Take the First Step

This week’s Torah portion is Lech Lecha, which means, go for yourself. God speaks to Abraham for the very first time, with the offer of great blessing, if Abraham will follow God, leaving his native land to journey to Canaan in order to establish a new nation there. Abraham does so and God promises him the land four separate times in this portion. At the end of Lech lecha, God makes a covenant with Abraham: every male will be circumcised at the age of 8 days. Abraham, 13 year old Ishmael, who is Abraham’s son with Hagar, the maidservant, and all the men in Abraham’s employ become circumcised.

Just what is this covenant all about? We hear so much about the covenant, but what exactly is it? A covenant is usually an agreement between two people. Each party has an obligation. Abraham has two obligations: to accept God for himself, his household, and for all the generations that will follow, and to circumcise himself and all the males in his household, as a sign of that acceptance. God takes on three obligations: to give Abraham offspring, who will become great nations, to give him the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession, and to be a God to Abraham and his offspring forever. God had great faith in Abraham, knowing that Abraham would not only agree to the terms of the treaty, but that he would complete all the circumcisions on that very same day, acting with that admirable quality that Moshe Chaim Luzzato called alacrity, in his famous work, Path of the Just. Rashi, our famous Torah Commentator, taught us similarly, do not delay a mitzvah (Bo).

Abraham had such a difficult thing to do. There is a haftarah that we read in the spring in conjunction with the book of Leviticus, about doing something difficult. Naaman, Captain of the army of the king of Aram, was a leper. The Prophet Elisha, told him how to cure his leprosy: requiring him to bathe 7X in the Jordan. Naaman became enraged at the ridiculousness of the suggestion; and his servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had bid you do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather then, when he said to you, Wash, and be clean (2 kings Chapter 5)? It is so much easier for most of us, to accept the covenant and to circumcise, not usually ourselves, but our children than to do what Abraham did.

But what does the Torah mean in the beginning of this section, when God said to Abraham, “Walk before me and be perfect”? We have to remember that Sara did not conceive Isaac until after the circumcision. Walk before me then means that God is saying to Abraham, I will follow you. I will be watching you and I will come after you. Please take the first action, otherwise, I can’t do anything. Your action will be completed by me. I follow your lead. Are we then leading God? Of course not. The Eternal One is our Divine teacher: showing us which way to go. God points the way. We must decide whether to go there. The covenant has been accepted for us because it simply is an enduring truth that all existence is One. And yet, it is up to us to act, taking upon ourselves the obligations of the covenant in every choice we make. May we know that our Divine Guide is both in front of us as well as following us, and may we, like Abraham, find great blessings by walking forward on the path that leads to kindness, generosity, compassion and love.