How does one go about being a blessing?
Lech Lecha
Genesis 12:1 -17:27
Précis: This parasha, “get you up” (lech lecha) begins with “the call” of Abram to leave his home and journey to a new land. At God’s command, Abram and Sarai journey to Canaan; when famine strikes, they travel to Egypt (where Sarai is taken into Pharaoh’s harem after Abram calls her his “sister” but escapes without harm) and they leave Egypt, with Abram now a rich man. To avoid familial squabbles, Abram separates himself from his nephew Lot (who moves to Sodom), but Abram is forced to rescue Lot in the first military action described in the Bible. Abram reaches a negotiated settlement with the locals, and God promises him an heir. Because Sarai is barren, she offers her servant (Hagar) to Abram, and Hagar gives birth to a son, Ishmael. Abram is then promised a son through Sarai, to be the heir of Abram. Abram’s name is changed to Abraham, and Sarai’s to Sarah, in recognition of their new covenant with God, which is then symbolized by circumcision.
Genesis 12:2 “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you will be a blessing.”
In Lech Lecha, Abram enters into a covenant with God, leaves his homeland and all that he knew, and in return receives a promise that he will become a “great nation” and a “blessing.” We can understand a “great nation” in normal human terms. It could be great in military strength, like the Roman Empire. It could be great in scholarship, like Plato’s Greece. It could be great in sheer numbers of people, like China or India. But how does one become a blessing?
Etz Hayim states that it means that Abram is be an exemplar of all that is good – a “dugmah” or role model. Samson Raphael Hirsch suggests that this is not a promise but a command: you SHALL be a blessing, meaning that Abram must live a righteous life if he is to receive the promised blessings. Rabbi Hertz opines that it is Abram’s task to turn others towards God. Robert Alter notes that a change in the vocalization of the Masoritic text we have inherited results in an alternative reading: we can read it "I shall make your name great; and it shall be a blessing.” In other words, people will bless others by Abram’s name, hoping to share, in a sense, in his honor (yechus).
I have another way to explain how Abram himself became the blessing. He takes initiative and starts a significant task (late in life!) by picking up himself and his household and going toward an undesignated destination to become a great nation. Will he complete the task himself? Probably not. But starting the task itself was a key to his becoming a blessing: it laid the framework for others to build upon.
We may all be discouraged when we face immense challenges. As Rabbi Tarphon is quoted in Pirke Avot (2:21), "The work is not yours to complete, and neither are you free to desist from it." We would be wise to remember that God promised Abram, and in turn promised us, that if we become initiators willing to take the risks to live ethical lives, our efforts will not be forgotten and we may be remembered as a blessing by those who follow us.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
How Long Can You Tread Water?
With a tip of the yarmulka to Bill Cosby.......
Noach
Genesis 6:9-11:32
Précis: The story of Noah and Flood appear in this parasha. Noah, called by God, builds the ark and collects the animals (two by two, except when he collects 7 pairs). Then it rains and rains. Noah and his family are saved. They leave the ark, build an altar, and make sacrifices to God. God sets a rainbow as a promise not to destroy mankind again. Noah plants a vineyard, and becomes drunk. The story of the Tower of Babel follows, and the parasha ends with a genealogy of the ancient peoples of the Bible, ending with Abram.
Gen. 6:5-6 “And God saw that great was humankind’s evildoing on earth and every form of their heart’s planning was only evil all the day. Then God was angry that He had made humankind on earth, and it pained His heart.”
Rabbi Marc Wolf, writing in the JTS Torah Weekly Commentary (11/5/05) suggested that we should look at the Book of Genesis as a commentary about the development of God’s character. It seems that this parasha is a particularly good example of his theory.
At first glance, it is presumptuous for us to think about God, the Eternal One, omniscient and omnipresent, all-knowing, and all-seeing, as being capable of change, development, or growth. It seems to fly in the face of our concept of Jewish “dogma” (if there is in fact such a thing as Jewish “dogma”).
On second thought, we have been presented with a written work, the Bible, which (whether one believes it is the actual Word of God or not) can only be comprehended in human terms. If we focus on the lessons we can glean only from the life of Adam and Noah, Abraham and Moses, we may be missing other insights to be gleaned from God’s role in the story.
In this parasha, we find a God who is so angry with His creation that He plans to destroy it entirely. This certainly was not what He “expected.” The free will which had been given to Adam, Eve, and their descendants was used and abused. Noah is chosen as the new Adam because he was pure and “walked before God.”
Noah soon proves that he is also endowed with free will. He sends out a bird before God orders him to do so; he offers God a sacrifice after he leaves the ark (again, without God’s command). Faced with these exercises of free will, God is pleased: he offers the rainbow and promises not to destroy the world again.
God has grown. He begins the parasha angry enough to destroy the world because of the exercise of free will, but at the end of the story, another exercise of free will is the basis for the rainbow.
One could argue that it is not the exercise of free will per se, but rather the result of the exercise that pleases God. I prefer to see it another way: God has (as the Kabbalists would say) withdrawn part of Himself from the universe to leave room for the exercise of free will by human beings.
What does this teach us about Judaism? Our God is one who “savors” the free will sacrifice, the election to serve, to live ethical lives, to “walk before God” as did Noah. As Rabbi Wolf notes, “All we need to do is stick our hands outside the ark.”
Noach
Genesis 6:9-11:32
Précis: The story of Noah and Flood appear in this parasha. Noah, called by God, builds the ark and collects the animals (two by two, except when he collects 7 pairs). Then it rains and rains. Noah and his family are saved. They leave the ark, build an altar, and make sacrifices to God. God sets a rainbow as a promise not to destroy mankind again. Noah plants a vineyard, and becomes drunk. The story of the Tower of Babel follows, and the parasha ends with a genealogy of the ancient peoples of the Bible, ending with Abram.
Gen. 6:5-6 “And God saw that great was humankind’s evildoing on earth and every form of their heart’s planning was only evil all the day. Then God was angry that He had made humankind on earth, and it pained His heart.”
Rabbi Marc Wolf, writing in the JTS Torah Weekly Commentary (11/5/05) suggested that we should look at the Book of Genesis as a commentary about the development of God’s character. It seems that this parasha is a particularly good example of his theory.
At first glance, it is presumptuous for us to think about God, the Eternal One, omniscient and omnipresent, all-knowing, and all-seeing, as being capable of change, development, or growth. It seems to fly in the face of our concept of Jewish “dogma” (if there is in fact such a thing as Jewish “dogma”).
On second thought, we have been presented with a written work, the Bible, which (whether one believes it is the actual Word of God or not) can only be comprehended in human terms. If we focus on the lessons we can glean only from the life of Adam and Noah, Abraham and Moses, we may be missing other insights to be gleaned from God’s role in the story.
In this parasha, we find a God who is so angry with His creation that He plans to destroy it entirely. This certainly was not what He “expected.” The free will which had been given to Adam, Eve, and their descendants was used and abused. Noah is chosen as the new Adam because he was pure and “walked before God.”
Noah soon proves that he is also endowed with free will. He sends out a bird before God orders him to do so; he offers God a sacrifice after he leaves the ark (again, without God’s command). Faced with these exercises of free will, God is pleased: he offers the rainbow and promises not to destroy the world again.
God has grown. He begins the parasha angry enough to destroy the world because of the exercise of free will, but at the end of the story, another exercise of free will is the basis for the rainbow.
One could argue that it is not the exercise of free will per se, but rather the result of the exercise that pleases God. I prefer to see it another way: God has (as the Kabbalists would say) withdrawn part of Himself from the universe to leave room for the exercise of free will by human beings.
What does this teach us about Judaism? Our God is one who “savors” the free will sacrifice, the election to serve, to live ethical lives, to “walk before God” as did Noah. As Rabbi Wolf notes, “All we need to do is stick our hands outside the ark.”
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