Parshat Lech Lecha

1997

What a long strange trip it's been -- A Look at Parshat Lech Lecha

Before God speaks to Abraham uttering those famous words, "Go for yourself from your land, your birthplace, your father's house to a land that I will show you"--we know nothing about him. It would have helped had the Torah given us some background information on the first man with whom God had chosen to speak in ten generations. Not only have we not gotten any information Abraham, but all of the sudden God has become downright loquacious...and, cagey.

He is extremely articulate when He speaks to that which is already obvious to Abraham--i.e. Abraham knows that he is leaving his home. He knows that it is his birthplace and I daresay, he knew who his father was, but when God finally is about to tell Abraham something he doesn't already know, He says, "...to a land that I will show you."

Rashi, the most revered and popular of the traditional medieval commentators, gives two reasons for God opening verbosely and closing cryptically. He says, "He (God) didn't reveal the land immediately in order to make it more desirable to him (Abraham) and also He wished to reward him (Abraham) for every word of conversation. Similarly, we see this (in the binding of Isaac) "Take your son, your only son, the one whom you love, Isaac."

Or, when he refers to where Isaac was to be sacrificed God [doesn't name the mountain but says instead] "On one of the mountains where I will speak to you." And when God spoke to Jonah [to give prophecy to the inhabitants of Nineveh], "And call to them this calling which I will speak to you." (Jonah 3:2)

So, Rashi demonstrates that this isn't the only place where God is chatty and cagey. Rashi's purpose is not tell us that this is a pattern of God-syntax, the depths of which mere mortals will never plumb. Rashi instead says, God is cagey so that Abraham's curiosity will be aroused, but God is chatty so that Abraham will engage with Him in conversation, and God in turn can reward every syllable of Abraham's interest. The prizes offered by the Holy One are pretexts for the conversations He wishes to have with Abraham. Abraham is to gain entry into the Holy Land, by learning his nomadic way to a land that "I will show you."

The process by which Abraham learns, according to Rashi, is as important as Abraham's final destination. In fact, the rewards begin with the first step of the journey and continue with each and every conversation. God begins the conversation by making more conversation showing that He knows exactly what He is asking of Abraham. As Abraham learns more about God through action and conversation, he courageously questions God's purpose in destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. It is here we understand that Abraham is not only blindly following his Creator, but he has learned his ways, and now feels impelled to question them when what he has learned is seemingly being contradicted.

Abraham knows the merciful aspect of God so well, that he becomes a funnel for the flowing of mercy into the world. Thus Abraham argues and succeeds in allowing the merit of ten good people to save a city teeming with the wickedness of thousands. Abraham is the embodiment of God's mercy and so harsh judgement must take a back seat as long as Abraham is around. Rashi tells us that Abraham was rewarded for every syllable of this argument with God as well. After He learned God's ways, he held God to what he felt was an appropriate standard. By understanding God's mercy, he embodied it thereby becoming a blessing for everyone, as it is written, "And you shall be a blessing...and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you."

We are commanded to learn the Torah, just as Abraham was commanded to learn the Holy One's nature. We, too, are rewarded for each syllable of probing and questioning and challenging as we journey on to the lands that "He will show us."

Prepared by Rabbi Avi Weinstein