Shabbat Parashat Chayei Sarah - 5781

Shabbat Parashat Chayei Sarah - 5781

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Avraham gave all that he had to Yitzchak. [Bereishit 25:5]

As Avraham approaches the end of his life, he gives "all that he had" to his primary

son, Yitzchak. In the next verse, he gives gifts to his sons by his concubines --

whether that should be plural or not is a question for another time. Earlier, in verse

[24:10] Eliezer "went with all the bounty of his master in his hand", and in [24:36],

"he gave him all that he possesses". It sounds like Avraham gave "everything" to

multiple people and multiple times. How do we reconcile these statements?

Since the earliest verse is 24:10, we begin there. What does it mean, "with all the

bounty of his master in his hand"? Bereishit Rabbah [59:11] observes that Eliezer

could not have had all of Avraham's possessions in his hand, both from a practical

standpoint, and because slaves could not own property. Rashi says this leaves us

with the understanding that Avraham wrote a document saying that he was granting

everything to Yitzchak. Ramban adds that our verse was the implementation of that

document, so nobody could dispute Yitzchak's possession of the property even before

Avraham's death. Rashi's view of [24:36] is that Eliezer showed this document to

Rivka's family. Under these views, Avraham had nothing left to give under our verse. 

But Onkelos thinks differently. He translates it, "All the goods of his master were in

his hand." While many commentators think this is the same as Rashi and Ramban,

in fact Onkelos goes on to define it as meaning Eliezer took a sample of every

category of goods that Avraham owned. Chizkunee limits it to what can be carried

on ten camels. Under Onkelos' view, Avraham only gave away part of what he owned

in chapter 24, so had property left to dispose of in our verse.

In Bereishit Rabbah [61], R'Nechemiah has another explanation. He agrees that all

of the possessions were given over by that document and not available at the time of

our verse. So what did Avraham give? He gave Yitzchak the power to give blessings.

God had told Avraham, "And you shall be a blessing", which he understands as the

blessings are given over to your hand to bless whomever you wish. This is all he had

left, so this is what Avraham gave to Yitzchak.