Lech Lecha
Genesis 12:1 - 17:27
Last Shabbat we were asking ourselves why God singled out Noah to be saved from the flood. This week we can ask ourselves “Why Abraham?” We met the patriarch of the Jewish people at the end of the reading last week. At the end of a lengthy genealogy Terah, Abraham’s father, dies in Haran. Now, the name of the Torah portion -Lech Lecha - zeroes in on the patriarch. His name is still unchanged, Abram (I spell it with the ‘h’ so you will not think I misspelled it!) hears God calling him to ‘lech lecha,’ go forth on a journey that is, from the human perspective, uncharted and from the divine perspective a new way of approaching humankind through the reshaping of one human family. From the macro experiment of Noah to the micro experiment with Abraham and Sarah, their children, clan, tribe, eventually a nation, until you realize that it is about you and me, their descendants.
Little do we know about Abraham prior to this moment of being called to go forth. Of course, the midrash does not miss a chance to build a fanciful past for the patriarch, one that would lead them to conclude that God could not have made a better choice. But then, that is midrash. It sometimes even becomes confused with the biblical story. How many of us at one point in our lives did not believe that the story of Abraham destroying his father’s idols was part of the Torah narrative? But the text is quiet, it only says that “God said to Abram. ‘Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you...’”
It seems that trying to understand what led God to choose Abraham is forever going to remain shrouded in rabbinic legend. But there is another way of looking at this story. The S’fat Emet (the name of a book that becomes the name by which its author will be best known: Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter, a Chassidic master who lived in the 19th century) provides an interesting answer to the question ‘who was Abraham that God should call him, especially when he comes out of the blue, with no particular heroics in his biography to this point?’ He says, referring to an explanation in the Zohar, that Abraham’s merit is ‘lech lecha’ itself, that God constantly calls every person to start of in a journey of partnership with the divine, but only Abraham chose to hear it!
Abraham’s greatness then lies in the fact that he was paying attention to, and in tune with, a reality greater than himself. It is not that Abraham was great to begin with, and that is why he was chosen; rather Abraham becomes great because he didn’t miss a chance he had to respond. This will lead to greatness - in the rabbinic lore to greatness in Torah, in worship and in deeds of lovingkindness, the pillars of Jewish values, existence and continuity.
So, how open are we to hear a call, to change course, to enter into transformative relationships? How in tune are we with the spiritual dimension of our lives where this transformation can become manifest? May be we, like Abraham, are called, we just are deaf to the call. May be we need to tune out some of the many noises that crowd our lives and learn to listen in a more delicate, intimate way to hear the call, to understand what our true purpose for being really is. We have to learn again that the Voice does not call out of the whirlwind, but is the still small voice we must make room and quiet to hear again. Lech lecha!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Roberto D. Graetz
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