Starting Over, Again

(20) And Pharaoh put agents in charge of him, and they sent him off with his wife and all that he possessed.

(7) And there was strife between the herders of Abram’s cattle and those of Lot’s cattle.—The Canaanites and Perizzites were then dwelling in the land.—

When Avram heard that Sarah's brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants who were born in his household, three hundred and eighteen [men], and he pursued [them] until Dan.

And Avraham reproved Avimelekh because of the well of water, which Avimelekh’s servants had violently taken away.

I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

(1200's, Catalonia)

Yose ben Yochanan, man of Jerusalem, says, "May your home be open wide": Some say that [this means that] there be largess found in his house for needy people. Or the explanation is that his house be like the house of our father Avraham, peace be upon him - such that his house be on the road in a tight spot so that passers by should come in to there; and that it should be open on four sides, so that from all sides that they come, they will find an open door and they will turn into it, as Job stated (Job 31:32), "I opened my doors to the road."

Another matter: “Jacob settled…” – Abraham converted proselytes. That is what is written: “Abram took Sarai his wife…[and the people that they had made in Ḥaran]” (Genesis 12:5).

>>Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Yosei ben Zimra: Were all who entered the world to assemble, they would be unable to create even a small gnat, and you say: “And the people that they had made in Ḥaran” Rather, these are the proselytes that Abraham converted.

Why, then, did it say “made” and did not say “converted”? It is to teach you that anyone who draws a proselyte near, it is as though he created him.

>>Could you say that Abraham was converting [proselytes] and Sarah was not converting [them]?! Talmud lomar, the verse states: “And the people that they had made in Ḥaran.” It is not written here, “That he had made,” but rather, “that they ("asu") had made.”

Rabbi Ḥunya said: Abraham would convert the men, and Sarah would convert the women.

>>Why does the verse state: “That they had made” [instead of "converted"]? It teaches that Abraham would bring them into his house, feed them, give them to drink, draw them near, and bring them under the wings of the Divine Presence.

...

...R. Barchya in the name of R. Levi: when Sarah Imeinu bore Yitzchak, the surrounding peoples claimed Sarah couldn't possibly be the birth mother. It must have been Hagar, Sarah's maidservant, who bore him.

What did the Holy One of Blessing do? Dried up the breasts of all the mothers, who came to kiss the dust of Sarah's feet, saying to her, "Please do a mitzvah -- nurse our children!"

Avraham Avinu said to Sarah, "Sarah, now is not the time for modesty. Sanctify ha-Shem's name -- sit in the shouk and nurse their children!" Thus the verse says, "Sarah nursed banim", not ben [plural, not singular].

“She said: Who would have announced to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I bore a son for his old age” (Genesis 21:7).
“She said: Who would have announced [milel] to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children” – Rabbi Pinḥas in the name of Rabbi Ḥilkiya: “Who would have said [amar]” or “who would have spoken [diber]” is not written here, but rather, “who would have announced [milel].” This is an allusion to the fact that he begot at the age of one hundred years, which is the numerical value of milel. Rabbi Pinḥas said: The wheat stalk of Abraham our patriarch had been all dried up, but [now] it became full of moist kernels [melilot].
“Sarah would nurse children” – “nurse a child” is not written here. Our matriarch Sarah was extremely modest. Our patriarch Abraham said to her: ‘This is not the time for modesty. Instead, expose your breasts,

so that everyone will know that the Holy One of Blessing has begun to perform miracles.’ She exposed her breasts and they were flowing with milk like two wellsprings. Noblewomen were coming and having their children nurse from her. They were saying: ‘We are not worthy of having our children nurse from this righteous woman.’ The Rabbis and Rabbi Aḥa, the Rabbis say: Anyone who came [to Sarah] for the sake of Heaven became God-fearing. Rabbi Aḥa said: Even one who did not come for the sake of Heaven, dominion in this world was granted to him. But once they [the nations of the world] distanced themselves [from God] at Sinai by not accepting the Torah, that dominion was taken from them.

It was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Eliezer says: The souls of the righteous are stored beneath the Throne of Glory, as it is stated: “And the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life” (I Samuel 25:29). And the souls of the wicked are continuously tied up, and one angel stands at one end of the world and another angel stands at the other end of the world and they sling the souls of the wicked back and forth to one another, as it is stated: “And the souls of your enemies He shall sling out in the hollow of a sling” (I Samuel 25:29).

(6) In another chamber, Devora comes, and here too, all the other women with her acknowledge and sing [praises], with that very song that she sang in this world (Shoftim 5:1). Oh, my teacher! Oh, my teacher, who has seen the happiness and delight of these righteous ones, of the women who merit to serve the Holy One of Blessing?! Deeper in from these chambers, are four hidden chambers of the holy mothers, which are not passed on or revealed, and no one has seen them. All day they are separate among themselves, as I have told you; and the men also [are separate].

(7) Every night they come together, all of them as one, at the time of coupling, which is midnight, both in this world and in that world. Coupling in that world is the cleaving of soul with soul, light with light. Coupling in this world is body with body. Everything is as it should be: like after like, couple after couple, body after body. Coupling in that world, light after light. The chambers of the four mothers are called the chambers of the confident daughters, which I did not merit to see. Happy is the portion of these righteous ones, males and females, that go down the straight path in this world, and are entitled to all the delights of that world.

(8) Oh, my teacher! Oh, my teacher, if you were not [Shimon] Bar Yochai, I would not have passed it along to be revealed.

>>The coupling of that world brings more fruit than the fruit brought in this world. Their coupling, the coupling of that world, their desire is as one. When their souls cleave one to another, it creates fruit. Lights go out from them, creating candles. These are the souls for the [future] converts that will convert, and all of them enter this particular chamber.

(9) For the conversion of a particular convert, the soul flies out from that chamber, and enters under the wings of the Shechina. And She kisses it, since it is the fruit of the righteous ones, and sends it into that convert, and it steeps within. From that moment, they are called a "Ger Tzedek" (righteous convert).

This is what the verse alludes to (Mishlei 11:30), "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life." Just as the tree of life produces souls, so too the righteous person can produce fruit, by making souls.

(10) The Rav of the Yeshiva said, it is written (Breishit 11:30),

>>"Now Sarai was barren; she had no child." When it tells us that Sarai was barren, I already know that she had no child. So why [does the verse add], "she had no child"? Rather, here is what the Rav of the Yeshiva said: She had no child born to her, but souls she had born to her, by means of the cleaving with desire. These two righteous ones [Sarai and Avram] birthed souls for converts all the time that they were at Haran, just as the righteous make [souls for converts] in Gan Eden. As it says (Breishit 12:5), "the people [literally 'the soul'] that they acquired [literally 'made'] in Haran" -- they really did create that soul!

The Zohar is telling us that Avraham and Sarah merited to create the souls of future converts by means of their coupling in *this* world. The other tzadikkim could only do that after their souls departed. That's why the verse says, the souls they made in Haran.

[Early 1600s, Avraham Azulai]