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"I Will Make You A Great Nation"

21.09.2014
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We will analyze one long midrash today - Bereishit Rabba 39,11 - in stages.  But first, read over the reference verse: "I shall make you a great nation, and I shall bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing" (12,2).

1.

"And I shall make you a great nation" (Bereishit 12,2).  He said to Him: Did you not bring out seventy nations from Noach? He said to him: That nation about which it is written, "For who is such a great nation…" (Devarim 4,7) I shall bring forth from you. 

          It is rather common for the midrash to compare and contrast Avraham and Noach.  Both were pious individuals, in a world where they were basically singular and alone.  But underlying these comparisons is often not so much a desire to understand two individuals as a contrast between Noach as the father of humanity and Avraham as the father of the Jewish people.  The term "Bnei Noach" is, after all, the most common rabbinic appellation of non-Jewish humanity.  Our midrash is unusual, I think, in placing the comparison to Avraham not in the mouths of the reader or author of the midrash, but in the mouth of Avraham himself.  How, he asks God, does my promise differ from that of Noach?  In other words, what distinguishes this moment from all others? How is history to be changed, since in any event, humanity is moving along, founding empires, peoples, and civilizations? God's answer - and the Sages interpretation of the verse in question - is short but instructive.  Noach was the father of humanity, and great nations that arise from him are basically distinguished by their number - seventy nations, the entire world's population.  The word I translated as "great" is "gadol," which literally means "large." You, Avraham, will be one great nation.  Here great does not mean numerically large, but singular, unique.  The verse cited by God reads, "For who else is such a great nation, who has God close to him, as is the case with HaShem our God, whenever we call to Him" (Devarim 4,6).  But the average reader of the midrash would not stop there - he would automatically continue onto the next verse as well.  "And who else is such a great nation, which has righteous laws and statutes, as is the case with this Torah, which I am placing before you today." Noach is great in numbers, and there are presumably those who will be impressed by that fact.  You, Avraham, will be the father of one, rather small nation, but great in its uniqueness, because it has God, and it has the Torah.

          The Sages are defining the moment of the first verses of Lekh Lekha.  God is not promising Avraham glory in the usual historical sense.  He is setting Avraham out on the journey that will change history from within, by creating a spiritual experience that will transform the world.  The destiny of Avraham is totally different from that of Noach, and that vision, the nation of God and Torah, begins now.

2.

R.  Berachya said: It is not written "I shall GIVE to you (a great nation)" or "I shall APPOINT you," but rather "I shall MAKE you." When I make you into a new creation, then you shall procreate. 

          One of the instruments the midrash uses to mine the Biblical text is a sort of dogged simplemindedness about reading it.  Literally read, the verse states that God will turn Avraham into a great nation, but, argues the midrash, Avraham personally will not become a nation - he will be, at most, the father of many descendants who will constitute a nation.  And so, R. Berachya argues, there must be an action of "making" Avraham into something.  The creation of the new nation will commence with a remake of Avraham; he must be turned into something else.

          Literally, this statement of the midrash would seem to be referring to the future covenant of circumcision.  Avraham will only have his child Yitzchak after he undergoes a change within himself.  There is another possible referent for this midrash, though it is not mentioned here at all.  The Talmud in Yevamot (64a) states that both Sara AND Avraham were physically incapable of having children (despite the fact that Avraham had a child with Hagar thirteen years before Sara gave birth to Yitzchak).  Hence, in order to have children, Avraham must literally be made over, his body changed into a new creation.

          The idea, though, is greater than either of these two facts, and is, in fact, the meaning behind them both.  The language of the midrash - "make you into a new creation,"  or "new creature" (birya chadasha) - indicates that God is telling Avraham that as part of the creation of the Jewish people he has to become first of all a new person.  Even more, I think it means that Avraham is to become a new creature altogether, one never seen before since the creation of Heaven and Earth.  "I will make you a great nation" means, as we saw above, "I will make the Jewish people." This midrash emphasizes that this "making" applies to Avraham himself physically, to indicate that the "new nation" is a "new creation." The difference between the old Avraham and the new Avraham is the difference between barren and fruitful.  Whether this midrash is referring directly to a change in Avraham's reproductive capabilities, or to the covenant of circumcision, it is referring to Avraham's creative power, on a physical reproductive level, and, derivatively, on a personal and spiritual level as well. 

          Is this reading of the word "I will make you" (ve-e'eskha) divorced from the "pshat" of these verses.  Not, I think, if we remember that God is telling Avraham to leave his home, country, and family.  The Sages are saying that the separation of the Jews from the gentiles is not merely functional or defensive, but is part and parcel of the creation of the Jewish people as a unique unit within humanity.  God says, "leave your country, your homeland, and your father's house… and I will MAKE you a great (unique, singular) nation."

          The Sages never imagined that before Avraham there were not pious and righteous individuals.  On the contrary, they often refer to Avraham's ancestors Shem and Ever (who were still alive, as a simple computation based on the lifetimes given in parashat Noach will show) as examples of pious people.  In fact, we will soon meet Shem, the son of Noach, in parashat Lekh Lekha (the midrash identifies Malkitzedek as Shem).  But they are not counted as the beginning of the Jewish people or as the start of the spiritual adventure that begins with Lekh Lekha.  Avraham is more than a pious individual; he is a new kind of person, a recreated one, who basically lacks family ties with his "old" family.  This idea is expressed halakhically in the rule, "a convert is like a new-born infant."

3. 

R. Levi b. Havyat and R. Abba the son of R. Chiya b. Abba said: Three "great"s and four "blessings" are written here (in verse 2 and 3).  He informed him that there would be three fathers and four mothers.

          This midrash continues the direction of the first one above.  Great is not a numerical attribute, but a quality one, one expressing uniqueness and significance.  The midrash therefore concentrates on great personalities, exemplified by the avot and imahot.

          I think there is a further point here.  The previous midrash (no. 2) read the verse to mean that God would make over Avraham himself, in the process of creating the great nation.  This midrash expands and further explicates not the great result - the great nation - but the new remade great originator, Avraham.  Avraham is the av, the father - but in a wider sense, there are three fathers and four mothers.  God says, I will make YOU into three fathers and four mothers.  Being the father of the Jewish people is too complicated, too multifaceted for one father.  The complexity and richness of the spiritual experience requires multiple sources and paradigms, all of which together are the forefathers.  Greatness, it turns out, is not one mold, repeated over and over in history, but multiple.  There are at least three types of greatness and four types of blessing.

          One of the things we will be explicating, I hope, throughout the course, is the different paradigm of each father and mother, as seen in the midrashic interpretations of their personalities.

4. 

I want to get to the main course (section 5) before my "time" runs out, so we will move through this next section quickly.

R. Chiya said: A journey causes three things: it diminishes reproduction, it diminishes wealth, and it diminishes repute.  [Therefore, God said] I will make you a great nation - in response to the diminishment of reproduction.  I will bless you - in response to the diminishment of wealth.  I will make your name great - in response to the diminishment of repute.  And as people are wont to say: From one house to another a garment [is lost when one moves], from one house to another a soul - but you shall not suffer in soul and not in wealth.

          R. Chiya is taking a radically different approach to God's promise to Avraham.  In fact, this is the opposite approach to interpreting the entire parasha.  In our terminology, we would say that R. Chiya is adopting a more "pshat" orientation.  He declines to see the promise as involving the long-range future of the Jewish people, a declaration of the commencement of the great spiritual journey to Sinai and beyond.  God's promise is to Avraham alone, for his own individual benefit and protection.  The great nation, which obviously must be directed to at least a few generations in the future, is nonetheless primarily addressing Avraham's justified apprehension concerning his own immediate family; and the other two promises, wealth and repute, are even more directed to Avraham's PERSONAL destiny.

          Why does R. Chiya do this? After all, this is MIDRASH - not pshat, but homiletics.  His job is to look for great and lofty ideas imbedded in the text!

          The answer, in my opinion, is simple.  The command of God was to journey "to the land that I will show you," unto the unknown.  As we saw in the previous two shiurim, God does not tell Avraham where to go or what to do, he does not guide him.  The disclosure of Jewish destiny will come later, in the Brit Bein HaBetarim." R. Chiya is interested in leaving for Avraham to discover his spiritual destiny on his own, and so restricts God's initial promise to personal protection only.

          There is an additional reason.  As we shall see in one of the future shiurim, Avraham does not dedicate himself initially to producing a separate nation, withdrawn and separated from the world.  The midrash repeatedly will show us Avraham trying to persuade the entire world to follow the path of God.  God knows - and so do we - that Avraham's journey from Charan to Canaan is the beginning of the path from humanity to Israel, from universalism to particularism, but Avraham apparently does not.  R. Chiya therefore negates the "Jewish" particularist content of the initial promise in favor of a promise of God's welfare for Avraham personally.

          This, of course, opens the way for reconciliation of both approaches of the midrash.  The real deep meaning of the promise relates to the creation and separation of Israel, of Avraham's withdrawal from the world and rebirth.  But there must be also a more immediate "pshat" to the promise, which can be understood in a manner that will allow Avraham to pursue his burning desire to bring the message he has discovered to all humanity.  R. Chiya provides that interpretation, the interpretation understood by Avraham at the time, which does not however prevent us, with the advantage of hindsight, from seeing the deeper meaning.

5. 

R. Berachya said in the name of R. Chelbo: [The verse means] that his "monetin" went out in the world.

There are four whose monetin went out in the world:

Avraham: I shall make you a great nation; his monetin went out.  And what is his monetin? An old man and woman on one side; a lad and a maiden on the other.

Yehoshua: "And God was with Yehoshua and all the land heard of him" (Yehoshua 6,27); his monetin went out.  And what was his monetin? An ox on one side; an antelope on the other.

David: "David's name went out in all the lands" (1 Chronicles 14,17); his monetin went out.  And what was his monetin? A staff and knapsack on one side; a tower on the other, as is written, "Your neck is like the tower of David" (Shir HaShirim 4,4).

Mordechai: For Mordechai was great in the king's house and all the lands heard of him" (Ester 9,4); his monetin went out.  And what was his monetin? Sackcloth and ashes on one side; a gold crown on the other.

I see that I really have run out of time (bytes, I suppose, is a better term).  I therefore shall leave you with this last midrash.  You first have a technical problem - what does the word "monetin" mean? In modern Hebrew, it means reputation.  A small hint - it is not originally a Hebrew word at all, and its root should be recognized by anyone who speaks any romance language, including English.

The more important task is to understand the meaning of the different monetins of each of the four individuals.  We are, of course, most interested in Avraham, but I shall discuss, at least shortly, the other three as well.

Next shiur: We shall finish the rest of 39,11 (beginning with the "monetin" midrash) and then continue with 39,12 (skipping, more or less, the halakhic section about how to bow in prayer in the middle of 39,12).

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