Tag Archives: abraham

Lech Lecha – The Dawn

In the Haftarah of Lech Lecha, Yeshayahu describes a historical figure who represents G-d’s involvement in the history of mankind.

מִי הֵעִיר מִמִּזְרָח ,צֶדֶק יִקְרָאֵהוּ לְרַגְלוֹ,
יִתֵּן לְפָנָיו גּוֹיִם וּמְלָכִים יַרְדְּ יִתֵּן כֶּעָפָר חַרְבּוֹ כְּקַשׁ נִדָּף קַשְׁתּוֹ:
Who arose from the East? Justice follows in his footsteps.
Nations were given over to him, and kings subdued. His sword turns all to dust, to driven straw, his bow. (Yeshayahu 41:2)

The Haftarah asks, “Who arose from the East?” According to the Midrash (Breishit Rabba 43:3), the answer is Avraham. As we read in Parshat Lech Lecha, G-d roused Avraham to leave his home in the East, and to leave his pagan heritage. Wherever he would go, he would advocate justice and truth, influencing people to leave false idols and serve the Creator.

This verse is used by many Midrashim to refer to Avraham, and by juxtaposing it with other verses, they derive different aspects of his impact on the world.

ױאמר הקדוש ברוך הוא עד מתי יהא העולם מתנהג באפילה תבא האורה, ויאמר אלהים יהי אור זה אברהם הה”ד (ישעיה מא) מי העיר ממזרח צדק וגו’ אל תקרא העיר אלא האיר
G-d said: “How long will the world be shrouded in darkness, how long till the light comes? “And G-d said, let there be light”: this is Avraham, for it says “Who arose from the East with justice”, don’t read it as “arose” (העיר), but rather as “illuminated” (האיר). (Breishit Rabba 2:3)

This Midrash claims that the world before Avraham was darkness and the light of Creation became visible only once Avraham appeared. What did Avrharam do that warrants making him the symbol of G-d’s light?

The “darkness” that the Midrash refers to is idolatry. But what makes it so terrible? Why does the Torah focus all its resources on wiping it out? What difference does it really make what people believe?

According to the Torah, it is not possible for polytheistic pagans to build a society of justice and kindness.

First of all, polytheism is a lie. There is no such thing as a “god of rain” or a “god of war” or a “goddess of fertility”, or a “goddess of lost objects”. G-d alone created the world. He alone controls it.

Nevertheless, people can believe all kinds of things that aren’t true, and that is not necessarily destructive. What happens, though, when there is a “god of life” and a “god of death”, is that you begin to see the world as a function of the struggle between them. The simplest explanation for the tension between life and death, between good and evil, is that they are governed by conflicting forces and the “god of good” and the “god of evil” are locked in battle. If there is a “god of evil”, than one needs to placate that evil in order to survive. What some these societies chose to do to placate their evil gods is the stuff of nightmares.

Placating the “god of good” is also not morally neutral. If you relate to your god by through the gifts you give it, quid pro quo, then the greater the gift, the greater the power you have over your god. This creates a society where giving is only valued for the power it earns, and kindness and mercy have no value at all. Not only did paganism fail to promote morality, but it undermined the basic morality that is innate to human beings.

Avraham is often called the father of monotheism; not only the Jewish People, but all the billions who follow Christianity and Islam trace the origin of their religion to him. However, the Torah clearly says that Avraham was not the first monotheist. Adam knew the Creator, Noach did not worship anyone other than Hashem. If we trace the arithmetic of the “begats” in Breishit, we’ll find that when Avraham was born, Noach was still alive. Moreover, in Parsha Lech Lecha itself, Avraham is granted an audience by Malkitzedek, King of Shalem, who is introduced as “the priest of the G-d Above”. There were plenty of people in Avraham’s generation who were aware that polytheism is a lie. So what made Avraham different? How was it that he brought light, while the others did not?

Not only did Avraham reject paganism, risking his life to protest it publicly, but, as we read in Parshat Lech Lecha, Avraham spent his life going from place to place “calling in the name of Hashem.” Unlike Noach, who kept his monotheistic religion to himself, Avraham told everyone willing to listen that there is a single Creator Who cannot be manipulated or placated, Who cares equally about all His creatures, Who is the source of justice and kindness and that such actions matter to Him. Avraham showed the world that worshipping G-d is a path toward greater morality and a more just society. This is the light that Avraham brought into a world of darkness.

There is another Midrash on the same verse from the Haftarah:

אמר רב: איתן האזרחי זה הוא אברהם, כתיב הכא: איתן האזרחי, וכתיב התם מי העיר ממזרח
Rav said: Eitan HaEzrachi is Avraham. Here it says “Eitan HaEzrachi”, there it says “Who arose from the East (Mizrach)” (Bava Batra 15a)

Avraham’s essential trait is that of “eitan”, fortitude, the ability to stand firm for your beliefs. In this Midrash, they derive an additional property to describe Avraham: “Zerach” (אזרחי, מזרח), dawn. Avraham was the dawn of a new era of human history, the dawn of the light of truth, justice and kindness that ultimately spread throughout the world.


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Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

Dedicated to my son, Yair Eitan, who is named after his great-great-grandfather Avraham, and to my nephew, Nadiv Yair, named after a different Avraham, whose Bar Mitzvah Parsha is Lech Lecha.

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Eikev – Impossible Hope

In the second of the series of seven Haftarot of Consolation, the Haftarah of Eikev begins by airing a specific fear of the Jewish People:

וַתֹּאמֶר צִיּוֹן עֲזָבַנִי ה’
Tzion said, “Hashem has abandoned me (Yeshayahu 49:14)

The Jewish People feel that the endless exile and the desolation of the Land of Israel is a clear sign that G-d no longer cares about them. In order to give them faith and hope that they will resettle and rebuild Jerusalem, the prophet reminds them of their forebears, Avraham and Sarah:

הַבִּיטוּ אֶל אַבְרָהָם אֲבִיכֶם וְאֶל שָׂרָה תְּחוֹלֶלְכֶם כִּי אֶחָד קְרָאתִיו וַאֲבָרְכֵהוּ וְאַרְבֵּהוּ
Look to Avraham your father, and to Sarah, your founder.
For he was alone when I called him, I blessed him and multiplied him. (Yeshayahu 51:2)

How are Avraham and Sarah relevant to the Jewish People’s fear of abandonment? The Midrash explains:
כשם שנתיאשו ממנה האומות שלא נבנית והיא תבנה שנאמר האומר לירושלים תושב. … אם תמהים אתם הביטו אל אברהם אביכם ואל שרה תחוללכם (ישעיה נא) כשם שעשיתי לאברהם ולשרה כך אעשה לירושלים.
It’ll be just as the nations will have given up on her that she will ever be rebuilt, and she will be rebuilt….If you are incredulous, “look at Avraham your father and Sarah your creator” (Yeshaya 51) – just as I did it for Avraham and Sarah, so I will do for Jerusalem. (Midrash Tanchuma VaYeira 16)

The Midrash says that in order to keep up our hope that Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and not to give up in despair, we should consider what G-d did for Avraham and Sarah. Avraham and Sarah had been barren for years, and G-d promised them that they would be the founders of nations. The years passed, and they were still barren.
The Midrash explains just how impossible their hope for children actually was:

אמר רב נחמן אמר רבה בר אבוה: שרה אמנו אילונית היתה שנאמר: +בראשית י”א+ ותהי שרי עקרה אין לה ולד אפי’ בית ולד אין לה.
R’ Nachman said in the name of Rava bar Avuha: Our mother Sarah was sterile, as it says, “Sarai was barren; she had no child” (Breishit 11) – she did not even have the organs for childbirth. (Talmud Bavli Yevamot 64a)

Avraham and Sarah knew that what they were asking for was close to impossible, but G-d had promised, so they kept praying and kept hoping.

Why did G-d create this situation? Of all the people in the world whom He might have picked to be the father and mother of His nation, why did G-d pick someone who lacked the physical ability to be the father and mother of anyone at all?

א”ר יצחק: מפני מה היו אבותינו עקורים? מפני שהקב”ה מתאוה לתפלתן של צדיקים
R’ Yitzchak said: Why were our forefathers barren? Because G-d desires the prayer of the righteous. (Talmud Bavli Yevamot 64a)

If they could have had children without G-d’s help, then they would not have needed to ask for His help. Their prayers, over decades, filled with increasing desperation and the ebb and flow of hope, created a deep relationship with G-d.
In Parshat Eikev, we learn that the same dynamic is present in G-d’s choice of the Land of Israel. Instead of giving us a land like Egypt that requires minimal effort to provide water for crops, G-d gave us a land which depends on rain from the Heavens. The reason for this is stated explicitly: to deepen our relationship with G-d.

(י) כִּי הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָא שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ לֹא כְאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם הִוא אֲשֶׁר יְצָאתֶם מִשָּׁם אֲשֶׁר תִּזְרַע אֶת זַרְעֲךָ וְהִשְׁקִיתָ בְרַגְלְךָ כְּגַן הַיָּרָק: (יא) וְהָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם עֹבְרִים שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ אֶרֶץ הָרִים וּבְקָעֹת לִמְטַר הַשָּׁמַיִם תִּשְׁתֶּה מָּיִם: (יב) אֶרֶץ אֲשֶׁר ה’ אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ דֹּרֵשׁ אֹתָהּ תָּמִיד עֵינֵי ה’ אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ בָּהּ מֵרֵשִׁית הַשָּׁנָה וְעַד אַחֲרִית שָׁנָה:

(10) For the land that you are coming to inherit, is not like the land of Egypt, that you have left, where you would plant your seeds, and irrigate on foot like a vegetable garden. (11) The land that you are crossing to inherit, is a land of hills and valleys. By the rain of the heavens you will drink water. (12) The land that Hashem your G-d scrutinizes; the eyes of Hashem your G-d are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, until the end of the year.

The land that G-d had promised to give to the descendents of Avraham and Sarah requires constant prayer. We can never take it for granted that there will be water, and we rely on G-d for our very survival, year by year. The flip side of this is that G-d’s attention is always upon this land, year by year. Whatever happens here, for better or for worse, is because G-d means for it to happen, and is a direct reflection of our relationship with Him.

Avraham and Sarah had an impossible dream; it took years of prayer and hope and waiting, but ultimately they were answered and were blessed with all the bounty they had been promised. The dream of the Jewish People, to return to their land and rebuild it, had seemed just as impossible, and the wait seemed interminable. But the act of waiting, the prayers and the hoping was not a sign that G-d has abandoned us, but quite the contrary. It has always been a sign of our relationship with Him, and of our faith that everything He does for us has meaning and purpose.

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Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

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Filed under Connections, Ekev, Sefer Devarim, Sheva de'Nechemta