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Robert wrote:
From the Parasha (Gen. 12:1): God tells Abraham, "Go out for yourself from your country, from your birthplace, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great."
In the Midrash, Rabbi Brachia said, "What is Abraham compared to before he left his birth place? To a fragrant oil in a sealed bottle, lying in a corner. In this manner, no one could benefit from its fragrance. Only when the bottle's seal was uncovered and it was moved around could people benefit from its wonderful fragrance.
So too, God told Abraham, "Abraham, you are a righteous person. You have done many good deeds and many mitzvoth. Go now from place to place and your name will be known and everyone will benefit.'"
We see also in the parasha (Gen. 12:5): "And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son and all their substance that they had gathered and the souls (neshemot) which they made in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan and they came to the land of Canaan."
And the Midrash tells us: "If all the nations of the world got together and tried to create the smallest fly, they could not give it life. Yet, the Torah says, ''And the souls which they made! '' How is this possible? But, this refers to the converts whom Abraham and Sarah brought closer to God. For when one brings someone closer to God, it is considered like they created them!"
I know Rabbi Segal, that you teach humility, but I want to thank you for bringing me closer to God, and in a sense making me reborn into Judaism via the path of transformation of Jewish Spiritual Renewal!!
(Rabbi Segal's comment: Dear Miriam: I only passed the message. You and God did the work. Keep on asking Him each day to grow closer to Him, and you shall. No thanks is owed to me.)
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From Werner:
Rabbi Segal:
Is Lech Lecha go 'for' yourself as you stated, or go 'to' yourself?
As you always try to touch on, from a spiritual point of view, Abram is not just being sent to Canaan, he is being sent on a spiritual journey, a journey that will effect humankind forever. He is headed toward's his soul's journey.
And while heading in the 'right' direction of spirituality, he gets side tracked, he is sent 'down' to Egypt. But he stayed true to his mission and he left Egypt "weighed down with cattle, silver and gold." Does this foreshadow our peoples descent into Egypt and their leaving "with great wealth?"
Exile can bring us better spiritual attainment. As Rabbi Segal has taught us previously, The Talmud Bavli, unlike Talmud Yerushalmi, never reaches its decisions directly but arrives at them through digressions and dialectics which shed, in their apparent meandering, more light than a direct path could. Indeed, when the two books are in disagreement, the Babylonian verdict is always followed. And the Bavli was written in exile.
So to for me at least, I must work, in this American exile, with our new President-Elect Obama, to do massive Tikkun Olam, as a junior partner with God, to help repair the world and this nation.
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Ellen writes:
Let us hope and pray that ALL of Abraham's children take to heart Abraham's message of ethical monotheism.... both the ethical and the monotheism. Both the Divine unity, and the human unity.
For Abraham's sake, don't do a random act of kindness as some bumper stickers advise. Do as many premeditated ones as we can.
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Sharon writes:
A question or two: In the beginning of the Parasha God tells Abram to leave his dad ,Terach's, house and go, but at the end of Parasha Noach of last Shabbat, we read :''And Terach took Avram... and Lot... and they departed with them from Ur Kasdim to go to the land of Canaan, and they came as far as Charan and they dwelled there" (11:31).''
God is now telling Abram to go Canaan but he was going there already. Why? If the Torah is telling us that Terach is going to stay in Charan, then why does the Torah need to tell us this?
Rabbi Segal: Well Sharon, an excellent question and one that two great Spanish rabbis disagreed on...Ibn Ezra and the Ramban.
Ibn Ezra was Rabbi Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra also known as Abenezra) (1092 or 1093–1167) of Spain, Egypt, and at times in Italy, France and even England.
The Ramban was Nahmanides (1194 – 1270) was a Catalan Spain rabbi, philosopher, physician, Kabbalist and biblical commentator. "Nahmanides " is the common name for Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi; the name is a Greek translation of the Hebrew "Ben Nahman", meaning "Son of Nahman". He is also commonly known as Ramban.
Ibn Ezra writes that the command to "Get you out" was given to Avraham while he was still in Ur Kasdim. Although he was told to leave also his "father's house," God allowed Terach to join him on the journey, since He knew that Terach would continue no further than Charan.
Ramban rejects this. The verse, "I am God Who took you out of Ur Kasdim" (15:7), backs up Ibn Ezra's. Ramban explains (11:28) that "who took you out" refers to the miracle that God performed in bringing Avraham out alive from the fiery furnace in Ur Kasdim. (This is from a midrash, after Abram smashed his father's idols in the idol shop).
I think your point is, Sharon, that didn't Abram and his family plan to go to Canaan even before the command? Traditionalists will tell you it was ''God's hand that caused them to wish to go to Canaan, but they had no idea that it was God who was leading them in that direction. God had chosen Avraham and his descendants after him, and He wanted them to get to Eretz Yisrael and live there, and so He directed events in that direction.''
If we follow that logic : God took Abram out of Ur without Abram knowing that it was God Who was leading him. Was he as tam as Isaac? (Tam can mean pure, but also mentally simple, as in a 35 year old allowing himself to be taken to be sacrificed, never noticing till he is on the altar that there is no sacrificial lamb.) Does one get credit for a ''test'' or a ''banner,'' when one has no free will in the matter? (see class from this past Sunday below).
If we note further, for 20 generations, after God talking with Noach, all of a sudden Abram is having a theophany with God. Why Abram? Other than Abram schlepping, the Torah has him doing no other mitzvoth, and yet he gets this nice slice of beach front property for him and his children, for millennia to use for a battleground.
The Maharal answers this by saying that Abram's children, who he limits to Am Israel, do not have to do mitzvoth to garner God's love and the gift of the land of Israel. While God wants us to mitzvoth, His love for us is unconditional. Did the Maharal read Deut. Chapter 28?
Judah Loew ben Bezalel ("Judah Loewe son of Bezalel", also written as Yehudah ben Bezalel Levai [or Loewe, Löwe], c. 1520 – 17 September 1609) (Hebrew date of death: 18 Elul 5369) was an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, and philosopher who served as a leading rabbi in Prague (now in the Czech Republic) for most of his life. He is buried at the Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague in Josefov , and his grave with its tombstone intact, can still be visited.
He is widely known to scholars of Judaism as the Maharal of Prague, or simply as the Maharal ( MaHaRaL is the Hebrew acronym of Moreinu ha-Rav Loew, "Our Teacher the Rabbi Loew"). His descendants' surnames include Loewy and Lowy.
The answer as Rashi states it is quite simple. When asked why the Torah just did not start with Exodus, because that is where the Hebrew people become a nation, and 99% of the commandments start to be given, he answered that Genesis established nothing more than a deed for the land of Israel.
I prefer to read Torah not as a deed but to learn spiritual and ethical principles. Sharon, the Torah is full of discrepancies, because while traditionally we are told that every word was given to Moses on Sinai, it is a conglomerate of writings of a people who came together from what is now Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel, et.al., bringing with them their tales. They did not have the benefit of Micro Soft word to edit.
Excellent question! and Excellent comments everyone!! Todah Rabah!!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC; Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
"Nemo profeta in Patria . No one is a prophet in their own town."
Hence when we pray each day for God to show us His will for us, we need not worry nor search. God will direct our steps to where we are needed the most. We need to be spiritually awakened in order to recognize that opportunity to do mitzvoth.
"Goin' To A Go-Go"
Rabbi Arthur Segal Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA via Shamash on-line class service Jewish Spiritual Renewal Jewish Renewal Hilton Head Island, SC Bluffton, SC Savannah, GA
Synoptic Abstract
Our parasha continues with the tales of Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people. This portion relates God's call to Abraham, his journey to Canaan, his trip with Sarah to Egypt, his return to Canaan and his nephew Lot's parting, Lot being taken captive and Abraham's rescue of Lot, God's covenant with Abraham, the birth of Hagar's son Ishmael, the commandment of circumcision, and God's promise to ninety-year-old Sarah that she will give birth to a child with her 100-year-old husband, Abraham. This is the parasha that begins it all as far as Jews are concerned. Here are the seeds of the present day Arab-Jew land dispute.
This parasha's title takes its name from God's command to Abraham: "Lech Lecha!" (Go for yourself!). This sums up the choice that each of us has with our birthright of Judaism. As adults, no one is forcing Judaism upon us. No one is forcing us to live an ethical life. No one is demanding that we study Torah or read these or other D'varim. We have freedom of choice. We decide for ourselves to go or to do, or not to go or not to do. This is no different than the choice that Abraham had to make some 3,500 years ago.
The story of Abraham is the story of his trials. Mishna Pirkei Avot (5:3) says that "our patriarch Abraham was tested with ten tests and he withstood them all to show how great was our Patriarch Abraham's love for God." What were these ten tests?
1. In
2. He had to leave his homeland to settle in
3. He had to move from Canaan to
4. Sarah, his wife, was taken to Pharaoh's palace as a potential wife of Pharaoh. Abraham asked Sarah to call herself his sister to spare his life. The sages say that this was not a lie because Sarah was
5. The war with the kings to free his nephew
6. The covenant where Abraham was told of his children being promised the
7. Abraham undergoing self-circumcision at the age of ninety-nine years (Gen. 17:24).
8. Expelling his wife Hagar from his home (Gen. 21:10-14).
9. Expelling his son Ishmael from his home (Gen. 21:10-14).
10. The Akeidah – the binding of Abraham's son Isaac to be a sacrificial offering to God (Gen. 22:1-19).
How would we fare if we had these tests today? Do any of our lives' tests compare to these?
The Mishna calls these tests "neis." The Hebrew word for tests is "bechinah." Neis also means "banner." It is used in Psalm 60:6, "You gave those who fear a banner to raise themselves." The sages say a banner is something raised high to show its beauty. When we pass some of life's tests, we are lifted into a higher sphere so that we can go on to bigger tests. This is why we say "yasher koach" after a bimah honor. We wish people to "go from strength to strength." The Mishna's passage could be read: "And God exalted Abraham" instead of "God tested Abraham."
The last three of these ten tests take place in next week's parasha and will be discussed then. Nachmanides (the Ramban, Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi, 1194,
Ramban says that one is never given trials that he cannot deal with effectively, and that a person has free choice and he must find the wisdom and strength to choose correctly. If he chooses correctly, he grows as a person. He is not rewarded by Heaven for his successes. Success is his reward. As the parasha's title suggests, we do good things for ourselves and because it is the right choice to make. We do not do good in hope of reward from above.
What does it mean to be a Jew? We have a hint of this complex answer in Genesis 14:13. For the first time, Abraham is called an "Ivri." Some Torah scholars say this refers to Abraham being descended from Eber, which was six generations removed from Abraham. Would a fugitive from a battle in
Abraham indeed was an Ivri. The word is derived from "Ivar," meaning "the other side." Literally, Abraham did come from the other side of the
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