PARSHA THEMES

Eitan Mayer

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PARASHAT LEKH LEKHA

Creating humanity was Hashem’s experiment: could a limited being, the human, reflect the divine (“tzelem Elokim”)? By the end of Parashat Bereishit, Hashem has decided that the answer is no: just before He brings the Flood to wipe out life on Earth, Hashem concludes (sadly) that humanity is basically evil. Even after the Flood, when only the righteous Noah is left, Hashem maintains the same belief in humanity’s basic evil inclination, despite having destroyed those humans whose evil behavior led to the Flood. But there is a critical difference between how Hashem characterizes humanity before and after the Flood; before the Flood, Hashem says, “All of the inclinations of the thoughts of Man’s heart are PURELY evil ALL DAY”; after the Flood, He says, “The inclinations of the heart of Man are evil FROM HIS YOUTH.” What is Hashem really “thinking”?

AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT: LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS!

Over the course of Parashat Noah, Hashem dramatically lowers His expectations of humanity: before the Flood, He had decided to destroy the world because the people were “purely evil all day”—since they had chosen evil, they deserved to be destroyed. But after the Flood, Hashem asserts that humans are “evil from their youth”—He ‘realizes’ that the evil inclination is built in, a part of them “from their youth.” Since Man must constantly struggle with his powerful evil inclination, he deserves some slack when he fails. While he is still held responsible for his actions, those actions will never lead to another worldwide destruction. Hashem no longer links the continued existence of the world to Man’s goodness. [Hashem continues to be ready to punish people for doing evil, as we see when he destroys Sedom and Amora.]

A FEW GOOD MEN:

Originally, Hashem’s plan had been to establish a close relationship with all humans. That plan met with disappointment and was rejected. The theme of the rest of Sefer Bereishit is Hashem’s search for “a few good men”: our parasha begins the process by which Hashem will identify the individuals to found an elect group, the one nation which will maintain a close relationship with Him. This is the meaning of the term “am segula” which we find later in the Torah: we have a special, intimate relationship with Hashem which implies both privileges and responsibilities.

Not only is this a turning point in the grand divine plan, it’s also a turning point for the Torah from a literary perspective. Until now, we’ve heard a lot about the universal: the creation of the entire cosmos, the sins of all of humanity, the destruction of the whole world. But from here on, the rest of Sefer Bereishit is filled with stories about individual people. The topic remains the development of a relationship between Hashem and humanity, but Hashem has decided to establish a special relationship with a select group. The stories of Sefer Bereishit explain how Hashem comes to choose this particular group of people.

AVRAHAM: THE FIRST TO PASS:

The first person to come along with the right combination of characteristics to found Hashem’s elite group is Avraham. The Torah does not tell us whether Hashem tested other people before Avraham to see if they could fill the role, but it is possible that there were other candidates before Avraham. If so, the reason we hear about only Avraham is because he is the only one to pass all the tests and succeed! [I have heard that the Hiddushei HaRim says that Hashem did indeed make attempts to get others to go to Cana’an before attempting with Avraham, but none of them listened. I was unable to find this myself in the Hiddushei HaRim.]

Avraham’s first reported act in our parasha is “Lekh lekha”—he abandons his life in Ur Kasdim, following the command of Hashem to leave everything behind and move to Cana’an. [Actually, the end of Parashat Noah seems to imply that Terah, Avraham’s father, led the family out of Ur Kasdim towards Cana’an, but the family stops for an undetermined time at Haran, where Terah dies. Hazal and the mefarshim suggest various solutions to resolve this account with the beginning of Parashat Lekh Lekha.] But our discussion will focus on something perhaps less well-understood: two very important agreements which Hashem makes with Avraham in our parasha.

We start with the “Berit bein ha-betarim,” the “Covenant Between the Split Parts”:

BEREISHIT 15:1-18 --

After these matters, the word of Hashem came to Avram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Avram, I shall protect you; your reward is truly great.”

Avram said, “Hashem, Lord, what can You give to me? For I am childless, and the master of provisions of my house is Eliezer of Damascus!” Avram said, “You have not given me children; the son of my household [i.e., my servant] shall inherit me!”

The word of Hashem came to him, saying, “He shall not inherit you; instead, he who comes from your body, he shall inherit you.” He brought him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you can count them!” He told him: “So [many] shall be your children.” He believed Hashem, and thought it just [”tzedaka”].

He said to him, “I am Hashem, who brought you out of Ur Kasdim to give you this land as an inheritance.”

He said, “Lord Hashem, by what sign will I know that I shall inherit it?” He said to him, “Take for Me a 3-year-old calf, a 3-year-old goat, a 3-year-old ram, and a turtledove, and a young dove.” He brought all these to Him and split them down the middle, and put each piece opposite the other; but he did not split the bird . . . . The sun was about to set, and a deep sleep fell upon Avram, and then a black, terrible fear fell upon him. He said to Avram, “Know that your children shall be foreigners in a land not their own, and they shall enslave them and abuse them for four hundred years. But also the nation whom they serve, judge I shall; then they shall leave with great wealth. But you shall come to your fathers in peace—you shall be buried at a good old age. And the fourth generation will return here, because the sins of the Emori will not be complete until then.” The sun had set, and it was twilight, and [there appeared] a smoking oven, with a flaming fire, which passed between the pieces.

On that day, Hashem made a covenant with Avram, saying, “To your children I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates River . . . .”

Now that we have read through the passage, we can start with some questions:

1) The first thing Hashem says to Avraham is, “Don’t be afraid.” What is Avraham afraid of, that he needs Hashem’s reassurance?

2) Next, Hashem tells Avraham that he will be rewarded well—but for what?

3) Taking Hashem’s entire statement together, why does He connect two things which seem totally unrelated: a) Avraham’s fear of something, from which he needs protection and b) the fact that he will be rewarded?

4) Avraham’s doubting Hashem’s assurance of reward seems shocking: is he questioning the promise he has already received about his having children?

5) Hashem shows Avraham the stars and promises that his descendants will be similarly numerous. But then, just a moment or two later, Hashem seems to interrupt the conversation to introduce Himself again: “I am Hashem, who brought you out of Ur Kasdim . . . .” Doesn’t Avraham know Whom he has been talking with?

6) In response to Hashem’s mentioning that this land will be Avraham’s inheritance, Avraham seems to ask for some sort of guarantee. Is he questioning the promises he has already received about his inheriting the land?

7) A related question: what does the slavery in Egypt have to do with Avraham’s question?

NOW FOR SOME ANSWERS:

1) On the issue of what Avraham is afraid of, several interpretations are offered by the mefarshim (commentators) :

a) Avraham is afraid he has used up his stored-up merit, that he has been rewarded for all of his good deeds with the success Hashem has granted him in the war he and his men have just won. He fears that he has consumed what should have been stored up for him as his portion in the afterlife. (The weakness of thialternative is there is no evidence for it at all in the text.)

b) He is afraid that during the war he killed a righteous person. (Again, no evidence for this in the text.)

c) He is afraid that the supporters of the kings he has beaten will hunt him down. (Support for this possibility: Hashem’s reassurance comes immediately after Avraham’s victory in the war.)

In any event, what is clear here is that Hashem is doing is reassuring him.

2) What is the reward is for? Again, suggestions from the mefarshim:

a) The reward is his place in the world to come, a reward for all the good deeds of his life: he is being told that he did not use up all of his merit. (Again, no textual support at all.)

b) The reward is for saving Lot, his nephew, which is what he has just done in the previous section and for which he has just refused the reward offered by the king of Sedom. Hashem is reassuring him that despite his refusal of the king of Sedom’s reward (Avraham did not want to be enriched by an evil person), he will be rewarded.

3) Why does Hashem connect the seemingly unrelated issues of Avraham’s fear and the reward he will get?

The most plausible connection is that both concerns flow directly from the section preceding the one above. Avraham is afraid of reprisals from the defeated kings, so Hashem reassures him of divine protection; Avraham has refused the reward offered by the king of Sedom, so Hashem assures him that He will reward Avraham Himself.

Hashem is especially interested in reassuring Avraham about the reward not because he wants Avraham to know he will be rewarded per se, but because this promise of reward provokes Avraham into revealing his anxiety about having no children to whom to pass whatever Hashem might give him. Hashem means to provoke this expression of insecurity so that He can reconfirm the promise and strengthen Avraham’s faith in it. If you don’t agree yet with this reading, in a moment we’ll see more evidence for it.

4) That moves us to the next question: is Avraham questioning Hashem’s promise of children?

a) Most mefarshim suggest that Avraham is not doubting Hashem’s promise, but he is afraid that the promise has been revoked because he did something wrong. There is no textual evidence for this approach; the commentators are motivated to suggest this alternative primarily because the other alternative is to say that Avraham did indeed doubt Hashem’s promise.

b) A plain reading of the text indicates exactly that: Avraham’s faith in the promise is weakening. He has grown old, yet he remains childless. He believed the promise before, but he is beginning to worry, and he wants reassurance.

This alternative may seem controversial, but it is explicitly supported by the next pasuk (verse), which makes the strange comment that Avraham “believed the promise.” In other words, only after Hashem’s reassurance is Avraham confident that Hashem will indeed give him a child. Perhaps our image of Avraham makes it hard for us to believe that he could doubt anything Hashem said, but the Torah itself tells us here that only after this reassurance do Avraham’s doubts go away. We will return to this issue as we continue.

5) Why does Hashem interrupt the conversation to introduce Himself once again?

This is really not an interruption in the middle of the conversation. It’s the Torah’s way of telling us that these are two totally separate conversations! Hashem introduces Himself again because He is indeed introducing Himself at the beginning of a separate conversation which took place at a different time. The reason why the Torah places the two conversations side by side is part of the answer to our next question.

6) Is Avraham questioning the promise about the land? Possibilities:

a) He is worried that the promise has been revoked because he did something wrong. (Again, no evidence for this.)

b) Avraham is getting old, and the land is still quite occupied by Cana’anite nations. He sees nothing happening to advance the process of his inheriting the land. He wants confirmation of the promise.

As mentioned above, there are really two totally separate episodes here. The first episode concerns the promise of children; this section ends when the Torah tells us that Avraham believes the promise. Then comes another story, which begins with Hashem introducing Himself and mentioning, seemingly out of nowhere, that He is the God who took Avraham out of Ur Kasdim in order to give the land of Cana’an to him as an inheritance. What Hashem is trying to do is to provoke Avraham into revealing his anxiety about this issue as well—if he is indeed to inherit the land, when is that going to happen? He has been promised that he will inherit it, but the years are passing by and there is no sign that the divine plan is becoming reality.

It should be clear by now that the reason the Torah puts these two stories together is because of their common theme. In both, Hashem provokes Avraham into revealing his doubts about the promises he has received. This gives Hashem the opportunity to reassure him.

7) Our last question was why Hashem tells Avraham all about the enslavement in Egypt at this point, and how this relates to his question about inheriting the land.

Avraham’s question was whether he would inherit the land, and if so, when. Hashem responds that Avraham misunderstood the promise: the land would never actually be his personally—it would belong to his descendants. Hashem tells him that before they inherit the land, two other processes will have to run their course: the enslavement in Egypt and the moral degradation of the current Cana’anite inhabitants of the land to the point where they deserve to lose their claim to it.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:

We are used to thinking of Avraham as appearing on the scene of the Humash with his faith in Hashem already perfect; we are used to thinking of him as having *already* been selected by Hashem. I am suggesting that he has not yet passed all the tests (a thought confirmed resoundingly by Hazal). At this point, Hashem is both training him and reassuring him, on the one hand, as well as testing him, on the other hand. The command to leave his homeland is one of the tests, which, as we know, he passes. This earns him the right to the promises recorded earlier in the parasha—the promises of children and land. In the section we looked at above, Hashem relates to Avraham not as a tester, challenging Avraham’s faith, but as a trainer and reassurer of Avraham’s faith. Avraham is afraid, so Hashem tells him not to be afraid, that He will protect him; Avraham is worried about the promise of children, so Hashem provokes him into revealing his doubt and then reassures him; Avraham is worried about the promise of the land, so Hashem provokes him into revealing his doubt and then reassures him by making a covenant with him.

Doubt is part of the process of growing in faith. Hashem understands that we often need reassurance, even about things we have already been told. Hashem knows that we are not born with perfect faith, and does not expect that we will never falter in that faith. In these two stories, Hashem shows tremendous patience with Avraham’s doubts and a deep willingness to train Avraham to strengthen his faith. We usually miss this critical message of the Torah because we simply assume that Avraham could never have doubted anything. We are therefore forced to deny the plain sense of the Torah.

Our parasha presents a process by which Hashem both strengthens Avraham and tests his strength; if Avraham harbored doubts and needed strengthening, it is certainly acceptable for us to have doubts and to need strengthening. Not only is it legitimate to have doubts, it is also legitimate to come to Hashem Himself with these doubts and share them with Him.

THE CIRCUMCISION COVENANT:

The next section we will look at is one in which Avraham receives the command of Berit Mila—the covenant of circumcision. Because of time and space concerns, we will look at this section only briefly.

BEREISHIT 17:1-14 --

Avram was 99 years old, and Hashem apto Avram and said to him, “I am E-l Shad-dai, walk before Me and be perfect. I hereby My covenant between Me and you, and I shall greatly, greatly increase you.”

Avram fell upon his face, and Hashem spoke with him, saying: “I hereby make a covenant with you: you shall be the father of MANY NATIONS. You shall no longer be called ‘Avram’, but ‘Avraham’, because I have made you the father of MANY NATIONS [”av hamon goyyim”]. I shall make you very, very fruitful—into NATIONS—and kings shall come from you. I will uphold My covenant between Me and you, and with YOUR CHILDREN AFTER YOU, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be your God and YOUR CHILDREN’S AFTER YOU. I will give to you and YOUR CHILDREN AFTER YOU the land in which you live, all of the Land of Cana’an, as a permanent possession, and I will be their God.”

Hashem said to Avraham, “You shall keep My covenant, you and YOUR CHILDREN AFTER YOU, in their generations. This is My covenant which you should keep between Me and you, and with YOUR CHILDREN AFTER YOU: circumcise every male. You should circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, as a sign of the covenant between Me and you. An uncircumcised male, who does not circumcise the flesh of his foreskin—that soul will be cut off from its nation; he has annulled My covenant.”

How is this covenant different from the Berit bein HaBetarim, the Covenant Between the Pieces, which we looked at above? One way to pinpoint differences between apparently similar pieces of the Torah is to look for the key words of each section and compare them to each other. In the section we have just read, the following words and phrases are key:

1) “Many nations”: there is a particular emphasis on Avraham’s development into “nations” or “many nations.”

2) “Your children after you”: the most significant phrase we find here is “your children after you,” which appears 5 times within 4 pesukim (verses) -- twice in verse 7, and once each in 8, 9, and 10.

In other words, while the previous berit (covenant) focused powerfully on Avraham personally and individually, this covenant focuses very much on the relationship between Hashem and the *descendants* of Avraham. This is not just a promise of children and land for Avraham qua righteous individual, not just reassurance and strengthening for Avraham qua man of growing faith, it is the establishment of a covenant between a leader and all generations of his descendants.

3) “An everlasting covenant”: one other indication of the everlasting nature of this covenant is that the pesukim come right out and tell us—twice—that this covenant is permanent, in pesukim 7 and 8.

The content of the covenant itself is contained in pesukim 7 and 8, and it is two-fold:

a) Hashem will be the God of this nation forever. This is an unprecedented phrase in the Torah: never before has Hashem said a word about being the God of any one particular people. Until now, He has been the God of all nations equally. Now, He focuses on one nation. This nation will be the select group with the special relationship with Hashem, and they will possess the Land of Cana’an forever.

The physical symbol of this covenant also indicates that the covenant does not focus on Avraham, the individual, and instead focuses on all of the future individuals of the nation he will produce. That symbol is the mila, circumcision. Avraham is the first person to enter this covenant, the first to perform the act of cutting which is traditionally part of a covenant (as in the case of the Covenant Between the “Cut Pieces” which we discussed above). But unlike the previous covenant, which was sealed by Avraham and his action, this covenant, the covenant of circumcision, must be repeated in every generation, by every male individual who wishes to be a part of it. Unlike the Covenant Between the Cut Pieces, where Avraham played a central role, here he is only the first in a line of millions of Jews who will enter the same covenant with Hashem. By keeping the covenant, each generation affirms its relationship with Hashem and with Eretz Yisrael. Of course, one cannot help pondering this everlasting covenant’s implications in light of recent developments in Israel: finding the correct balance between our responsibility to our and future generations’ connection to Eretz Yisrael, and our responsibility to our and future generations’ safety and security and peace, can only be a wrenching process. May Hashem guide us and our leaders.

Shabbat Shalom,

Eitan