Lech L’Cha: “Go Forth!” – into a Challenging, at times Hostile, World
October 19, 2002

“Lech L’cha - Go forth! Be different! Be separate.” – That, at least, is what Abraham was told to do. Is that our fate as Abraham’s descendants? To be, in the words of the gentile prophet Bilaam, “Am l’vadad yishkon”, “a people that dwells alone”?

It certainly seems that way. Even in the land to which Abraham journeyed, we were wanderers. How much more so have we been wanderers, in the years since then, outside the land!

At times, America has seemed to be different. America has allowed us to blend in. It’s allowed us not to stand out so much. But this can be deceptive. We should ask ourselves, “Are we Americans who happen to be Jewish? Or Jews who happen to live in America?”

Deep down, how do we define ourselves, and how do others define us?

These are important questions to ask ourselves. To the extent that being, acting and behaving Jewishly distinguishes us from others, separates us from others, how Jewish are we – and how Jewish do we want to be? Are we really behaving like the Children of Abraham – or are we seeking to blend in among the peoples of the land?

As much as we may have wanted to do the latter, it’s becoming increasingly difficult.

A few weeks ago, it became known that the poet laureate of New Jersey, a man by the name of Amiri Baraka, had written a poem about the September 11 attacks that suggested that Jews or Israelis had been aware that the attacks were going to take place and had stayed home that day. Among the lines of the poem are the following:

“Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed

Who told 4,000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers

To stay home that day

Why did Sharon stay away?”

One might charitably imagine that the author of those lines is simply uninformed. But in fact, Mr. Baraka defended himself the other day, “saying that not only did the Israelis know about the attacks in advance, but so did President Bush.” (N. Y. Times, 10/18/02). I don’t know whether to feel better or worse to be partnered in that way with our President. (Better, that the calumny is directed against non-Jews as well as Jews; or worse, that the level of irrationality is all the greater?)

One is tempted to meditate on Genesis 12:3 and its promise that the one who maligns us will in turn be maligned, but one thing is clear: we live in a world with many uninformed people who don’t want to become informed. They don’t want to learn, to grow, to understand. Instead, they want to believe terrible lies about people, especially Jews, and they think nothing of spreading those lies.

In such a world, who could blame us if we tried as hard as we could not to distinguish ourselves? And yet, Abraham was told: Go off! Be different! Be willing to stand out! After all, he is referred to as “Avraham ha-ivri” (14:13). “Ha-Ivri” – i.e., “the Hebrew” might mean that he is descended from Ever, a grandson of Noah. It might mean that he came from “the other side of the river,” since “ever” means “the other side.” But one interpretation is that Abraham is called the “Ever,” because he stands alone. “All the world was on one side and he was on the other.”

As Jews, we have to be willing to be different. To distinguish ourselves. Not to be embarrassed to be who we are. And we also have to look out for other Jews, and help them when they are in need.

When Abraham learned that his kinsman, Lot, had been taken captive (see Genesis 14:14), he mustered his men and went off in hot pursuit. “He brought back all the possessions, he brought back Lot and his possessions and the women and the rest of the people.” (14:16). In other words, he took care of his own. He rescued his relatives.

That’s what we are called upon to do as well. When we learn, as we must, of Jews suffering, wherever they may live, we must act. Israeli victims of terror – we should be helping them. Jews in Argentina – we should be helping them. Jews in the former Soviet Union, Jews in Ethiopia – we should be helping them.

But this is not our only responsibility.

After all, if you look closely at the charge God gave to Abraham, you see clear signs that as separate, as different, as we’re supposed to be, we’re also supposed to be involved with others, with their needs and their lives.

“V’nivre’chu v’cha kol mishp’chot ha-adamah” (Genesis 12:3)

“All the nations (literally “families”) of the world will be blessed because of you,” Abraham was told. We’re supposed to be a blessing. Not only are we to look out for ourselves, we’re to look out for others as well. That is, after all, what distinguished Abraham from Noah.

When Noah was told to build the Ark to save himself, that’s just what he did. When Abraham was told that God intended to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham protested: “How can you do such a thing? That would be wrong! Can the Judge of all the world – not just of the Jews, but of all the world – act unjustly?”

And so we, as the descendants of Abraham, must also think about, and care about, others; those who live in and are a part of other nations. We have to care about Arabs as well as Israelis. Muslims and Christians as well as Jews, and Native Americans as well as native Israelis. That’s what Abraham did. That’s what we are called upon to do.

Abraham, our ancestor, was an Ivri – a man from the other side – but he was also destined to become “av hamon goim” – a father of many nations.

We have to concern ourselves with the status of Jews in the world, and we also have to concern ourselves with the status of each and every human being on the face of the globe. We have to care about our family – and other families as well.

I know I’m jumping ahead a bit to next week’s parashah, but I can’t resist. God decides to tell Abraham that he plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for a very important reason: Abraham is to become the conscience of the world. (See Genesis 18: 17-19). God states that he has singled Abraham out so that he may instruct his children and his descendants after him to do what is just and right – “la’asot tzedakah u’mishpat.”

That’s our job, as Abraham’s descendants. That’s our job as Jews.

And so, no matter how anti-Jewish the world seems to be, no matter how much we feel we have to focus all our attention on taking care of ourselves and our fellow Jews, we can’t turn our backs on the rest of the world. We have to care about each and every human being, since each of us was created in the image of God. Shabbat Shalom.