The First Test
INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT
HASHAVUA
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This week of Torah
learning at the Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash
is being sponsored by Ronni & Nachum
Katlowitz
in honor of Ronni's father's birthday.
Mr. Yanik Pasternak,
Happy Birthday!
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PARASHAT LEKH
LEKHA
THE FIRST
TEST
By Rabbi Yaakov
Beasley
Although the story of Avraham Avinu
began briefly last week, the essence of his life, the ten trials he faced,[1]
only begins in earnest at the beginning of this weeks parasha,
culminating with the trial of Akeidat Yitzchak at the end of
Parashat Vayeira. Of
the ten challenges that Avraham had to overcome, the first opens our
reading:
Now Hashem said unto Avram:
Get yourself out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's
house, to the land that I will show you. (12:1)
This first trial does not appear to be
anything particularly challenging. Although one midrash describes it
as a trial within a trial,[2]
involving the uprooting of all past emotional attachments and the willingness to
travel without any awareness of a future destination,[3]
the simple reading implies differently. It begins with a command (request?) to
leave the comfortable environs of family and country, yet it is immediately
followed and sweetened by a sevenfold promise of great blessings, including
fame, prosperity, and the founding of a great nation. Clearly, the later challenges that
Avraham would face, including the capture of loved ones by foreign powers (Sarah
twice, Lot once), strife within his household (Sarah and Hagar, Yitzchak and
Yishmael), and the concluding command to sacrifice Yitzchak to Hashem on
an altar were challenges that would have tried most men. Here, however, the temptation of the
accompanying blessings appears too irresistible to resist.
That Avraham chose to follow
Hashem immediately appears almost pre-destined. Clearly, Hashem knew his
customer, as it were. Not even one
tiny question escapes Avrahams lips. (Indeed, when Avraham chooses to speak to
Hashem during his trials and when he chooses silence as policy is worthy
of noting as his life story is read.)
What motivates Avrahams initial obedience? Is he simply a God fearing man, acting
out of religious motives? Or does
he follow Hashem to the new land inspired by great ambition and the
promise of future reward? The text
remains silent on this point. Why
is this, the first episode recorded in Parashat Lekh Lekha, considered
worthy of inclusion among Avrahams trials?
1 Now Hashem said unto Avram:
Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's
house, unto the land that I will show you.
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.
3 And I will bless
those that bless you, and he that curses you will I curse; and through you shall
all the families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Avram went as
Hashem had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him; and Avram was seventy
and five years old when he departed out of
5 And Avram took
Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had
gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in
6 Ad Avram passed
through the land unto the place of Shekhem, unto the terebinth of Moreh. And the
Canaanite was then in the land.
7 And Hashem
appeared unto Avram, and said: Unto your seed will I give this land; and he
built there an altar unto Hashem, who appeared unto him.
8 And he removed from
there unto the mountain on the east of Beth-El, and pitched his tent, having
Beth-El on the west and Ai on the east; and he built there an altar unto
Hashem and called upon the name of Hashem.
9 And Avram
journeyed, going on still toward the south.
A cursory glance at the opening
section seems to confirm our earlier suspicions. No sooner does Avraham arrive in the
However, a close reading that pays
attention to the use of repeated words, the leitvort (in Hebrew
milat mancheh), reveals a very different picture. Seven times within this short section,
the word land (eretz) appears.
Each time it appears, however, it carries a different connation than the
previous one. The following table
should clarify this important point:
APPEARANCE |
REFERS
TO |
1 verse 1 your
land |
Avrahams homeland, the place of
his family and friends, which he is required to
abandon. |
2 verse 1 the land that I
will show you |
The |
3 verse 5 and they went
forth to go into the |
The direction of Avrahams
travels, although it has not yet been specified as his ultimate
destination. |
4 - verse 5 and into the
|
The point of arrival in
Avrahams travels. We would
have expected Hashem to appear here and announce that finally, Avraham has
arrived at the correct location.
Instead
|
5 verse 6 And Avram passed
through the land unto the place of Shekhem |
Even within the |
6 verse 6 And the Canaanite
was then in the land |
The land where Avraham arrived
is already occupied by an entire people, no less! One can imagine Avraham being
extremely perplexed by the situation. How can he reconcile the Divine
promise to transform him into a great nation with the reality of the
entrenched Canaanite settlements?
(One can then explain the constant and restless motion that
epitomizes Avrahams movements when he first arrives is he searching for
a small uninhabited corner of the land to call his own.) |
7 verse 7 Unto your seed
will I give this land |
Hashem appears to Avraham and
both reassures and clarifies the promise. Yes, this is the correct
land. However, the land will
not go to him, but to his descendants. They will be the one to inherit
|
This reading provides us not only with
the form of this specific trial, but an understanding of the nature of the
Divine tests that Avraham will face.
Avraham is not only wrestling with the explicit challenge to leave his
past behind for an unknown future.
He is constantly grappling with his understanding of the Divine
communication (more specifically, the promises of great rewards) and attempting
to reconcile it with the difficulties and impediments that his present reality
places before him. If this land is
somehow to become his, then why must he face a famine that drives him away
almost immediately (in textual, if not actual, time)? If his destiny involves numerous
progeny, how does this reconcile with Sarahs barrenness? Each challenge, therefore, also ends
with a Divine communication that explains, encourages, and strengthens his
resolve to continue. Slowly, as the
years unfold, he begins to understand the profundity and messages that
Hashem is conveying though the medium of lifes tests and trials. Hopefully, his successes will inspire
us, his children, to continue with the same strength that he did.
Shabbat Shalom!
[1] Variant listings of the
ten trials can be found in Pirkei Avot 5:3, Shemot Rabba 15:27;
Tanchuma Lekh Lekha 18, and Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer 26:1,
among dozens of midrashic sources.
[2] Tanchuma, Lekh
Lekha 3.
[3] Whether or not Avraham
actually knew if