B´nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica
Sometimes it is necessary to get away, to be able to start a new life
I remember when I was young and I learned about G-d’s mandate to Abraham that he should go from his land, his birthplace and his family; I thought this was a drastic request from G-d and I wondered why He would demand this. Was it not possible for Abraham to shape his people and his beliefs where he lived? Why move to another place? Why did the land, the geography, matter so much?
The Torah does not tell us about Abraham’s life up to that point, about the first seventy-five years of his life. Why, all of a sudden, did G-d demand from Abraham that he should leave his land? What were Abraham’s qualities? What did he believe in? It tells us none of this. The story of the first Hebrew begins with the order to leave behind one of humanity’s most precious things: a place of his own.
There are two famous sources that attempt to explain the reason why Abraham was chosen by G-d to start the Hebrew people.
The first is Rambam’s description in the Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Avodah Zarah, where he presents an interesting story from the beliefs of the idolizing peoples all the way to our patriarch Abraham. Based on some traditional sources, Rambam asserts:
“Since he was young, Abraham began searching and wondering: How can the heavenly bodies orbit without a motor to move them? Who moves them? They cannot move on their own! Lost among the idolizers of Ur Casdim, there was no one there to teach him; his father, his mother and the people in his house were idolizers. But his heart searched and reached that conclusion that there is only one G-d who created everything and no divinity other than Him. At the age of forty, Abraham recognized his Creator.” (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Avodah Zarah 1:3).
Behind Maimonides words, we find a justified response as to why G-d chose Abraham. From his own spiritual quest, Abraham was able to arrive at the idea of only one G-d. All alone, he discovered the monotheistic paradigm. It was when Abraham reached this conclusion that G-d approached him and ordered him: “Lech Lecha.”
The following famous Midrash offers a similar answer:
“The father of Abraham, Terah, was a dealer in idols. One day, Terah was unable to tend his business and he asked Abraham to take care of it for that day.
While Abraham was in the shop, a man came in asking for a statuette. Abraham asked him, “How old are you?” And the man answered, “Sixty.” Abraham said to him, “How can a sixty year old man praise a statuette made only a day ago?” The man, ashamed, left without buying anything.
Then came a lady, Abraham asked her what she wanted and she said, “I just came to bring an offering for the statuettes.” Tired of this business, Abraham grabbed a stick and broke all of his father´s idols except one, and he placed the stick in that idol’s hand, which was the biggest of them all. His father came and desperate after seeing his idols destroyed he asked his son, “What has happened? What does this all mean?”
Calmly, Abraham answered, “A client of yours brought an offering today and all your statuettes began fighting each other to keep it until this idol grabbed the stick and destroyed the rest.”
“But Abraham, what are you saying? How could a clay statue, that cannot speak or listen, cause this disaster?” said Terah and Abraham wisely responded, “If that is so, how can you believe in these idols that cannot even speak or listen?” (Bereshit Rabbah 38: 13).
This Midrash tries to bring us closer to understanding Abraham’s attitude towards idolatry. That was the world of his father, the world in which he was raised, and the world the society he belonged to believed in. But Abraham began feeling very uncomfortable in that world, for it did not fit with the G-d he was discovering and aspiring to learn more about. For Abraham, it wasn’t feasible to believe in a G-d made out of clay by man. It did not coincide with his values and beliefs.
That was when G-d said to Abraham: “Lech Lecha, go from your country, your birthplace and the house of your father” (Genesis 12:1). At the same time G-d observed Abraham’s discomfort and disgust for the society he lived in, he ordered him to leave what was his, which in fact was quite foreign to him.
This is perhaps what I could not understand when I was little. That it is extremely difficult, nearly impossible to have a faith, a belief system, values, a way of life in a society that does not agree with that faith. It is very complicated to carry on a tradition when the majority of society teaches a different one. It was useless for Abraham to speak of monotheism in a society saturated with idols. In fact, the Midrash tells us that his countrymen even imprisoned him for the crime of destroying idols.
It was necessary for Abraham to leave so that he could start a new tradition. Abraham did not leave alone, but with his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot; he left with his family. It would have been very hard to profess and carry on monotheism alone.
Therefore, we might say that the order to leave his land was not a mere whim from G-d, but a necessity for Abraham and his family to be able to develop their beliefs and values freely.
The same thing happens today with our tradition. It is very difficult to live Judaism in solitude. It is more than necessary to have a place where we can experience our customs, our beliefs and our past; hence, our Jewish communities. Surely the founders of our congregations thought, one way or another, about the message taught to us by our patriarch Abraham. It is very complicated to be Jewish without a setting to experience, to learn, and to share Judaism.
There are times when it is necessary to leave in order to strengthen and develop our own identity. Only then can we share moments with the rest of society, within a framework that respects the differences.
May G-d allow us to understand how difficult it would be to live Judaism in solitude, and how important it is to have places where we can share, carry on our values, and strengthen our identity.
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