The Battle for the Soul of Messiah: The War Of Four Kings Against Five Kings

וַיִּקַּ֣ח אַבְרָ֗ם אֶת־שָׂרַ֤י אִשְׁתּוֹ֙ וְאֶת־ל֣וֹט בֶּן־אָחִ֔יו וְאֶת־כָּל־רְכוּשָׁ֖ם אֲשֶׁ֣ר רָכָ֑שׁוּ וְאֶת־הַנֶּ֣פֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר־עָשׂ֣וּ בְחָרָ֗ן וַיֵּצְא֙וּ לָלֶ֣כֶת אַרְצָ֣ה כְנַ֔עַן וַיָּבֹ֖אוּ אַרְצָ֥ה כְנָֽעַן׃

“Abram took his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, all the wealth that they had amassed, and the persons that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan.”

In every family, there is that one relative who is “Trouble” with a capital-T. In Abraham’s family, that relative was his nephew, Lot.

Lot was the firstborn of his father, Haran, who was himself the firstborn son of Terach, the idol-maker. Abraham Avinu, then called Abram, was the second-born son of his father, Terach. But Haran was not to inherit the rights of the firstborn.

Why?

Because Haran was unworthy:

“Terach had three sons, yet the firstborn rights did not pass to Haran because he was rooted in the side of impurity, as his deeds were unrefined. The firstborn must possess the strength to sanctify the lineage, and Haran did not have this quality” (Zohar, Volume 1, 73a).

Haran was present when Nimrod, the wicked King of Shinar, threw Abram into the fiery furnace for refusing to worship his gods. Sensing that he, too, was in jeopardy, and relying upon his wits — rather than upon Hashem — to save his life, Haran reasoned, “If Abram emerges from the fiery furnace alive, then I’ll say that I worship Abram’s God; but if Abram is consumed by the flames, I’ll say that I worship Nimrod’s god.” So, after Abram emerged from the fiery furnace alive and unscathed, Nimrod asked Haran whose god he worshiped. Seeing that Abram was saved, Haran insincerely professed to worship Abram’s God, which he had never done before and had no intention of doing in the future. Upon hearing this, Nimrod threw Haran into the fiery furnace. But Hashem knew his heart and did not rescue him, as He rescued his brother, Abram. The flames consumed Haran, and he died. As Chazal say:

“Haran stood in doubt, saying, ‘If Abram is victorious, I will follow him.’ This hesitation revealed his lack of faith, for the true firstborn is one who stands firm in righteousness without faltering” (Sha’ar HaPesukim, Parashat Lech Lecha).

“When Abram leapt into the fire, he sanctified the Name of God. Haran, however, waited to see the outcome, revealing his lack of trust. This is why the birthright passed to Abram, for he alone was worthy to lead” (Etz Chaim, Sha’ar HaGilgulim, Chapter Eight).

So much for Haran.

The genetic “apple” — Haran’s firstborn son and Abraham’s nephew, Lot — did not fall far from the tree, Lot’s father and Abraham’s older brother, Haran. The Torah testifies:

“Lot, who accompanied Abraham also had sheep, cattle, and tents. The land was unable to support them that they might dwell together, for their wealth was so great that they were unable to dwell together. And there was quarreling between the herders of Abraham’s cattle and those of Lot’s cattle. The Canaanites and Perizzites were then dwelling in the land. Abraham said to Lot, ‘Let there be no strife between you and me, between my herders and yours, for we are kin. Is not the whole land before you? Let us separate: if you go north, I will go south; and if you go south, I will go north.’ Lot looked about him and saw how well watered was the whole plain of the Jordan, all of it, (this was before God had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) all the way to Zoar, like the garden of God, like the land of Egypt.”

So, Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed from the east. Thus, they parted from each other. Abraham remained in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the plain, pitching his tents near Sodom. Genesis 13:6-12 states: “Let there be no quarreling between me and you. We are men who are brothers.” The simple meaning of this statement is that Abraham and Lot were kinsmen. But Rashi tells us that they resembled each other to the point that their facial features were indistinguishable from one another. But their characters were totally in opposition to each other, for Abraham was righteous and Lot was not. Abraham was from the reconstructed World of Tikkun, symbolizing good, and Lot was from the World of Tohu, symbolizing chaos and evil. Because of Lot’s poor character, Abraham said to him: “We are kinsmen and we look alike. If you go around stealing the pastureland of others, people will attribute your actions to me. So please, separate from me.”

Nechama Leibowitz asks:

“Why is it that in parting from the righteous [and settling in wicked Sodom], Lot moved to the very opposite extreme? If the standards of the community of Abraham were too stringent for him, why join the most debased and wicked society in the land? Is that just how it came about, or is there a psychological necessity at play here?”

There is a simple and startling reason for this, which the Torah itself highlights: Lot chose for himself the entire plain of the Jordan, settling in evil Sodom, because it was well-watered, “like the garden of Hashem, like Egypt.” Now, anyone who can compare Egypt — that hotbed of idolatry — to “the well-watered garden of God,” is seriously deluded. And this is Lot: deluded by evil, uncomfortable with his uncle, Abraham, and longing to return to Shinar, Lot does the next best thing: he makes his home in Sodom, a wealthy city for wealthy people. And Lot — like Abraham — was very wealthy.

“And it was in the days of Amraphel [Nimrod], the king of Shinar, Arioch the king of Ellasar; Cherdolaomer the king of Elam, and Tidal the king of Goyim, made war with Bera, the king of Sodom and with Birsha the king of Gomorrah, Shinab the king of Admah, and Shemeber the king of Zeboim and the king of Bela that was in Zoar… And they smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim… And they took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their food; and they went and they took Lot and his possessions, the son of Abraham’s brother, and they went, and he was settled in Sodom.”

Why did they attack Lot? They didn’t mean to. They meant to attack Abraham!

“Lot resembled Abraham, [so the four kings] thought that they had captured Abraham himself. Indeed, this was the purpose of their war, because Abraham was taking people away from worshiping their idols and initiating them in the service of God.”

The Arizal states:

“[T]heir aim was to capture Lot, and through him, entrap Abraham, himself. The deeper significance of this: It is known that all sustenance is channeled into the world via the righteous. For only the realm of holiness receives its vitality in a ‘face-to-face’ union with the Divine source of life; the parasitic kelipot receive the nourishment by attaching themselves to the ‘back’ of holiness to siphon off the vitality from it. Lot was the primary kelipah to attach itself to Abraham, enabling all nine Sefirot or ‘kings’ of evil to suck wealth and power. As long as Lot was attached to Abraham, the nine kings prospered and lived in peace with each other; but when Lot separated from Abraham, their sustenance was cut off, causing strife and wars between them. The capture of Lot was an attempt to entice Abraham to reestablish their attachment.”

The four kings — representing the four exiles that Abraham’s children would have to endure — wished to relieve Abraham of his vast wealth, a great deal of which derived from Egypt. The Torah testifies that both Abraham and Lot were very, very wealthy, having in their possession much silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and flocks of cattle and sheep so large that the land could not support both of their herds together.

Such abundance is tempting. Human nature being what it is, the War of the Four Kings appears to have been motivated by simple greed for material wealth. And it was. That’s the p’shat explanation of this story.

But the deeper meaning is much more interesting, for, upon Lot’s separation from Abraham, the four kings were cut off from their source of spiritual sustenance and were quite literally starving to death. The “gold and silver vessels,” the livestock, menservants and maidservants which Abraham had already acquired in Haran added to the wealth which Abimelech bestowed upon them; they are material symbols of the spiritual sustenance they wished to take from Abraham and Lot. This was not because of any monetary value it may have had, but because it consists of the myriad souls of the collapsed World of Tohu. This is borne out by what our Sages say was the cause of the war: “because Abraham was taking people away from worshiping their idols and initiating them in the service of God.” Souls were the issue — one soul in particular — not gold and silver or any sort of material wealth.

That’s why Abraham went to such extraordinary lengths to obtain this “wealth,” even going so far as to ask his beloved wife, Sarah, to say that she was his sister rather than his wife, subjecting Sarah to being kidnapped by Abimelech. This is also why, although Abraham was entitled to keep the spoils of this War, he returned all of the “wealth” which he’d recaptured from Sodom to the King of Sodom, and all of Lot’s “wealth” he’d recaptured to Lot (minus a tithe for Hashem).

And what was Lot’s greatest possession — worth fighting a war over? Worth more than all of the wealth of Abraham and Lot combined, worth more than all the wealth of Egypt? Abraham saw prophetically that the soul of the messiah would descend from Lot, through Moab, Lot’s future grandchild through his incestuous union with his older, unnamed daughter, after escaping the destruction of Sodom. And the soul of the messiah is a treasure whose price is beyond human ability to calculate: indeed, the redemption of the entire world and the accomplishment of the very purpose of creation depends upon it.

So, despite his evil, Lot was saved, albeit for the sake of his distinguished relatives: Abraham and messiah Ben David. And because Abraham was victorious, the soul of the messiah was saved from returning to the kelipot from which he had extracted it. The other souls of the collapsed World of Tohu would have to wait for their shot to go out together with holiness, as bringing them near is a time-bound mitzvah and the time was not yet ripe for them to be brought into the community of the Jewish people. That task was the job of Abraham’s descendants, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and the messiah. May we merit to see that holy task completed soon and in our own lifetimes, and may we see it with our own eyes.

NOTES

[1] Genesis 12:5.

[2] Haran is from the Abel soul-root, as was Abraham. “The right shoulder of Adam divides as said, first into three forefathers, then into twelve tribes, and after that into seventy souls. Each of the seventy small roots is an individual root from the grand roots of Adam. However, there are only seventy small roots in him, and all of them together are the partzuf of a single person. After this, the seventy roots divide up to 600,000 soul-sparks; they are not called roots but sparks. Each of the seventy small roots of the right shoulder we are discussing has one complete partzuf, and all of the 600,000 sparks of this right shoulder are one large root of Adam, called after Abel, the son of Adam. It is the same with the left shoulder of Adam.”

[3] Midrash Rabbah, Genesis 38:13: Nimrod threw Abram into a fiery furnace because he refused to worship the idols of Nimrod. Haran, Abram’s brother, was watching and uncertain of whom to support. Haran reasoned that if Abram survived, he would claim to worship Abram’s God, and if Abram perished, he would side with Nimrod. When Abram was saved from the fire, they asked Haran whose side he was on. Haran said he was with Abram. They took Haran and threw him into the fire, and he was burned.

Rashi’s Commentary on Genesis 11:28 explains Haran was present, only aligned with Abram after seeing him saved, and perished because his faith was insincere.

[4] Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, Chapter 26: Haran’s faith was conditional.

Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 4: Haran wavered in belief.

Zohar I:77b: Haran’s words were hollow.

Bereishit Rabbah 38:13: Haran sought the stronger side.

[5] “Lot went with him.” The Zohar identifies Lot with the serpent, because Lot means “curse” in Aramaic. The serpent accompanies the soul through life and stands at the opening to mislead. The soul cannot begin its mission until thirteen years of age. Abraham was seventy-five years old: seven and five equals twelve; therefore “curse them that curse you” and “in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Zohar, Lech Lecha 7). Abraham and Lot are both from the Abel soul-root.

[6] Abraham’s animals were muzzled, but Lot’s shepherds let theirs graze in others’ fields. When Abraham’s shepherds rebuked them, they argued that the land was given to Abraham, and since he had no heir, Lot would inherit it. But the verse says the Canaanites and Perizzites were still in the land; Abraham had not obtained the right to displace them. (R. Berechiah, Midrash Rabbah; Rashi)

[7] Abraham’s and Lot’s facial features were indistinguishable (Rashi). Because they resembled one another, Abraham feared people would assume Lot’s theft reflected his own character.

[8] R. Jacob Slonik.

[9] R. Yanki Tauber (ed., trans., commentator), “The Book of Genesis With Commentary and Insights From 500 Sages and Mystics.”

[10] Genesis 13:10–12.

[11] Zohar I:78a: Comparing Egypt to the Garden of God is blindness induced by illusion.

Bereishit Rabbah 13:13: Egypt is idolatrous and cannot be likened to the Garden.

Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 56: This confusion arises from kelipot.

Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 6: Lot’s comparison shows corruption of heart.

Zohar II:22b: Egypt’s semblance deceives those drawn to outer shells.

Tanya, Likutei Amarim 37: The well-watered land reflects divine flow; hidden holiness and deception blur in those drawn to outer vessels.

[12] Genesis 13:1–6.

[13] Genesis 14:1–12.

[14] Zohar on Genesis 14:1–12.

[15] Midrash Rabbah 41:5: The kings wished to re-establish spiritual influence through Lot.

Talmud, Berakhot 5a: Their return battle indicated desire to regain former connection.

Zohar I:45b: Capturing Lot was to disrupt the spiritual channel Abraham established.

[16] Genesis 13:1–6.

[17] Ibid.

[18] In Kabbalah, the war symbolizes conflict between forces of Tohu (chaos) and incomplete vessels of Tikkun. Zohar (Bereishit 86a) connects these kings to divine judgments. The Arizal sees allusions to eschatological wars such as Gog u’Magog.

[19] Talmud, Berakhot 9a; Rashi to Exodus 11:2. Kabbalah and Chassidut teach of Olam HaTohu, whose immense light shattered, scattering 288 sparks into this world. Our task is to elevate them through Torah and mitzvot. When all sparks are elevated, Messiah arrives.

[20] Talmud, Berakhot 9a; Rashi to Exodus 11:2. The messianic spark enters reality through Lot’s incest with his elder daughter (founder of Moav). This spark emerges from Olam HaTohu and must be refined within Olam HaTikkun.