Up, walk about the land, through its length and its breadth, for I give it to you.”
Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Yosei: With regard to anyone who delights in the Shabbat, God gives him a boundless portion, i.e., a very large reward, as it is stated: “If you keep your feet from violating Shabbat, from pursuing your affairs on My holy day, and you call Shabbat a delight, the Lord’s holy day honored, and you honor it by not going your own way, or attending to your own matters or speaking idle words. Then you shall delight in the Lord and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the world, and to feast
on the inheritance of Jacob your father, as the mouth of God has spoken” (Isaiah 58:13–14). The reward for delighting in Shabbat is specifically the portion of Jacob. Not that of Abraham, about whom it is written, “Rise, walk through the land through its length and its width because I have given it to you” (Genesis 13:17), i.e., only this land alone in its borders. And not that of Isaac, about whom it is written, “Dwell in this land and I will be with you and I will bless you because I will give all of these lands to you and your offspring” (Genesis 26:3), meaning these lands and no others. Rather, that of Jacob, about whom it is written, “And your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and all of the families of the land will be blessed through you and your offspring” (Genesis 28:14). There are no boundaries for Jacob’s portion.
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Rabbi Elazar said: What is the reasoning of Rabbi Eliezer? As it is written that after God promised Abraham Eretz Yisrael, He instructed him: “Arise, walk through the land, its length and its breadth; for I will give it to you” (Genesis 13:17), in order that Abraham should thereby acquire the land. And the Rabbis, how do they interpret this verse? They hold that there, in Genesis, it was due to God’s love of Abraham that he said to him to do this, in order that it would be easy for his descendants to conquer the land. His walking was to demonstrate the divine promise and thereby emphasize his descendants’ claim to the land, but it did not effect acquisition of it.
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Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its breadth. Look to the right and see that initially, the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Abraham, Please lift up your eyes and see from the place where you are standing there, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your descendants forever. This implies that sight alone was sufficient to acquire it. But afterwards, He reversed this and said, Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its breadth, for I will give it to you. This implies that one needs to make an actual possession like marking the boundaries (Bava Kamma 9a), and sight alone was not enough to acquire it. Furthermore, initially He said to your descendants forever, but afterwards He said for I will give it to you, without mentioning descendants or “forever.” Additionally, He said please lift [na in Hebrew, indicating a request], but when saying arise, walk through the land, He did not use the term na. And with Moses our Rabbi, peace be upon him, the approach is reversed, as it says Let me cross over, please, and see the land (Deuteronomy 3:25). Here, the term na is used with the actual crossing, which is similar to arise, walk through the land, but regarding seeing, he did not use na, as he didn’t say “and let me see, please.” Moreover, what is meant by saying here and see from the place where you are standing there? Would you think he would see from a place where he is not standing?
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קום התהלך בארץ, “arise and walk throughout the land, etc.” According to the plain meaning of the words, G’d wanted Avram to stake a claim to different parts of the land already now by setting foot on it and by pointing out its boundaries and his having set foot on it.
From a rational/investigative aspect, the word התהלך is one that occurs in connection with the emanation חכמה such as in Proverbs 6,22 בהתהלכך תנחה אותך, “when you walk it will guide you (the wisdom of Torah).” A similar thought is reflected in Psalms 39, 7 אך בצלם יתהלך איש, “man can walk (successfully) only if he enjoys the ‘image’ of G’d.” This is a reference to the format of the spiritual soul. Only selected righteous people have been mentioned as possessing such distinction. Examples of people who strove for the acquisition of such wisdom are Noach, Chanoch, and Avraham, and others like them. Seeing that Avraham acquired such wisdom in stages and that his soul kept traveling הלוך ונסוע הנגבה, “constantly approaching further to the ‘south,’ the symbol of חכמה, G’d said to Him: ‘arise and walk throughout the land.” This was in response to his unspoken request to attain ever greater insights. (Torat Chayim points out that the numerical value of the word הנגבה=65 equals that of א-דני the attribute of G’d which communicated with him). The relevance of this interpretation of our verse is based on the fact that the Torah nowhere reports that Avram actually traversed the land physically in accordance with G’d’s instructions. All the Torah reports is that Avram pitched his tent in Chevron. In other words, the Torah seems to emphasize that instead of walking Avram ישב “sat” in Chevron. We have already pointed out earlier that even the word ויאהל does not mean to pitch a physical tent as much as it refers to “pitching the tent of Torah”, i.e. establishing a spiritual abode. When G’d added כי לך אתננה, “for to you I will give it,” He also referred to the חכמה Avram had been searching for. G’d was going to grant Avram progressively greater insights into the workings of the universe, and He would help him acquire greater spiritual eminence. This is similar to Kings I 5,29 where the prophet reports וה' נתן חכמה לשלמה, ‘and the Lord had granted חכמה,’the emanation wisdom’ to Solomon.”