Chavarah- Jewish Community Learning

A blog of Jewish study and traditions. Notes from classes: Torah Study with Rabbi Marder, Toledot and Shabbaton as well as other details found of interest.

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Deep Dark Sleep and The Future


From last week: link to the poem about eagles – ref the “bird of prey”


Genesis 15:12-16 - the deep dark sleep!
There is a mystical dimension here (v12) The sun is about to set – Avram is in a deep sleep – maybe induced type sleep
Similar to the sleep that Adam was in when Eve was created.
“Tardema” a sleep with prophetic visions.

Deep Dark Fear Falls upon him– terror and dread accompany this sleep. - even a reference to sleep paralysis


Rashi – refers to the sorrows and afflictions of the exile

Nachmanides – refers to the 4 exiles
Dread = Babylonia
Dark = Media
Great = Antiochus – Selucid
Fall = Rome

Feet of Clay – from the Book of Daniel -
"Feet of Clay" is a biblical reference. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which he saw a statue whose head was made of gold, but lower down the statue the materials got progressively more base, until the feet were "part of iron, part of clay"; the statue was shattered and destroyed by being struck on the feet, its weakest point. Hence, colloquially, the expression "feet of clay" has come to mean that someone regarded as an idol has a hidden weakness. - from the web page about TerryPrachet’s book named Feet of Clay.

20th cen. Scholar – Ben Jacobs – and Alenek (sp?) from 16th cen. Say it represents the “generations” 3 generations of enslavement followed by 4 generations of freedom.

v13 Descendents will be “Strangers in a Land” - an emphatic statement in Torah
3 stages of suffering: strangers – enslaved – opressed
3 stages of redemption: judgment - freedom - return to the land

How long in Egypt? Here it says 400 years – in Exodus it says 430 years (close enough?)
Problematic – is the 4th generation:
4th Generation = 400 years. While a generation thought of as 20-25 years. Nachum Sarna reconciles this by saying it actually means something else – “not a bad editor”. (ex:There is the generation of the wilderness (40 years)). So this refers to the 4 generations as in periods in history or “Generation” can just refer to a ‘long span of time’.

Kass – book: Beginning of Wisdom - analysis asks “why would Avram even want to have a child after this prediction”?

Avram asks "when am I going to get the land?"
God answers: "You will not" the gift of the land is for his descendants and is tied to ‘Justice’ and moral behavior of his descendants and only after suffering.

Avram’s fate – personally he learns of his death.

He is directed to care “for the sake of the future” not to think only of the immediate personal rewards but to focus to view the long run.

1. Promise: “going to your fathers in peace” “reunited with fathers”
Definitely refers to some type spiritual reunion after death.
2. Hassidic: Seed be strangers, link to Eretz Israel, a reference to the land (before Zionism)
3. Redundant: Strangers in a land that is not theirs - “wherever we live – we are strangers”

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