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When Avraham discovered Hashem by Rabbi James Kennard
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
partly a introduction to this week's
parha which is which starts with Abraham
appearing on the scene and hasem
speaking to Abraham and I want to ask
the question when at what age did
Abraham recognize Hashem at what age did
Abraham realize that there was a God in
the world we know that he lived in a
world of idolatry the midrash tells us
that his father was a professional
idolator who made and served Idols we
know the story story of Abraham smashing
the idols Abraham at some stage realized
that the idolatry into which he'd been
born and which was all around him was
false and there was one God one God to
whom we should worship when did he
realize that how old was he now there's
a well-known answer most people would
answer based on one of the sources we're
going to see that he was 3 years old and
indeed the midrash brings that as one of
two options for how old he was so if we
look at quote number one we have a pasuk
from par toot as it happens where Hashem
blesses yak and He blesses yit and he
says Hashem says I'm blessing you in the
Merit of your father Abraham because
Abraham followed my mitzvot and the P
says AEV which here means
because Abraham listen to my voice
he guarded what needs to be guarded mitv
my Mitzvah my statues for T and my tat
or my teaching Abraham did all those
things and the word AEV is particularly
interesting it's not the normal word we
would expect here and perhaps why that's
why the midrash dash on the word and it
says like this if you look in quote
number two the bit Raba starts
with and then it says
perhaps we can close the door maybe
R and both of them say that Abraham was
48 years old when he recognized Hashem
we'll come back to that and we'll ask
why what's the significance of 48 but r
r don't say he was three years old they
say was 48 years old then in the third
line of number
two Abraham ATO he was three years old
when he recognized his
creator minan
AEV
vet uh the number of AEV which in gatria
is
172 Shar Abraham Abraham listen to my
voice sorry AB listen to the voice of
his creator in other words ra lakish
looks at that P and says it doesn't mean
AEV sh because Abraham listen to my
voice in addition it means something
else AEV
172 because that's the GATRA of akev
Abraham listened to my voice what's the
significance of
172 how old was Abraham when he died
175 so if he was 175 when he died and he
listened to hashem's voice for7 72 years
that means he discovered Hashem when he
was three and that is the second opinion
in the midash so the first opinion is
that he was 48 and we don't have at the
moment a reason for the significance of
that number the second opinion is that
he was three which is the traditional
view now one of the things I want to
explore is what's the difference between
appreciating the god at the age of three
and appreciating God at the age of 48
and we'll come back to that question but
in the meantime the midrash gives both
possibilities now I want to go to the
rambam so the rambam writes the mission
Torah and the mission Torah is a book of
laws it is not a book of stories however
there are a few occasions when the
rambam waxes lyrically and tells a story
and the beginning of hilara is one of
those occasions hilara the laws of
idolatry and the rambam tells us how it
came to be that the world was full of
Idol Idol after all Adam Harish knew who
Hashem was Noah knew who Hashem was 10
Generations later Abraham is in a world
of idolatry what went wrong and the
Roman explains that people started ding
to
Hashem and then they looked up in the
sky and they saw the stars and the
planets which Hashem had made and they
began to think that these stars and
planets are Servants of Hashem and then
they began to think that rather than
ding to the big boss I'll D to one of
the servants and the servants will as it
were pass on my message instead of
seeing the CEO I'll see the secretary
and the secretary will forward my
complaint or my request to the
CEO so everything's okay people still
know there's a God in the world and
they're only doing to the stars and the
planets in order that their messages be
passed on to Hashem but then in the
course of time people began to think
that the stars and the planets were
independent deities independent
gods and people sced to do to the stars
and the planets and not to Hashem
himself that in a nutshell is how the
rambam describes the beginnings of
idolatry in the world and then he goes
on to
say but something happened to break out
of this situation if you look at number
three he continues the story and he says
about
Abraham when this giant this spirit
spiritual giant nigal was weaned now
weaning didn't happen um I think weaning
happened a lot later in olden times than
it does today and we'll come back to the
significance of that later but when this
giant Abraham was weaned
H he began to wonder w n d r in his
mind and he was young
and he began to think by day and by
night and he was wondering he was
surprised how is it possible that this
planet our planet Earth keeps going
round and round
constantly and it never doesn't have a
person making it go
round who is making it rotate
small because it's impossible but it's
rotating itself there must be some other
power that is causing the Earth to go
round and
round and he didn't have a teacher he
didn't have somebody to influence him
to to inform him of
things he was immersed in the place
called and it's idolatrous
culture amongst These Foolish
idolators and his father and his mother
and all the people were worshippers of
Idols literally
stars and he worshiped with them as we
say in
the originally our ancestors were
idolators it's a debate in the when we
learn the ha there a question whether
Abraham is included in that as well says
the ram he was included he was serving
Idol with the rest of them but End of
Line
fouret his mind was wandering again the
rambam uses the word schet which occurs
and it means to be restless to
wonder and eventually umin and he
understood end of line
four until he reached the way of
Truth and he reached the right answer
from his correct
understanding and he KN knew that there
was one God for whom manal and he was
the one who makes the planet Go Round
and Round by the way I feel just in the
interest of intellectual honesty I
should point out that this is based on a
medieval understanding of physics that
something will only rotate if
something's making it rotate new
Newtonian mechanics from the 17th
century onwards has helped us understand
that that's not correct
if you start a something to rotate it
will carry on rotating by itself until
there is a alternative force that slows
it down um however we can understand
this idea metaphorically or we can
understand it according to the science
of the time uh the rambam says that the
Abraham worked out there must be a force
making the World Go Round even though
today's science would would learn
differently so Abraham reached the
conclusion that there was a power a God
one God that rotates the
Earth and that God created
everything and there's nothing in the
except
him by the way we've got a few of the
principles of Faith which the rambam
says we all must believe as a as a
Mitzvah but there is a God but there's
only one God and they there's there's no
other God but
him and Abraham understood Abraham knew
that the whole world making
mistake and the thing that was making
them make this
mistake that they were worshiping stars
and they were worshiping images Star
Planet sorry sorry um statues and
drawings of the
Stars until the truth was completely
lost from them so that's the
intellectual scientific pseudo
philosophical process that Abra went
through and at what stage did he finish
this process number
four Abraham ATO Abraham was 40 years
old when he recognized his
creator once he did recognize and he
knew he began to give answers to the
people around him in and to tell them
the truth
IM and to have arguments with them about
the nature of
God and to tell them that the path on
which they were traveling is not the way
of
Truth the way they're going
on and he broke the idols it's
interesting that the rambam quotes what
we know as a midash um to help to to
explain the development of Abraham
because the breaking of the idols was
his response to the idolatry around him
and his technique for awakening people
to the real nature of
God and he began to make known to the
people around him that it's not fitting
to serve anyone except
Hashem and to Hashem it is appropriate
to bow down and to offer
sacrifices Okay so we've had a
description there in the rambam of how
Abraham came to the conclusion that he
did but we're told at the beginning of
paragraph 4 explicitly Abraham was not
three when he recognized Hashem but he
was
40 why 40 where does the Rama get the
idea of 40 from now so far if you've
been keeping track we've got three
different numbers and we're going to
have a fourth by the end was he three
was he 48 which is the other view in the
midrash or was he 40 which is the
rambam's view now we might find later
the significance of 40 but straight away
I want refer to I want to refer ref to
the KF mishna in number five so the KF
mishna is a commentary on the
rambam it's a written by Rio of Ciro
who's also perhaps better known as
writing the Shar and The KES of mishna
one of the things that he tries to do is
to try to find the sources for the
rambam's words the rambam in the Mish
Torah famously didn't give references
there are no footnotes the r derives his
halaka that he presents in the Mish
Torah from the gamarra but he doesn't
say where he got it in the gamar and
that was one of the reasons why his book
was quite controversial at first one of
the things the K missioner does in his
commentary and others do as well as we
will see is to provide sources for what
the rambam said so in number five the K
of mner
says Shah Gores you need to say that the
rambam had a different text of the
midrash that we quoted in number two
that his version read as follows RAB
that his version of Alid had not three
and 48 as the two options but three and
40 his text said 40 below Ben and not 48
K as we find in our books in other words
if you get look at the mid it will say
48 but we suppose that the rambam had a
different version of the same text and
his version said 40 so that also
explains the source of the rambam's
number it's I'm now going to say 48
Stoke 40 between the two variants for
the KF Mission tells us there were one
variant says 40 one variant says 48
they're essentially the same rambam in
his midrash had 40 and that's why he
says Abraham was 40 years
old but now let's see the rivid now the
rivid ra Abraham B David was a
contemporary of the rambam and he
commented on the mission of Torah in
very short um pithy comments and they
almost always are very disagreeing very
antagonistic towards the words of the
rambam it's interesting that if you open
the page of the rambam you get the
rambam in the middle you get the
commentaries on one side and on the
other side but the commentary of the
Rivard because it's so sort of integral
to learning the ram is right inside the
text of the rambam itself and the rivver
makes these short comments um sometimes
he says the the Ram's got it completely
wrong in terms of his understanding of
the Haka sometimes he says the Ram's
right but he didn't even need to bother
to say it it's that sort of critical
commentary and here he says the
following in number six so quoting the
words of the rambam where he
says Abraham was 40 years old when he
recognized his creator the next line
begins alaf alaf which stands for Omar
Abraham which is the way the riot
introduces his
comments says the river there is a story
or a narrative that he was three the
rabam says 40 the river says but there
is a story that he was three there is a
narrative in our sources we'll talk
about what the sources are in a minute
that he was three now what is the basis
of this question how is it an attack on
the rambam we have seen that the
rambam's got a very fine source for his
position the braus rabber number two on
our page said Abraham was three or
Abraham was 48 which in the rambam's
view meant 40 the rambam's version says
40 so the rambam says I've picked the
number 40 I take it from the midrash I
build the story around it I say abam was
40 what's wrong with that the answer of
what's wrong with that is as follows
let's look at number seven number seven
is the gorra the T B in the darim where
we find the
following says Abraham was three how do
I know
that because Abraham listened to my
voice and the number the um the
summation of the letters
of
a
is
172 same idea we saw above so in the
gamorra it says Abraham heard hashem's
voice for 172 years which means hash
Abraham discovered Abraham sorry Abraham
discovered Hashem when he was
three and that's it Al gamar doesn't say
anything about 40 or
48 so the classical sources are as
follows the mid Rush that we saw in
number two says three or
48 the Gamora says
three now although it's not absolutely
clear what the rivard's question is it
is commonly understood as as
follows that we have sources in the ramb
sorry sorry in the in the midrash we
have sources in the gamarra and the
gamor trumps that's not a deliberate use
of the word today the gamorra trumps the
midash in other words it is wrong to
leave the gamorra and go to the midrash
because the gamar is the ultimate source
the midrash is a source but you cannot
deny what's in the gamorra so what the
riv is saying to the rambam is it's very
nice that youve come up with this idea
of Raam 40 but yes there is a story
which means the only story that you will
find in our gamarra is that he was three
so the implied question is how can the
rambam ignore the gamarra and choose to
go with the midrash that is the question
of the Rival and
indeed it's not just one place in the
gamarra uh it's implied somewhere else
that he was very young when he
discovered Hashem if you look at number
eight a different gumar from Milla
talking about who other was and who
abrah was because they two names for the
same person Abraham who Abraham and then
it says
who he was righteous from his beginning
to his end says the gar Abraham was
righteous for all his life from his
beginning not quite sure what the
beginning is but certainly from a very
early age and commenting on this in
number nine is the mara so the mara
comments on well a lot lot of different
things but he has a special section
called where he comments on the
narrative sections of the gar and
regarding this Kar we just learned in
number eight where it says Abraham was
righteous from beginning to end says the
Mar in number
nine just like we the idea that Abraham
recognized Hashem when he was three so
when the number eight in mcgilla says he
was righteous from beginning to end
doesn't mean from his first breath
because we don't expect a baby to
recognize Hashem but he recognized
Hashem at a young age where do we have a
source but he recognized Hashem at a
young age well we have it in the gamar
that he recognized Hashem when he was
three so we see actually to support the
rivard's attack on the rambam not only
is there one gamorra that says he
discovered Hashem when he was three
explicitly there's another gamar that
says he was very young when he
discovered hasm so again we turn the
question back on the rambam how can the
rambam ignore the gamarra that says he
was three and go with the midrash that
says he was 48 or in the rambam's case
40 now one of the commentators on the
rambam is called the migdal Oz um and
the M the start of the mdal is to always
always defend the rambam against the
rivot so if the rivot asks a question
one of the places we would look to see
how we could answer the question on
behalf of the rambam is to look at the
migdal o and the MD o in number 10 says
so the first words are just a sort of
reference point to where the r
began commenting on this section of the
ramb that we learned in number three
says the M End of Line one of number
10 this is all what he the rambam
collected in his mind his correct mind
mean
from other books and what's alluded to
in the talmud so the mdal says you know
what the number 40 or 48 doesn't appear
in the talet but it appears in other
books like the midash and it's alluded
to in the talet now I don't know and I
don't think anyone knows for sure what
the mdal means by it's alluded to in the
tud but the mdal is conceding but
there's no explicit reference in the tud
that Abraham was an adult of 40 or 48
but nevertheless says the mdal O It's
alluded to in the tud and the rambam
whose mind is correct he got it from
other
sources and me the mdal says in the
third
line there is a story that it's three he
was three years old Min the gatria of
the word akev is 172 and that's the end
of what the rivot says and we've
explained that the rivid is asking the
ramban why he dropped the idea of three
which we find in the gumar and used the
idea of 40 which we only find Outside
The so says the m in line
four I say the truth that the two ideas
three or 40 they're both found letter by
letter and here he put the literally the
nearest of words the one that makes the
most sense so the migdal says but the
rambam says three doesn't make so much
sense doesn't make sense that a little
child would have this awareness of God
it makes much more sense that he was an
adult and since we find support for both
of them as it happens not in the gamarra
but in the midrash the rambam says I
chose the one that's available in the
midrash that is kurova is the most
likely
explanation if we turn over the page
we come to other ways to support the
idea that he was
40 so so far let's just recap what we're
up to midash says three or 48 the rambam
says 40 the gumara says three the KF
missionary explained that the rambam is
quoting the midrash that it was 48 but
his version said 40 and the Rivard asked
why the rambam ignored what it says in
the gamar it says he was three so I want
to to explore the number 40 and then
explore the number 48 before we bring
all this
together how
sorry so he's defending the rambam and
he says the rambam sees two approaches
in front of him they're there they're
both there in the mid rush and he
chooses the one which is more logical
and that's why he says 40 that's why he
doesn't say three now he hasn't the way
I phrase the river's question is he
hasn't really answered it the way I
phrased the R's question was how can the
rambam ignore the gamar which just says
three and nothing else and go for the
midrash that has the alternative but the
migdal says I'm paraphrasing slightly
and I I hope I'm being fair that it
makes so much more sense that he was an
adult that that's the one we'll go
for can't
do why
not okay so
the way I understand it and we'll we'll
come up with a better answer before we
finish okay so we can look forward to
that but the way I understand it is the
iid's position is the only source that
you can really rely on is the gamarra
but the migdal O is happy with the
rambam might have used other sources
like the
midrash it's not that the rambam made it
up from nothing it's the rambam adopted
the midrash rather than adopting the
gamar okay let's get back back to what
might be the significance of 40 so in P
vot there is a list of Ages where
different things happen five you start
learning Kish at 10 you start learning
mishna at you get married you get
various um character traits as you go
along and amongst them is this in number
11 after the age of 40 you get Bina
understanding so the basic idea is
before your 40 you don't really have a
full understanding a logical
intellectual approach to understanding
the world after 40 you do and we find in
the Kish an interesting reference to
this in number 12 at the end of moser's
life when he's giving his final farewell
to the B Israel he talks about what
Hashem gave them what Hashem didn't give
them talked about Hashem gave them the
but he says in number
12 Hashem has not given you a heart to
know and eyes to
see and ears to
hear until this day now when is this day
this is very close to moshe's last day
the B Israel have been in the midbar for
40 years they got the Torah 40 years
earlier but rash but mosha is saying
today is a special day only today have
you got the ability to understand it and
Rashi says in number
13 hasem has not given you a heart to
know what does that
mean a person does not literally reach
the end of the knowledge of their
teacher I would rephrase that as a
person does not fully understand what
they've learned from their
teacher and the wisdom of their
learning until 40
years and
therefore Hashem has not been literally
in Hebrew hasem has not been particular
with you until
today but from now on he will be
particular now I don't want to get so
much into the last bit I it because it's
here on the page um but the implication
is before you were able to fully
understand the Torah you couldn't behold
liable for not doing it properly but now
40 years have passed now you have a full
understanding of the Torah so now Hashem
will um pick you up if you uh transgress
but the key idea I want to say is that
Russia is saying that it takes 40 years
to reach an understanding and maybe that
dve tells with the rums idea that only
at the age of 4 did Abraham reach the
understanding of his tremendous
discovery of the existence and the
nature of
AES and that also fits what we saw in
the p in number 11 that Pina that at the
age of 40 one
is gifted a special level of
understanding that we didn't have
before but so that's a couple of ideas
about the number 40 let's get back to a
number 48 now just to recall Al midash
gave two options 48 three the rambam
said 40 the KF missioner said that's
because his text said 40 it didn't say
48 but let's look at the number 48 what
might be significant about Abraham when
he was 48 years old now I don't know but
there is an interesting observation made
um in the in another midash that goes
like
this um we want to ask
how old was Abraham when his
ancestor pel died now at the end of last
week's paraa end of para's Noah we have
the genealogy from Noah through his son
Shem all the way down to n Abraham's
grandfather Terra abr's father and down
to Abraham and how old they were when
they begat the Next Generation and how
many years they lived after that
time so if we go go back to the
generation of Pelle uh pel was the son
of ever as in the aiva of Shem and
ever uh so that makes Shem Abraham's
Noah's
son
uh I think we go down four generation
three generations to get to ever and
then another generation to get to pel
and Pelle it says here in number 14 in
Russia it's a bit of arithmetic to go
through P Maham
when pel died Abraham was
48 Ah that's interesting because the
midrash said he discovered God when he
was 48 maybe there's a connection let's
just go through the arithmetic Kad how
do we know this
P sh so pel had a son called R and who's
going to be an ancestor of Abraham and
after Ru was born pel lived for another
209 years and then he died so remember
that samem LED bet kuk so let's look at
the time from R to be born until Abraham
was born so Ru was 32 years old when his
son Sur was
bornish Mish shad lumed and when Sur had
his son who was called Nar Sur was 30
years old so from the time ru was born
we've gone 32 years of Ru 30 years of uh
Sur that makes
62 and was when he gave birth his wife
gave birth to ter was CET 29 years old
so from the birth of R
now 91 years
past Abraham and how old was ter when
Abraham was born and the answer is 70 a
so if you add up all these years so
so from the birth of R son of pel to the
birth of Abraham was 161
years so if you add 48 years after the
birth of Abraham you get to 209 years
from the birth of suu and that's when
pel died which means and if you're not
totally with me that's okay just get to
this point Abraham was 48 years old when
pel died now why is that significant
because there's something else we know
about at the time when pel died why was
pel called pel Rashi says his father had
some sort of Na some sort of Prophecy
that in his son's lifetime the world
would be Nia divided there will be a
division between all the tribal groups
when was there a division of all the
peoples of the world at the time of mdal
B building the tower of B hashem's
response was to mix up people's
languages and then they all spread out
into their different groups and Rashi
also says in last week's
para that if Pelle was called pel
because the world was going to be
divided it was going to be at a
particular time of his life not the
beginning because it didn't happen then
so it must be at the end of his life and
that's what it says in Rashi number 15
Shu we've learned in the S which is
another mid
that at the end of the days brackets of
pel in other words when pel died then
there was the division of the
world so if we put all this together we
find something fascinating Abraham was
48 when pel died which was the year of
migdal B the year that the Tower of B
was built ah maybe this sheds light on
our original midrash that said according
to one opinion that Abraham was 48 when
he discovered God
what does this mean well maybe it's like
this see there are different ways that
you can discover God the rumbum has
given a picture of intellectual
scientific
analysis but there's also an idea very
differently that Abraham looked around
at the world and said the world is
corrupt the world is depraved the
world's in a mess there must be
something better there must be a way to
make this go away and make this
corruption and this perversion
better there is a fascinating midrash
which is for another time that compares
Abraham to a person traveling and seeing
a palace in
flames and the P The Traveler looks at
the palace in flames and says there must
be somebody in charge of this
Palace and the nyal the the meaning of
this midrash is that Abraham looks at
the world in Flames
and says there must be somebody in
charge who is going to put the world to
rights and it turns out that the person
is God and God's way of putting the
world to right is to appoint Abraham to
do it but that's for another time so
maybe we see a similar idea here why did
the people build the Tower of B so again
last week's paria Russia gives three
answers one is because they wanted to
fight with Hashem they wanted to climb
the mountain and fight with Hashem
we'll leave out one of the answers and
the other one I want to mention is that
the people calculated that every
1656 years there's a flood and they
wanted to as it were reinforce the sky
to ensure that that wouldn't happen
again which sounds quite a clever sort
of uh technique in terms of to avoid
climate crisis but actually it means
something very different we know there
was a flood because the world deserved
it because the people behaved so badly
but they had to be punished there's a
way a much better way of avoiding
another flood which is reform yourselves
make yourselves better people don't
behave like the generation of the flood
did but they chose a different technique
to avoid another flood to reinforce the
sky means we can carry on behaving
however we want without fear of
punishment so however you cut it the
people building the migdal B had
nefarious
intentions and Abraham who was 48 at the
time sees this world and says there must
be a better
way it's interesting uh the MIM give
different reasons for why the people
build the Tower but actually the posk is
quite clear posk gives an explicit
reason the people said we don't want to
be scattered on the face of the Earth
and we want this tower that we're
building we will make a name for
ourselves we'll be known as the people
who built the Tower of bavel people will
remember us as great builders
we'll make a name for
ourselves fast forward to the next
chapter in the Kash and I mean the next
chapter in The Narrative is Abraham and
Abraham arrives in ER Israel and he goes
here and there and he builds altars and
when he builds an altar the P says for
bash Hashem he called out in the name of
Hashem he told people about Hashem the
people building the tower wanted to make
a name for themselves Abraham who sees
this and who's 48 years old realizes
there must be a better way and instead
of making a name for themselves he sets
out to make a name for Hashem which
brings me to another um source which I
felt I didn't have room for on the page
but the mara whom we met
earlier learns um that Abraham was 52
when he discovered God I'll go through
the maths very quickly the gumara um in
aara says there will be 6,000 years of
the earth there will be 2,000 years of
Taho which means sort of emptiness when
the world's in chaos 2,000 years of
Torah and 2,000 years of Messiah and
when the gar says it looks like we're
already into the years of Messiah and he
hasn't come and that's our fault because
we um haven't done toua properly then
the gumar asks when did the 2,000 years
of Torah begin so you might assume the
2,000 years of Torah began at Matan
Torah when the Torah was given but the
numbers don't work out and I won't go
into all the numbers there but the gumar
says that doesn't leave enough time for
the 2,000 years of Torah they must have
started earlier and they said they
started if you calculate when abam was
52 and that's when he started
propagating about Hashem that's when um
in the beginning of this week's para we
read that he went to ER Israel
with sorry the souls that they had made
in khon what does it mean to make Souls
the Russia gives two answers one is that
the word assu here means to buy and they
were people he had hired to be part of
his household but Rashia also says
alternatively that the people whom they'
made were the people whom they'
converted is not quite the right word
because they didn't become Jewish but
they had shared with these people the
idea of Hashem there is one God whom we
should serve and they were the ones who
went along with Abraham and by a various
bit of calculation
the Maria works out that Abraham was 52
at this point and says that that was the
conclusion of his finding Hashem and I
find that fascinating that according to
the the r hinted at this but the mar
says explicitly that finding Hashem only
really happens when you share your
knowledge with someone else and that
applies to anything we learn we only
really understand things if we're able
to explain them to somebody else that's
the best way to know if you really
understand something but in terms of
knowing about God it's not enough to
know about God you could argue that
maybe there were people like Sher and
ever who knew about God but they didn't
tell others about them they didn't go
out they didn't do an outreach program
like abam ainu did so a third answer
three or four actually 40 48 52 is the
answer fourth answer is 52 that's when
Abraham not just worked out about God
for himself but shared his knowledge
with
others now the Masha in that piece which
I just quoted makes another observation
which I'll wait I'll read in the name of
the KF missioner number 16 so the Kess
missioner says what I'm about to say but
better than the Mas said it um the K of
mission we mentioned earlier is ravos of
Ciro better known as the auor of the
Shar he writes on the on the rambam um
we saw him quote earlier that the
rambam's gear the R's text said 40
instead of 48 but here he answers the
question of the Rival and if I'll remind
you what was the question of the Rival
the question of the Rival was Al gamara
says three so don't ignore that and
quote a midrash that says 48 or 40 stick
with the gamorra that says three and
because you didn't say he was three
you've ignored the gamorra that is the
effect of the rival's question says the
K missionary number
16o Abraham was 40 when he recognized
his creator kav AR
Etc the riv say what the r
said so the K Miss is referring to
another book called
The Who's saying something in the name
of the r this is a whole chain of
someone said him the name of somebody in
the name of somebody but here's the
point line two middle of the
line it's possible to fulfill both
opinions of the midash was he three or
was he four
he was
both he was three when he began to
thinket and to
wonder in his thought both one Wonder
with an A and wonder with an
O he began to think and to wonder and to
be restless about and to to recognize
his creator
but when he was 40 he finished the
process of
recognition so we have two opinions in
the midash which are not mutually
exclusive it's not a binary Choice it's
not was he three or was he 40 he was
both the process began when he was three
and concluded when he was 40
Ru that's the Raam he wrote the main
number which is 40 which is when Abraham
completed the process of recognizing
Hashem which was when he was
40 so we have an answer to the question
of the Rival the rivot said you're
ignoring that he was three the the gamar
says he was three you're going with an
alternative source that gives a
different answer says the KF mission on
behalf of the rambam it's not a
different answer it's the same answer
yes he was three when he started the
process and he was 40 when he ended the
process and I'm not adopting one or the
other I'm adopting both ah the Rumba
mentions 40 because that's the main part
of the story that's when he completed
the process but the process started when
he was three the r was not ignoring the
gamarra he's using the gamarra but says
he was three as well as the mid Rush
that says he was 40 so there's no
rejection of the talwood he is in a he's
just not totally explicit about it but I
would actually
say I think he is explicit because if
you go back to number three the rambam
who never wastes a word opens with the
following four words
kigal when this spiritual giant was
weaned why do we need to know about his
feeding habits why is it important to
say that he was weaned the answer I
believe and I haven't seen this inside
but maybe because I hav't looked very
hard is that's the rambam saying when he
was
three because I I don't know exactly
when weaning was but I know it was later
than uh it is today I know that the ramb
made sorry Abraham made a feast at the
birth of yak and the mosim say it was
after two years when y was
weaned so it fits quite well to say that
Abram was weaned when he approached
three and the rambam uses those words to
introduce the story of Abraham because
because as the K Miss said that's when
the process
began when this giant was weaned H he
began to think and to wonder about
Hashem and when he was 40 he completed
the
process which means there is a part to
be played by the three-year-old and also
a part to be played by The
40-Year-Old the way the K missions
explain the rambam it's not three or 40
it's both because you need both what do
a three-year-old what does it mean but a
three-year-old child recognized Hashem
so that's the version I'm sure we've all
grown up with maybe before maybe we were
aware of other positions as well but
three has always been sort of the
dominant one in the story what does it
mean for a three-year-old now let's
assume that Aram was not like a normal
three-year-old which I think is the case
let's assume that Aram was super smart
but still a three-year-old is a
three-year-old so what does a
three-year-old recognizing Hashem mean
it means a three-year-old world has that
wonderful sense of curiosity that sense
of wonder that sense of
excitement and with those
emotions a three-year-old if they're on
the level of Abraham can begin to wonder
about who's running the
world a
40-year-old has a very different
approach and the rambam gave this whole
long scientific explanation who's making
the World Go Round AR realizes somebody
must be making the World Go Round that
that's not a three-year-old a
three-year-old can't understand that a
40-year-old has the intellectual depth
has the maturity has the profound has
the mature version of curiosity to reach
that
conclusion and the rumbum is saying that
we need the Wonder and the awesome the
awe of the three-year-old the excitement
the Curiosity of the three-year-old and
the intellectual depth of the 40-year
old one can say that sometimes we ER on
one way or the other sometimes we focus
on the emotion of the three-year-old and
our education system doesn't develop
that idea any further there are kids
going around in some of our schools in
our Jewish schools who relate to Hashem
as a three-year-old even when they're
much much older Hashem is Big Hashem is
powerful and that's about
it and there are others who relate to
Hashem as a 40-year-old with the
intellectual depth with the academic
approach and they miss out on the
excitement and the Wonder and the awe
that a three-year-old has we need both
now I included here part in number 17
part of
Ric's uh book on it's called Abraham's
Journey Reflections on the life of the
founding patriarch um I I'll read it but
then I I realized probably the most
important part I didn't put on the page
but we'll read what he says and by the
way um R
solic um whose uh Brilliance it's
impossible to to describe but the book
which he commented most on was the
rambam and it's very interesting and
very clear that in this section that I
quoted here from a much longer essay
that he is rewording reworking the words
of the rambam into a a different type of
Pros but you can see clearly that he's
got the rambam open in front of him when
he writes the following
how did Abraham discover God as a young
lad when he was a Shepherd he used to
spend the night in the fields he could
not sleep because he was Restless that
word schet he particularly counted the
Stars Abraham discovered God With the
Stars through astronomy God communicated
with Abraham constantly the intuitive
insights and sudden flashes of his mind
were words the almighty addresses to
prophets they constituted a message from
the almighty to him Abraham discovered
God all by himself
no one taught him no one guided him
those words came straight from the
rumble he drew his conclusions from
premises his own mind postulated his
knowledge was matured by intuitive
flashes from within Abraham had to disc
to devote some 40 years to The Bold and
heroic Enterprise of joining the
infinite so it wasn't that it's
something happened when he was 40 it was
a 40 year process from beginning to end
just like Rashi said in number 13 that
people don't get the ability to fully
understand what they've learned until
they're 40 or until they've been
learning for 40 years number 20 man
manifests his questing for God through
his restlessness that's the ra solovic
understanding of this Chet which from
time to time results in unwarranted
unjustified nervous physical movement in
a word a child's restlessness represents
the spontaneous drive to God that every
human being experiences Abraham did
succeed in converting volatile imal
emotions into advanced knowledge he
converted this restlessness into thought
so when did Abraham have volatile
primeval emotions when he was three when
did Abraham have advanced knowledge when
he was 40 and the rambam is describing
the process from one to the other he's
using not just the midash but the
gamarra as well that says he started
when he was three and the rambam adds
that he finishes when he was 40 and as
Ric makes very clear the process started
when he was three but but did not finish
until he was 40 and the reason for that
I would suggest is because we need both
we need the Primeval emotional response
of a child and we need the intellectual
depth of a advanced scientist at the age
of 40 we cannot have one without the
other but between the two we can all
come to our recognition of Hashem thank
you very much