Avot284

11:
We continue our discussion of the ten trials that Abraham underwent during his lifetime. After his victory over the kings who had taken prisoner his nephew Lot, there is a divergence between Rambam's list of Abraham's trials and that of Rabbi Ovadya of Bertinoro. The latter introduces at this point the issue of what is called in rabbinic parlance Brit Beyn ha-Betarim, the Covenant Between the Pieces.

12:
This covenant between God and Abraham (and Abraham's descendants) is described in Genesis chapter 15. The capture of his nephew has made clear to Abraham how tenuous his claim to the Promised Land is. God promised the land to Abraham's descendants, but how can that promise be fulfilled if he does have even one child? And he challenges his God on this issue: perhaps his heir will be his chief steward, Eli'ezer? But the divine voice that he hears assures him that this is not the case:

13:
In order to reinforce this assurance to Abraham a covenant, a solemn undertaking, is ceremoniously effected between Abraham and his God. Abraham is instructed to take certain animals and birds and after slaughtering them to divide each animal carcass into two and to arrange the pieces in two parallel lines. It is then, in dun darkness, that the momentous undertaking is broached. Abraham will have progeny of his own that will inherit the land that has been promised to them, but only after great vicissitudes. Possession of the land will not be easy. Abraham sees something like a blazing torch passing between the pieces and then he hears:

So, the fulfillment of the undertaking is yet a long way off.

14:
We can better understand the nature of this undertaking if we refer to a less supernatural version of it. The Torah [Exodus 21:2] requires Israelite slaves to serve an Israelite master only for a limited period after which they must be freed. But in the time of the prophet Jeremiah the rich landlords had 'forgotten' to free their slaves. So King Zedekiah and the people had made a solemn undertaking that they would free their Israelites slaves according to the law. The avaricious landlords manumitted their slaves … and immediately reclaimed them! This act of sheer roguery angers the prophet who declaims in God's name:

From this is seems clear that it was the party giving the undertaking that passed between the pieces: in the case of Zedekiah it was the people who made the promise and in the case of Abraham it was God who made the covenant, experienced as "a smoking oven, a flaming torch" [Genesis 15:17].

15:
Rabbi Ovadya of Bertinoro says that this is yet another blow to Abraham's faith: he was promised greatness and that his progeny would be a great and numerous people and now that promise was being qualified: it would only happen in a few hundred years time and only after great suffering! And yet, in spite of all this,

To be continued.

Because of the incidence of Tish'a b'Av the next shiur in this series will be, God willing, on 26th July.