‫ פרשת השבועה‬/ Parshat Ha-Shavu’ah
)‫(תשע"ה‬
‫לך‬-‫ לך‬/ Lekh-L’kha (5775)
The Other Abraham
Context of the ‫ פרשה‬/ Parashah
At the end of last week’s ‫פרשה‬, we learned of the birth of Avram (later known as Avraham) and the
abortive journey of his father’s family from Ur of the Chaldeans toward Canaan. The first year triennial
reading of this week’s ‫ פרשה‬picks up many years later, with God calling Avram, now 75 years old, to
leave home and journey “to a place that I will show you.” God promises blessing and abundant progeny
to Avram, and while he waxes wealthy, he and his wife, Sarai, remain childless. Both he and his
nephew, Lot, amass abundant flocks and herds, causing conflict over grazing lands, leading Abram to
suggest parting ways in the open land. Lot heads toward the urban settlements of Sodom, whose
“inhabitants…were very wicked sinners against Adonai”.
Just You and Me, Kid
The first 11 verses of Genesis 14, which open the second year triennial reading of our ‫פרשה‬, chronicle
regional politics. The abundance of personal and place names strongly suggests that the war of the five
rebellious kings of the Jordan River plain against four Mesopotamian kings recorded here was wellknown in the ancient Near East. The notes in Etz Hayim (pp. 77-79) give the best current understanding
of these references.
The account of this war intrudes on the narrative. It’s a long way to go to set up the capture of Lot and
his family, living in the precincts of Sodom, as spoils of war, and Avram’s mustering of a household
army to rescue them. All the more curious is the Patriarch being identified as ‫( אברם העברי‬Avram haIvri), “Avram the Hebrew,”1 as if the reader were just being introduced to him. We also learn that he has
‫( בני ברית‬b’nei b’rit = lit., “offspring of a covenant” – i.e., allies) among the neighboring peoples.
Avram’s rescue party numbers 318, an unusual and atypically precise number. Incredibly, they pursue
the captors “as far as Dan” (about 123 miles from where Avram is), attack successfully by night, and
then pursue the enemy “north of Damascus” (another 90+ miles). It’s impressive enough that 318 people
rout the combined armed strength of four regional kings – who already trounced the gigantic Rephaim
and Emim and conquered “all the territory of the Amalekites” as a sort of a warm-up to crushing the five
rebellious kings. However, a ‫( מדרש‬Midrash)2 explains the curious number by noting that it is equal to
the numerology of ‫( אליעזר‬Eliezer), Avram’s chief servant. Not content with a victory by a few hundred
of Avram’s householders, this ‫ מדרש‬suggests that he took only one!
1
2
See Genesis 24:13
B’reisheet Rabbah 43
Victory is Thine
Upon his victorious return, Avram has more politics to deal with. The king of Sodom, presumably
restored to sovereignty by Avram’s intervention, comes out to greet him in the field. And a previously
unnamed king, ‫צדק‬-‫( מלכי‬Malki-tzedek [Melchizedek] – “my king is just”), who is also “a priest of the
God Most High,” brings bread and wine, blessing “Avram of God Most High, Creator of heaven and
earth” and “God Most High, Who has delivered your foes into your hand.” As was customary3, Avram
gives a tithe of the spoils of war. The king of Sodom then attempts to strike a different deal: “Give me
the persons [Heb., ‫( הנפש‬ha-nefesh) – lit., “the soul(s)”], and take the possessions for yourself.”
Avram’s refusal of the king of Sodom’s offer stands as a model attribute for Jews: “I swear by the God
Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,” he says, “I will not take so much as a thread or a sandal strap
of what it yours; you shall not say, ‘It is I who made Avram rich.’” There are many layers to this reply
(note, for example, that he uses the same name and metaphor for God as Melchitzedek, language which
will make its way into the opening paragraph of the ‫[ עמידה‬Amidah], the central prayer in Jewish
liturgy). At its core, however, is something beyond material wealth4. The whole reason for Avram’s
military expedition was to rescue “the persons” from his clan. The king of Sodom attempts to obtain by
financial bargaining what Avram would not allow the five rival kings to take and keep by force of arms.
Let’s Bake a Deal
In a ‫( פרשה‬parashah) loaded with unusual and even troubling events, perhaps the strangest is ‫ברית בין‬
‫( הבתרים‬b’rit bein ha-b’tarim = “the covenant between the pieces”). Asking for a sign of God’s
promise that he will have abundant progeny and inherit the land (especially seeing as he has no children
as yet), Avram has a vision in which God instructs him to sacrifice a number of animals, cut some in
half, and arrange the halves opposite one another. Avram falls into a stupor and God appears in a dream,
reiterating the promise and passing between the pieces, represented by “a smoking oven and a flaming
torch.” This reflects common practice in the ancient Near East, where a covenant would be made by
splitting an animal and the parties walking between the pieces.5
That would be strange enough by itself. But there’s more! Centuries later, God tells Moses at the
burning bush that God did not reveal God’s proper Hebrew name (the Tetragrammaton) to earlier
generations. Yet Avram addresses God by that Name here, and God uses it as well. In another link to
Moses, God reveals that Avram’s promised (but, so far, hypothetical) descendants “shall be strangers in
a land not theirs [and] enslaved [for] four hundred years; but I will execute judgment [and] in the end
they shall go free with great wealth.” This passage is crucial to so-called Liberation Theology, which
emerged initially among African slaves in the pre-Civil War United States.
3
See note on “gave him a tenth” in Etz Hayim, p. 81
Rabbinic sources put a theological spin on Avram’s refusal to take “a thread or a sandal strap.” When he pointedly says
that the king will not be able to claim to have made him rich, he is really saying it is God who blesses with prosperity.
5
The phrase in the Torah, including for the Covenant at Sinai, is ‫( כורת ברית‬koreit b’rit) – literally, “cut a covenant”
4
Reflections on the ‫( פרשה‬Parshah)
The phrase, “Promised Land6,” does not actually appear as such in the ‫( תנ"ך‬Tana”kh = Hebrew Bible).
However, the concept is clearly articulated in the Torah, beginning with Leviticus 25:18-19, and
reiterated in the Prophets several times. The Hebrew reflects the notion of security and trust, and the
truthfulness of God’s assurance. Even without these specific assurances, however, the Torah is rife with
references to God’s intention to give Canaan to the Israelites “to possess as an inheritance throughout
your generations.” Yet even this clear-cut and repeated statement is not without its ambiguities.
In our ‫ פרשה‬and elsewhere, God promises Canaan to Abraham and his progeny. Elsewhere, the Torah
notes that Ishmael – Abraham’s son by Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar, and, according to the Qur’an, the
spiritual ancestor of Islam – is considered Abraham’s progeny as much as Isaac. Following what will
become the pattern in the ‫תנ"ך‬, the Torah assigns spiritual inheritance to the younger rather than the
eldest son, bypassing Ishmael and tracing the promise to Isaac and then Jacob. Jacob is renamed Israel, a
name which is simultaneously that of the individual, the people descended from him, and the land.
A further complication is defining what exactly constitutes Canaan and/or the Promised Land. In this
morning’s ‫( פרשה‬parashah), the boundaries extend from Lebanon in the north to a line roughly parallel
to but significantly farther south than that of the current state of Israel. Elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible,
the cited borders may include Damascus or the trans-Jordan, or may be limited to the space between the
Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and Mt. Hermon and the southern tip of the Dead Sea.
King David and King Solomon will extend and consolidate Israelite power in the region, extending the
borders of their empire. In the centuries which follow, there will be civil war, foreign invasion and
conquest, and exile. Both archeological and historical records are unequivocal, though, in establishing
that there has been an ongoing Israelite – and, later, Jewish – presence in the region since antiquity. It
may be all but impossible to define “Biblical Israel,” but it is entirely possible to document Israelite /
Jewish occupancy in the land of Israel since Biblical times.
The adventures of our father, Abraham, in this week’s Torah-reading are, in many ways, outliers
compared to the rest of his experiences. Most of the rest of his experiences, as recorded in the Torah, are
associated with family life. Here, he is more of what Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik described as “the lonely
man of faith,” acting alone (although often on behalf of his family). Abraham’s loneliness culminates in
the ‫( ברית בין הבתרים‬b’rit bein ha-b’tarim – see Let’s Bake a Deal above), in which his personal pain
and doubt are laid out for all to see.
God’s compassionate response is to reiterate the promises of progeny and land once more. Abraham’s
deepest fear is that he has no legacy. God reminds him that his legacy will be, in many ways, greater and
more influential than any other person in human history.
6
Hebrew: ‫( ארץ מובטחת‬eretz muv’taḥat)
‫הפטרה‬/ Haftarah – Isaiah 40:27-41:16
Context of the story:
That the later chapters (Chapter 40 and onward) of the book of Isaiah are the work of a later author has
been recognized and accepted in mainstream Judaism since at least medieval times. Not only does the
literary tone and language change noticeably, but so-called Second Isaiah (or Deutero-Isaiah) references
people, places, and events beyond the lifetime of the prophet Isaiah in ways which assume the reader is
familiar with them. In other words, we cannot simply say that these later chapters are Isaiah engaging in
the sort of clairvoyance popularly associated with the concept of “prophecy.” The prophets of the
Hebrew Bible are not fore-tellers, but “forth-tellers”. Their divinely-decreed assignment is not to predict
(or reveal) the future, but to speak truth to the people and to those in power.
Events of the Haftarah
The prophet speaks to the Israelites in the Babylonian Exile (6th century BCE), and assures them that
redemption and return are at hand. God has “roused a victor from the East [and] summoned him to
God’s service” – a reference which the 12th-century Spanish commentator, Abraham ibn Ezra interprets
as meaning Cyrus the Mede, the Persian emperor who conquered Babylon and who decreed that the
Israelites may return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple.7 Throughout these assurances, the repeating
phrase is ‫( אל תירא‬al tira) – “Do not be afraid”.
Reflections on the ‫הפטרה‬
God’s reassurance that Jacob (Israel) should not fear, but should “take courage” is founded on the
premise that God, “who is the first and will be the last as well,” is unrivaled in sovereignty such that “the
coastlands look on in fear” and “the ends of earth tremble.” The frequent theme of the Hebrew Bible –
that God as Author of Creation is also capable of directing all aspects of Creation to God’s will – is
employed here as a reminder that human agency is under divine scrutiny at all times.
It’s not that Israel – or any nation of human beings – need not fear as a result of its own might. Rather,
despite being compared in power to a worm, Jacob / Israel should not fear because God has promised
protection and perpetuation of the people. God does not forget God’s promises, even though there may
be generation (or more) which does not prosper or even suffers. Israel is still “the seed of Abraham, My
beloved one,” and the covenant with him – and his descendants – remains intact.
(Rabbi David Kay – 1 November 2014)
7
Cyrus is mentioned explicitly, a few chapters later: Thus said Adonai to Cyrus, God’s anointed one – whose right hand God
has grasped, treading down nations before him… [Isaiah 45:1] Our ‫ הפטרה‬echoes this language (see 41:13).