A Higher Purpose

This week’s Torah portion is Lech Lecha, Go for yourself. The portion relates God’s call to Abram, his going forth out of Mesopotamia to Canaan. It contains God’s promises that the land will be given to Abraham’s descendants, the birth of Ishmael, and the prophecy of the birth of Isaac, the covenant between God and Abram in which Abram and Sarai receive their new names, Abraham and Sarah, culminating in their promise to worship only God, and the rite of circumcision.

There is a wonderful account here (Gen. 15) of a prior covenant between God and Abram, before he becomes Abraham, called the covenant between the pieces. In a vision, God tells Abram that his reward will be very great. Abram responds that he has no children to inherit anything he receives and God reassures him that he will have offspring. The Eternal promises Abram the land of Canaan for the 3rd time, and Abram asks God how he will know that he’ll inherit it. God very tenderly proposes that they make a treaty just as if God were a real human person.

If we think of all the promises that God made to Abraham, from the beginning of this chapter, they include many material rewards: children and many descendants, prosperity, land, security in that God will bless those who bless Abram and curse those who curse him, and also fame. In verse 7 (15:7) God says, I am God who brought you out of Ur Kasdim to give you this land to inherit it.” All by itself, it is an unremarkable verse, but seen against the backdrop of the rest of the Torah, in which God says, I am God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, over 30 times, the verse speaks to us differently from it’s plain meaning.

It recalls a story I once read from a book I don’t have anymore. It went something like this: one day the lord of the manor summoned one of his workers to ask him to fetch water in a very large bucket and bring him the water. The worker took the bucket and tried to fill it, but the bucket had many small leaks and it was impossible to fulfill his master’s request. He filled it again and again, but in vain, the water would not remain in the bucket. The man brought the bucket back to his master in deep frustration and said, I tried and tried but could not bring you water in this bucket. The lord smiled kindly at him and said gently, I really didn’t want the water. What I wanted was to have the bucket cleaned.

This story gives us a peek into the relationship between God and Abram. God seems to offer Abram many material blessings, but really, God has other rewards in mind. God wants to take Abram out – out of his family, out of his native land, and out of himself, to discover a higher, more spiritual, holier self. We are all being taken out of one place and being led to another. Wherever we are now, God is leading us out of that place en route to our better selves, not always to a physical place, but sometimes that does occur: a place where new experiences, possibilities of change, and opportunities to be a blessing will be found. As it is said in the midrash: “I am the Guide, the Sovereign of the Universe. So shall the king desire your beauty (ib. 12), to make you glorious in the world. (Gen. 39:1,3)… this refers to Abraham, who united the whole world for us, like a person who sews a tear together.”

The midrash teaches us that this elevation is not done just for our enjoyment or to bless us alone. Our relationship with God is for a higher purpose, to unify the world and elevate all our relationships thereby. May we know that all that comes to us must serve that higher purpose, and that in addition, the Eternal Holy One is constantly trying to send us personal blessings along the way.

The Mystery of God's Support

This week’s Torah portion is Lech Lecha, or, go for yourself, in which Abraham, whose name is still Abram, receives the call from God to leave his family and go forth from his native land to a land God promises to show him. He is told he will be greatly blessed with land, fame, and descendants, and that God will bless his friends and curse his enemies. This portion shows, in a series of incidents, how God teaches Abraham. There is a midrash that the sages like to quote, “Abraham knew the Torah before it was given.” I’ve seen this in more than 3 sources. I think Abraham must have been a very good and moral person to begin with; however we see Abraham being educated slowly, as well, in this portion.

First there is a famine. Abraham asks Sarah to say she is his sister, so that he will not be killed. As the custom was to seize the beautiful wife and kill the husband, she agrees, but Sarah is taken into Pharaoh’s harem, a terrible turn of events. If Abraham had trusted that God would curse his enemies and protect him, would he have needed to lie? Would he have put Sarah in danger? We don’t’ know. God sends an illness to Pharaoh’s household so that no one feels well enough to have sexual relations, and Abraham leaves with Sarah unscathed and great wealth, the payment in a sense, given to Abraham by Pharaoh when he seized Sarah. God has taught Abraham that God will keep the promises of blessing and protection.

Then comes another test: there is a war of 4 chieftains fighting 5 chieftains. Lot, Abraham’s nephew is captured; so Abraham enters the war to get him back. Abraham is successful, and after the war is over, the victorious kings assemble to divide the spoils of war. What happens is strange; and we know that the sages taught that there are no coincidences. God arranges for a man named Malchizedek, whose name means righteous king, to be present. Malchizedek is described as a priest of God the most high,” who lives in Jerusalem. As they are about to divide the spoils, Malchizedek brings out bread and wine, which has become our Jewish custom, perhaps an ancient pagan custom, but also perhaps something Abraham picked up from this non-Jewish priest. He then blesses Abraham.

It is strange because we are not told that Malchizedek blessed the other chieftains. He is fixated on Abraham; and then he says, Blessed is Abraham of God the Most High, the owner of heaven and earth, and blessed is God the Most High, who has delivered you foes into your hand. (Gen. 14:18).” It is almost as if Malchizedek is a plant, put there by God just for Abraham. What is Malchizedek teaching Abraham here? He reminds Abraham by stressing that God owns everything, that all the wealth belongs to God: in other words, the spoils of war don’t really belong to you or to the others. Malchizedek then reminds Abraham that God has given them the victory, not their own strength or military prowess. The Sages in Pirkei Avot famously said, “Who is wise, the one who learns from every person.”

The support that Malchizedek gives Abraham is just what Abraham needs at this very moment, to be able to do the right thing. Abraham gives a 10 % donation to this priest, another monotheist, and then he gives up all the spoils, the wealth he might have taken, and by the customs of the time, that he was entitled to, as war at that time was a money making proposition; kind of like investing in junk bonds: you may win big or you may lose big. Abraham then explains that it will be God who makes him rich.

This portion shows us that God teaches us through tests, and also by making sure that we are supported when we have to make an important decision, so that we will do the right thing. Abraham repeats what Malchizedek said, that God owns everything, and repeats the word for tithe, from the root, 10, esser, becoming fixated on the teaching that our money and also our time and our life’s energy really belong to God. If Malchizedek had not been there and said what he said, might Abraham have been tempted to take some of the wealth? Would he have invoked God’s name and Presence at that time? We don’t know.

What is clear is that God supported Abraham with Malchizedek’s presence and words, helping him to become an even greater blessing. May we realize that we are being tested and also supported in our lives and tests; that our time and energy and also our money really belong to God, and may we eagerly embrace God’s support and precious teachings, so that, like Abraham, we will be a very great blessing.

Let It Be Me

This week’s Torah portion is Lech Lecha, which means, go for yourself. God speaks to Abraham, whose name is still Abram until the end of this portion, 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: Abraham and his descendants accept God as the only God, and as the sign of the covenant, every male will be circumcised at the age of 8 days. God then gives Abraham and Sarah their new names. There is an interesting story in this portion about a war between local chieftains. Four kings were battling against 5 kings. Abraham hears that his nephew, Lot, has been captured and immediately arms his employees to enter the fray and rescue Lot. Abraham’s allies are victorious and Abraham brings Lot back.

The kings gather to divide the plunder, the spoils of war. The Torah says, “And Malchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of God the Most High. Malchizekek blessed him and said, Blessed is Abram of God, the Most High, maker of Heaven and Earth, and blessed is God, the Most High, Who has delivered your foes into your hand. (Gen. 14:18). This man, Malchizedek, whose name means Righteous King, is very mysterious. This is his only mention in the Torah. Apparently he is a priest who is a monotheist, someone who worships the one God. And even more intriguing, he lives in Salem, in other words, Jerusalem, the place where Jacob eventually will settle. So there is a monotheist in the very same area where God has asked Abraham to settle.

This is even more strange when we take into account another line from last week’s portion. We are told at the end of the portion, Noah, “Terah took his son Abram, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they departed from Ur of the Chaldees, to go to the land of Canaan; they arrived at Haran, and settled there” (11: 31). This verse tells us that Abraham’s Father, Terah, was also on his way to Canaan, but that he stopped and settled in Haran, which was still a part of Mesopotamia, and never completed the journey. Now Mesopotamia was the heart of civilization at this time. Canaan was the sticks. Why would anyone go there? Abraham’s brother had died in Ur. Terah had lost a child. Perhaps they were fleeing painful memories. Maybe we can see God’s hand in theses events.

It seems that perhaps God was trying to establish monotheism in this very specific place on the earth. Perhaps God tried to do this with Malchizedek, but it seems that Malchizedek’s influence was limited. Perhaps God tried to do this with Terah, Abraham’s father, but Terah didn’t follow through, whether through grief, exhaustion, or other factors. And then, God attempted it with Abraham, and this worked. Monotheism “took.” Abraham did establish monotheism in this very place, in Canaan, close to Jerusalem, and from there the knowledge of the One God has spread across the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, and the world. What can we glean from these verses and what is the Torah teaching us?

Perhaps it’s letting us know that God has many important tasks to carry out in the world and many things to teach humanity. These tasks can only be accomplished and these lessons can only be imparted through human beings. God therefore needs us to be God’s partners. Howard Schwartz, a professor at University of Missouri-St. Louis, a Jewish folklorist and mythologist said in an article in the Magazine, Reform Judaism, that “Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed, known as the Ari was the first to propose that the Jewish people are God’s partners in repairing the world, The Ari did so by constructing a cosmic myth around the term Tikkun olam, In the Ari’s myth, the primordial light God sent forth on that first day is the same light scattered around our world as holy sparks, which each of us is called upon to seek out and gather.” This has become a mainstream Jewish teaching.

We are God’s partners in perfecting and continuing Creation. But we are imperfect. We don’t always follow through. Like Moses, who initially tried to evade the task God asked him to accomplish, leading the Israelites out of Egypt, we don’t always want to undertake the tasks presented to us. We can’t always complete what we have started. So God will keep trying to find the right person to bring more understanding into the world, and to accomplish what God thinks needs to be done. We are all called upon to do our part: a little part of all the things God would like done. May we be like Abraham, who, without hesitating, without arguing and without any delay, went forth to do what God asked of him. When something is asked of us: when we see how we can be of help and of service, may we say to the Source of Life, Hineni, just tell me what you want me to do, and whatever You, dear, Holy One wish to have done, Oh, let it be through me.

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.