Lech-Lecha: The Covenant of Halves

(7) Then [God] said to him, “I am יהוה who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to assign this land to you as a possession.” (8) And he said, “O lord יהוה, how shall I know that I am to possess it?” (9) Came the reply, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young bird.” (10) He brought all these and cut them in two, placing each half opposite the other; but he did not cut up the bird. (11) Birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. (12) As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great dark dread descended upon him. (13) And [God] said to Abram, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years; (14) but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth. (15) As for you,
You shall go to your ancestors in peace;
You shall be buried at a ripe old age. (16) And they shall return here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” (17) When the sun set and it was very dark, there appeared a smoking oven, and a flaming torch which passed between those pieces. (18) On that day יהוה made a covenant with Abram: “To your offspring I assign this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates—

ויבתר אתם AND HE SPLIT THEM — He divided each into two portions. This verse does not lose its literal meaning although there are various Midrashic explanations of it. Since He was making a covenant with him to keep His promise to give the land as an inheritance to his children — as it is written (Genesis 15:18), “In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying …” — and as it was the custom for parties to a covenant to divide an animal and to pass between its parts, as it is said elsewhere (Jeremiah 34:19) “who passed between the parts of the calf”, so also here the smoking furnace and the flaming torch which passed between the pieces (Genesis 15:17) were representative of the Divine Shechinah which is spoken of as fire.

קחה לי עגלה, take a heifer for Me, in order to enter into a covenant concerning this assurance. Converting G’d’s promise into what is known as a “covenant,” is equivalent to G’d reinforcing His promise by an oath, something which is unconditional and irrevocable. (Rosh Hashanah 18) Moses himself confirmed this interpretation when he said (Deut 9,5) “not due to your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart, but due to the wickedness of these nations does G’d dispossess them on your account; and in order to keep His promise which He had sworn to your forefathers Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov

BETWEEN THESE PIECES. Ben ha-gezarim means between the pieces. This was the actual taking of the oath. The words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof (Jer. 34:18) is similar. We thus read in the next verse, In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘Unto thy seed have I given this land,’ etc.

Assuredly, thus said GOD: You would not obey Me and proclaim a release, each to your kin and neighbor. Lo! I proclaim your release—declares GOD —to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine; and I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. I will make the parties who violated My covenant, who did not fulfill the terms of the covenant that they made before Me, [like] the calf that they cut in two so as to pass between the halves: The officers of Judah and Jerusalem, the officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the halves of the calf shall be handed over to their enemies, to those who seek to kill them. Their carcasses shall become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. I will hand over King Zedekiah of Judah and his officers to their enemies, who seek to kill them—to the army of the king of Babylon that has withdrawn from you. I hereby give the command—declares GOD —by which I will bring them back against this city. They shall attack it and capture it, and burn it down. I will make the towns of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.