Ari Levisohn: Welcome to Into the Verse, where we share new and unexpected insights about the parsha… diving deep into the verses to uncover the Torah’s own commentary on itself.

Hi, I’m Ari Levisohn, one of the scholars here at AlephBeta. 

Lech Lecha begins the great saga of Abraham. And there’s something about these Abraham stories that I’ve always had a hard time understanding. You’ve got all of these short little vignettes, and they just seem so disconnected… God appears to Abraham, says leave your home behind, you're going to start a great nation. Then he hangs out in Egypt a little bit because there's a famine. Sarah is almost taken. Then they leave Egypt with lots of wealth.  There’s this fight between the shepherds of Abraham and the shepherds of Lot… Meanwhile, God pops in and promises Abraham that he’ll have land, he’ll have children. It's all going to be wonderful… but didn’t God already make those promises? Why is God repeating it? And then we get a detour into ancient Mesopotamian military history… There's this war between the four kings and five kings, and Abraham gets involved. Then Abraham goes into a deep sleep and hears about Egypt. Meanwhile, he gets this promise again – land and children. And that’s all just in Parshat Lech Lecha.

I mean, what's going on here? Each piece is very nice, in and of itself, but it’s hard to see how they weave together to tell a larger story. It just feels like a bunch of disconnected vignettes. 

But in this week’s episode, Rabbi Fohrman argues that these aren’t just disconnected vignettes. There is a core theme that wends its way throughout all the Abraham episodes, 

and that theme is legacy. I’ll let Rabbi Fohrman elaborate on what exactly this means and how it transforms how we read Abraham’s story.

Rabbi Fohrman is going to start at the beginning of the Abraham story, which most people think begins with God saying: Lech lecha! But actually, it starts even earlier than that. It starts with the six concluding verses of Parshat Noach, verses that everyone tends to overlook. Here is Rabbi Fohrman

Rabbi David Fohrman: Look at those six verses at the very end of Parshat Noach…at first glance they don't seem to be telling you anything remarkable. They seem to be just a mix of travel trivia and who married who, and what happened. But if you look at them carefully, something crucial happened. Avraham was one of three brothers: Avraham, Haran, and Nahor. And then Haran dies young, in the lifetime of his father. And immediately after that, Avraham seems to lead Nahor in a great act of kindness. He and Nahor take wives, the daughters of Haran.

This evokes a law much later on in the Torah, the law of yibum, of levirate marriage, which says that when a man dies childless, it's a mitzvah upon the brother to marry the widow of the deceased and have children and those children will perpetuate the name of the deceased. Here, too, it seems that something like that is going on. Not exactly the same – in real yibum, he would marry a widow. In real yibum, there would be no children, but it sounds like yibum. It has that sort of quality to it. He's trying to keep alive, to expand, to magnify the threatened legacy of Haran. So he and Nahor marry the daughters of Haran, and the children that they have will continue the name of Haran. It's a kind of sacrifice that Avraham is making, to be concerned about the legacy of his brother, the שֵׁם, the name of his brother.

All of this is especially important because it comes right after the Tower of Babel. The central sin of the Tower of Babel also had to do with legacy. נַעֲשֶׂה לָּנוּ שֵׁם – the Tower builders said – let us make a name for ourselves (Genesis 11:4), but it was a narcissistic attempt to make a name for ourselves. The Tower is our name – it's all our legacy. And when you build a name for yourself and that's the only thing you care about, it just crumbles in on itself. It's building a name for another – that's the magic.

That's what Avraham is about – perpetuating the name of his threatened brother Haran, who died young. God, after the Tower, says that's what I need. I could use somebody like that. And Avraham is chosen to build a nation that's devoted to this great ideal – to worry about the שֵׁם of a brother, to bring God's name into the world. Avraham's greatness is that he’s shown the ability to not be narcissistically self-focused. I like that. I'm going to make your name great.

And therein lies the central tension in Avraham's life: His mission is devotion to the threatened name of another, and yet his promise is, I'm going to make your name great. How do I balance this? The question of legacy is now front and center. Where will this legacy come from? 

Abraham’s Picture of His Legacy

One of the things that messes us up sometimes when we read the Bible is that you already know what's going to happen. You know that he's going to have this child, Isaac. It's going to be miraculous and all that, but God did not tell Avraham that at the beginning. All He said was you are going to be the father of a great nation. He's 75 years old, his wife is infertile, both of them are well past childbearing age. What exactly does this mean to Avraham?

The truth is, it doesn't necessarily mean that Avraham's going to be the biological father of the nation. He never said, you're going to have a child in the beginning. George Washington was the father of a nation, too – not the biological father of the nation. We revere him as one of the forefathers – his vision of the nation. So if you're Avraham, maybe it's just you're going to be a charismatic person.

And if you actually look, that explains something. Because in the very beginning, what does Avraham do when he leaves?  וַיִּקַּח אַבְרָם אֶת שָׂרַי אִשְׁתּוֹ – he takes Sarai, his wife,  וְאֶת לוֹט בֶּן אָחִיו – Ah, he does have somebody who can carry on his legacy. That somebody is not actually a biological child, but it's his brother's child. And Lot grows up in his household. Plus, there are also capital resources: אֶת כָּל רְכוּשָׁם אֲשֶׁר רָכָשׁוּ – he's got stuff, the beginning of a nation. You've got to have a nascent economy. So he takes all of his stuff with him. וְאֶת הַנֶּפֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ בְחָרָן – plus he's got other people, too, who travelled with him (Genesis 12:5). So he's got the beginnings of a nation.

That's his picture. We know it's not going to happen that way, but does he know it's not going to happen that way?

Now let's fast forward a little bit. There's a famine in the land. Avraham goes down to Egypt. He comes out with great wealth: אַבְרָם כָּבֵד מְאֹד בַּמִּקְנֶה בַּכֶּסֶף וּבַזָּהָב – he's really a rich guy now (Genesis 13:2). So stop. If you're Avraham right now, what are you thinking? Boy, this is really going well. You know, God promised I was going to be this nation, and I got all this wealth. I've got my trusty Lot with me. We're good.

Letting Go of Legacy

What happens next? Trouble on the horizon. גַם לְלוֹט הַהֹלֵךְ אֶת אַבְרָם הָיָה צֹאן וּבָקָר וְאֹהָלִים – Lot's also kind of wealthy (Genesis 13:5). And then a dispute erupts between the shepherds of Lot and the shepherds of Avraham. הָיָה רְכוּשָׁם רָב וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לָשֶׁבֶת יַחְדָּו – they had so much stuff, they couldn't sit together in the land (Genesis 13:6). 

At that point Avraham tells Lot, we've got to go separate ways. You go your way, I'll go my way. וַיִּבְחַר לוֹ לוֹט – Lot chooses, אֵת כָּל כִּכַּר הַיַּרְדֵּן – the Jordan valley. וַיֶּאֱהַל עַד סְדֹם – he pitches his tent in Sodom. וְאַנְשֵׁי סְדֹם רָעִים וְחַטָּאִים לַיקוָה מְאֹד – the people of Sodom were terribly wicked in God's eyes (Genesis 13:11-13).

Why do I need to know that now? Whole chapters later that becomes relevant, when the city of Sodom is, in fact, destroyed. But why do I need to know now that the people of Sodom were wicked? Because that's telling you something about the story now. It is important for you to understand that Lot chose to go to a place where there were terribly wicked people. What does this do to the plan that Lot is going to carry on Avraham's legacy and the nation is going to come through him? Not only are these men not together, but where is Lot now? He's in the most wicked place on earth. 

Interestingly, at this very moment, וַיקוָה אָמַר אֶל אַבְרָם – and God said to Avraham, אַחֲרֵי הִפָּרֶד לוֹט מֵעִמּוֹ – after Lot left (Genesis 13:14). Notice the emphasis on the text, after Lot left – after Avraham was willing to let go of Lot.

שָׂא נָא עֵינֶיךָ – lift up your eyes, וּרְאֵה מִן הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה שָׁם – and look where you are. צָפֹנָה וָנֶגְבָּה וָקֵדְמָה וָיָמָּה – north, south, east and west. אֶת כָּל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה רֹאֶה לְךָ אֶתְּנֶנָּה וּלְזַרְעֲךָ עַד עוֹלָם – the whole land that I'm going to give you. I'm going to give it to all of your children forever (Genesis 13:15). Expansion in space, expansion in time. 

The promise has been deepened. Why? Avraham has acted with great faith. God has promised him that he's going to be the father of a nation, but where is it going to happen? His plan isn't working out. It's not going to be through Lot, right? He's just trusting God. So God says, I love you. You're really trusting me. But don't worry, we're on this great, magical journey together. It's going to work out.

Reuniting With Legacy…or Not

And then we get to the war of the four kings and the five kings. It's not about ancient Mesopotamian history. It's about the story, the development of Avraham's nation. Because word gets to Avraham… Lot has been taken as part of this war. Avraham, through the help of God, succeeds in vanquishing the opposing armies and plucking Lot out of Armageddon itself. And at that moment, if you're Avraham, what are you saying to yourself now?

Remember, you do not know the end of the story. You say, “Baruch Hashem , look at the hashgachah, look at the providence. I let go of Lot, but really it was only because I was going to get Lot back. I see the hand of God. He helped me win this war. God, thank you so much for giving me Lot back. Now I get how we're going to have this great nation.”

And then what happened? The king of Sodom comes to Avraham and says, תֶּן לִי הַנֶּפֶשׁ וְהָרְכֻשׁ קַח לָךְ – You know, let's divide up the spoils over here. You can take the stuff, but give me all the people (Genesis 14:21). And that's it. All the people, including Lot, go with the king. And Lot is out of Avraham's life for the very last time. Can you imagine a more devastating thing? You saw the hashgachah, you saw the providence, only to have the door slam in your face.

A Clear Promise

At that moment, God speaks to Avraham one more time. אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה – after these things, הָיָה דְבַר יְקוָה אֶל אַבְרָם – God comes out of the clouds and tells him: אַל תִּירָא אַבְרָם – don't be afraid. It's all going to work out fine. אָנֹכִי מָגֵן לָךְ שְׂכָרְךָ הַרְבֵּה מְאֹד – your reward is beyond measure (Genesis 15:1).

But now Avraham has like reached a breaking point. Listen to the words he says. אֲ-דֹנָי יְקוִה – my Lord, מַה תִּתֶּן לִי – what can you possibly give me? אָנֹכִי הוֹלֵךְ עֲרִירִי – I don't have any children, בֶן מֶשֶׁק בֵּיתִי הוּא דַּמֶּשֶׂק אֱלִיעֶזֶר – the only one I have left is, what- my servant Eliezer from Damascus? Like, this is it? We're down to Eliezer (Genesis 15:2)?

Then Avraham speaks again and says the same thing as before: הֵן לִי לֹא נָתַתָּה זָרַע – You didn't give me any children, God. You say I'm going to have this reward. What's it going to be? הִנֵּה בֶן בֵּיתִי יוֹרֵשׁ אֹתִי – it's down to my servant. Is this really where we're at (Genesis 15:3)?

And then God comes to him and says, for the very first time, לֹא יִירָשְׁךָ זֶה – it's not going to be him. אֲשֶׁר יֵצֵא מִמֵּעֶיךָ הוּא יִירָשֶׁךָ – those who come from you biologically, they are going to be the ones who inherit (Genesis 15:4). You, you old man, you're going to have a child. It's the first time Avraham gets this news. That realization, that they will have a biological child, is a turning point in the story. It sets up the next great series of chapters in Avraham's life.

Ari: One reason I love this episode is that Rabbi Fohrman dares to ask just about the biggest question you could ask in the Abraham story: why did God choose Abraham. It’s something that the Torah never tells us explicitly, but it turns out that by the time God tells Abraham lech lecha he had already proven himself to be the man God was looking for. In those six preceding verses, we are introduced to Abraham, but it is not the universalistic Abraham we come to know later on. Before any of that, Abraham performed the greatest act of kindness towards his dead brother, and God knew he was the man for the job.

And this question is about far more than the one man. Essentially we are asking what kind of nation God expected Abraham to found. 

Rabbi Fohrman reveals that God’s chosen nation was founded on, of all things, the principle of yibum, of brothers who take care of one another, who provide for the other when they are not able to provide for themselves, sometimes even at great sacrifice. That same principle is at the very heart of Judaism today. Before anything else, this basic principle of brotherly love and responsibility is what defines us. 

Credits

This episode was written and recorded by our lead scholar, Rabbi David Fohrman. 

When this episode originally aired on Aleph Beta, it was edited by Rivky Stern. 

Into the Verse editing was done by Evan Weiner.

The senior editors were Daniel Loewenstein and Beth Lesch.

Our audio editor is Hillary Guttman. 

Our editorial director is Imu Shalev. 

Thank you so much for listening.