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From: "Yeshivat Har Etzion's
Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To: yhe-parsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject: PARSHA61 -03: Parashat Lekh Lekha
YESHIVAT
HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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PARASHAT
LEKH LEKHA
By
Rav Yonatan Grossman
Avraham and Terach's Migration to Canaan
The beginning of our parasha surprises us with God's
sudden revelation to Avraham (still named "Avram" at this
stage). Until this moment we have learned nothing of
Avraham's personality or his uniqueness, and the very
fact of God's revelation is unexpected. The content of
the revelation is even more surprising, considering that
we find here the most significant selection made in all
of Tanakh - the selection of Avraham and his descendants:
"And I shall make you into a great nation and I shall
bless you."
Apparently, the text seeks to portray an
absolute
selection, not based on specific actions - for then one
could imagine that if these actions ceased, so would the
selection. Avraham's selection seemingly is dependent on
nothing and therefore cannot be questioned.
It is clear, however, that Avraham found favor
in
God's eyes, and that the Holy One approved of
his
actions. The text itself hints at this (prior to the
destruction of Sedom): "For I know him, that he will
command his children and his household after him, and
they will observe the way of God, to perform justice and
judgment" (18:19). In other words, Avraham's world is
based on strong moral foundations. Such a person, who
places morality at the center of his
children's
education, is a suitable messenger for the values that
God wishes to introduce. And so Avraham is asked to build
this world of ethics in Eretz Yisrael - the land that is
special to God. But it is specifically the fact that
later on the text hints at the reason for Avraham's
selection, which makes its absence here so striking.
In this discussion, we shall focus on the
second
part of the text - in other words, not on the lack of
details about Avraham prior to his selection, but rather
on what we are told about him, in the background to his
aliya to Eretz Yisrael.
We heard something of this
background at the conclusion of last week's parasha:
"And Terach took Avram his son, and Lot,
son of Charan - his son's son, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, wife of Avram his son. And they departed with him from Ur Kasdim to go to the land of Canaan, and they came as far as Charan and they dwelled there." (11:31)
It seems that Avram was not the first member of the
family who thought of going to Canaan. Terach,
his
father, had begun a similar journey ("to go to the land
of Canaan"), and even took part of his family with him.
But he never completed his intended journey; he remained
in Charan.
The Torah then tells us of Terach's
death, and
immediately thereafter describes God's revelation to
Avraham and His command to go "to the land which I will
show you." At first glance, it seems that the command is
meant simply to tell Avram to continue in the endeavor
started by his father, to continue the journey to Eretz
Canaan. If this is so, one could logically claim that in
fact the story of the selection of the Israelite nation
begins with Terach, and not with Avraham.
Before starting a discussion comparing the aliya (or
attempted aliya) of Terach to Canaan and that of Avraham,
let us take note of another surprise contained in these
verses. After the text describes how Terach dwelled in
Charan (in the middle of his journey towards Canaan), we
read: "And the days of Terach were two hundred and five
years, and Terach died in Charan" (verse 32).
This
information concludes parashat Noach, and the text moves
directly on to God's revelation to Avraham. We may thus
summarize Terach's life, using all the
information
supplied explicitly in the text, as follows:
At age 70: his children - Avram, Nachor and Charan - are
born.
At age 205: he dies in Charan.
We may add one more detail: when Avraham leaves Charan
for Canaan, the text tells us: "And Avram was seventy
five years old when he departed from Charan" (12:4). If
Avraham was born when Terach was 70 years old, then when
Avraham left Charan for Canaan at God's command, Terach
would have been 145 years old (75 + 70). In other words,
Avraham leaves Charan and heads for Eretz Canaan while
his father Terach is still alive and living in Charan.
Various Rishonim, such as
Rashi, note this
calculation. But if Avraham indeed went to Canaan while
his father was still alive, why does the text depart from
the chronological order, describing the death of Terach
prior to God's revelation to Avraham and his aliya? Rashi
addresses this problem:
"Why does the text describe Terach's death prior to Avraham's departure? So that it would
not be immediately apparent to all and that they would say, 'Avram did not treat his father with respect, for he left him in his old age and went on
his way.' Therefore the text refers to Terach as dead,
for wicked people are called dead even during
their lifetime..."
Rashi's interpretation is quite strange, for if it
is indeed not proper to behave thus - to leave an aged
father in order to obey God's command - then why did
Avraham do it? A literal reading of the text does not
seem to reveal the slightest criticism of
Avraham
concerning this act. On the other hand, if a person is
required to fulfill the command of his Maker even at the
expense of abandoning aged parents (and it should be kept
in mind that God tells Avraham explicitly, "Get you out
of. YOUR FATHER'S HOUSE"), and Avraham indeed does so,
then why is the text trying to hide this from us? It
would seem that, on the contrary, this would be
an
opportunity to stress the magnitude of Avraham's test -
that he had to leave his father while he was still alive!
It would seem, though, that beyond this
specific problem there is a fundamental unease with
Rashi's
explanation as elaborated by the Ramban after he quotes
Rashi's words:
"[These are] Rashi's words, and they are to be found in Bereishit Rabba. But I am astonished at their words, for it is common throughout the Torah that we are told about the father's lifetime and about the birth of his children and then about his death, and then we start to read about the son. Throughout all the generations this is the style of the text. Noach himself was still alive during Avram's days; likewise
Shem, his son, was also alive throughout Avram's lifetime."
In other words, Sefer
Bereishit introduces
characters one at a time, and only after completing its
description of one's life does it move on to the next
character - even if historically the next character in
line started his adventures while the previous one was
still alive and active. In our case, too, the text first
describes Terach's life, and only after describing when
and where his life ends does it move on to the next
character who appears in the literary spotlight - Avraham
- even though in fact much of Avraham's life is lived in
parallel to that of Terach.
This point is particularly
significant for an
understanding of the comparison between Terach's journey
to Eretz Canaan and that of Avraham. We do not know why
Terach decided to gather his family members, leave his
country and wander off towards a distant land. It may be
that economic factors lie behind this transition, or
perhaps even theological considerations connected with
the types of religious worship practiced in each place.
We may raise many different possibilities, but after all
of them we remain amazed at the coincidence that Terach
decides to go to the land which "incidentally" happens to
be the same land that God chooses as an inheritance for
the descendants of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov.
The coincidence is so astonishing that we are led to
think that perhaps Terach himself wished to go to Eretz
Canaan because of the Divine command to Avraham his son!
The suggestion here is that one day Avraham approached
Terach and told him of the revelation which he
had
experienced, in which God demanded of him to go to a
different countr It is reasonable to assume
that
revelations of this sort were rare, and this
was
perceived as an exciting and significant event. It is
certainly possible that Terach decided to join Avraham in
his journey to Eretz Yisrael, and that he followed him.
It is true that the text first describes Terach's journey
on its own - prior to God's revelation to Avraham, but
this is simply another example of the literary phenomenon
common to Sefer Bereishit, whereby the text describes
each character and his adventures
independently.
Obviously, there is also a deeper message which the text
seeks to convey and which we shall discuss below.
Previously we asked whether Avraham
was merely
continuing the journey undertaken by his father, and
whether this perhaps constituted the entire significance
of God's revelation to him. At this point we propose
precisely the opposite: that it was not Avraham who
walked in his father's footsteps, but rather Terach who
journeyed in the wake of the revelation to his son. Thus
it is no coincidence that the land to which
Terach
journeys is the same place to which Avraham is commanded
to go.
It would seem that the text itself hints gently to
the fact that Terach was not the sole initiator of the
journey from Ur Kasdim to Charan. We refer here to the
change of subject in verse 31: "And Terach took Avram his
son, and Lot, the son of Charan - his son's son, and
Sarai his daughter-in-law, wife of Avrahm his son. And
they departed WITH THEM from Ur Kasdim to go to the land
of Canaan." At the beginning of the verse the subject is
Terach: It is he who takes, and it is to him that all the
participants are related ("his son," "his son's
son,"
"his daughter-in-law"). Hence we would expect the text to
continue by saying, "And they departed WITH HIM from Ur
Kasdim." However, by using the expression "with THEM,"
the text hints that those who went along (Sarai and Lot)
were going along with AVRAHAM and with Terach, and not
with Terach alone. According to what we have said above,
the Torah hints here that even though the character
currently in the spotlight is Terach, the journey itself
was Avraham's initiative, and so Lot and Sarai were
joining Avraham no less than they were joining Terach.
(Indeed, after Avraham leaves his father and continues
towards Canaan, the other participants - Lot and Sarai -
continue with him.) Ibn Ezra (11:29, 12:1) proposes this
understanding.
But the idea of the command to Avraham
preceding Terach's journey seems to bear more significance than
just a solution to the local problem of these verses. It
solves at least two more difficulties concerning the
continuity of the text.
i. In God's initial command, there is a description of the place that Avraham is told to leave: "From you land and from your birthplace and from your father's house." It is difficult to apply these terms to Charan, where the family had settled only relatively recently. It seems more likely that such terms would describe the place where a person was born, where he grew up and
was educated. We certainly feel more comfortable reading this command as having been given to Avraham in Ur Kasdim, where he was born and grew up, rather than in Charan after the family moved there.
ii. At the beginning of the Berit Bein Ha-betarim, God
says to Avraham: "I am God who took you out of UR KASDIM
to give you this land as an inheritance" (15:7). Here God
states explicitly that it was He who took Avraham out of
Ur Kasdim; it was not his father, Terach who did so. To
put it differently, God took him out of Ur Kasdim, not
out of Charan!
As we noted above, the greatest difficulty solved by
this explanation is the fact of Terach's journey to
Canaan, his destination "coinciding" with that of Avraham
who travels at God's command. But we still need
to
explain why the text devotes an entire unit to Terach's
journey to Canaan if indeed he is simply following his
son, Avraham. Why does the text treat him as a literary
character who deserves a focus of his own, rather than
simply as part of the story of Avraham's aliya to the
land?
It would seem that the text seeks to compare these two aliyot: that of Avraham at God's command, and that of
Terach who identifies with his son and goes along with
him. If we read the account of these two aliyot, each
against the background of the other, the comparison
becomes immediately apparent:
AVRAHAM'S JOURNEY TO CANAAN:
"So Avram departed, as God had spoken to him. And Avram took Sarai - his wife, and Lot - his nephew And all their possessions which they had acquired, and the souls that they had gathered in Charan And they departed to go to the land of Canaan, And they came to the land of Canaan."
TERACH'S JOURNEY TO CANAAN:
"And Terach took Avram - his son, and Lot, son of Charan - his son's son, and Sarai - his daughter-in-law, wife of Avram his son And they departed with them from Ur Kasdim to go to the land of Canaan And they came as far as Charan and they
dwelled there."
The text juxtaposes these two journeys using similar
language, and thus the two great differences emerge with
increased clarity: Firstly, Avraham travels "as God had
spoken to him," in contrast with Terach, who receives no
such command from God. Secondly, concerning Terach we
read: "And they came as far as Charan and they dwelled
there," while concerning Avraham we are told, "And they
came to the land of Canaan." In other words, Terach's
plan is never fulfilled; he is detained along the way.
Avraham, on the other hand, continues his journey and
arrives at the place he is supposed to reach.
What does the Torah seek to teach us by presenting
this comparison between the two journeys, with
the
differences between them? In other words, why does the
Torah devote space to Terach's journey in its own right?
It seems that what the text wishes to stress is the
significance of the COMMAND in Avraham's journey to
Canaan and in his abandoning the culture of Ur Kasdim,
within which he grew up. Two people left their places and
began again somewhere else: Terach, out of a feeling of
identification and an inner, voluntary decision to take
part in the Divine intiative just beginning, and Avraham
- who does the same but because of a command, because he
accepts God's authority over him. Of course, this does
not necessarily mean that Avraham did not identify with
the command - on the contrary, we hinted previously to
the fact that Avraham's personality was perfectly suited
to the founding of the new Israelite nation. But the text
emphasizes the absolute command with
which the
establishment of the nation begins.
The person who followed his heart's desire (Terach)
got as far as Charan - the center of civilization at the
time, and he remained there. His previous resolve to
journey all the way to Canaan crumbles in the face of the
attractions of Charan, the economic and
cultural
prosperity that he finds there. In contrast, the person
who traveled in the wake of the Divine command (Avraham)
continues his journey and arrives at his destination -
Canaan.
Self-sacrifice for Eretz Yisrael,
which has
characterized Am Yisrael throughout the generations, is
related to the fundamental command which underlies our
connection with the land. On the basis of this command a
profound psychological bond was built
over the
generations, strong enough that to this day no enemy -
however cruel or immoral - can break it.
(Translated by Kaeren Fish)
YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433
Copyright (c) 1999 Yeshivat Har Etzion
All Rights Reserved
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