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The text of the Torah tells us little about Avram (later called Avraham) prior to the start of “Lech Lecha”.1 However, with those words – Lech Lecha – God speaks, instructs, and promises. And from that moment onward, Avram’s life is changed; in retrospect, we can say that the course of history is changed, the entire world is changed.
(1) God said to Avram, go forth from your land and your birthplace and your father’s house to the land I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a [source of] blessing. I will bless those who bless you and those who curse you I will damn, and all the peoples of the earth shall be blessed through you. 12:1-3
We do not know if this was God’s first communication with Avram, though it is the first recorded one.2 We also don’t know exactly when the communication took place. The text reports that Avram was 75 years old when he left Charan, and we would prefer to assume that Avram carried out God’s instructions soon after he received them.3
Rabbinic tradition4 fills in the lacunae in the written text and paints a picture of Avram as an individual who seeks truth and “discovers” God, an individual whose love of God and man inspires him to share his discovery – monotheism – as widely as possible.5 In his hometown, his efforts are met with resistance, eventually leading to a showdown with Nimrod that nearly results in Avram’s death. Avram sets off for a safer venue; at his next location, he apparently enjoys much greater success in inspiring people toward a relationship with God: When he eventually leaves Charan, he is accompanied by a large entourage of students, new adherents to the idea of monotheism.
Avram took his wife, Sarai, and his brother's son, Lot, and all their possessions which they had acquired, and the souls [people] they had made in Charan, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan. 12:5
The “souls that they made in Charan” is understood by Targum Unkolus as the people he (and Sarah) had inspired:
All the souls they made subservient to the Torah (Law/teachings)
Rashi cites6 this teaching:7
[THE SOULS] THAT THEY HAD GOTTEN (literally, made) IN CHARAN – The souls which he had brought beneath the sheltering wings of the Shechinah. Avraham converted the men and Sarah converted the women and Scripture accounts it unto them as if they had made them.
After all of these events – after his near-death experience, after uprooting his family and re-settling in Charan, after successfully spreading the message of the One God, the God of compassion and mercy – at long last, Avraham receives a confirming communication from the God in whom he believes. More than just a confirmation of his belief, Avraham receives directions. He knows how he is to proceed. He knows that his future will be in a new land, where he hopes he will find new opportunities, and perhaps most importantly, where he will enjoy Divine protection and assistance: Unlike his earlier trials and tribulations, now those who attack him will pay the price. At last, everyone will know that Avraham’s belief in God has brought blessing to the world. The promise he receives, “all the peoples of the earth shall be blessed through you,” guarantees his success. Avraham starts his journey with the certainty that now things would be different – but would they?
Perhaps the commandment to leave his home – which was bundled together with blessings of success – wasn’t the beginning of the solution, after all; perhaps it was simply one more challenge, one more hurdle, one more of the tests Avraham endured. The Mishnah8 teaches that Avraham was challenged with ten tests – and passed them all. What the Mishnah doesn’t reveal is, what precisely were these tests?9 Was the instruction to leave Charan, albeit laden with Divine blessings, considered a test, a challenge to be met? There were certainly difficulties involved. Despite the blessings he had been promised, other than his wife and his nephew Lot, Avraham left his entire family behind.10 He disconnected himself from the protection and support of his kin and set out to points unknown.
We may well assume that Avram’s stay in Charan was originally intended as a temporary situation, a layover in the journey toward his final destination. When he first set out from Ur Kasdim, Avram’s party included a significant member of his family – his father Terach:
Terach took his son Avram, and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of Avram. And they set out with them from Ur Kasdim to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to Charan and dwelled there. 11:31
We might argue that this strange idea – Terach’s inexplicable trek toward the Land of Canaan – was in fact an idea planted in his mind by God.11
In a communication recorded subsequently,12 God takes the credit for taking Avraham from his birthplace, Ur Kasdim:
He said to him, "I am God who brought you out of Ur Kasdim to give you this land to inherit. 15:7
There are those who read this verse in a more specific manner: God is reminding Avraham that it was He who saved him from the Ur – the fire or furnace – in Kasdim.13
And He said to him, I am the Eternal God who brought you out of the fiery furnace of Kasdim, to give you this land to inherit. (Targum Pseudo Yonatan Bereishit 15:7)
“Ur Kasdim” contains within it a reference – perhaps a hint – to the events that are absent in the text but are recounted in the famous Midrash: Avram was thrown into a fiery furnace by Nimrod, but survived due to Divine intervention. Does this episode, which pre-dates God’s promises to Avraham articulated in Lech Lecha, nonetheless fall under the same umbrella of Divine protection? Was the as-yet unspoken promise already in effect during the episodes of Avraham’s life detailed in the Midrash, including his miraculous survival of death-by – fire at the hands of Nimrod? Or does that earlier episode merely foreshadow what the future relationship between God and Avraham will be?
The implication of the Divine communication, lech lecha, was that Terach’s participation in this journey would come to an end: “Go forth from your land and your birthplace14 and your father’s house to the land I will show you.” Terach, father of Avram, the man who had started the journey to Canaan, would be left behind.15 Apparently, Terach, the purveyor of idols, had gone as far as he would or could go; he had to be left behind, collateral damage of his own mission.
It is worth noting that in his comments on the verses describing Terach’s truncated journey and Avram’s new mandate moving forward, Rashi explains that Terach would live many more years after the parting of the ways (Bereishit 11:32). Nonetheless, Rashi argues, it was appropriate for Avram to abandon his father (and his filial responsibilities) because Terach was wicked; he was an idolator.16 Later in his life (and at a later point in the text) we find hints that Terach eventually17 abandoned idolatry and ended his life as a penitent (Bereishit 15:15).18 Perhaps Avram’s presence, his heightened spirituality and righteousness, had been holding Terach back; as long as Avraham was around, Terach felt no need to do the hard spiritual work. He left the “heavy lifting” to his son and simply hung on to his coattails. Only when Avraham leaves him behind does Terach realize that he himself must make his own spiritual journey.19
Once again, we return to our question: Is this another test? Was the commandment to abandon his father another means of testing Avram’s dedication, or did Avram perceive this as being finally freed from the burden of his idolatrous father?
Other aspects of the command of lech lecha make matters even worse: Avram did not have any idea where he was headed. Surely the challenge of this journey and the challenge of uprooting his life were amplified by the uncertainty. However, all of these considerations would seem to be outweighed by the promises and blessings bestowed upon Avraham.
Avram and his entourage arrive in the Land of Canaan, and they travel through the landscape to a place called Shechem or Eylon Moreh:
(6) Avram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to Eylon [the oak] of Moreh, and the Canaanites were then in the land. (7) God appeared to Avram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” He built an altar there to God who appeared to him. 12:6-7
In what seems like an innocent aside, we are told that the Canaanites inhabited the land at the time. At this juncture, God appears to Avram and blesses him: his descendants will inherit this land. This wonderful news contains two blessings: One, the hitherto barren Avram would have a child who would bear subsequent generations of descendants; and two, the purpose of this trip was to bring him to the land that these descendants would one day call their own. But therein lies the rub: The land was not actually promised to Avraham himself, rather it was promised as a gift to the children and the descendants he did not yet have; for now, the Canaanites inhabit the land, which means that this promise refers to distant future events and realities.
Should this give us pause? Should we perhaps reconsider the other promises he was given, and conclude that these, too, were ‘long-term’ promises that would come to fruition only in some distant future?
I will make you a great nation I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and those who damn you I will curse and all the peoples of the earth shall be blessed through you. 12:2-3
Were these blessings something Avram could expect immediately? Did they refer to Avraham’s lifetime, or were these promises of protection and blessing, like the promise of the land, something only future generations would see?
Perhaps the very fact that he received these blessings was a test: Would Avram demand immediate gratification? Would he lose faith if he did not see the blessings realized? Would he despair when he understood that he would never personally reap the rewards of his devotion and sacrifice?
To compound the problem, the blessings themselves were clouded by imprecision and a lack of specificity: Which land would he be receiving? What would be the borders and contours of this land? This confusion crescendos in the complex verses that follow. Avraham continues traveling south – perhaps seeking answers to some of these questions.
He left from there to the mountain east of Beit El, and pitched his tent; Beit El to the west, and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the Eternal God and called out in the name of the Eternal God. 12:8
Something is missing. God is silent; no further information or clarification is offered. Avraham, for his part, repeats what he had done before. Once again he builds an altar and “calls in the name of God.” Some commentaries imagine Avraham calling out, as he did in Charan, to his neighbors, teaching them to serve the One God. Targum Unkolus understands these verses very differently: Avram calls God by name, searches for Him. Avram is at a loss; he is stymied by the lack of information and he calls to God for answers, for details, for further instructions. But this time, God doesn’t speak.
And then, things get worse. A famine descends upon the land, and still God is silent. Avraham is left to ponder on his own: Was the promise that he would be a source of blessing something he should count on in the here-and-now, or was it, like the promise of offspring and inheriting the land, also a promise for the more distant future? The combination of God’s continued non-communication and the lack of food leads Avraham to a decision: He continues his trek southward.
The Ramban attacks Avraham for his decision to leave Israel, and for causing his wife to enter a morally precarious situation.20 But is this critique fair?21 Did Avram know that the land on which he found himself (Egypt) was outside of the borders of his future inheritance? Based on the communication he had received, how could he have known which land was included in the promise? He feared for his safety; should he have trusted solely in God’s promise to protect him, putting faith before action? When considering the situation, the facts seemed to indicate that the promises – all the promises – were not intended to have any bearing on the present; they were more akin to long-term bonds than to immediate insurance policies. A famine had come; surely the promise of blessing flowing through Avraham to the world had not yet begun. Could he expect Divine protection at this point in history?
The conclusion is inescapable: From the moment God spoke to him, every minute and every aspect of Avram’s life had become complicated. The blessings, it seems, would not ‘kick in’ until the future; God’s deafening silence seemed to confirm this diagnosis.
This wholly unsatisfying model of communication continues for the rest of Avraham’s life: God speaks when He sees fit, and not necessarily when Avraham is in great need of direction, clarification, friendship or mentoring. Only after Avraham separates from Lot does God speak again, although the separation itself might have happened earlier, more seamlessly and peacefully, and with less self-doubt, had God given Avraham some guidance or assured him that parting ways with Lot was the correct course of action.22
Similarly, only after Avraham becomes embroiled in battle between warring kings, and only after the hostilities come to an end, God assures Avraham that he will protect him. Arguably, those comforting words would have been more helpful BEFORE, and not after, the war. Yet God alone decides when to speak and when to leave the courageous Avraham to his own devices. When details are finally provided, Avraham is told that four hundred years will have to pass before the land is his – but his descendants will first suffer angst, servitude and abuse.
When Sarah is taken by Avimelech,23 God speaks to Avimelech,24 not to Avraham. Avraham is left to work the situation out without guidance, without instructions or assurances, only silence. And so it continues: Avraham’s entire life seems to be an ongoing test, an endless series of challenges, some of which are unimaginably difficult. But Avraham marches on with incredible aplomb. His faith is never shaken; he continues his journey armed with promises for the distant future. The tests he faces phase him no more than the hurdles over which a well-trained athlete leaps; Avraham takes them all in his stride. Despite God’s silence, Avraham feels blessed; he knows that he is blessed. He knows it with certainty, because he knows with certainty that the God he loves, the loving God, has blessed him. Even though it will take years, generations, Avraham knows that the day will come when these blessings will be manifest. Sooner or later, it will happen: He will have children and the Land of Israel will be theirs,25 for God had spoken.