Lech Lecha (Genesis 12, 1 – 17, 27) – the choosing of Abraham

Seemingly, the story of Abraham in the Hebrew Bible begins with the command lech lecha, “go for yourself” (Genesis 12, 1) in which Abraham is commanded by God to leave his homeland in Mesopotamia and to go to the land of Canaan. There are those who interpret the command to be an arbitrary decision and choice by God in singling out Abraham. According to this interpretation, this arbitrary choice is seen in a positive light reflecting an act of lovingkindness on the part of God in singling out Abraham – and, thus according to this interpretation no justification is given for this choice on the part of God. In my view, this interpretation is a misreading of the story of Abraham

 

At the end of the previous Torah reading of Noah, in the midst of a genealogy of Abraham as a transition from the story of Noah to the story of Abraham, the Bible tells us a seemingly tangential and unimportant piece of information that Sarah was barren (Genesis 11, 30). The information that Sarah was barren is not emphasized, and is almost as if it were said in passing as a side point. The genealogy of Abraham at the end of the Torah reading Noah is almost as if it were said in passing merely as a transition to the story of Abraham – as if the story of Abraham begins at the beginning of the Torah reading Lech Lecha with the command of God for Abraham to go to the land of Canaan.

 

However, this seemingly tangential and unimportant piece of information that Sarah was barren is not unimportant. The story of Abraham begins not at the beginning of the Torah reading of Lech Lecha with the command of God for Abraham to go to the land of Canaan but at the end of the Torah reading of Noah and the genealogy of Abraham. The seemingly tangential and unimportant information that Sarah was barren in the midst of the genealogy is not unimportant – and, this information is an integral part of the story of Abraham in revealing the moral character of Abraham. In the ancient Biblical and pagan world, a woman who was barren was considered worthless – people in the ancient Biblical and pagan world lived as shepherds or as part of an agricultural society, and in either case children were essential from an economic and social point of view. Regarding a woman who was barren there were generally several options – to abandon or divorce her, to take an additional wife or to take a mistress. Abraham does none of these things. He is loyal to Sarah, though barren, and refuses to abandon or divorce her or to take another wife – and, strikingly, he takes a mistress, Hagar, only at the insistence of Sarah (Genesis 16, 2). Thus, this seemingly tangential piece of information that Sarah was barren is indeed of utmost importance in revealing the moral character of Abraham, and in making clear that the singling out of Abraham by God to go to Canaan was not an arbitrary choice without reason or justification.

 

Abraham is the father of the Jewish people, and the Jewish people are a people in a nationalistic and not a biological or racial sense. From the very beginning of Jewish history there have been Jews of differing racial and ethnic background – and anyone can convert and become a member of the Jewish people regardless of racial or ethnic background.

 

Abraham as the father of the Jewish people was not a Jew having lived prior to the exodus from Egypt and birth of the Israelite (Jewish) people. The Bible describes Abraham as a Hebrew, and the patriarchs of the Jewish people – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – were Hebrews, and not Jews. Hebrews were wanderers who did not belong to any particular society, in the main shepherds raising sheep and cattle, as the Bible describes the patriarchs and their families. They were not tied to any particular land, but wandered from area to area depending upon the availability of grazing land for their herds. There were Hebrews from earliest times throughout the ancient near east – Mesopotamia, Canaan and Egypt. The Bible describes Abraham as coming originally from Mesopotamia, wandering with his family to the land of Canaan and spending time in Egypt as well. Furthermore, not all Hebrews became members of the people Israel (the Jewish people). Rather, it was Hebrews of the families and clans of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who became enslaved in Egypt joined by the “mixed multitude” (Exodus 12, 38), meaning people of differing racial and ethnic background, in their escape from slavery – marking the birth of the Jewish people.

 

Abraham is the father of the Jewish people not in a biological sense but in a spiritual sense in being a person of moral character. Maimonides (the great legal scholar and philosopher of the Jewish tradition who lived in the 12th century) wrote a letter to a person named Ovadia who had converted to Judaism. Ovadia asked Maimonides if it is proper for him to refer in his prayers to “the God of our fathers” (Abraham, Isaac and Isaac) the same as any other born Jew. Maimonides in one of the most moving pieces among his writings argues in responding that the essence of being a Jew is not biological but spiritual:

 

You asked regarding blessings and prayers, both regarding private and public utterance by yourself, whether you may say “Our God and the God of our fathers”…you should recite them all just as they are formulated in the liturgy…The reason for this is that it was Abraham our father who…commanded his children and household after him to keep the path of the Lord, as it is written in the Torah (Genesis 18, 19) – “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice”…It follows that the patriarch Abraham is the father of all his seed who are worthy and follow in his ways and is the father of all his disciples which implies every proselyte who is accepted into the Jewish fold…There is absolutely no difference whatsoever between us and between you.

 

The Biblical name of the Jewish people is Israel, and the name Israel (ישראל) if divided in the middle literally means “righteous of God” (ישר אל). The Hebrew term righteousness in the verse (Genesis 18, 19) cited by Maimonides regarding Abraham is not the same word righteous that is found in the Biblical name of the Jewish people, Israel – but, it is a synonym. The Jewish people, the people Israel are to be a people devoted to righteousness, as exemplified by Abraham the spiritual father of the Jewish people. The story of Abraham then begins not with an arbitrary choosing of Abraham by God to go to Canaan – rather, the story tells us from the very beginning in giving a genealogy of Abraham that Abraham is a person of moral character who is devoted to Sarah even though she was barren.

Jeffrey Radon

Author of orthopraxjudaism.com

Leave a Reply