Lech Lecha: The Great Treasure

God informed Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved in a foreign land, but they would leave "with a great treasure."  What was this treasure?

We usually understand this to mean the clothes and jewelry that the Israelites took from the Egyptians before they left Egypt. However, the Sages taught that this treasure was in fact something far greater: the Torah that God gave the Jewish people at Sinai. 


But if the "great treasure" is the Torah, why did God command the Israelites to ask the Egyptians for clothing and gold and silver?

The Maggid reconciled this difficulty with the following parable:

The Disappointed Worker

12-year-old Johnny found work doing odd jobs at a local store over a period of half a year. The merchant agreed to pay him sixty silver dollars for his work.

At the end of the period, the merchant realized that the amount he had agreed upon was really insufficient. Johnny had worked diligently and had done an excellent job. Therefore he put the silver coins aside, and instead wrote out a check for three times the amount originally agreed upon.

The merchant proudly handed the check to Johnny. But to his surprise, instead of thanking him for his generosity, the boy unhappily stuffed the check in his pocket and bolted out the door with teary eyes.

The next day, the Johnny's father appeared at the merchant's door. "You have been most generous to my son, and I would like to thank you. But he is still young and doesn't understand the value of a check. All he knows is that he was supposed to receive a purse full of shiny silver coins, and instead he got a plain piece of paper. I would be most grateful if you could pay Johnny at least part of his wages in silver dollars."

The True Treasure

The "great treasure" that God promised Abraham was in fact the Torah that the Jewish people would receive at Sinai. But this was a spiritual treasure that the young and immature nation could not yet fully appreciate. In order that the people would not feel that they left Egypt empty-handed, God commanded them to request gold and silver and garments from the Egyptians. This way they would leave Egypt with a tangible wealth that they could appreciate, like the boy's silver dollars.

Only after the Jewish people grew in wisdom did they understand that the true "great treasure" that they received was not the coins and trinkets provided by the Egyptians, but the gift of Torah -- a priceless treasure which has accompanied us throughout the generations.

Adapted from “The Maggid and his Parables,” pp. 212-213