Ramban, on Gen 15:10

“And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the two pieces of each one against the other; but the birds he divided not.”

“AND HE DIVIDED THEM IN THE MIDST. This he did in order that He make the covenant with him, to pass between these parts. He thereby alluded to Abraham that all sacrifices of cattle and fowl will be from these species since the gozeil (young pigeon) mentioned here is identical with the ben yonah (young pigeon) mentioned in the Book of Leviticus. Here it is called gozeil to indicate that only the young of this specie are fit for sacrifices. Now even though all young fowl are called gozlim — as it is said, As an eagle that stirreth up her nest, hovereth over ‘gozalav’ (his young ones) — Abraham understood on his own that the command of the Eternal applied to the kind which was to be selected [by the Torah, namely, young pigeons]. It may be that Abraham followed his own will in offering a young pigeon, and Scripture selected forever the specie which the patriarch had offered. Thus did Abraham know that the sacrifices would be of these species and that all of them would be divided into parts: the Whole-offering into its pieces, the Peace-offering into the breast, shoulder and fats,, 7:30-32 and the Sin-offering and the Guilt-offering into their fats., 4:31; 7:2-5. BUT THE BIRD HE DID NOT SPLIT. He placed the turtle-dove and the young pigeon opposite each other for they too were in the covenant, but Abraham did not split them in the middle since concerning all fowl offered on the altar it says, He shall not separate it., 1:17. In Bereshith Rabbah the Sages said, “The Holy One, blessed be He, indicated to him that in a bird Whole-offering, the ministering-priest severs both the gullet and the windpipe, but in a bird Sin-offering he does not sever” [the head from the body, as he must cut one and not both of the organs]. [hatzipor — singular] he did not split? This is to indicate that of the two kinds of sacrifices to be brought from fowl, namely, the Sin-offering and the Whole-offering, only one would be subject to the injunction not to separate it, and Scripture later specifies that this is the bird Sin-offering. (Leviticus 5:8.)”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.

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