The third portion of the week, “Le’ch Le’cha,” begins with the unforgettable words spoken by God to his first chosen son, Avram: “Go, go away from your country, from your home-land, from your father’s home, to the land I will show you.” (my translation.)
Note the fascinating deductive linguistic move – from the general (“your country”) to the specific (your “father’s home”); from the easiest to accept to the hardest. The same move repeats itself, almost to the letter, with the second “Le’ch Le’cha” story, the more famous of the two – the story of the Ak’eda (the sacrifice of Itzchak). [Next week, we’ll deal with the interesting question of why God needed to try Avraham after it was already established he “believe in God” – the first-ever to do so (Gen. 15:6).] In the Ak’eda story, God commands Avraham (his name was changed by then from Avram):
Gen. 22:2
And [God] said [to Avraham]: Take your son, your only son [recall that Avraham had two sons at that stage!], that you have loved, take Itzchak, and go, go to the land of Moriah and sacrifice him on one of the mountains that I will point to you.”
Again, we see the linguistic move from the general (“your son”), to the particular (“Itzchak”), and from the easiest to the hardest to accept. We can also see the repeated request to leave – “Le’ch Le’cha” – from that familiar, loved, and steady place (be it a physical or a mental place), to the place to which God will direct you. Today I want to focus on the early Avram.
What Kind of Person Was Avraham?
The (first) Father of Our Nation – much like his modern-day title-sake, a General and our First President – can easily be said to have two personalities. The first is told from father to son, carried in classrooms all over the land, and is so well-entrenched that questioning it is considered heresy (see the story of Washington and the Cherry tree). Then again, there is the text. And that’s where it starts to get interesting.
Avraham – The Official Version
Our sages made a considerable effort to paint the first real Jewish person, the father of the entire Jewish nation, not only in the best light possible, but also in a way fitting the holiest of hollies. Since the text is scant in details on Avraham’s background – we meet him when he’s already 75 years old (Gen. 12:4) – they came up with some of their own.
The Rambam, for example, tells us how Avram went through a philosophical metamorphosis, realizing that all the people around him were wrong to assume that there could be many a god, or that the world may revolve on itself, without a cause or a power source. Following this impressive thought experiment, Avram began arguing with people around him about their wrongful beliefs, broke some statues of other gods, and called on everyone to worship only the one true God. [Rambam, Book of Science, Part IV.]
Others have followed suit. Legend has it that Avram, who worked at his father’s shop, used to constantly break many of the gods’ images that were sold there, and kept asking people not to buy them. In addition, he used to talk to the clients, asking them to return from their wrong ways, and attempted to turn their hearts to the only real one God. [See Nechama Leibovitz, Notes on Be’Reshit, at 80].
The text itself – as it is mostly remembered – tells us of a great person who listened to his God constantly, leaving his homeland for Him, sacrificing his son to Him, and generally a true Jewish role-model we should all aspire to.
But reading of the actual text reveals quite a different story.
Avraham – The Textual Version
Much like the last portion (No’ach), our portion actually begins a few verses prior to its official starting-point. There we find some interesting details. Turns out that Avram’s father, Terach, was the one to actually leave his own country. He took with him Avram, his son, and Lot, his grandson, and Sarai – Avram’s wife, and went from Ur-Kasdim (their “home-land”) to Kna’an – the famous land known today as Israel. No mention of God in this story; not a word about a promised land. Then the father dies. And then our portion begins.
Now, all of a sudden it is God who asks Avram to “Go, go away from youur country,” etc. But, interestingly, Avram is no longer there; in fact, he’s already half way between his home-land and Israel, in a place called Haran.
Then Avram reaches the promised-land: “And the Lord appeared to Avram and said: I will give this country to your offspring.” Gen. 12:7. One would think he would stay there for a while; it has been, after all, a long journey, and the entire place was promised to him by God.
But only three verses later, right after the divine promise was made, Avram leaves Israel and goes (“down” – a word used until today to describe people immigrating from Israel) to Egypt. And once he gets to Egypt, he presents his wife – his very, very beautiful wife, as the text keeps repeating – as his sister, for fear he would be killed and she would be taken away. The tactic works: Avram received considerable fortune from the Egyptian king for Sarai [Gen. 12:16]. The king, in return, is severely punished for even thinking of touching this married woman (of which, of course, the king knew nothing about). Somehow, in a bizarre twist of faith, Pharaoh does not kill Avram when he discovers the ruse – he doesn’t even take his fortunes back! – but rather simply tells Avram to “take [the money] and leave!” [Gen. 12:19]
But apart from these opportunistic clues, the text also supplies great materials about our first leader’s extraordinary sense of pragmatism. For example, when he experiences his first significant business fight with his cousin, he doesn’t use strong-arm tactics or pulls rank as the senior partner. On the contrary: Avram does what seems unthinkable today – he lets the junior choose: “And Avram said to Lot: Let there be no quarrel between you and me, and between my shepherds and yours, for we are brothers; since the entire country is in front of you, let us separate – if left you choose I will turn right; and if right, I will turn left.” This seemingly “cowardly” move (as it may be called by some of today’ amateurs at Wall-Street and the consulting firms), brought Avram an immediate relief for his herds (in the short term), several years of business prosperity (in the intermediate term), and an important ally on the West (in the long term). Take that, financial-market “sharks”!
Later this line of thinking manifests itself again, when Avram – who just won decisively a series of wars against the local (business?) kings – is asked by one of the defeated kings to bring back that king’s men, and in return to keep the victory spoils. Avram’s now-famous answer may surprise those who don’t know him well: “But Avram said to the king of Sodom . . . I will not take so much as a thread or a shoe-string of what is yours; you hall not say, ‘It is I who made Avram rich.’” [Gen. 15:22-23] Again, Avram gains a great strategic ally, and prevents future wars from that front by acting (seemingly) in an altruistic fashion.
There are many more clues as to Avram’s unique’s nature. In two weeks we shall discuss his magnificent negotiations techniques, which enabled him to be the first, apparently, to actually buy real-estate as a foreigner in the Land of Israel.
Importantly, the textual analysis above is not meant to disrespect Avram. On the contrary: It only comes to supplement and enrich his well-known – though somewhat simplistic – image as it appears in folklore and our memory. Both Avram and the reader, I assume, would end up gaining by this perspective.
Shabbat Shalom,
Doron
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