Menachem Mirski
Thoughts on Parashat Lech Lecha
[maxbutton id=”6″ url=”https://polishjewsreviving.org/dlaczego-i-w-jakim-celu-bog-nas-wybiera/” ] Have faith in humanity! – some people say. Humanity is the cancer of planet earth – say some others. Obviously the people from the second group don’t literally mean that when they say it, it’s just hyperbolic, right? Anyway, without a little faith in humanity life becomes unbearable, if not impossible. Everyone needs it, including God, who lost his faith in humankind at least a few times, according to the Hebrew Bible. Whenever God decides to call or choose a human individual or a group of people to be his servants, that is when God’s faith in humanity is renewed.
This week’s Torah begins with God’s act of choosing Abram as the Divine servant:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]יהוה said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing. (Genesis 12:1-2) [/perfectpullquote]
Why was Abram chosen by God and for what reason? There are two answers to this question in our tradition. The first says that we cannot know God’s reasons, which may appear arbitrary by human standards and that is why the Torah says nothing about it. Frankly, this answer does not tell us anything besides the idea that God can do whatever He wants and there is no human merit involved in it (this reasoning has been favored by Christiant theologians and had some Jewish supporters as well.) The second view, favored by our tradition, says that Abram, like Noah before him, deserved to be chosen. Just as Noah stood out as a uniquely righteous man in his generation, Abram demonstrated qualities that caused God to single him out as well. To put it differently: Abram found God because of his original intuition and he was searching Him from his young age. Thus, when God addressed the adult Abram, it was in fact in response to his earlier dedication and searching; God reacted to the man’s merits.
The Torah seems to sometimes support the former and sometimes the latter view. But both approaches together appear to offer the best answer: we need to be addressed by God, and God needs us to be capable of responding. It is a mutual relationship.
Now that we have briefly answered the question why God chose Abram (who later makes a covenant with God and becomes Abraham), we still need to answer the question for what purpose God chose him? Midrash gives us the following answer:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “Get thee out of thy country” – R. Azariah cited in this connection the following verse: “We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country.” “We would have healed Babylon” refers to the generation of Enosh; “but she is not healed’ – to the generation of the flood; “forsake her” in the generation of the dispersion; “and let us go every one into his own country” – “And the Lord said unto Abram: Get thee out of thy country.” (Bereshit Rabbah 39:5) [/perfectpullquote]
This Midrash traces the failures of mankind in three stages. The Healer of all Flesh tried to heal humanity, but it would not be healed. The descendants of Adam failed; therefore a new start was made with Noach and his descendants. But then again, after the Tower of Babel it became clear that mankind, fractured into tribes and nations, would not return to its pristine unity and brotherhood. That is why God decided to start a third time with Abraham, to fulfill the promise made to him at the very beginning of his journey:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] I will bless those who bless you And curse the one who curses you; And all the families of the earth Shall bless themselves by you. (Genesis 12:3) [/perfectpullquote]
Yet humanity failed again and again, as we know both from the Hebrew Bible as well as the entire human history up to the 20th century. The process is continuous and looks like this: God reaches out to humanity multiple times, always with an intent to improve human life, to bring blessing and peace in it. However, humanity either keeps turning away from God or wants to take His place. In both cases they ultimately fail, and when their defeat is truly spectacular, then they cry out to God for help.
This historical process has its micro-version in the lives of human individuals: God is looking for us and constantly tries to reach us, to repair our lives, to give us His blessing and peace of mind. However, for our relationship with God to exist, two conditions must be met: we must be relatively decent, morally minded (like Noah), and we must take the first step. Some people have to experience this spectacular defeat themselves, in a micro-scale, to make this first step, some never do it. Some call this step “a leap of faith”; here I would prefer to use a more descriptive and “a little less lofty language”: this step can described simply as a tentative assumption that the laws and wisdom of religion make sense and that they will make our lives better if we put them into practice. This was also the case in my case, when I finally abandoned atheism and decided to “test the God hypothesis in practice”. Within a few months, my life began to dramatically change for the better, and it remained so for years. Was God, and my faith in Him, behind all this? I do not know and cannot know; to prove it, I would have to live my life again and make a different choice at that time. I can’t do that, and to be honest, I don’t need it. It is absolutely enough for me that since then I have never abandoned the “God hypothesis”, although I have modified it a bit in the course of my life. This, however, is normal and necessary for our spiritual development.
Shabbat shalom!
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