Shabbat Table Talk

Parashat Lech Lecha
Erev Shabbat, 03 November, 2006
Week of 29 October to 04 November
Torah portion: Gen. 12:1-17:27
Haftarah: Isa. 40:27-41:16
Readings for Sunday, 05 November: Dt. 6: 2-6; Heb. 7: 23-28; Mk. 12: 28b-34

1. Departure: (leaving)
Lech Lecha... A simple order, a range of possibilities: “Go-you-forth…” (Fox, Plaut, BJ); “Go for yourself, for your pleasure and for your benefit. There, I will make of you a great nation; whereas here you do not merit having children…” (Rashi); “Go by yourself. This is one journey which must be made alone…” (Hirsch); “Go to yourself, go to your roots, to find your potential” (Chasidic interpretation).

“Abram, what did you hear that day in Haran?”
“I heard, in a handful of words, something that later would take me many years to understand. In that moment, I hardly guessed what would happen afterwards. Only now, after walking along the roads, and with several slips, am I able to see what the matter was. Nevertheless, I cannot yet grasp it completely. It seems to me that only my children, the children of my children, the generations that will follow them, the peoples that will walk with us, may finally disclose the depth of the words of my God. Perhaps you yourself, who today receive my words after centuries, are part of this project of understanding…”

Our parashah begins with God’s discourse addressed to Abram (12:1-3). The Holy Scripture, looking to communicate a message to listeners of every era and everywhere, offers signals and clues that allow us to orientate our understanding. In this case the discourse anticipates, in a nutshell, the distinctive elements that will unfold in the subsequent accounts. Starting from there, the command and the various promises given by God will influence, like a leitmotif, the whole span of Abram’s story. At the same time, the density of such a discourse can be grasped only when the road has been covered completely. To understand God’s command and promises thoroughly, we need to listen along with Abram, go forth with him, walk with him through the roads, fear his fears, dream his dreams, trust with his faith…

2. Gifts
“Abram, what did you hear that day in Haran?”
“Three words I heard: one command and two promises. It seemed to me that only if I would leave behind all my security and go forth, would I receive what was promised to me. So I left my land, my father’s house, and I headed onto the road. The promise echoed in my heart: ‘I will make a great nation of you...I will make your name great...All the clans of the soil will find blessing through you!…’”

God’s word to Abram contains two types of promises. The first is related to what Abram is destined to became: a great nation, a great name. The second relates to why he is called: to deliver the blessing to other peoples. Because of the first, he is the final addressee; because of the second, he is the transmission vehicle.

“The two sections within this short pericope have in perspective two quite distinct prospects: the first section refers to Abraham in relation to the nation of Israel (i.e., the land to which he is being called, and the nation of which he will be the progenitor); the second section refers to Abraham in relation to an international community (i.e., all the families of the earth, v. 3). The theme of blessing in Genesis 12:1-3, therefore, is twofold. (…) If these two distinct sets of conditional promises are to be ratified by covenant, it should not be surprising that more than one covenant is required” (Williamson, 233-4).

Two texts of our parashah take up each of the promises again. Both are accounts of covenant. In Genesis 15, it is connected with the promise of nationhood, while in Genesis 17 the emphasis falls on the promise of being the father of many nations. The blessing develops itself in an interplay between the particular and the universal. It will touch everybody by passing through one person. It will be given to one in order to be shared by everyone. To monopolize it would be its death, to spread it would bring life.

3. “No-Places”
“Abram, where have you gone while following the voice of your God?” “The word of my God told me to go forth. I did, and crossed many lands—Haran, Shechem, Bethel, Egypt, The Negev, Mamre, the regions of Sodom and Gomorrah. But there were two special moments on the way: those when God offered his covenant to me. It sounded strange: I could not settle in the places where it happened. They seemed to be ‘places without place,’ as if all the places were there…” “Go-you-forth from your land, from your kindred, from your father’s house, to the land that I will let you see.”

Verse 12:1 refers to a spatial movement commanded to Abram by YHWH. It’s about leaving the land, the nation, the father’s house in order to go to another land that God in person would show him. In fact, Abram obeys the command and travels through many lands. However, there are two accounts that are not spatially localized. Interestingly, it’s about Genesis 15 and 17 with the two covenant accounts between God and Abram.

What we have said previously now leads us to ask ourselves more pointedly: Are these lands available? Are they definable? Perhaps we are facing that place in which God exercises Divine lordliness and mercy over human beings, the place for our meeting with God: the place that surpasses every place, and at the same time embraces them all.

Fox tells us: “The Abraham cycle begins decisively, with a command from God to leave the past behind and go to an unnamed land” (Fox, 54). And Yehudah Arieh Leib Alter (1847-1905), leader of the Chasidic current of Gur, suggested that to go “to the land that I will let you see” means “to go to that place where I will make you visible, where your potential being will achieve through unpredictable and manifold paths” (Colodenco, 94). The places of the promises and covenants are spaces of newness and mystery, the regions from which all of our places receive blessing and fecundity; zones where we open ourselves to become channels of transmission for God’s blessing to others.

For Reflection and Discussion: The relationship between God and Abraham is not over. It renews itself in each life and situation. [1] Which moments of your personal and community life became a “condensation” of sense and a programmatic horizon? [2] Of which blessing are you perhaps the receptacle and transmitter? [3] Which areas of your personality are already God’s partners? [4] To which deep zones within yourself do you need to go in order to discover newness and mystery?

“Go-you-forth from your land, from your kindred, from your father’s house,
to the land that I will let you see.”

Bibliography: Colodenco, Génesis: el origen de las diferencias, (Buenos Aires, 2006); Fox, The Five Books of Moses (New York, 1997); Leibowitz, N., New Studies in Bereshit, (Jerusalem, 5733); Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary (New York, 1981); Williamson, Abraham, Israel and the Nations: The Patriarchal Promise and its Covenantal Development in Genesis, (Sheffield, 2000).

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This week’s teaching commentary was prepared by
Prof. Andrea Hojman, Buenos Aires. Bat Kol Alumna, 2006.