Abram, later to be called Abraham, took his wife, family and all his possessions and left his homeland for a land he did not know. Parasha, Lech Lecha, is just the beginning of his journey, and in so doing we find out quickly that Abram is a man of conviction and a voice of change, but also a voice of strength.
Abram was born and lived in the Ur of the Chaldees, which is Southern Iraq today, and his father was Terah, a descendant of Noah’s son Shem. After leaving the Ur of the Chaldees with his father, Abram became the leader of the family after his father died on their travels in Haran (modern day Turkey). Perhaps at that point Abram considered going back to the only place he knew, until he heard God’s voice that said, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing.” I do not think Abram processed this idea of a blessing as just receiving a reward based on his merit, but he came to realize this was about a sense of divine purpose for the betterment of others.
Dr. Henry Slominsky, a former dean emeritus of the New York School of Hebrew Union College‐Jewish Institute of Religion, teaches that the lesson that emerged from Abram has everything to do with God’s failure and success that is based on human action or inaction. This idea is reflected in a Midrash (Sifrei Devarim 346) that says, “I am God, when you are My witnesses, and if you are not My witnesses I am not God." Abram learned that what his world would become was based on him. Abram came to realize that his connection to the gods he knew was just about their veneration, but the dignity of God that was a blessing to all people was based on the equality of honor. God's justice for people became Abram's justice for others.
While Abram’s attitude about the gods of his homeland is really not revealed in Genesis, we learn in another Midrash (Berayshit Rabbah 38) that when Terah (his father) left his son (Abram) is charge of the family business one day (an idol shop) Abram conveyed to its customers the folly of idols, mere carvings that can be destroyed as fast as they were made. When Terah returned to the family business, he asked why he saw smashed idols all over the floor. Abram responded by saying that a certain woman came into the shop and offered a meal-offering of flour to the various idols when one idol rose up and said, “I shall eat first, and another one said: I shall eat first. This big idol, who was standing among them, got up and took the club and shattered them.’ He [Teraḥ] said to him: ‘What, are you mocking me?”
Abram is saying the following: idols don’t speak, in fact they don’t do anything, only people can do for people. Later in this same parasha we find a story about this very attitude when Abram and his nephew Lot are in conflict over land ownership. In response Abram recognizes the potential problem and elects to seek peace between their families. Abram who could have stood on his family power, according to Robert Alter, was “polite” but firm when he said, “if you go north, I will go south; and if you go south, I will go north.” In other words when Abram sought peace he suggested what we might call the first “two-state solution,” something that was based on Abram's ability to bless his nephew Lot, one person to another, equity for both.
But the Abram of peace is also the Abram of conviction. When rival kings engage in battle Lot is swept up in the fight and taken hostage. Abram managed to rescue his family member in the cover of night, the Sfrono teaching, “this was also part of the subterfuge, preventing the kings from realizing that they were facing insignificant numbers of opponents.” In this case Lot’s humanity led Abram as opposed to mutual peace because he realized that in those Kings he did not have partners in peace. Yes, we can make that connection with the minions of Hamas who do not desire to be partners of peace with Israel for a viable two-state solution, but in general like with Abram, we must use of voice in what we do to be a voice of change, a voice of peace, but also a voice of strength.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
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