Parashah of the Week:   Saturday, October 23, 2004

               B”H

        I remember when I was a little girl and I learned about the imperative order from G-d to Abraham to leave his land, his home and his family; it seemed to me a strong request from G-d, and I asked myself why would He demand this.  Couldn’t Abraham form his people, his beliefs, where he lived?  Why move to another land?  Why was it so important the terrain, the geography?

        The Torah doesn’t tell us anything about Abraham’s life until this moment, his first seventy five years of life.  Why suddenly G-d demands him to leave his land?  What were Abraham qualities?  What did he believe?  None of that is explained to us, but the story of the first Hebrew begins with the command to leave the most precious things in a man’s life:  his own home.

        There’s a very famous midrash that attempts to transmit the possible family and social situation in which our first patriarch lived.   This midrash tells that Abraham’s father, Terah, had a store where he sold different kinds of idols.  One day, Terah couldn’t take care of the store and asked Abraham to take care of it for the day.

        Being Abraham in the store, a man came in asking for a statue, and Abraham asked him:  "How old are you?"  The man answered:  “Sixty.”   Abraham asked  him:  “How come a man sixty years old worships a statue made just one day ago?”  The man, ashamed, left without buying anything.

        Later came in a lady, Abraham asked her what she wants and she answered:  “ I just came to bring an offering to the statues.”  Tired of this business, Abraham takes a stick and breaks down all of his father’s idols except for one, he puts the stick in this idol’s hand, which was the biggest one.  His father arrives and in despair at seeing his idols destroyed, shouts at his son:  “What happened?  What does all this mean?”

        Abraham very calm answers:  “It happens that today one of your clients brought an offering and all your statues began to fight against each other to keep the offering, until this idol took the stick and destroyed them all.”

        "But Abraham, what are you saying?  How can a clay statue that doesn’t talk nor hear is going to make this disaster?" says Terah, and Abraham wisely answers:  “If it is this way, how can you create these idols that don’t talk nor hear?”  (Bereshit Rabbah 38:13)

        This midrash transmits us something about the possible attitude of Abraham toward idolatry.  That was the father’s world, the world in which Abraham was raised and in which the society he lived believed.  But Abraham began to feel uncomfortable in that world, which didn’t coincide with the G-d he was discovering and aspiring to.  For Abraham, it was unthinkable to believe in a clay G-d made by man.  That didn’t coincide with his values and beliefs.

        At that moment is when G-d tells Abraham:  Lech Lecha, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house” (Genesis 12:1).  At the same time, G-d observes the discomfort and displeasure of Abraham for the society he was living in, then is when he commands him to abandon what was his - but really strange to him.

        This is perhaps what I did not understand when I was small.   It is very difficult, almost impossible, to have a faith, beliefs, values, a lifestyle, in a society where this faith doesn’t fit.  It’s very complicated to transmit a tradition when a major society teaches a different one.  It was useless for Abraham to speak about monotheism in a society filled with idols.  In fact, the midrash tells that the people of that country made him prisoner for committing the crime of destroying the idols.

        It was necessary that Abraham left to begin developing a new tradition.  But Abraham did not leave alone but with his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot, he went with his family.  It would be very difficult to profess and transmit monotheism alone.

        Then we could say that, to move away from his land, was not a whimsical command from G-d, but a need for Abraham and his family in order to develop his beliefs and values freely.

        The same 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 live our traditions, our beliefs, our past.   B’nei Israel is an example.  Surely, the founders of this congregation have thought sometimes of the message that our patriarch Abraham taught us.   It is very complicated to be a Jew without having a place to live, learn, share and get in love with the Jewish people.  Obviously, not only the Jewish community must accomplish this duty, but our own Jewish home, also.

        There are times when it is necessary to move away, to get strength and develop our own self, our identity.  Then we can share moments with the rest of society, but in a frame where differences are respected.

        May G-d grants us to understand how difficult it is to live Judaism in solitude.   Judaism is not only about books read in the darkness of the night, but about living, traditions, rituals, and life together.

        Judaism is a way to see the world and a way to live life every instant, since we are born, grow and die.

        May G-d grant us to understand how important it is that we have places where we can transmit our values, such as the community and our own homes.

        May G-d grant us that our own families be the source of our Jewish living.