Lech-Lecha 5772

Rabbi Daniela Szuster. 

B´nei Israel Congregation,

Costa Rica.

Joining Hands to Strengthen our Identity

I recall that when I was little and learned about God’s order to Abraham to abandon his land, his native home and his family, it seemed to me a tough order, making me wonder why He would demand that.  Couldn’t Abraham build his people, his beliefs, where he already lived?  Why did he have to go somewhere else?  Why did the soil, the geography, matter so much?

The Torah does not tell us anything about Abraham’s life before that moment, when he was seventy five years old.  Why did God order Abraham to leave his homeland so suddenly?  What special qualities did Abraham have?  What were his beliefs?  We are not told anything about any of these: the story of the first Hebrew begins with the order to abandon one of the most precious things to a human being: his own place.

A very famous Midrash tries to reflect the possible family and social situation experienced by our patriarch.  According to this Midrash, Abraham’s father, Terach, owned a store, where he sold different kinds of idols.  One day, Terach was unable to go to work, so he asked Abraham to take charge for the day.  While Abraham was in the store, a man went in looking for a figurine, and Abraham asked him: “How old are you?”  The man replied: “Sixty.” And Abraham said, “How can it be that a 60-year old man praises a statuette built one day ago?” The man, ashamed of himself, left the store without buying anything.

A few hours later, a woman entered the store and Abraham asked her what it was that she wanted.  “I am only here to bring an offering to the statuettes.” Abraham, weary of this business, armed himself with a stick and broke all his father’s idols except the largest one: he then placed the stick between the idol’s hands.  When his father arrived and saw all the destroyed idols, he desperately demanded from his son:  “What happened?  What does this mean?”

Abraham quietly replied:  “It so happens that today, one of your customers brought an offering and all your figurines started to fight among themselves, so they could keep it, until this idol took the stick and destroyed all the others.”

“But Abraham, how can a clay figurine, that does not hear nor speak, make such a mess?”, said Terach, to which Abraham wisely replied: “And if this is so, how can you believe in these idols that cannot even speak or hear?”(Bereshit Rabbah 38:13).

This famous Midrash tries to explain Abraham’s possible attitude toward idolatry.  That was his father’s world, the world in which Abraham was raised and in which the society he lived in believed.  But Abraham started to feel too uncomfortable in that world, since it didn’t agree with the God he was discovering and aspiring to.  For Abraham, a god made out of clay and manufactured by man was not enough.  It did not agree with his values and beliefs.

It was then that God said to Abraham: “Lech Lecha, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house…“ (Genesis 12:10).  The moment God saw Abraham’s discomfort and annoyance with the society where he lived, He ordered him to abandon everything he knew and owned, which was actually quite foreign to him.

Perhaps this was what I didn’t understand as a child.  That it is too difficult, almost impossible, to have a faith, a system of beliefs, values, way of life, within a society that does not agree with such faith.  It is hard to pass on a specific tradition when the society at large holds a very different one.  It was useless for Abraham to talk about monotheism in a society full of idols.  In fact, according to the Midrash, the people of the country led him to jail for committing the crime of destroying the idols.

It was necessary for Abraham to leave his home, so he could start developing a new tradition.  But Abraham did not leave on his own, but with his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot: he left with his family.  It would have been too hard to profess and transmit monotheism as a loner.

So, we could say that the order to leave his home was not a flighty decision on the part of God, but rather what Abraham and his family needed in order to develop their beliefs and values with a free spirit.

The same happens today with our tradition.  It is hard to experience Judaism in solitude; we need a place where we can experience our customs, our beliefs, our past, as are, for instance, our Kehillot.  Surely, the founders of each one of our congregations thought, somehow, about the message taught by our patriarch Abraham.  It is too hard to be a Jew without a framework where we can experience, learn and share Judaism.  Sometimes, it is necessary to remove ourselves from others in order to strengthen and develop what is ours, our identity.  Later on, we may share with the rest of society, but always within a framework where differences are respected.

We live in countries where we are a minority, and we see how this affects our tradition on a daily basis.  That is why we must make a double or triple effort, if we want Judaism to continue living for several more generations.  In this sense, our Kehillot and the UJCL as well, with their programs of encounters for all ages, such as children Machanot, encounters of young adults and adult conferences, give us the chance to strengthen even more our Jewish identity.

May God let us understand that it is too difficult to live Judaism in solitude, that it is important for us to have places where we can get together, pass on our values, and strengthen our identity.

Shabbat Shalom!