Later in the Parsha, after conquering large swaths of territory in battle, Avram is approached by the deposed king of Sedom. The king makes an presumptuous request. "Give me the people. Take the wealth for yourself." Avram responds by rejecting the spoils. "I raise my hand [in an oath] to Hashem the exalted God, creator of heaven and earth. From a string to a shoelace - I will not take anything that is yours! You shall not say, I made Avram rich" (14:21-23). According to the Midrash, Avram explained himself, "Hashem promised to make me rich, as it says [in the original blessings of Lech Lecha], "I will bless you" (Rashi ad loc.).
There are two obvious problems here. Firstly, Avram gives away what is rightfully his because Hashem promised to make him rich?! Does Avram expect gold to rain down from the sky? Maybe Hashem intends to make him rich through the spoils of this miraculous military victory! Secondly, how do we reconcile Avram's righteous oath not to take a dime from the king of Sedom with his eagerness to harvest wealth from the king of Egypt? These are powerful questions indeed (see Gur Aryeh to 14:23).
II
At the beginning of the Parsha, in the final words of the original blessing of Lech Lecha, Hashem tells Avram, ונברכו בך כל משפחות האדמה, "through you all the families of the earth will be blessed." In other words, all of humanity will be blessed because of the Jews. This can happen in one of two ways, which we will call System One and System Two.
System One functions when the Jewish People are in the land of Israel. In the Holy Land, Hashem's blessings flow to the Jewish Nation in the form of agricultural produce. Our forefather Yitzchok sowed his field in Israel and harvested מאה שארים, one hundred times the expected crop (Bereishis 26:12). This is an early example of System One at work, and the Torah promises the very same blessing for the Jewish future in Israel: "Blessed will be... the fruit of your soil... Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl" (Devarim 28:4-5). The blessing is not limited to abundance; it also includes speed. The Holy Land is called ארץ הצבי, the land of the deer (Daniel 11:16). This means that produce ripens at an accelerated pace in Israel (Kesubos 112a).
When Yitzchok wants give a blessing to his son, he begins with the blessing of the farm: "Hashem shall give you from dew of heaven and abundant grain and wine" (27:28). As opposed to Egypt where the Nile River provides a constant source of water to irrigate the fields, the farms of Israel need rainfall, and as the Torah tells us, rainfall in Israel depends on mitzvah observance. "If you listen to my mitzvos... I will give the rains in their times" (Devarim 11:13-14). Obviously, this is miraculous; no natural cause and effect relationship exists between mitzvos and rainfall (Ramban to Vayikra 26:9).
As a blessing which comes directly from Hashem, the produce of Israel is understandably sacred. This reality is reflected in the host of mitzvos which regulate its use (i.e., Terumah, Maaser, Leket, Shemitah, etc.). It is also reflected in the words of על המחיה, the blessing recited after eating grain products. "Rebuild Yerushalayim the holy city speedily in our days, and bring us up into it so we can rejoice in her rebuilding, eat her fruits, and be satiated by her goodness..." We are not praying to satiate our hunger for fruit; we are expressing our yearning to imbibe the elevating, sacred produce of the Holy Land (Bach, O.C. 208).
From the land of Israel Hashem's blessings spread out to the rest of the world, both materially and spiritually: materially through the exports of Zevulon (Bereishis 49:13) and spiritually through the Mikdash. "Since the day the Mikdash was destroyed... the flavor of fruit is gone" (Sotah 48a). The capital city Yerushalayim is the gate to heaven (Bereishis 28:17) and the Mikdash is the conduit through which Hashem's blessings flow to the entire world. System One is thus the ideal way in which the descendants of Avraham are a source of blessing for all of humanity. "Through you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
According to the Bais HaLevi (Toldos), setting up this system was Rivka's intention when she instructed Yaakov to take the Beracha of agricultural abundance, and it was subsequently confirmed by Yitzchok. The text of the original Beracha states: "Hashem will give you from the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth..." (27:28). Yaakov is the recipient of this blessing. Yitzchok later blesses Eisav with the same dew and fat, however he makes no mention of Hashem (cf. 27:39). Yaakov brings Hashem's blessings down to earth, and Eisav receives his portion through Yaakov.
III
There is, however, a second system. When the Jewish People are in exile, the situation is reversed. Instead of blessings flowing through the Jews to the nations, it flows through the nations to the Jews (cf. Ramban to Vayikra 18:25). When that happens, the host nation is enriched by virtue of being a conduit of blessing for the Chosen People.
An early illustration of System Two at work on a micro scale can be found in the story of Yosef. The Torah describes what happened to the estate of the Egyptian slave-owner Potifar. "From the moment that [Potifar] appointed [Yosef] over his house and all his belongings, Hashem blessed the house of the Egyptian because of Yosef, and the blessing of Hashem was in everything he had in the house and in the field" (39:5).
On the national stage, System Two is epitomized by the Egyptian exile. Describing the Exodus, Hashem told Avraham that his descendants would leave Egypt with great wealth, and indeed they did: the Egyptians literally handed over their gold and silver. In order for that to happen, the Egyptians would obviously needed to have gold and silver. In other words, Hashem's promise to Avraham guaranteed Egypt's economic success. System Two is thus another way that the families of the earth are blessed because of Avraham.
Hashem presented the concept of System Two to Yaakov when he was on his way out of Israel. "Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth and spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and through you will be blessed all the families of the earth" (28:14). In other words, when you and your children are spread out like dust around the world, blessing will come to all of humanity because of you. What follows in Yaakov's own life sets the model. Hashem gives sheep to Lavan, and then, with Lavan's sheep, Yaakov becomes rich (30:31-31:1). Lavan himself recognizes this truth: "I know I have been blessed because of you" (30:27).
Throughout the long history of the Diaspora, we have witnessed System Two over and over again. Countries which hosted Jews were blessed with financial success and the Jews were beneficiaries of that success. However, when we were expelled, Hashem no longer had cause to send His blessings to those countries and their economic fortunes fell.
Sometimes, System Two is activated inside the Land of Israel. As described in Parshas Metzora, when a Jew speaks lashon hara in the Holy Land, his home can be afflicted with tzaraas, necessitating the demolition of the house (Vayikra 14:33-45; Rambam, Laws of Tzaraas 16:10). Rashi explains why his house is destroyed. "During the entire forty years the Jews were [wandering] in the [Sinai] desert, the Amorites [in Israel] hid gold treasure in the walls of their homes. When the house is demolished because of the tzaraas, [the treasure] will be found" (Rashi to Vayikra 14:34).
The problem is obvious. Why would a sinner be rewarded with treasure?
In light of the two systems of divine blessings, the answer is clear. When in Israel, System One is in play and a Jew is meant to receive wealth directly from the Creator. However, a sinner who speaks lashon hara is unworthy of receiving blessings miraculously. How will he survive? Hashem knew this would be a problem. When the Jews accepted the spies' negative report, they demonstrated their propensity for lashon hara and were doomed to forty years of wandering in the desert. During that entire period, Hashem showered wealth on the Amorites - wealth destined for the Jews of the future. Hashem, in His infinite compassion and providence, set up System Two in advance, knowing that some Jews of the future will need to receive divine blessings through the intermediary of the gentiles.
IV
This same backdoor can also be utilized to sustain the nation when they are unworthy of System One. Consider the story of the four metzoraim (lepers) in Sefer Melachim II (chapter 7). The Aramean army had laid siege to Shomron and the resulting starvation was so severe, the people were reduced to cannibalism (6:29). Instead of inspiring the people to repentance, the king blames the Navi Elisha and condemns him to a beheading (6:31).
The scene shifts to outside the city gates where four starving metzoraim with nothing to lose decide to approach the enemy camp and beg for food. To their astonishment, they discover the camp empty of soldiers, yet filled with food. Apparently, the Aramean army had imagined the noise of an onslaught and fled. The metzoraim run back to inform the Jews and the starvation ends.
Undeserving of direct sustenance from heaven, Hashem opens the pipeline of System Two, providing for his people in Israel through the gentile population. It is illustrative that the agents were metzoraim. As we have seen in the case of Tzaraas on a home, this is exactly the way Hashem provides for metzoraim themselves.
V
When Avram was in Egypt he was more than happy to receive the gifts of Pharaoh, for this is how Hashem's blessings flow when we are in exile. Hashem blesses the host country with wealth and we receive it from them. However, when Avram is in Israel, he refuses the wealth of Sedom. "Hashem promised to make me rich!" In Israel, Hashem blessings come directly from heaven in the form of rain and agricultural produce. Avrom refuses to receive wealth in any other way.
[This posts serves as the introduction to the "trail series." Begin the trail here.]
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