Beraishis 12G – Hashem Appears to Avraham at Shechem – Elon Moreh

Avram passed through the land until the place of Shchem, until the grove of Moreh, and the Canaanite was already there in the land. God appeared there to Avram and said: To your seed I will give this land. Avram then built an altar there to God Who had appeared to him.

Avraham entered the land and kept on traveling until God appeared to him, indicating that he had come to the right land.

PROPHECY: RSRH points out that while we don’t know the nature of the vision, we do see from the wording that God appeared “to” Avraham. This was not some sort of human imagination or inspiration. God directed his message by means of this vision to Avraham.

While God spoke to Avraham before, He only appeared to Avraham in this land. This is the beginning of the process of the Shechina (Divine Presence) returning to the lower realms – that being the goal and purpose of all human history. As we have noted before – עיקר שכינה בתחתונים.

The specific location where God chose to appear is called:
– Shechem – A place later known to produce hot-blooded men who are prone to murder. Even parallel Shechem across the Jordan in Gilaad, the same was true.
– Elon Moreh – This is where two mountains stood. One is green and flourishing and the other is barren.
– In this land the Canaanites had sunk to a low, degenerate level.

What was God telling Avraham by choosing this place to appear to him?

God linked the return of his Divine Presence to a place, the land of Canaan, which could corrupt man to teach that despite this, the Divine quality in man, the ability to attain closeness to God, are within the reach of every nation. In Avraham’s place, murderers can dwell next to a prophet. The Jewish people are known to be a stiff-necked people (see Exodus 32:9). Even so, the אשדת, the Divine fire of the Torah, would succeed in refining this people in this land! This would show that there is no nation, no matter where it dwells, that cannot be won over by the אשדת. (This is also why the Torah was given in the desert, a place where nothing thrives.)

On one side a mountain flourished. On the other side it is barren. These teaches us that blessing in not the condition but rather the result of building one’s life according to God’s will. The altar of God can be built on desolate ground just as it can be built where the conditions are already flourishing.

Perhaps this grove is called Elon “Moreh” because it is a grove (flourishing) that teaches this lesson.

(GS – Just as the Torah begins with the lesson of free will, so too the reentry of the Shechina into the realm of man beginning with Avraham and the creation of the Jewish people, begins with the lesson of free will. God asks of us to choose to submit to His Torah which can purify and uplift us. The conditions don’t have to lend to this. We choose, and the conditions will flourish in response.)

Beraishis 12: 6-7
pages 298-301