or to raise our faces to our Father in Heaven. Even so, “He has not despised or scorned the lowliness of the poor” [Tehillim 22:25], when that lowliness is real. Through it we will merit complete teshuvah and the everlasting light, amen. This reading can also be fitted into the words of the Midrash Rabbah quoted above (maamar 2). (From the author's handwritten manuscript.)