Dvar Torah for Rosh Hashanah Day #2 on the Akeda.
Susan Heitler, September 28, 2003
Today’s talks are one with two parts, each addressing contrasting aspects of g-d. This dvar Torah looks at G-d as manifest in a personal relationship with each of us. Mark Levy’s sermon looks at g-d in a cosmic perspective.
Lech Lecha, and the blessings that follow.
In this parsha G-d tests Abraham. Just what was Abraham’s test? What was the reward? And why this particular reward for this particular test?
Abraham’s test begins with G-d telling him “ Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and ‘lech lecha,” get up and go, into the land of Moriah; and ascend there making a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. Genesis 22:2
Note that when Abraham hears these words, he does not necessarily realize he is being tested, just as we so often do not know which of our own actions will turn out to have dramatic consequences. Fortunately, when Abraham hears G-d’s voice, he does get up and saddle his donkey. But only after Abraham has completed the challenge does G-d tell him that he is to be rewarded “because you heeded my voice.”
The words in G-d’s instructions that stand out most for me are the words lech lecha Get up and get yourself going.
Abraham had heard these two words before. When he lived in his father’s house, one day G-d also had said to him, Lech lecha. The words then were “Leave your father’s house and go to a land I will show you.” Today’s Lech lecha, get up and go, is “to a mountain that I will show you.” Mountains in Jewish tradition are associated with connecting with G-d, with receiving G-d instructing us on how to conduct our lives. Moses, for instance, received the ten commandments on a mountain.
The instruction on Mount Moriah seems to be about violence. Do not hurt the boy. G-d does not want us to be violent toward our children, even for his sake.
This message is particularly relevant in these times. Tyrants like Saddam Hussein, and terrorists such as those in Al Quaeda and in Palestinian terror groups, emanate from cultures where child and spouse abuse are condoned. Families in which parents beat children and husbands beat their wives breed children who are likely to be violent in their adult lives. Ending family violence, ending domestic terror, is probably the only way to bring ultimate triumph in the war on international terrorism.
There is yet another similarity in the two times G’d speaks the words lech lecha, get your self going, to Abraham. In both cases, where Abraham is to go is unclear. G-d says “I will show you” later. For now, just heed my voice. Listening is enough. Seeing will come later.
Abraham heeds G-d’s voice, taking the actions he hears G-d telling him to do even though he could not see what the outcome would be. When his son Isaac says “Here is the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”, Abraham trusts that the outcome will be positive. G-d will enable us to see, “G-d will show us the lamb, my son,” he said.
To understand what passing his test of heeding G-d’s words has to do with the particular rewards G-d then gives Abraham, let’s look next at the rewards. What are the payoffs when Abraham does heed g-d’s voice saying Lech lecha, get up and go take action? Three blessings result-many descendants, overcoming enemies, and a special role among the nations. Let’s look at each of these in more detail.
The first reward repeats a blessing given earlier-your descendants should be as numerous as the starts in the sky (15:5) and the sand by the sea (dust, 13:16). Lots of descendants sounds great, but according to Midrash Or HaAfelah, this blessing has actually an aspect of warning. When Israel complies with G’d’s will, they will be like the stars in the heavan in that no nation can dominate them, but when they flout His will, they resemble the sand of the seashore, trampled by all around them.
The second blessing is that we will inherit the gate of our enemies; we will survive, outlasting our enemies. According to Ramban, this blessing of Jewish continuity offers a solemn assurance of Israel’s eventual redemption from all periods of oppression.
The third blessing reads “through your children will be blessed all the nations of the world, because you heeded my voice.” I have always taken this verse as presaging that Jews would often choose life-enhancing, help-giving career paths. They would become doctors, lawyers, psychologists, scientists, teachers and academics, rabbis, entrepreneurs who provide jobs for people, or, like my husband, real estate developers who provide people with affordable housing and enjoyable office space.
Some commentators however read this third blessing it as “the nations shall bless themselves by your offspring, meaning that they will pray to G-d, “Bless us as You have blessed the offspring of Abraham.” (Radak) Interestingly, my Christian Zionist ActionIsrael friends from Faith Bible Chapel say that they base much of their devoted support of Israel on this sentence, and on the words of “G-d” in response to Abraham’s success in following his first “Lech lecha,” where G-d says that those who bless Israel will be blessed.
What guidance does Abraham’s test and subsequent three rewards give us for our lives?
All of us from time to time experience Lech lecha moments. We hear a voice within ourselves saying that it is time for us to lech lecha, to get up and get going, to take action, to head in a new direction.
Yet maybe the rewards promised to Abraham will continue only to the extent that we, the Jewish people, and we, each Jewish individual, follow Abraham’s example.
In the year ahead, if we want to assure Jewish continuity we each need to respond when we hear quiet voices with us saying, “You need to do something. Take action.”
As a community we in Kohelet over the past year have heeded a vital lech lecha. We heard g-d’s voice saying get up, go, find a new building I, through my angel Dona Mandell, will show you. Find a larger building to provide for a next generation. Commit to the project even if you cannot yet see where you will find such a building, or if someone like David Sherman will volunteer to shepherd it through renovations, and even if it may take substantial resources, money and time that you love.
Our new building in fact may well lead to our inheriting the gates of our enemies --our enemies in this case are the seductive lures of assimilation into the melting pot of generic America. Once our building has been completed, hopefully we most likely will hear voices issuing a next lech lecha challenge-intuitions that we must get up and take action to provide strong Jewish education and youth groups for our children. Only if we get up and take action will we enable our children to grow up appreciating their Jewishness and devoted to insuring that Am Yisroal Chai, the people of Israel will live.
Similarly, many individuals within Kohelet, have responded to lech lecha voices telling them they must take action to support Israel. Kohelet members have taken major roles in Denver’s two main grass roots Israel-support groups, Building Bridges for Peace and then ActionIsrael. These two groups, in different but both vitally important ways, work devotedly toward ensuring a safe, strong, and enduring Israel.
In the coming year, there no doubt will be times when you hear a small voice within encouraging you to take action on behalf of our communities of Kohelet and of Israel. Will you follow Abraham’s lech lecha example?
When voices from G-d within you say Lech lecha, get going and take action, will you remember that this may be your test? Or will you refrain from responding, feeling inadequate and unequipped for the task, too busy or too bothered? If you can’t see where the project will take you or how it will turn out, will you still listen, heed and take action? Surely it would be easier just to live your ordinary life of working, raising your family, and enjoying this great and free country of America. Will you give up when the costs of heeding a lech lecha voice seem high?
Like Abraham, each of us, in every generation, must pass our lech lecha tests if the three blessings of Jewish continuity, overcoming enemies, and being a blessing are to be conveyed to us.
We must each heed G-d’s lech lechas if we are going to succeed in building a beautiful, active, and spiritually compelling new home for our treasured Kohelet community, insuring Jewish continuity for our children. We must donate our time, our money, our energies.
With regard to sustaining Israel, if a voice within says lech lecha, we must respond. We must get up and go to the phone when journalists and newscasters minimize terrorism by referring to suicide bombers as “militants,” or otherwise slant their reporting against Israel. We must get up and make a reservation when lech lecha voices say to us this year I need to visit Israel.
In sum, Abraham’s blessings for responding to lech lecha are not randomly assigned rewards. Rather, they are inherent consequences. Jewish freedom from oppression, Jewish triumph over enemies who would destroy us, and Jewish life-enhancing contributions to the world follow directly from our ability to respond with action when we hear Lech lecha.
This year may we all heed our Lech Lecha voices so that we each help to ensure that the Jewish people will be like stars above, not like sand underfoot.
So that we insure that we will inherit the gates of our enemies--assimilation in this country and Palestinian violence in Israel.
So that we insure that we, our children, and our brethren in Israel, will be free to devote our energies to life-giving blessings for ourselves, our families, and the world. Then will others, seeing our example, seek to be blessed as they have seen us blessed.
Lech lecha.