EXTRA on Lech Lecha 15:13

Complete Passuk

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לְאַבְרָ֗ם יָדֹ֨עַ תֵּדַ֜ע כִּי־גֵ֣ר יִהְיֶ֣ה זַרְעֲךָ֗ בְּאֶ֙רֶץ֙ לֹ֣א לָהֶ֔ם וַעֲבָד֖וּם וְעִנּ֣וּ אֹתָ֑ם אַרְבַּ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָֽה׃

And He said to Avram, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.”

Core Text

יָדֹעַ תֵּדַע — כָּפַל לוֹמַר יָדֹעַ תֵּדַע. אָמְרוּ חֲזַ״ל: בִּשְׁבִיל שֶׁאָמַר אַבְרָהָם ״בַּמָּה אֵדַע״ נִגְזְרָה גָּלוּת. עוֹד: גֵּר יִהְיֶה זַרְעֲךָ — הִקְדִּים ״גֵּר״ לְלַמֵּד שֶׁהַגֵּרוּת הִתְחִילָה כְּבָר מֵעַתָּה.

English: “Know, you shall know” — the doubled verb. Our Sages said: because Avraham asked “How shall I know?”, exile was decreed. Further: “a stranger shall your offspring be” — “stranger” is placed first to teach that the status of alienage already began from this moment.

On the daf / in context: Ohr HaChaim develops both the doubled ידע תדע (linking Avraham’s question to the decree of exile) and the word order of גר יהיה זרעך (alienage as already present in Avraham’s own lifetime, not only a future Egyptian sojourn).

What Is Learned: The covenant’s prophecy of exile is tied midrashically and by Ohr HaChaim to Avraham’s own request for certainty; the wording also teaches that gerut began in the patriarchal period itself.

Supplementary classical material not listed by Torah Temimah under this exact passuk.