AVRAHAM:  HEARING & DOING ARE ONE

“Lech L’cha”: To Be a Jew...

 

By Daniel Nakonechny

 

 

Our having two Torahs, a written Torah and an oral Torah, is because each needs the other. The written Torah focuses on what and how God is teaching us and the oral Torah is the explanation and substance of what God is teaching us. Studying the written Torah demands that we first attempt to pierce its mysteries unaided, before we turn to any commentators, i.e. the oral Torah. Only when by ourselves we honestly and genuinely - and even strenuously - attempt to make sense of what God is saying in the written Torah is when we can begin to understand the oral Torah.

 

Of course, we do and must turn to the oral Torah for explanation, most simply because the complexity and vastness of Torah requires us to seek the knowledge of those who have mastered its intricacies and depths. Nevertheless, there are times when the pure beauty of God’s written words shines through by itself, as this week’s parsha reveals.

 

The opening lines of this week’s parsha, Lech L’cha, are extraordinary. We are literally at some point in Abraham’s life without knowing how we got there, and God is telling Avraham to leave “your homeland, your birthplace, and your father’s home, i.e. leave your heritage.”

 

As significant and as substantial the conversation between God and Avraham is, it’s even more significant and substantial, and even portentous, when we realize that Avraham is the source from whence we all come - the first Jew and our first forefather. The question that begs to be asked is: “Why is it that the Torah introduces us to Avraham as Avraham precisely at the moment when he is confronted with the choice of undertaking and fulfilling what God is asking of him?”

 

And choice is what is demanded. For although God’s language is one of enticement and promise, much more than it is outright demand or command (which is supported by Rashi and Chazal), and although it isn’t that what is being asked isn’t good for Avraham and even necessary…

 

It’s just that what is being asked of him exceeds the boundaries. “Uproot your entire life and existence and move to…”

 

Yet God does just that, He asks. And Avraham does just that, he goes.

Even more perplexing is that the way that this parsha opens up it’s difficult to not have the feeling of Avraham being plucked from obscurity. Other than being mentioned at the end of parshat Noach, there is nothing in the Torah that even hints about what Avraham is. A few lines about his birth to tell us that he has lineage, a few words about his marriage to tell us that he’s established in society, and then…gornisht [Yid: nothing]! And from gornisht to talking with God?!

 

What’s in between? What is it that we’re missing?

 

Does it matter? Is it really necessary that we know?

 

Isn’t it sufficient that Avraham does it? That he goes!?

 

And there is no denying that Avraham does go, just as there is no denying that in doing so Avraham literally changes the face of creation…and it all comes from God’s words, “Lech L’cha” - go for your sake.

 

The utter simplicity of what’s written in the Torah doesn’t skip over anything essential in the life of Avraham, nor does it neglect to teach us what makes Avraham become what he becomes: the first Jew and our first forefather. As befitting God, no elaboration is necessary. In ultimate simplicity it is sufficient that God merely requests, “Lech L’cha”, “I’m asking you to go……to go for your sake”.

 

And Avraham, in response, does. Avraham anchors his future and his destiny with God, and it is on the strength of acting on his belief that so much comes into the world.

 

Because Avraham has the greatness to hear God and because he has the courage of heart to listen to God is why Avraham is both the first Jew and our first forefather.

...but also The Completion of Our Deepest Dreams.

 

It’s known to all that our history as Jews begins with Avraham, our first forefather, and undeniably that beginning is where God commands Avraham to leave where he is. Specifically, he tells him to leave his homeland, his birthplace, and his father’s home, i.e. his heritage. Why?

 

God’s telling Avraham to ‘leave’ is literally the opening words of parshat ‘Lech L’cha’, but at this point in time within the written Torah it’s impossible to know very much about Avraham. This very dearth of knowledge is the heart of the dilemma of learning the written Torah. By nature and by design it doesn’t provide an obvious wealth of information. Much understanding is dependent upon previous knowledge and familiarity with known sources, and because this is true is why the oral Torah accompanies the written Torah. Without assistance we’re lost, literally.

 

If we had only the paucity of information that the written Torah provides, we could be tempted to think that God simply chose Avraham at random. But it’s absurd and ludicrous to think that merely through pure chance God will promise anyone, even Avraham, “you’ll become a father of nations [i.e. of mankind].” It is only to us, the unlearned, for whom Avraham apparently can come out of obscurity and nothingness. Because we honestly don’t know, we require the help of tradition, i.e. the oral Torah, to unravel the mystery of Avraham.

 

Tradition teaches us many things about Avraham, including that Avraham has already visited the Land of Canaan some years prior to God’s actually asking him to uproot. It’s known that Avraham’s a substantial individual who lives a substantial life, a person who is from the cream of society - not its margins. He’s a sagacious and respected man whose counsel is sought regarding significant matters of the day, and a renowned arbitrator. In keeping with whom he is and as befitting someone of his stature and profundity, he of a certainty has his own dreams and visions for how and in which direction life and society should develop.

 

The reality of Avraham, if expressed in today’s terms, is that he is a genuinely universal humanist, a person who is seriously and entirely concerned and involved with the essence and substance of life and society, from its greatest to its smallest needs and demands. Like every genuinely universal humanist, he wants to reform society, to rebuild it in a way that will benefit all mankind. He wants to fix the world in a way that will stand for all eternity. In all honesty, who among us doesn’t - however much or little we ever contemplate it and even attempt it - entertain similar desires, thoughts, and dreams?

 

What distinguishes Avraham from other genuinely universal humanists, and perhaps from us, is that Avraham has a very clear understanding of the need for a spiritual foundation as the basis for all that he hopes to accomplish. Albeit that the spiritual world that Avraham is born into is idolatrous in substance, Avraham nonetheless has the wherewithal to grasp, comprehend and believe that “it isn’t man who creates god, but God who creates man.”

 

Avraham’s emergence into higher spiritual consciousness, instead of elevating him from the world, causes him to relate with greater concern and compassion towards society and creation. As much as his beliefs bring him into conflict with society, they equally provoke him to attempt to affect society. His beliefs create in him an insatiable restlessness that derives from his understanding between what is and between what could and should be. Inevitably, it is from God’s hands that Avraham seeks counsel, and although they are unrecorded clearly he has lengthy communications with God (however we might want to understand the medium of communication between God and man).

 

It is against this background of Avraham - Avraham the genuinely universal humanist, the reformer in heart and soul, and the person who attaches himself and his life to God - where we enter Avraham’s life. But we aren’t given the development; we enter in the middle. What is the purpose of our entering Avraham’s life specifically at the moment when God is telling him, ‘leave’? It’s understandable and acceptable to meet Avraham at a point in his life when he confronts the need for God’s involvement in helping him fulfill his dreams of reforming society. We can undoubtedly can expect that at this point and place in time that Avraham’s even prepared to do something radical. What do we learn by walking into Avraham’s life when he’s being asked to outright uproot himself? And even it’s for God?!……it just seems so drastic, so contrary, and so counter to everything that he’s prepared himself for.

 

Yet God asks............and Avraham goes!?

 

Perhaps overlooked by us because it is less visible is that God doesn’t outright command Avraham to ‘go’, doesn’t command him in the sense that Avraham could only obey. In honesty God tells Avraham, “You can stay where you are, Avraham. You’re a pillar of existence, and your whole life will be one of growth and influencing mankind. But you have to know that when you’re gone it will all dissipate. It will never take root, and what you’ve labored for will eventually become as if it never was. If you want continuation, if you want perpetuity, if you want completion then you must go...“lech l’cha” - go for your sake.”

 

“Lech l’cha” - go for your sake. Go where? “El ha’aretz asher ereh l’cha”- to the land which I will show you.

 

Take everything that you are and have, Avraham, and bring it to the place of the Divine. Bring yourself to My land, to My home. It’s only there that you’ll be able to establish eternal roots and eternal substance. It’s only there that you will fulfill your goals of ‘universal humanism’, i.e. your concern from the depths of your being for the wellbeing of all mankind and existence.

 

God is first and foremost acknowledging that Avraham’s perceptions and understandings are correct. The loftiest of goals and the most magnificent of dreams for mankind can only be fulfilled if they are rooted in the Divine. What God is teaching Avraham, and subsequently us, is that the reality of God having a place in this world already exists; it’s not something that man is going to create - at least not from scratch. The reason it exists is that eternal dreams have to be rooted in the reality of God’s world. Says God to Avraham: “I have a place in this world. Do you have the courage to open your heart and accept it and become eternal? Or do you wish to pursue your own ideals and wisdom knowing that they will disappear into oblivion?”

 

Avraham, as befitting the first Jew, doesn’t even bother to answer. He gathers himself and his wife, his servants and his property and he goes. He does so because he believes. He believes that he and God, together, can do it. Avraham chooses to unite his heart and his being with God’s heart and God’s being in God’s homeland.

A Jew can be and can live in Eretz Yisrael yet be oblivious to God, whether or not he or she is religious. A Jew can live outside of Eretz Yisrael and be deeply connected to God, whether or not he or she is religious. But a Jew can never be connected to God without being connected to Eretz Yisrael. (This might explain why there are Jews who have absolutely the minimalist connection with Judaism and their Jewish roots who suddenly pick up and make Aliyah, and why there are Jews who are ‘immersed in Torah and Judaism’ who don’t.)

 

God is the ground of all being, and the sanctification of God and His being begins on the ground, literally. That ground is here in Eretz Yisrael. When we open our hearts to where God is, then we open our hearts to what God is.

 

As Avraham learned, God is the completion of our deepest dreams, and that is why the genuinely ultimate universal humanist is also the first Jew.

 

It is because of Avraham that having the greatness to hear and the courage of heart to listen exist until this day. That’s why there are Jews in the world - because there is a God. He does talk to us and we do listen. Maybe we don’t do it all the time and maybe we don’t even do it a lot of the time, but we know that it can be done and we - God and us - do it.

 

The days are coming when, like Avraham, our own hearing and our own doing are also going to be a matter of eternal public record. It was recorded at Har Sinai when we heard, “HaShem Elokeinu, HaShem Echad”, and it was recorded in Shushan [Megilat Esther] when we did, “v’kiyamu u’kiblu haYehudim aleihem” […and the Jews fulfilled and accepted upon themselves…]. When next it is recorded we will do it both: “HaShem Elokeinu, HaShem Echad” and “v’kiyamu u’kiblu haYehudim aleihem” will be one.

 

That’s what Avraham Avinu, Avraham our [first] Forefather, taught us - hearing and doing are One.

 

Shabbat Shalom,

 

Daniel Nakonechny
Beit El
Ram Cheshvan 5767