I wonder where you can find the statement the heavens and earth was created for the sake of Abraham's merits.
Is this in Jewish scripture, or is it merely the statement of Ginzberg?
Hello Ley and welcome to the forum.
Just to let you know the first posts are moderated to help keep out spam and bots.
Let me look into your question and see if I can find an answer.
Others here might chime in as well.
Thanks for your question!
Edit - I looked and I could only find the reference to Ginzburg.
Maybe some others on this forum can confirm.
Thanks, I'll wait and see what the others have to say. Could it be only his own point, or did he perhaps summarize it from other sources?
They say he was a Talmudic scholar so I'm thinking it might be related to something said in the Talmud.
Just have to find out where!
Could you post the statement and source in which you found the statement of Ginsburg? It sounds like it may come from his reading of two passages in the Zohar. One passages comments upon Genesis 2,4.
Quote:אֵ֣לֶּה תוֹלְד֧וֹת הַשָּׁמַ֛יִם וְהָאָ֖רֶץ בְּהִבָּֽרְאָ֑ם בְּי֗וֹם עֲשׂ֛וֹת יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶ֥רֶץ וְשָׁמָֽיִם׃
Such is the story of heaven and earth when they were created. When the LORD God made earth and heaven—
Robbi Yosi heard a word-play from Rabbi Shimon bar-Yochai based on the phrase בְּהִבָּֽרְאָ֑ם "when they were created." By switching the order of the letters, the phrase can be read as
b'avraham instead of as
bhibar'am. This also seems to rely on a word-play between ברא "to create" ברה, the latter included in the rearranged order of letters. Until this hidden word play was deciphered, when Abraham appeared, the world could not be created. Thus another passage in the Zohar speaks of Abraham appearing when God changed his name from
'avram (אַבְרָ֑ם) to
'abraham (אַבְרָהָ֔ם) (Gen 17,5), also added to Sarai's name when it was changed to Sarah, thus in a sense the world was created by the letter h (ה) for the sake of Abraham.
The Zohar can be very confusing. If you accept these word-plays, you might say that the idea is
very indirectly derived from the Bible. A much simpler derivation of this idea from the Bible is when God tells Abraham that his offspring shall be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore (15,5 22,17). Thus the heavens and the earth are created for the sake of this promise made to Abraham.
How many stars are there in the sky? Do all stars in the Milky Way count? Do the stars in Andromeda Messier 31 count? Do ... Well you get the idea.
The Legends of the Jews, 1909, Ginsburg, chapter V.
It's right at the beginning, I'm curious as to if this idea was circulating in Israel already 2000 years ago.
Thanks, Ley. I looked up the reference in Ginsburg, and the context doesn't contain any hints as to where he got this idea from. I'll keep an eye out for any other references to this idea that might predate the Zohar.
(02-20-2023, 05:59 PM)robrecht Wrote: [ -> ]It sounds like it may come from his reading of two passages in the Zohar. One passages comments upon Genesis 2,4.
Quote:אֵ֣לֶּה תוֹלְד֧וֹת הַשָּׁמַ֛יִם וְהָאָ֖רֶץ בְּהִבָּֽרְאָ֑ם בְּי֗וֹם עֲשׂ֛וֹת יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶ֥רֶץ וְשָׁמָֽיִם׃
Such is the story of heaven and earth when they were created. When the LORD God made earth and heaven—
Robbi Yosi heard a word-play from Rabbi Shimon bar-Yochai based on the phrase בְּהִבָּֽרְאָ֑ם "when they were created." By switching the order of the letters, the phrase can be read as b'avraham instead of as bhibar'am. ... another passage in the Zohar speaks of Abraham appearing when God changed his name from 'avram (אַבְרָ֑ם) to 'abraham (אַבְרָהָ֔ם) (Gen 17,5), also added to Sarai's name when it was changed to Sarah, thus in a sense the world was created by the letter h (ה) for the sake of Abraham. ...
This can already be found in the
Bereishit Rabbah 12,9-10, a midrashic commentary dating to the fourth century of the common era. See
here (English translation
here).
Quote:... אָמַר רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן קָרְחָה, בְּהִבָּרְאָם בְּאַבְרָהָם, בִּזְכוּתוֹ שֶׁל אַבְרָהָם
Rabbi Joshua ben Qarhah said: Behibbaram beabraham, for the merit/benefit of Abraham. Rabbi 'Azariah quoted these words of Rabbi Joshua ben Qarhah (Neh 9,6): Thou art the Lord, even Thou alone; [Thou hast made heaven (continuing the whole passage) ... ] and everything in them (Neh. IX, 6); and what was all this toil for? Because, Thou art the Lord God, who didst choose Ahram, etc. (ib. 7). Rabbi Judan said: It is not written 'On the high mountains are the wild goats/ but, The high mountains are for the wild goats (Ps. civ, 18): thus for whose sake were the high mountains created ? For the sake of the wild goats. Now the hind is weak and afraid of wild beasts; when therefore she wishes to drink, the Holy One, blessed be He, throws her into a state of panic and she beats with her horns [on the rocks]; the wild beast hears it and flees. The rocks are a refuge for the conies (ib.): the coney takes shelter under the crag from the flying bird, lest it devour it. Then if the Holy One, blessed be He, created His world thus for the sake of unclean things, how much the more for the sake of Abraham!
When he created them: Rabbi Abbahu said in Rabbi Johanan's name: With the letter heh he created them.
BEATIFUL!
So, in a sense it migjt be fair to say, both that He made them into who they became with the letter heh, and that (from being all-knowing) seeing the future, making the world yet, because Abram would heed His calling? But does this imply He created it from knowledge of a future Abram, or that he created it exactly for Abram (all past history included as written)?
I have also looked into the ancestry of Abraham and the number 9 comes up a lot, as do names like Egypt, which imply fatherhood would more appropriately be interpreted a ancestry or father/ancestor. So Noah is the 9th gen from Adam , Terah the 9th gen from Noa and Abraham the 10th. Is it that the number nine implies fullness and Abraham (number 10) a leap to a higher level (of numbers, since the number 0 wasn't invented yet)? From a certain perspective then, it seems the whole genealogy for Abraham would have been made explicitly with him in mind. But would Jews before 2000 years ago have thought of it that way?