Avraham and Lot

(1) The L-RD said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

(11) And G-d said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation: seed-bearing plants, fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. (12) The earth brought forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And G-d saw that this was good.

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

אשר עשו בחרן [THE SOULS] THAT THEY HAD GOTTEN (literally, made) IN HARAN — The souls which he had brought beneath the sheltering wings of the Shechinah. Abraham converted the men and Sarah converted the women and Scripture accounts it unto them as if they had made them (Genesis Rabbah 39:14).

HAD FLOCKS, AND HERDS, AND TENTS. R. Tobiah b. R. Yitzchak said: He had two tents; Ruth the Moabitess and Naamah the Ammonitess. Similarly, " Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters that are found (Gen. XIX, 15)3: R. Tobiah said: That means two ‘finds’; Ruth and Naamah. R. Yitzchak commented: I have found David My servant (Ps. LXXXIX, 21): where did I find him? In Sodom.

Now the inhabitants of Sodom were very wicked sinners against the L-RD.

And the L-RD said to Abram, after Lot had parted from him, “Raise your eyes and look out from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west,

1]“And Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him,” meaning he went to come down to this world, as he was commanded. Abraham is the Neshama [soul], and after the Neshama is blessed in seven blessings, it comes down to this world to clothe in a Guf [body].

Promptly, “And Lot went with him.” This is the serpent for which the world was corrupted, and this is why the text calls the serpent by the name “Lot.” Lot means curse in Aramaic. He was cursed and brought curse to the world, and he accompanies the soul in this world.

2] “And Lot his nephew.” Why did Abraham see fit to attach Lot to himself? It was because he saw in the spirit of holiness that David was destined to come out of him.

3] “And pursued as far as Dan.” He pursued them and alerted them of the Din [judgment] in the world of truth and the punishment in Hell, and he did not sleep day and night until he convinced them and made them repent and return to the Creator, as it is written, “And he brought back all the goods.”

4] “And Lot his brother, too,” meaning he assailed even that evil inclination called, “Lot,” until he forced it to annul, and properly mitigated it. He brought everyone into complete repentance as it should be. He did not rest day or night from persuading them, and he chased them for every single iniquity that they had committed until they repented in complete repentance as it should be.