no place like home

Our parsha tells us that there was a massive war of five kings against four. It must have been a humanitarian disaster involving death, destruction, loss of property.  However, it is not until Avraham hears that his own family member Lot has been captured, וַיִּשְׁמַ֣ע אַבְרָ֔ם כִּ֥י נִשְׁבָּ֖ה אָחִ֑יו, that he moves to intervene.  Had Lot not been involved, presumably Avraham would have sat on the sidelines and watched these nation clans beat each other to death.  Maybe we don't need to jump into every case of crisis in the world and offer our help.  Maybe this case is different because going to war is a sakana, and therefore the risk of providing aid has to be balanced against personal cost.

Later in the parsha Avraham famously asks G-d how he can be sure that his children will be the ones to inherit Eretz Yisrael, בַּמָּ֥ה אֵדַ֖ע כִּ֥י אִֽירָשֶֽׁנָּה (15:7)  "Yerusha ain lah hefesk" -- G-d's promise amounts to an eternal kinyan, an unbreakable claim to Eretz Yisrael granted to the Jewish people, even if we are exiled, even if we are banished for centuries.  How is such a thing possible?  G-d responds,  וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לְאַבְרָ֗ם יָדֹ֨עַ תֵּדַ֜ע כִּי־גֵ֣ר׀ יִהְיֶ֣ה זַרְעֲךָ֗ בְּאֶ֙רֶץ֙ לֹ֣א לָהֶ֔ם וַעֲבָד֖וּם וְעִנּ֣וּ אֹתָ֑ם אַרְבַּ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָֽה.  The simple reading is that G-d does not answer Avraham's question, but rather tells him that because of his question, his lack of faith, his children must suffer the penalty of exile.  R' Yaakov Moshe Charlap, however, suggests that G-d here has in fact provided an answer to Avraham.  כִּי־גֵ֣ר׀ יִהְיֶ֣ה זַרְעֲךָ֗ בְּאֶ֙רֶץ֙ לֹ֣א לָהֶ֔ם, your children may suffer exile, but the lands they go to will always be foreign lands to them, "lands not their own."  No matter how many centuries pass while we are in exile, no matter where we find ourselves, there will aways only be one home for us, and that is Eretz Yisrael.