Avraham passed through the land (of Israel) until he reached the area of Shechem; until the plains of Moreh.

(Bereishit 12:1)

Let me tell you a rule. It is worth keeping this rule in mind when reading this Parasha and those that follow it, which discuss the adventures of our forefathers. Our Sages hinted to this very important rule in brief by stating, "Anything that occurred to the Avot (=our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yakov) is a sign of what will happen to their children" (Tanchuma Lech Lecha # 9). It is for this reason that the Torah discusses at such length the travels of Avraham, the wells that Yitzchak dug, and other such stories.

An innocent reader may wonder at these stories, thinking them to be superfluous. But in truth they are all presages of future events in the lives of our people. When something happened to any of those three prophets that we refer to as "The Avot," the prophet was able to deduce from his experiences what was destined to happen to his descendants (-- i.e., the experiences themselves were prophecies -MK).

(Ramban Bereishit, 12:6)

When Avraham comes to Eretz Yisroel, his first stop is "the area of Shechem; until the plains of Moreh." (Bereishit 12:6). This hints to the fact that the very first territory his descendants would conquer would be Shechem, the city which two of the children of Yakov captured and plundered (Bereishit 34:25). Similarly, Elon Moreh was the first stop of the Jewish nation upon crossing into Eretz Yisroel with Joshua (see Rashi Bereishit 12:6, Tosafot Sota 33b s.v. Mul) -- Ramban 12:6.

Immediately after that, Avraham Avinu camped between Beth El and Ay, marking the exact location of the first war the Jews would have to fight upon entering the Holy Land -- Ramban ibid.

Later, driven by famine, Avraham Avinu goes down to Egypt. He and his wife suffer the fear of abuse and death. It is Pharaoh, however, who ends up suffering. Pharaoh sees he has no choice, and sends Avraham and Sarah off with some of his own people to accompany them and with immense wealth (Bereishit 12:10-20). This is clearly hinting to the experiences of the Bnai Yisroel during their bondage in Egypt and their eventual exodus. Yakov and the tribes were forced by famine to move to Egypt; the Jewish nation suffered greatly there, but were later released from bondage and sent out of Egypt by a beleaguered Pharaoh; they were joined in their exodus by Egyptian converts and were bestowed great wealth by their former captors (Shmot 12:38) -- Ramban Bereishit 12:10.

When Avraham returned to Eretz Yisroel, he was told to, "Get up and walk about the entire land" (13:17), symbolizing that his progeny would be the future heirs of that land, and would easily conquer it --Rashi and Ramban 13:17.

Avraham goes to war against four powerful kings and their armies and defeats them. This symbolizes the Four Exiles that the Jewish nation was to experience. Each exiling nation would in turn succumb, while the Jewish nation would survive them all -- Ramban, 14:1.

Similarly, during the famed "Brit ben Habetarim" vision, Avraham experiences four types of fears. This symbolizes the periods of terror that the Jews would face during their four exiles -- Rashi and Ramban 15:11,12.

Ramban also applies this theme to the experiences of Yitzchak and Yakov (see, for example, Ramban to Bereishit 25:23, 26:1, 27:20, 29:2, 33:26, 34:18). In many instances, the Ramban brings further Midrashic support for his interpretations.

Perhaps we may add, then, that the experiences of the three Avot reflect the events of three distinct periods in Jewish history. Each one of the Avot corresponds, chronologically, to a different period in the future history of the Jewish nation.

The experiences of Avraham Avinu seem to correspond to those that affected the Jewish nation during its period of incubation, birth and maturation. We find hints in the experiences of Avraham to events that occurred from the time of Yitzchak's birth, through the lives of Yakov and the twelve tribes, the Egyptian exile, the Exodus, the years of wandering, and finally the conquest and settlement of Eretz Yisrael [=the land of Israel] -- a total of 880 years.

The life of Yitzchak, on the other hand, corresponds to the golden period of our history. This period begins with the construction of the First Temple and its 410 year history, and includes the 70 years of Babylonian exile that followed the destruction of the First Temple and the 420 years that the Second Temple stood -- 900 years in all.

The life of Yakov corresponds to the third period of our history, during which we bore great suffering and found ourselves at the mercy of our enemies, homeless and powerless. This third period began with the destruction of the Second Temple and continues until this very day. The end of this period will herald our final redemption, our return to the Holy Land, and the coming of the Messiah.

We in fact find a chronological theme in the order of the Avot elsewhere. We are told (Berachot 26b) that our forefathers were the ones who instituted the daily prayers. Avraham Avinu instituted the morning prayer, Yitzchak, the afternoon prayer, and Yakov, the night prayer. According to what we have proposed above, the same can be said of their prophetic experiences. Avraham foresaw the morning, or birth, of the nation. Yitzchak foresaw the afternoon -- when the sun is fully risen and shines brightly. Yakov prophesied the Jewish nation's long dark night, i.e. exile and suffering, which are often compared to the dark of night (See Tosafot, Ta'anit end of 3a). Just as the evening prayer is recited sometime between sunset and daybreak, so too, the "night" of exile stretches on until the appearance of the rays of the morning light, an allegory for redemption.

Let us now take another look at the lives of the Avot, bearing this in mind.

The Brit ben Habetarim took place in Eretz Yisrael. Avraham afterwards returns to his family in Ur Kasdim, where he is commanded to return to Israel. He returns, and then leaves Israel again, this time for Egypt. After his experiences in Egypt, he returns to Israel for the third time.

Similarly, Yitzchak, the first "born Jew," lived in Eretz Yisrael all his life. His son, Yakov, traveled out of Israel to father the twelve tribes. Yakov returned to Israel, and went from there to Egypt. After suffering through many years of Egyptian persecution, the Jewish nation eventually returned to Eretz Yisrael for the third time, thereby completing the pattern described by Avraham's experiences.

As we have outlined above (section II), Avraham's travels in Eretz Yisroel foreshadowed the future Jewish conquest which followed the exodus from Egypt.

Avraham also twice experienced a taste of the Four Exiles that the Jews would have to endure (see section II). Although this does not seem, at first glance, to fit into the pattern we are trying to establish, further examination reveals that it very well may belong to the same category as the rest of Avraham's prophecies. Various commentaries tell us that although the Jews were supposed to be in Egypt for 400 years, Hashem saw that they weren't able to handle such an extended oppression. Instead of having them stay in Egypt the entire 400 years, Hashem redeemed the Bnai Yisroel after only 210 years. Because of this, it was necessary for the Jews to "make up" time in exile, and to experience four future expulsions. Indeed, when Moshe is originally told to take the Jews out from Egypt, Hashem immediately hints to him that there will be future periods of exile (Rashi Shmot 3:14).

In this light, the Egyptian exile actually was an all-inclusive exile, which incorporated within it the potential for all of the future exiles. It is as part of a revelation of the Egyptian oppression, that Avraham was shown the Four Exiles that the Jews experienced at a later time in history.

Yitzchak:

(2) Yitzchak is described as "an unblemished burnt offering" (Rashi 26:2) due to his part in the Akeida (see Bereishit 22:9). A living sacrifice, Yitzchak's life symbolizes the golden period of Jewish history, during which the Temples stood and the sacrificial service dominated daily Jewish life.

As the Ramban (26:1) points out, Yitzchak's short stay in the land of the Philistines is premonitious of the Jewish exile in Babylon, between the First and Second Temple periods. Yitzchak's subsequent excavation of three wells is a prophetic allegory hinting to the three Temples (the two that were, and the third that will soon be rebuilt, speedily in our days) -- Ramban 27:2. Yitzchak never left Eretz Yisrael, except for a short visit in the "pseudo-Israel" land of the Philistines (see Rashi 26:12). Similarly, the Jews during the Temple periods comfortably inhabited Eretz Yisrael. Even during the 70-year exile in Babylon, the Torah centers of Israel were transferred along with them, intact, to Babylon (Gemara Gittin 88a).

Yakov:

(3) Yakov wrestled with his brother Esav while yet in their mother's womb. This clearly hints to the suffering our nation was to experience at the hands of Esav's descendants, the Roman nation, which destroyed the Second Temple and exiled us from our land (Rashi 25:22; Ramban 25:23, 33:26). It is this Roman exile, the fourth of the Four Exiles, whose burden we still bear today.

Yakov is forced to flee from Eretz Yisroel to escape the grasp of his murderous brother Esav (Bereishit 27:42), and is forced to deal with the evil plotting of Esav and other oppressors throughout his life. Even upon his return to Eretz Yisrael, Yakov's torment did not end. For twenty-two years he lived in anguish, believing that his beloved son, Yosef, had been killed (Rashi 28:9, 37:1). Eventually, Yakov returned to the Diaspora where he passed away after a "short and miserable life" (Bereishit 47:9). His experiences represent the suffering of the Jews in the Diaspora since the destruction of our second Temple.

The only moment that Yakov lives with his evil brother Esav peacefully occurs on the day that Yakov returns to Israel after an extended stay in the house of Lavan (Rashi 33:4). It is on this day that he envisages the time, yet to come, when all the Jews will return from exile and live in peace and tranquillity in their land (Rashi 33:14). Similarly, after Yakov's death in Egypt his body was taken to be interred in Eretz Yisrael. This is taken to symbolize the victorious return of a despondent Jewish nation to its homeland, in the End of Days (Ta'anit 5b).

It is perhaps significant to note that it was during the very last moments of Yakov's life that he attempted to reveal to his children the day of the Final Redemption (Rashi 49:1). It was only after he had "lived" the history of the Jewish nation up until the End of Time, that he was able to say when the time of the final redemption would come -- may we merit to see its arrival, speedily in our days!