Lech Lecha: Avraham Was 75 Years Old - Why Does The Torah Tell Us?

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Daniel Glatstein’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

In this week's parsha, Avraham Avinu leaves Charan. The Torah emphasizes the age of Avraham Avinu. That Avraham Avinu was 75 years old. Why do we need to know how old he was? The Torah rarely gives us the somebody's age at a particular juncture in time, unless it's a very significant juncture. As the data how old they were when they passed away. Why does the Torah emphasize that Avraham ben chamesh v'shiviim shana b'tzeitzei me'Charan. Avraham Avinu was 75 years old when he left Charan. Later on in the parsha, you'll see what this has to do with Mitzrayim. Avraham Avinu is fighting a very difficult a war, one of the most challenging wars in history. Avraham Avinu is taking on the four kings. The four kings has have have defeated the five kings. So, they're obviously very powerful force. And the Torah says Avraham Avinu takes with him 318 and 18 men. Also, seemingly a random number. Of what significance is that Avraham Avinu took 318 men. Rashi says, "No, he only took one. His name was Eliezer." The numerical value of Eliezer is 318. So, there are various approaches in the Acharonim to explain the significance of the 318 men that were taken by Avraham Avinu. Rav Sadya Gaon famously explains that this seemed to have been a very desperate situation. Avraham Avinu's nephew was captured by the four kings. There's no nor there's no natural way for one individual to attack four world powers. That would be like a regular guy taking on France, England, Germany, and Ukraine. And that's what Avraham Avinu did. So, it should have been a hopeless, helpless situation. Rav Sadya Gaon famously says, "Yush is numerical value 317." Avraham Avinu had to one-up Yush. He had

Jump to a moment

1. 0:01In this week's parsha, Avraham Avinu leaves Charan. The Torah emphasizes the age of Avraham Avinu.…
2. 0:31ben chamesh v'shiviim shana b'tzeitzei me'Charan. Avraham Avinu was 75 years old when he left Charan.…
3. 1:33nephew was captured by the four kings. There's no nor there's no natural way for one…
4. 2:35the approach of the Baal Shem Tov, and these two approaches actually work together very beautifully.…
5. 3:40when he left Charan. Says the Baal Shem Tov, the numerical value of Avram, which was…
6. 4:40going to a realm of water and you're becoming butel to this realm of water. You're…
7. 5:11many many se'ifim, dozens of se'ifim. In Hilchos Mikvaos, you I'm sorry, in most areas of…
8. 6:14number eight. Mila is on the eighth day. The Maral says the reason why mila is…
9. 7:17taking this world this lowly world and helping elevate it to believe in Hakadosh Baruch Hu…
10. 8:20Taharas, the Imrei Emet says you have to learn it yourself. So, when Yosef reveals himself,…

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