Chayei Sarah: Priorities

Now Avraham was old, advanced in days, and Y-H-V-H had blessed Avraham in everything. (Genesis 24:1)

Blessings in the Torah are health, long life, prosperity, and fertility. When that verse appears in this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah (Genesis/Bereishit 23:1-25:18), Avraham is over 137 years old, and still healthy. He is a prosperous livestock owner, and he has two sons. So technically, he has been blessed in everything. But he is estranged from both of his sons.

Obeying God

Avraham first heard from God when he lived in the northern Mesopotamian town of Charan, at the beginning of the Torah portion Lekh Lekha. His name was Avram then, and he was 75 years old. He already had the blessings of health and prosperity, but not fertility. His wife, Sarai, was 65 and childless.

And Y-H-V-H said to Avram: “Go for yourself from your land, and from your kin, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you! And I will make a great nation of you, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. Be a blessing!” (Genesis 12:1-2)

Avram obeys God and emigrates to the land of Canaan.¹ He takes along his wife (Sarai, later renamed Sarah), his nephew (Lot), and a number of servants. But Avram’s brother Nachor stays in Charan.

Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, by Matthias Stom, 17th century

On three more occasions in the portion Lekh Lekha God says that Avram will have a nation of descendants who will posses the land of Canaan.² Finally his wife arranges for him to impregnate her Egyptian slave, Hagar. Their son, Yishmael (“Ishmael” in English, is born when Avram is 86. But there is friction between Sarai and Hagar.

When Avram is 99, God makes a new covenant with him, changing his name to Avraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah, requiring male circumcision, and promising to give Avraham numerous descendants through Sarah. Yishmael, who is 13 at the time, will eventually father children too, but God’s covenant (and the possession of Canaan) will go to the descendants of Avraham and Sarah’s son, Yitzchak (“Isaac” in English).³

Shortly after that, in the Torah portion Vayeira, Avraham questions God for the first and only time. He urges God to spare the people of Sodom and Gomorrah if even ten of them are innocent. And God agrees—but does not find even ten.⁴

Sarah gives birth at age 90, by a divine miracle. At the feast celebrating Yitzchak’s weaning, Yishmael laughs at his little half-brother, and that is the last straw for Sarah. She demands that Avraham cast out Yishmael and his mother Hagar, so that only Yitzchak will inherit Avraham’s estate—and his covenant with God.

The matter was very bad in Avraham’s eyes, on account of his son. But God said to Avraham: “Don’t let it be bad in your eyes about the lad and about your servant. In everything that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice, since your offspring will be called through Yitzchak.” (Genesis 21:11-12)

Avraham obeys God. Yishmael nearly dies of thirst in the desert because Avraham has sent him and his mother away with insufficient provisions, but a divine messenger points out a well, and they survive and settle far to the south, outside Canaan.⁵

After his second son has grown up, Avraham hears God orders him to slaughter Yitzchak and burn him as an offering to God. Instead of questioning God again, Avraham simply obeys. He leaves early in the morning with his son and two servants, without telling Sarah. Once he has bound Yitzchak on an altar and raised a knife over his son’s throat, a voice from God stops him. Avraham returns to his camp at Beersheba without his son.⁶ Yitzchak goes his own way, ending up at Beir-Lachai-Roi, the place where Hagar had encountered God.⁷

Sarah dies at age 127, at the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, and Avraham buries her. But Yitzchak is absent. He might not even hear about his mother’s death until after her burial.

Avraham is consistent. Whenever he must choose between obeying God or being a decent father, he always chooses to obey God.

Assisting God

Now Avraham was old, advanced in days, and Y-H-V-H had blessed Avraham in everything. (Genesis 24:1)

Yes, God had blessed Avraham with health, long life, prosperity, and fertility. And God also promised him that his descendants through Yitzchak would inherit the land of Canaan.

But Yitzchak has never married, never had a child. So Avraham takes the initiative to make God’s promise come true.

He does not send a message asking Yitzchak to come to him to discuss the problem. I suspect he figures that since his son has avoided him this long, he would refuse to come. Instead, Avraham sends his steward to find Yitzchak a wife.

Avraham said to his servant, the elder of his household, who ruled over all that was his: “… I want you to swear by Y-H-V-H, the God of the heavens and the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the women of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell. Instead, you must go to my land and to my kin and take a wife for my son, for Yitzchak.” (Genesis 24:2-4)

After living for more than 60 years in Canaan, Avraham still thinks of Mesopotamia as his land. And he knows that he still has kin in Charan; he received news that his brother Nachor and his wife had eight sons and at least one granddaughter.⁸ But why does he want Yitzchak’s wife to be one of his relatives from Charan, instead of a local girl?

In the 13^th century, Radak wrote: “The entire Canaanite tribe is cursed since the days of Noach, and Avraham’s seed is not to be merged with that of a cursed tribe.”⁹

Other commentators proposed that if Yitzchak married a relative, the pair would have a natural affinity and equal status, and therefore a more harmonious marriage.¹⁰

A third approach was to point out that since Avraham was a devout follower of Y-H-V-H, he did not want Yitzchak to be influenced by “idolaters”. That ruled out a Canaanite bride, since Canaanites worshipped other gods. So did most Mesopotamians, though Avraham’s own kin worshipped Y-H-V-H.¹¹

Since Avraham prizes his relationship with Y-H-V-H more than any of his relationships with humans, his goal in getting Yitzchak a wife must be to ensure that there will be descendants who worship Y-H-V-H, and therefore qualify for his God’s gift of Canaan. A Canaanite wife and her family might teach Yitzchak’s children to worship other gods.

Furthermore, according to the 13^th century commentary Chizkuni, “Avraham did not want that in the future anyone could claim that his claim on the Holy Land was based on intermarriage with the previous owners of that land.”¹²

Avraham knows that Yitzchak’s descendants will not take possession of Canaan through intermarriage, because God has already told Avraham, back in the portion Lekh Lekha, that his descendants would be enslaved in another land for four hundred years, and only then return and take the land of Canaan.¹³

But the servant said to him: “Perhaps the woman will not be willing to go after me to this land. May I then take your son back there, to the land from which you once went out?” (Genesis 24:5)

It is a reasonable question. Is Avraham’s main goal the marriage of Yitzchak to one of his relatives, or is there an additional agenda?

Abraham’s Solemn Charge, by Pedro Orrente, 17th century, detail

And Avraham said to him: “Guard yourself against taking my son back there! Y-H-V-H, the God of the heavens, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kin, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying: I give this land to your descendants—[God] will send [God’s] messenger ahead of you, and you will take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be clear from this oath of mine. Only you must not take my son back there!” (Genesis 24:6-8)

Why does Avraham insist that Yitzchak must not go to Charan? Some classic commentary says that when he dedicated his son as a sacrifice to God, Yitzchak’s new status as sacred became permanent (even though God then intervened to prevent Avraham from cutting his son’s throat). Being sacred, Yitzchak was not allowed to leave “the Holy Land”.¹⁴

But Radak wrote: “Avraham did not want the claim on the land of Israel which God had promised him and which had been established through his physical presence in that land, to become subject to doubt through an even temporary migration of Yitzchak.”¹⁵

My opinion is that if Yitzchak settled down and had children in Charan, he would have no motivation to return to Canaan. His mother was dead, and ever since Avraham nearly sacrificed him, he has been avoiding his father. If Yitzchak spent the rest of his life in Charan, his descendants would have no motivation to go to Canaan.

Even God tells Yitzchak not to leave the land of Canaan in next week’s portion, Toledot.

And Y-H-V-H appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt! Dwell in the land that I tell you!” (Genesis 26:2)

Then is it a problem when Yitzchak dispatches one of his own sons, Yaakov (“Jacob” in English), to Charan to find a bride? Hirsch explained that the situation is different for Yaakov because his parents (Yitzchak and his wife Rivkah, “Rebecca” in English) stayed behind in Canaan. “… his family was still living in isolation in Canaan, and that is what drew him back to the family, immediately after his children were born.”¹⁶

Avraham does not know, at this point in the story, that he will live on in Canaan until he dies at age 175. But he probably does know that if Yitzchak moved to Charan, he would not return to Canaan in order to see his father.

So he does what he can to fulfill God’s plan, by ordering his steward to get a bride from his kin in Charan and bring her to Yitzchak in Canaan. He can only hope that his son will accept the woman and give her a child; but perhaps he believes that since Yitzchak once obediently lay down on top of the firewood on an altar, he will obediently marry the woman his father arranges for him.

Avraham dedicates his life to obeying God and furthering God’s plans. The price of this dedication is the loss his two sons. Both Yishmael and Yitzchak remain alive thanks to God, not to their father. And the Torah does not report that either of them sees Avraham again until after his death, when both Yishmael and Yitzchak bury him.¹⁷

What kind of God would command a father to throw out his older son and kill his younger son? What kind of person would obey a God like that, and work to further that God’s plans?

What kind of God would you trust? What kind of person do you want to be?

See my post Lekh Lekha & Noach: Why Leave?
Genesis 12:7, 13:14-15, and 15:5-18.
Genesis 17:1-27.
Genesis 18:20-32.
Genesis 21:14-21. See my post Vayeira: Failure of Empathy.
Genesis 22:1-19. See my post Vayeira: Return to Silence.
See my post Lekh Lekha: First Encounter.
Genesis 22:20-24.
Radak (acronym of 13^th century Rabbi David Kimchi), translation in www.sefaria.org referring to Genesis 9:25-27.
E.g. Bachya ben Asher (14^th century), Tze-enah Ure-enah (17^th century).
E.g. Kli Yakar (17^th century), S.R. Hirsch (19^th century).
Chizkuni, 13^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Genesis 15:13-21—an allusion to the book of Exodus.
E.g. 14^th century Rabbi Bachya ben Asher.
Radak (acronym of Rabbi David Kimchi), 13^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
19^th-century Rabbi Raphael Samson Hirsch, The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Bereishis, translated by Daniel Heberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2002, p. 518.
Genesis 25:9.

Lekh Lekha & Vayeira: Pleasure

In last week’s Torah portion, Lekh Lekha (Genesis/Bereishit 12:1-17:27), God keeps promising Avraham numerous descendants,¹ but he remains childless until his wife arranges for him to impregnate her Egyptian slave Hagar.² At the end of the portion, God makes a new covenant with Avraham, and a new promise: descendants through his wife.

First annunciation

Then God said to Avraham: “Sarai, your wife—she will no longer be called by her name, Sarai. Because [now] Sarah is her name! I will bless her. Indeed, I will give you a son from her, and I will bless her so that she will become nations! Kings of peoples will come from her.” (Genesis 17:15-16)

sarah (שָׂרָה) = (noun) noblewoman, female official.

The change from an ordinary name to one that indicates high status may reflect Sarah’s new role as the progenitor of kings. But how can Sarah, who is 89 years old and has never given birth, fill this role?

Then Avraham fell on his face and laughed, and he said to himself: “Will a son be born to a hundred-year-old, and will Sarah bear a child at ninety?” And Avraham said to God: “If only Yishmael will live in your presence!” (Genesis 17:18)

When Avraham hears God’s promise, he has two thoughts: that both he and Sarah are too old to have a baby; and that if they do have a son, the boy will replace Hagar’s son, Yishmael (“Ishmael” in English) as Avraham’s heir. Yishmael is now thirteen years old, and Avraham loves him.

Men in the Torah “fall” on their faces, prostrating themselves, when they are petitioning God or a king. According to 18^th-century rabbi Chayim ibn Attar, “Abraham prayed that Ishmael should enjoy divine assistance to live as a righteous person.”³

After God tells Avraham to name Sarah’s son Yitzchak (“Isaac” in English; yitzchak (יִצְחָק) = he laughs), God reassures Avraham that Yishmael will live and father his own nation of descendants.

“But my covenant I will establish with Yitzchak, whom Sarah will bear to you at this appointed time, in another year.” (Genesis 17:21) Then God makes a new covenant with Avraham: God will give Avraham’s descendants the whole land of Canaan; and Avraham, all his male descendants, and all their male slaves, will be circumcised.⁴ So Avraham has himself and all the other males in his household circumcised, including his 13-year-old son Yishmael, thus fulfilling his part of the new covenant with God.

Second annunciation

This week’s Torah portion, Vayeira (Genesis 18:1-22:24), opens:

Abraham and the Angels, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

And God appeared to him at the great trees of Mamrei, and he was sitting in the entrance of the tent at the heat of the day. He raised his eyes and looked, and hey! Three men standing over him! And he saw, and he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them, and he bowed down to the ground. (Genesis 18:1-2)

It takes some time for Avraham to figure out that these three men are really divine messengers (angels). He lavishes hospitality on them, inviting them to recline under a tree, wash their feet, and eat something. He tells Sarah to make flatbread with fine flour for them, tells his boy (Yishmael? A servant?) to slaughter and roast a calf, and fetches butter and curds.

And he was standing over them, under the tree, and they ate. And they said to him: “Where is Sarah, your wife?” And he said: “Here in the tent.” (Genesis 18:8-9)

It was considered polite for visitors to inquire about the welfare of their host’s family. But why would these men, whom Avraham has never seen before, know his wife’s name? Furthermore, even if they had somehow heard of her, they would have called her by her old name, Sarai, not by the name God had recently given her.

According to Chayim ibn Attar, “The angels wanted that Abraham should realize that the message they had to deliver was primarily for Sarah; this is why they enquired about her whereabouts. Abraham indicated that she was within the tent ready to listen to what they had to say to her.”⁵

Sarah Hears and Laughs, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

The phrase “And they said to him” may imply that Avraham is not paying attention to which of the three “men” is speaking. But in the next verse, “they” becomes “he”.

Then he said: “I will definitely return to you when [this] time [of year] revives, and hey! A son for Sarah, your wife!” And Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, which was behind him. (Genesis 18:10)

This speaker is either God or a divine messenger acting as God’s mouthpiece, telling Avraham the same thing that God said before the circumcisions: that one year later, Sarah would have a son.⁷

Before the second annunciation, the leader of the three “men” makes sure that Sarah is close enough to hear. Like Avraham, Sarah reacts to the news with laughter.

And Avraham and Sarah were old, coming on in days. The path of women [menstrual periods] had ceased for Sarah. And Sarah laughed inside herself, thinking: “After I am worn out, will there be ednah for me? And my lord is old!” (Genesis 18:12)

ednah (עֶדְנָה) = sexual pleasure, sensual pleasure. (From the same root as the verb ע־ד־ן = luxuriate, enjoy sensually, and the proper noun Eden, עֵדֶן = the location of the primeval garden where the first two humans eat from the Tree of Knowledge and have sexual intercourse.)

Sarah’s laughter indicates that she is surprised; evidently her husband has not told her everything that God said to him earlier. According to Hirsch, “Apparently, God’s Will was that Sarah should hear the news only incidentally. In this way, she, too, would hear it firsthand; the astounding abnormality of it all would strike her abruptly; and, to her too, the news would at first appear absurd.”⁸ As Sarah laughs, her first thought is that she is old and worn out. Next she wonders whether she will have sexual pleasure again. Then she notes that Avraham is old.

1. “I am worn out”

What does Sarah mean by “worn out”? Some classic commentary focuses on her beauty and her skin. In the Talmud, “Rav Ḥisda says: After the skin had worn out [nitballa] and become full of wrinkles, the skin once again became soft [nitadden] and her wrinkles smoothed out, and Sarah’s beauty returned to its place.”⁹

In the 12^th century, Rashbam even defined ednah as “a form of the skin becoming elastic and the wrinkles straightening out.”¹⁰

Midrash Tanchuma is more practical, and imagines Sarah thinking: “These innards are to carry a fetus, these shriveled breasts are to draw milk?”¹¹

2. “Will there be ednah for me?”

Sarah’s second thought is of ednah, sexual pleasure. It is likely that Sarah, at age 89, has vaginal dryness that would make intercourse painful rather than pleasurable. Yet as soon as she hears the “man” prophesy that she will have a son, she wonders whether it means that she will have ednah.

This passage is not like the Christian story of a virgin becoming pregnant and bearing a child. Instead, it presents an old woman who misses the sexual relations she had in the past, and wonders if the prophecy would mean she will have at least one more night of pleasure.

How long has it been since Avraham and Sarah were physically intimate? The Torah does not say. But we can deduce that they sleep in the same tent.

When Avraham first sees the three “men”, he is sitting “in the entrance of the tent”—not his tent, but the tent. When the visitors ask him where Sarah is, he replies“Here in the tent.”

Since Avraham is a rich nomad, the tent is probably large and sprawling, divided by curtains into several rooms inside, like a Bedouin tent today. We are not told whether Sarah’s slave Hagar has her own room in the tent, nor where Yishmael sleeps. (Avraham also has employees and male slaves to care for his herds and flocks; they would have their own tents, and pitch them sometimes at Avraham’s campsite, sometimes at other locations where the animals are pastured.)

But even though Avraham and Sarah sleep in the same tent, they may not be physically affectionate. Theirs is a long but difficult marriage. When they moved to Egypt during a drought, Avraham asked Sarah to lie and say she was his sister, so he could sell her to the pharaoh as a concubine; God arranged for her to return unscathed, and Avraham got to keep the riches, but I find it hard to imagine that she was sanguine about the whole episode.¹² Later, Sarah arranged for Avraham to impregnate her Egyptian slave, so she could adopt the child. But when her pregnant slave belittled her, Sarah blamed Avraham, and Avraham merely told his wife to do whatever she liked about the problem.¹³ Friction arises between Sarah and Avraham again later in this week’s Torah portion, after Sarah’s son is born.

3. “My lord is old”

Sarah’s third thought after the annunciation is “My lord is old”. In the Hebrew Bible a wife might refer to her husband as adoni (אָדֺנִי) = my lord, or as ba-ali (בַּעְלִי) = my owner, or as ishi (אִישִׁי) = my man. Ishi is the most affectionate term, but Sarah thinks of Avraham as her lord and master. According to Midrash Tanchuma, this is a sign of her esteem: “However, Abraham’s wife honored him and called him my lord …”¹⁵ But another possibility is that Sarah thinks of her husband with some bitterness over his lack of empathy for her in the past.

Sarah believes that even if she had periods again, Avraham is too old to make her pregnant. One midrash comments:

“Rav Yehuda said: He grinds but does not discharge. Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon said: The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘Each of you considers yourself young, and your counterpart old, but am I too old to perform miracles?’”¹⁶

At age 99, Avraham might well experience some sexual dysfunction. Yet after Sarah dies 38 years later, he remarries and has six more sons.¹⁷ Perhaps Sarah is blaming his lack of interest in bed on his advanced age, when actually he has lost interest in her.

Why laugh?

Then Y-H-V-H said to Avraham: “Why does Sarah laugh, thinking: ‘And will I truly give birth, when I myself am old?’ Is anything too wondrous for Y-H-V-H? At the appointed time I will return to you, when [this] time [of year] revives, and Sarah will have a son!” (Genesis 18:13-14)

Although the text now uses God’s personal name, Y-H-V-H, God is still speaking through a divine messenger who looks—and sounds—like a man, because Sarah hears from inside the tent.

Although God did not question Avraham’s laughter at the first annunciation, God now questions Sarah’s laughter.

And Sarah lied, saying: “No, I did not laugh,” because she was afraid. But he said: “No, indeed you did laugh.” (Genesis 18:15)

Sarah’ fear indicates that she believes the “man” outside the tent is either a true prophet or a divine messenger, and therefore God now knows that she laughed. What if God considers her laughter a sign that she does not believe God can make the miracle happen? In her fear, she lies instinctively.

But what is the real reason why she laughed?

As I read the story, Sarah laughs in joy and amazement over the news that even though she is 89 and has little to show for her life, a new life is about to begin. Sarah has probably resigned herself to a marriage with a man who gives her little empathy or affection, and no sensual pleasure; to having no child of her own (since her bold attempt at adoption did not work out); and to living out her remaining years with few good memories. Now, suddenly, Avraham’s mysterious visitors arrive knowing her new name, and promising that next year she will have a baby. A miracle! A new life, with love and affection and meaning, for however long she has before she dies!

Genesis 12:2, 12:7, 13:16,15:2-5, 15:13, 15:18.
Genesis 16:1-16. See my post Lekh Lekha: Belittlement.
18^th-century rabbi Chayim ibn Attar, Or HaChayim, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Genesis 17:3-14.
Chayim ibn Attar, ibid.
19^th-century rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Bereshis, translation by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2002, p. 408.
Although the “man” says “I will definitely return to you”, no such visit is reported. But the Torah does consider God the opener of wombs, who decides whether a woman will get pregnant. (See Genesis 29:31 and 30:22.) Later in the Torah portion Vayeira, “Y-H-V-H did to Sara as he had spoken.” (Genesis 21:1))
Hirsch, ibid.
Talmud Bavli, Bava Metzia 87a, (5^th century CE), translation by Adin Steinsaltz in www.sefaria.org.
Rashbam, acronym of 12^th-century rabbi Shmuel Ben Meir, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Midrash Tanchuma, 500-800 CE, translation in www.sefaria.org.
See my post Lekh Lekha, Vayeira, & Toledot: The Wife-Sister Trick, Part 2.
Genesis 16:3-6; see my post Lekh Lekha: Belittlement.
See my post Vayeira: Failure of Empathy.
Midrash Tanchuma, ibid.
4^th-5^th century midrash Bereishit Rabbah 48:17, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Genesis 25:1-2.

Lekh Lekha & Noach: Why Leave?

The Israelites who follow Moshe (“Moses” in English) out of Egypt in the book of Exodus have a good reason to emigrate. The pharaoh has subjected the Israelite men to forced labor under harsh conditions, with no end in sight and no days off. No wonder they are willing to leave their homes, their plots of land, and their neighborhoods and head off for the unknown country of Canaan—especially since their God is on their side, and has afflicted Egypt with plagues so that they can take their families and their livestock with them.

A generation earlier, Moshe himself left Egypt and became a resident alien in Midian—until God ordered him to return to Egypt and rescue his people. Moshe also had a good reason to emigrate; he had killed an Egyptian overseer who was beating an Israelite man, and in Egypt he was wanted for murder.¹

Five centuries before that, in the book of Genesis, the ancestors of the Israelites—later known as Abraham and Sarah—leave Mesopotamia and head for the unknown country of Canaan. Their reason for emigrating is not as obvious. The Torah does not report that anyone oppressed them in Mesopotamia, or that they committed any rash deeds. So why do they leave?

Terach’s family emigrates from Ur to Charan

Avram, whom God later renamed Avraham (“Abraham” in English), is first introduced near the end of last week’s Torah portion, Noach (Genesis/Bereishit 6:9-11:32).

And these are the genealogies of Terach: Terach begot Avram, Nachor, and Haran,
and Haran begot Lot. And Haran died in the presence of his father Terach, in the land of his moledet, in Ur of the Casdim. And Avram and Nachor took wives for themselves. The name of Avram’s wife was Sarai … And Sarai was barren, she had no child. (Genesis 11:27-30)

moledet (מוֹלֶדֶת) = descendants, offspring; kin in general; birthplace. (From the root verb yalad, יָלַד = gave birth, procreated.)

Then Terach and his whole family leave Ur and head toward Canaan.

… and they set out together from Ur of the Casdim, to go to the land of Canaan. And they came as far as Charan, and they settled there. (Genesis 11:31)

A straight line from Ur to Canaan would cross a vast desert with no water sources. So the only realistic route to Canaan was U-shaped: north into the foothills of Anatolia, in the vicinity of Charan, and then southwest past Damascus to Canaan.

The distances between Ur, Charan, and Canaan are significant. From the lower Mesopotamian city of Ur, where Avram was born, to the upper Mesopotamian city of Charan is about 770 miles (1240 km). From Charan to Canaan is about 500 miles (800 km).

Terach dies in Charan, at age 205. Nachor and his wife stay there² when Avram, Sarai, and Lot pack up again and travel to Canaan. The Torah reports no war, famine, or oppression in either Ur or Charan. So why do Terach and his family emigrate?

Why does Terach leave Ur?

Perhaps Terach leaves for the sake of his eldest son. Avram turns out to be exceptional in his ability to converse with God. Perhaps Terach notices that Avram has an unusual talent, and is willing to uproot his whole family to foster it.

The Netziv wrote that Avram experienced “a heavenly illumination” in Ur, “and he saw the sanctity of the land [of Canaan] from afar”. This 19^th-century rabbi imagined Avram as so “immersed in Godly ideas” that his doting father had to manage the practical details of the journey.³

Chayim ibn Attar suggested that Terach was concerned that his beloved oldest son had no children, and emigrated in the hope that Avram would be blessed with a son in Canaan. “The Torah shows us that Abraham was so important in the eyes of the other members of his father’s household that they all joined in the migration in order to stay close to him.”⁴

Modern commentator Frymer-Kensky suggested: “The worship of YHWH may be the reason that Terah first left Mesopotamia to head for Canaan.”⁵ Although a famous midrash claims (with no evidence) that Terach sold idols,⁶ the Torah indicates that Terach’s whole family worshipped Y-H-V-H as their primary god. Not only does Avram hear from Y-H-V-H in Charan, but decades later, when he sends his head servant back to Charan, Nachor’s son Betueil and grandson Lavan both refer to their god as Y-H-V-H.⁷

Would adherence to Y-H-V-H be a problem in Ur, but not in Charan or Canaan? It seems unlikely. The primary god of Ur was the moon goddess Nanna, and the god of Charan was the moon god Sin. But people throughout Mesopotamia acknowledged multiple gods, as did people in Canaan. I suspect a family that worshipped an obscure god they called Y-H-V-H would not be discriminated against as long as they made no negative comments in public about their city’s chief god.

Avram’s family emigrates from Charan to Canaan

An instruction from God opens this week’s Torah portion, Lekh Lekha (Genesis 12:1-17:27).

And Y-H-V-H [God] said to Avram: “Go for yourself from your land, and from your moledet, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you!” (Genesis 12:1)

At this point Avram is still childless, so moledet means either “kin” or “birthplace”. Either the writer is confusing Charan and Ur, or Avram has settled down in Charan with his kin, and now considers it the area around Charan in northern Mesopotamia his homeland.

Next God promises Avram ample rewards if he obeys.

“And I will make a great nation of you, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. Be a blessing! And I will bless those who wish blessing on you, and curse those who demean you. And all the clans of the earth will be blessed through you!” (Genesis 12:2-3)

The usual blessings in the Torah are health, long life, fertility, and prosperity.

And Avram went as Y-H-V-H had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Avram was seventy-five years old when he left from Charan. (Genesis 12:4) Presumably after Terach dies in Charan, Nachor and Milkah decide not to continue the journey to Canaan. But when Avram chooses to obey God’s instruction and go to the land God shows him (which may or may not be Canaan), his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot go with him.

Why do Avram, Sarai, and Lot leave Charan?

The Torah portion Lekh Lekha continues:

And Avram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, all their property that they had accumulated, and the persons whom they had acquired in Charan, and they went out to go to the land of Canaan. (Genesis 12:5)

Obviously Avram, Sarai, and Lot had prospered in Charan. They now own a lot of moveable property (livestock and household goods), and a number of servants. They are wealthy and comfortable. Yet instead of staying in Charan, these three decide to emigrate again. The only reason the Torah provides is God’s speech to Avram.

Since God promises Avram blessings and descendants if he goes, Avram and Sarai may decide to leave in the hope of having a son (although Avram is 75 and Sarah is 65).

Lot, however, may decide to go with them in the hope of inheriting his childless uncle Avram’s estate.

On the other hand, maybe Avram, Sarai, and/or Lot simply want to follow the guidance of Y-H-V-H, their god.

Then why does God want Avram to emigrate from Charan to another land? The easy answer is that God is laying the groundwork for what the writers of the book of Genesis already knew—that for centuries one branch of Avram’s descendants, the Israelites, ruled the land formerly known as Canaan.

But within the story in Genesis, other answers are possible. 21^st-century commentator Judy Klitsner posited that God wants to isolate Avram. “With the words lekh lekha, which can literally be translated as ‘go to yourself,’ God commands Abraham to leave behind everything that is familiar and to embark on a path that is uniquely his (Gen. 12:1). And in fact, throughout his trials, Abraham maintains his solitary stance, earning the title ‘Abraham the Ivri, Hebrew’ (14:13), a term that throughout the Bible suggests singularity and otherness.”⁸

Ivri (עִבְרִי) = member of the Hebrew ethnic group; one from the other side. (From the root verb avar, עָבַר = cross over, pass through.)

Other commentators have focused on God’s directive to go not to Canaan, but “to the land that I will show you”. Steinsaltz wrote: “That is how one follows God: without a destination and without an aim. … God says, ‘go forth,’ and one must get up and go, without knowing where one will arrive, without knowing one’s objective, and without knowing one’s aim.”⁹

And Buchdahl wrote: “We Jews were strangers at the birth of Judaism. … God did not permit Abraham and Sarah to begin Judaism within the comfort of their hometown. They had to become immigrants. They had to be the Other in order to create a religion of the Other. … As Jews, we know what it is to feel vulnerable and powerless. God chose the Jewish people to be archetypal strangers. … We are mandated by our tradition to remember, protect, and yes, love the stranger, because that’s who we are.”¹⁰

Some people, like the Israelites who leave Egypt, emigrate for the sake of their lives. They need to escape oppression, persecution, war, natural disasters, poverty. Other people, like Avram, emigrate for the sake of their souls. They might seek more education, a different culture, uncommon opportunities. Or they might even hear a divine call urging them to go for a reason they do not yet know.

But all emigrants have to leave their homes, and leave behind familiar people and things. And they risk arriving at the land they long for and learning that immigrants are not welcome. I continue to pray that someday all borders will be open, and all people will be kind to strangers.

Exodus 2:11-15.
See Genesis 22:20-24, 24:4.
19^th-century rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin (a.k.a. the Netziv), Ha-amek Davar, translation in www.sefaria.org.
18^th-century rabbi Chayim ibn Attar, Or Hachayim, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Reading the Women of the Bible, Schocken Books, New York, 2002, p. 12.
Bereishit Rabbah, chapter 38.
Genesis 24:31, 24:50-51.
Judy Klitsner, Subversive Sequels in the Bible, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 2009, pp. 41-42.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, Talks on the Parasha, Koren Publishers, New Milford, CT, 2015, p. 27.
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger, Viking, Penguin Random House, 2025, p. 310-311.

Bereishit, Lekh-Lekha, & Vayeira: Talking Back

When characters in the Torah hear God speak, some simply obey. Others some talk back to God, either to ask questions or to make excuses. In this week’s Torah portion, Vayeira (Genesis 18:1-22:21), Avraham raises talking back to God to a new level.

Bereishit: shifting the blame

The first human being to whom God speaks is the first human being: the adam (אָדָם = human being) in the first Torah portion of Genesis/Bereishit (Genesis 1:1-6:8). The God character warns the adam that eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would result in death.

Nothing happens. I suspect that the human does not understand, never having seen anything die, but nevertheless follows God’s advice and avoids the Tree of Knowledge. Then God separates the human into male and female, and provides a talking snake. Finally the two humans eat the fruit.

The next time they hear God in the garden, they hide. Then God asks:

“Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9)

The male human answers:

“I heard your sound in the garden, and I was afraid because I am naked, and I hid.” (Genesis 3:10)

Before the two humans ate the fruit, they did not notice they were naked; so were all the other animals in Eden. But once they know that some things are good and some are bad, they become self-conscious. (See my post Bereishit: In Hiding.) God asks:

The Rebuke of Adam and Eve, by Domenichino, 1626, detail

“Who told you that you are naked? From the tree about which I ordered you not to eat, did you eat?” And the human said: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave to me from the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:11-12)

The man admits that he ate from the tree, but only after blaming the woman. When God questions the woman, she blames the snake. Then the God character “curses” the snake, the woman, and the man with the ordinary hardships of life outside the mythical garden of Eden, and expels them from the garden so that they will not eat from the Tree of Life and become immortal.

Throughout the conversation, the God character is the authority figure, and the two humans are like children making excuses to avoid being blamed and punished.

Bereishit: lying and begging

The next human God speaks to is the oldest child of the first two humans, Kayin (קַיִן, “Cain” in English). He makes a spontaneous offering to God, and his younger brother Hevel (הֶבֶל, “Abel” in English) follows suit. Kayin gets upset because God only pays attention to Hevel’s offering. Then God warns Kayin to rule over his impulse to do evil, but the warning goes over Kayin’s head.

Cain Leads Abel to Death, by James Tissot, circa 1890

And it happened when they were in the field, and Kayin rose up against his brother Hevel, and he killed him. Then God said to Kayin: “Where is Hevel, your brother?” And Kayin said: “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s shomeir?” (Genesis 4:8-9)

Shomeir (שֺׁמֵר) = watcher, guard, protector, keeper.

Kayin certainly knows where he left Hevel’s body, so his answer “I don’t know” is a lie. He might not have understood what death is before he killed his brother, but he knows now, and he suspects that he did something wrong. So he lies in an effort to escape being blamed.

Next Kayin asks what might be an honest question. Was he supposed to watch over his brother, the way he tends his vegetables and Hevel used to tend his sheep?

On the other hand, his question might be a protest that he is not responsible for protecting his brother, so he should not be blamed for what happened when he “rose up against” Hevel.

The God character does not bother to answer. Instead God curses him with a life of wandering instead of farming. Kayin cries out in alarm:

“My punishment is too great to bear! … Anyone who encounters me will kill me!” (Genesis 4:13-14)

Kayin might be thinking that his future relatives will be angry with him, and kill him the way he killed Hevel.

Then God said to him: “Therefore, anyone who kills Kayin, sevenfold it will be avenged!” And God set a sign for Kayin, so that anyone who encountered him would not strike him down. (Genesis 4:15)

Once again, the God character is the authority figure. Kayin lies to avoid being blamed, but he also (indirectly) begs God for protection, which God provides.

Lekh-Lekha: doubting

The next human to whom God speaks is Noach (נֺחַ, “Noah” in English). God gives Noach orders, and Noach follows them without a word. (See my post Noach: Silent Obedience.) There are no questions.

Avram (אַבְרָם, “Abram” in English) begins his relationship with God on the Noach model. But after God has promised him twice that he will have vast numbers of descendants,¹ and twice that his descendants will own the land of Canaan,² Avram cannot resist speaking up. He points out that at age 75 he is still childless. Then he asks God for more than verbal promises.

“My lord God, how will I know that I will possess it [the land]?” (Genesis 15:8)

The God character responds by staging an elaborate covenant ceremony. (See my post Lekh-Lekha: Conversation.) At its conclusion, God repeats once more that Avram’s descendants will own the land of Canaan.

When Avram is 86, he has a son by his wife Sarai’s servant Hagar, and names the boy Yishmael (יִשְׁמָעֵאל, “Ishmael” in English). Although a divine messenger speaks to Hagar when she is pregnant,³ God does not speak to Avram again until he is 99 years old. Then God manifests to him and announces:

“I am Eil Shadai! Walk about in my presence, and be unblemished!” (Genesis 17:1)

Eil Shadai (אֵל שַׁדַּי) = God who is enough, God of pouring-forth, God of overpowering.

This is the first use in the bible of the name Eil Shaddai. This name for God occurs most often in the context of fertility. Here, the name might encourage Avram to believe God has the power to make even a 99-year-old man and his 89-year-old wife fertile. God continues:

“I set my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you very much.” (Genesis 17:2)

Avram responds by silently prostrating himself. He already has a covenant with God, and the only multiplication that has happened during all the years since is the birth of Yishmael.

But God outlines a new covenant, this time one in which both parties have responsibilities. First there is the question of names: just as God is now Eil Shadai, Avram will henceforth be Avraham (אַבְרָהָם; “Abraham” in English),

“… because I will make you the av of a throng of nations!”

av (אַב) = father. (Raham is not a word in Biblical Hebrew.)

The God character expands on the usual theme, promising that Avraham’s descendants will include many kings, and they will rule the whole land of Canaan. In return, Avraham must circumcise himself and every male in his household, including slaves, and so must all his descendants.

Next God changes the name of Avraham’s 89-year-old wife from Sarai to Sarah (שָׂרָה = princess, noblewoman), and promises to bless her so that she will bear Avraham a son.

But Avraham flung himself on his face and laughed. And he said in his heart: “Will a hundred-year-old man procreate? And if Sarah, a ninety-year-old woman, gives birth—!” (Genesis 17:17)

In other words, Avraham does not believe God, who has been making the same promise for years. But he does want blessings for the thirteen-year-old son he already has from Hagar.

And Avraham said to God: “If only Yishmael might live in your presence!” (Genesis 17:18)

Then God promises that Yishmael will also be a great nation, but the covenant will go through Avraham’s son from Sarah, who will be born the following year and will be called Yitzchak (יִצְחָק = he laughs; Isaac in English). The God character noticed when Avraham laughed.

The Torah portion closes with Avraham circumcising himself and all the males in his household, including Yishmael. Whether Avraham believes Sarah will give birth or not, he wants to fulfill his own part of the covenant. Why would he risk upsetting God?

In the portion Lekh-Lekha, the God character is more powerful than the man, and Avram/Avraham is careful not to incur God’s displeasure–but he has his own opinions.

Vayeira: teaching

This week’s Torah portion, Vayeira, opens when Avraham sees three men approaching his tent. At least they look like men, and Avraham lavishes hospitality upon them as if they were weary travelers. But the “men” turn out to be divine messengers. Through one of them, God speaks to both Avraham and Sarah, announcing that Sarah will give birth the next year. (See my post Vayeira: On Speaking Terms.)

Abraham and the Three Angels, by Bartolome Esteban Muriollo, ca. 1670

Then Avraham walks with the three “men” to a lookout point, where God says:

“The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, because their abundant guilt is very heavy. Indeed I will go down, and I will see: Are they doing like the outcry coming to me? [If so,] Annihilation! And if not, I will know.” (Genesis 18:20-21)

Two of the divine messengers continue down to Sodom to see if its people really are as evil as God has heard,⁴ while God stays with Avraham at the lookout.

Avraham came forward and said: “Would you sweep away the tzadik with the wicked? What if there are fifty tzadikim inside the city? Would you sweep away and not pardon the place for the sake of the fifty tzadikim who are in it? Far be it from you to do this thing, to bring death to the tzadik with the wicked! Then the tzadik would be like the wicked. Far be it from you! The judge of all the earth should do justice!” (Genesis 18:23-25)

tzadik (צַדִּיק) = righteous, innocent. tzadikim (צַדִּיקִם) = people who are righteous or innocent.

This is a new thing in the world: a human being arguing with God and telling God the right thing to do.

Is Avraham the teacher now, and the God character his pupil? How does God react?

See my post next week: Vayeira: Persuasion.

Genesis 12:2, 13:16.
Genesis 12:7, 13:15-17.
Genesis 16:7-12. See my post Lekh-Lekha: First Encounter.
The God character in the Torah is not omniscient.

Lekh-Lekha: Conversation

(corrected version)

In last week’s Torah portion, Noach, God gives Noach (Noah in English) orders, and Noach obeys. The communication is strictly one-way; Noach never says anything to God. (See my post Noach: Silent Obedience.)

In this week’s Torah portion, Lekh-Lekha (Genesis/Bereishit 12:1-17:27), God speaks to Abraham, and Abraham responds—at first with action, like Noach, but eventually with questions.

An order or an offer?

The Lord Directing Abraham, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1860

The Torah portion opens when God first addresses Avram. (“Avram” is Abraham’s original name before God changes it.)

Then God said to Avram: “Go for yourself, from your land, from your kindred, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will magnify your name.” (Genesis 12:1-2)

The beginning of God’s first speech to Avram sounds more like an offer than an order. If Avram leaves and goes to the land God indicates, then God will make Avram’s descendants into a great nation, bless Avram with success, and make his name famous.

Although God could simply command Avram to move to Canaan, God seems to want Avram to choose going to Canaan over staying in Charan. 19^th-century Rabbi S.R. Hirsch explained that God’s first promise would compensate Avram for giving up his nationality in the Aramean kingdom where he and his family lived; the second promise would compensate him for his prosperity there; and the third promise would compensate him for starting over again without his family’s reputation.¹

Next God says:

“Veheyeih brakhah!” (Genesis 12:2)

veheyeih (וֶהְיֵה) = Then become! (The prefix ve- (וֶ) is a conjunction that means either “and” or “then”. Heyeih (הְיֵה) is the imperative of the verb hayah (הָיָה), which means either “be” or “become”.)

brakhah (בְּרָכָה) = blessing, a blessing. (In the Hebrew Bible, humans are considered blessed when they have prosperity, good health, fertility, victory over enemies, or power over subordinates.)

What does God’s imperative “Then become a blessing!” mean?

One tradition from the 13^th century to the present is that the word veheyeih was assigned the wrong vowels, and actually means “then you will be”. According to this line of commentary, God is predicting that Avram will become part of peoples’ prayers for blessing. For example, Ramban wrote: “You will be the blessing by whom people will be blessed, saying, ‘God make you like Abraham.’”² And eight centuries later Steinsaltz wrote: “… people will use you as a paradigm for blessings. When they bless one another, they will say: May you merit to be like Abram.”³

I prefer the alternate tradition, that God is telling Avram to act in such a way as to be a blessing to others. In Bereishit Rabbah (circa 400 C.E.), Avram becomes a blessing by praying for childless women, who then become pregnant, and for the sick, who then heal.⁴

Then God finishes:

“And I will bless those blessing you, and those demeaning you I will curse. And all the clans of the earth, nivrekhu vekha.” (Genesis 12:3)

nivrekhu vekha (נִבְרְכוּ בְךָ) = they will want to be blessed like you. (Nivrekhu (נִבְרְכוּ) is the third person plural of the rare nifil form of verb barakh (בָּרוּךְ), “be blessed”, and means “they seek to be blessed”. Vekha(בְךָ) in other contexts could mean “in you”, “by you”, or “through you”, but immediately after nivrekhu it means “like you”.)⁵

The second part of God’s initial speech to Avram, from “Become a blessing” through “they will want to be blessed like you” sounds like another if-then statement. If Avram becomes a blessing, then God will bless or curse everyone Avram encounters according to how they treat him, and everyone in the world will want the kind of blessing Avram has.

And Avram went, as God had spoken to him … (Genesis 12:4)

Avram’s first blessing from God

Avram brings along his wife Sarai (whom God later renames Sarah), his nephew Lot, all their servants, and all their livestock. When they reach a sacred tree near Shekhem in Canaan, God appears to Avram and says:

“To your descendants I give this land!” And he built an altar there to God, who had appeared to him. (Genesis 12:7)

Avram does not mention to God that he is still childless at age 75. He and his household keep traveling south, and when there is a famine in Canaan, they go all the way to Egypt.

There Avram scams the pharaoh by claiming Sarai is his sister, not his wife. (See my post Lekh-Lekha, Vayeira, & Toledot: The Wife-Sister Trick, Part 2.) The pharaoh takes Sarai as a concubine, and pays Avram a generous bride-price. The God character plays along and afflicts the pharaoh with an unmentionable disease. Then the pharaoh has Avram escorted out of Egypt—along with Sarai, all the other humans and animals who came with him, and the bride-price. Thanks to God’s assistance, Avram is blessed with even more prosperity.

Avram talks back

Enriched by more slaves, livestock, silver, and gold, Avram returns to the hills east of Beit-Eil. There he and his nephew Lot separate, with Avram staying in the highlands, while Lot takes his men and livestock down to the plain of Sodom.

And God said to Avram, after Lot had separated from him: “Raise your eyes, please, and look from the place where you are … For all the land that you yourself see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if a man were able to count the dust of the earth, your descendants could also be counted.” (Genesis 13:14-17)

Again Avram responds by building an altar to God, rather than by saying anything. Avram’s name is magnified (i.e. his reputation rises) in the central part of Canaan because he defeats four invading kings and returns the captives and the loot to their own communities. Then the priest-king Melchizedek says to Avram:

“Blessed be Avram by God Most High, founder of heaven and earth! And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your adversaries into your hand!” (Genesis 14:19-20)

So if this mysterious priest-king is correct, and if his god is Avram’s God, then God rewarded Avram for moving to Canaan with the blessing of success in battle.

But what about the blessing of fertility, which is necessary for God’s promise of a great nation of descendants?

The next time God makes him a promise involving descendants, Avram speaks up.

After these events, the word of God happened to Avram in a vision, saying: “Don’t be afraid, Avram! I myself am a shield to you; your reward multiplies exceedingly!” Then Avram said: “My lord God, what will you give to me? And I am going childless, and the heir of my household is a Damascan, Eliezer.” And Avram said: “Hey, you have not given a descendant to me, and hey! The heir of my household will inherit from me.” (Genesis 15:1-3)

The repetition of “Avram said” in the middle of a speech is a biblical convention indicating that the speaker pauses, but the one being addressed does not respond, so the speaker says more. In this case, the God character may be surprised that Avram asked a question; it is the first time someone questions God in the book of Genesis.⁶

After Avram rephrases his issue, God does respond:

“This one will not inherit from you. Instead, one going out from your innards, he will inherit from you.” And [God] brought him outside and said: “Look, please, toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And [God] said to him: “Thus will be your descendants.” (Genesis 15:4-5)

Does Avram believe God’s promise that he will father a son, who will have countless descendants? The text says:

And he trusted in God, and [God] reckoned it as righteousness on his part. (Genesis 15:6)

Yet after God repeats the promise to give Avram the land of Canaan (through his descendants), Avram says:

“My lord God, how will I know that I will possess it [the land]?” (Genesis 15:8)

Now he sounds as if he has some doubts about God’s promises, and wants something more reassuring than words. So God arranges an elaborate ceremony commonly called the “Covenant of the Pieces”. Following God’s instructions, Avram cuts in half a heifer, a she-goat, and a ram, and lines up the pieces facing each other. He adds two birds, so each row has three half-animals and a bird. One ritual in the Ancient Near East was for two leaders “cutting” a treaty to cut an animal in half and then walk between the two parts.⁷

Abraham falls into a deep sleep or trance at sunset, and hears God reveal that his descendants will suffer a 400-year exile in Egypt, but then return to Canaan. Then he sees an oven smoking, and a flaming torch passing between the pieces of the animals. The story concludes:

On that day, God cut a covenant with Avram, saying: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.” (Genesis 15:18)

Is God’s first covenant with Avram lop-sided, with only God vowing to do something? Or will God give Avram’s descendants all that land only if Avram “becomes a blessing”?

This year I am moved by Hirsch’s commentary saying that Jews, as Avram’s descendants, are also required to “become a blessing”:

“Honesty, humanity, and love are duties incumbent upon the individual, but are regarded as folly in relations between nations and are viewed as unimportant by statesmen and politicians. … In the midst of a world where mankind’s … ambition is to increase its power and extend its domain no matter what the cost, the nation of Avraham is—in private and public life—to heed only one call: Veheyeih brakhah! Its life is to be devoted to the Divine aims of bringing harmony to mankind and to the world and restoring man to his former glory.”⁸

May all human beings finally learn to be a blessing to others.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Hirsch Chumash, Sefer Bereshis, English translation by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2002, p. 290.
Ramban (the acronym for 13^th-century Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, or Nachmanides), translated in www.sefaria.org.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, The Steinsaltz Tanakh, Koren Publishers, 2019.
Bereishit Rabbah 39:11, ca. 400 CE, translated in www.sefaria.org.
William L. Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1971, p. 49. (On the other hand, the 1906 edition of The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon states that the nifil form of barakh means the same as the hitpael form: “bless oneself” or “congratulate oneself”.
Not counting Cain’s remark “Am I my brother’s keeper?”, which is an excuse rather than a true question.
E.g. Jeremiah 34:18. Also see my post Lekh-Lekha: Unconditional Covenant.
Hirsch, p. 292-293.

Haftarat Shelakh-Lekha—Joshua: Loyalty, Kindness, or Exchange?

English makes a clear distinction between “loyalty” and “kindness”. Loyalty means a long-term, committed allegiance; a loyal person consistently supports a person or a social group no matter what happens. Kindness means acting with generosity, thoughtfulness, or consideration; you can do a kindness for a stranger you will never see again.

But in Biblical Hebrew, the word chessed (חֶסֶד) covers both loyalty and kindness. The translation depends on the context—but it also colors the interpretation.

For example, Abraham uses the word chessed when he is explaining to the king of Gerar why both he and Sarah said they were brother and sister, when in fact they are husband and wife. He claims that if strangers knew they were married, they would kill him to get her; but if a man who wants her (such as the king) believes Abraham is only Sarah’s brother, the man would pay him to take her as a concubine, and Abraham would live.¹

Abraham’s Counsel to Sarah, by James Tissot, ca. 1900, detail

“When God made me wander from my father’s house, I said to her: ‘This is your chessed that you will do for me: At every place where we arrive, say of me: He is my brother.’” (Genesis 20:13)

If chessed is translated as “kindness” here, the implication is that Sarah lies about her marital status out of the goodness of her heart, as a favor to her husband. If chessed is translated as “loyalty”, the implication is that Sarah has an obligation to her husband: as a loyal wife, she must either obey him, or (if she believes Abraham’s claim about strangers) save his life by telling the lie.

The word chessed appears four times in this week’s haftarah reading, Joshua 2:1-24. (A haftarah is the passage from the Prophets that accompanies the weekly Torah portion. In this week’s Torah portion, Moses sends spies into Canaan almost 40 years before Joshua does it in the haftarah. See my post Shelakh-Lekha: Sticking Point.)

Disloyalty to king and country

In this week’s haftarah, the Israelites are camped on the east bank of the Jordan River, across from the city-state of Jericho. Moses has died, and the people are poised to begin the conquest of Canaan under their new leader, Joshua. Before he leads his troops around Jericho and the walls come tumbling down, Joshua sends two spies across the river. They slip through the city gates as evening approaches, and go to a prostitute’s house.

Someone in town sees the two strangers, assumes they must be spies from the horde of Israelites camped right across the river, and tells the king of Jericho. The king immediately sends a message to the prostitute, Rachav, saying:

Rahab Receiveth and Concealeth the Spies, by H.R. Pickersgill, 1897

“Bring out the men who came to you, who came into your house, because they have come to search out the whole land!” (Joshua 2:3)

Naturally the king of Jericho wants to interrogate the two spies, and then make sure they never report back to the Israelite camp.

Thinking fast, Rachav tells the king’s messengers:

“True, the men came to me, but I do not know where they were from. And it was, the gate was closing at dark, and the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Quick, chase after them, for you might overtake them!” (Joshua 2:4-5)

As a loyal subject and citizen, Rachav should have handed over the two Israelites—not only because her king ordered it, but also because they are enemies of her own city-state. But she has secretly decided to defect to the other side, so she lies to the king’s men. They believe her, and run off to look for the two spies at the fords along the Jordan River.

Allegiance to a deity

Rachav hides the two Israelites on her roof, under the stalks of flax she had spread out to dry.²

And before they lay down, she herself came up to them on the roof. And she said to the men: “I know that Y-H-V-H has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen over us, and that all the land’s inhabitants are quivering before you. Because we heard that God dried up the waters of the Reed Sea before you when you went out of Egypt, and what you did to the two Amorite kings who were across the Jordan …³ And we heard, and our hearts melted [in fear], and no spirit of life rose again in a man before you, because Y-H-V-H is your god. He is God in the heavens above and on the earth below!” (Joshua 2:8-11)

Once she has declared her faith in the God of Israel (a necessary step for defecting and joining the Israelites), and provided some valuable information about the morale of the people of Jericho, Rachav asks the two spies to repay her for saving them from the king of Jericho’s men.

Loyalty to family

“And now, please swear to me by Y-H-V-H, since I have done chessed for you, then you will also do chessed for my father’s household, and you will give me a sign of emet; and you will preserve the lives of my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, and all those who belong to them, and you will rescue our souls from death!” (Joshua 2:12-13)

emet (אֱמֶת) = reliability, faithfulness; truth.

Rachav asks the spies to save her whole family as well as herself. Yet in the Hebrew Bible, a prostitute supports herself by taking customers because she is not supported by her father, brother, or husband. Rachav’s father and brothers are still alive. Either they refused to let her live with them, or she is an unusually independent woman who chose to set up her own house and business, even though it would shame the whole family.

Despite this earlier rift, Rachav is now loyally doing chessed for her family by requesting that the spies save their lives as well.

Exchange of favors

But although Rachav is loyal to her family, she has not yet had an opportunity to join the Israelites and pledge her loyalty to them. So when she points out that she has done chessed for the two spies, she means she has done them a kindness or a favor.

When she asks the spies to swear that they will do chessed for her and her family, she is not asking for an act of kindness or an act of loyalty. She is asking for reciprocity, an exchange of favors.

Later in the story of the conquest of Canaan, the word chessed is employed that way when some Israelite scouts see a man leaving the town of Beit-El. They stop him and propose an exchange of favors:

“Please show us the way to enter the town, and we will do chessed for you.” And he showed them the way to enter the town, and they struck the town with the edge of the sword, but they sent free the man and his whole clan. (Judges 1:24-25)

Rachav’s proposal is more formal, calling for an oath and a reliable sign from the two men.

And the men said to her: “Our souls to die instead of yours—as long as you do not tell about this business of ours! And it will be, at Y-H-V-H’s giving the land to us, that we will do with you chessed and emet.” (Joshua 2:14)

The combination “chessed and emet” can be translated as “reliable loyalty” or “true kindness”, depending on the circumstances. Here, the men are not pledging to be kind, but to be loyal—loyal to the reciprocal arrangement that Rachav requested.

Thorough kindness

After dark, Rachav completes her initial act of kindness by helping the two spies leave the town unnoticed.

Escape from Rahab’s House, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1860

Then she let them down by a rope through the window—since her house was in a recess of the wall, and in the [city] wall she lived. (Joshua 2:15)

Fortified cities in the Ancient Near East were encircled by double (casemate) walls, with rooms between the two walls. At strategic points, these rooms were occupied by soldiers, but other stretches of wall were available to those who could not afford larger quarters.

And she said to them: “Go to the hills, lest the pursuers encounter you, and stay hidden there for three days, until the pursuers return. After that you may go on your way.” (Joshua 4:16)

Rachav tells the spies to hide in the hills to the west of the Jordan valley, the opposite direction from the river where the “pursuers”—the king’s men—will be guarding the fords.

Before they leave, the two spies designate the sign of emet that Rachav asked for.

“Hey, we will be coming into the land. Then you tie this cord of red string in the window through which you let us down; and you gather your father and mother and brothers and your father’s whole household to yourself in the house. And it will be: anyone who goes outside the doors of your house, his blood will be on his own head and we will be innocent. But anyone who is with you in the house, his blood will be on our head, if a hand is against him. But if you tell about this business of ours, then we will exempt from this oath of yours you had us swear.” (Joshua 4:18-20)

The spies make sure the terms of the arrangement are spelled out so they can avoid any mistakes or misunderstandings.

And she said: “As you have spoken, so be it!” And she sent them off, and they went. And she tied the red cord through the window. (Joshua 2:21)

The two spies follow Rachav’s directions, and after hiding in the hills for three days, they arrive safely back at the Israelite camp. When the Israelite troops come to Jericho, Joshua orders them to kill all the people in the city, except Rachav and everyone with her in her house.⁴ While the city wall is collapsing and the rest of the troops are running through killing people, the two spies fulfill their oath by bringing Rachav and her family out to safety.

And Rachav the prostitute, and her father’s household, and everyone who was hers, Joshua let live. And she settled in the midst of Israel, to this day, because she had hidden the messengers whom Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho. (Joshua 6:25)

Some people remain loyal to a person or a country no matter what. Others are loyal only as long as the person or government meets their ethical standards. And some people act loyal only when it is in their self-interest.

Rachav acts in her own self-interest when she becomes disloyal to her king, her city-state, and the god of Jericho. But her request that the Israelites save her family is an act of loyalty to her relatives. She hides the two Israelite spies as an act of kindness. When she realizes that this is her opportunity to defect to the Israelite side, she frames her kindness as a favor, and asks the men to return the favor. After they do, Rachav becomes a loyal citizen of Israel. For her, chessed encompasses impulsive kindness, the practical exchange of favors, and loyalty—both to the family she was born into, and to the people she chose.

See my post Lekh-Lekha, Vayeira, & Toledot: The Wife-Sister Trick, Part 1.
Joshua 2:6.
The two Amorite kings are Sichon and Og; Israelite soldiers conquer their kingdoms, Chesbon and Bashan, in Numbers 21:21-35, once their families have camped above the Jordan River across from Jericho.
Joshua 6:17.

Lekh Lekha & Isaiah: Faith and Promises

Moving to another country is risky. You don’t know all the rules, all the dangers. And even if you believe God wants you to go, how do you know you will prosper? If life is not so terrible where you are, isn’t it safer to stay put?

Abraham and his household face the question of emigration in this week’s Torah portion, Lekh-Lekha (Genesis 12:1-17:27). So do the Israelite exiles in the accompanying haftarah reading, Isaiah 40:27-41:16. In both cases, God asks people who live in Mesopotamia to emigrate to Canaan. And God promises to reward them for doing so. But in both cases, there are reasons for doubt.

Lekh Lekha

Last week’s Torah portion, Noach, tells us that Abraham (originally named Avram) has already relocated once. He is the first of three sons Terach begets in Ur, a city in southern Mesopotamia.

And this is the genealogy of Terach: Terach begot Avram, Nachor, and Haran, and Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terach, in the land of his kin, in Ur of the Mesopotamians. (Genesis/Bereishit 11:27-28)

After naming the wives of Avram and Nachor and mentioning that Avram’s wife Sarai had no children, the story continues:

Then Terach took his son Avram; and his grandson Lot, son of Haran; and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Avram; and they left with him from Ur of the Mesopotamians to go to the land of Canaan. And they came as far as Charan, and they settled there. The days of Terach were 205 years, and Terach died in Charan. (Genesis 11:31-32)

The book of Genesis never says why Terach was heading for Canaan, or why he stops halfway and settles in northern Mesopotamia.

Then God said to Avram: “Go for yourself, from your land and from your kindred and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you! And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. Then be a blessing! And I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who demean you. And all the clans of the earth will seek to be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

There are no divine threats that anything bad will happen if Avram does not emigrate to Canaan. Is he tempted by the reward God promises? In the Torah, a blessing from God means longevity, material prosperity, and fertility. A great name means fame. When God makes someone a great nation, it means that person’s descendants will someday own a country.

Avram went as God had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Avram was seventy-five years old when he left Charan. (Genesis 12:4)

Since Avram is already 75 and still healthy enough to walk all the way from Charan to Canaan, a journey of about 600 miles or 1,000 kilometers, he could assume he is already set for a long life. He does not need to emigrate to be blessed with longevity.

What about the blessing of prosperity?

Abraham Journeying into the Land of Canaan,
by Gustave Doré, 1866

Avram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the property that they had acquired, and the people that they had acquired in Charan, and they left to go to the land of Canaan. And they entered the land of Canaan. (Genesis 12:4-5)

Avram, Sarai, and Lot have already acquired a lot of moveable property by the time they emigrate to Canaan, including animals, goods, and slaves.¹ They do not need to emigrate to be blessed with material prosperity.

What about the blessing of fertility? We already know Sarai is childless, and we learn later that she is only ten years younger than Avram, so she is 65. Avram has not had any children in Charan, and unless he has a son in old age, he will have no descendants to become “a great nation”.

Perhaps the promise of fertility is the reason Avram obeys God and heads for Canaan. And the rest of his household, including his wife, his nephew, and his employees and slaves, have no say in the matter. They might have (unrecorded) opinions, but in their culture, the male head of household decides for everyone.

Unlike Terach, Avram and his people finish the trip to Canaan. They arrive at a sacred site near the Canaanite town of Shekhem.²

Then God appeared to Avram and said: “To your see [descendants] I give this land.” So he [Avram] built an altar there for God, whom he had seen. (Exodus 12:7)

I imagine that seeing some manifestation of God as well as hearing God speak about descendants again would confirm to Avram that he had made the right choice in following God’s instruction to move to Canaan. Yet when Canaan experiences a famine,

Avram went down to Egypt, lagur there, since the famine was severe in the land. (Exodus 12:10)

Abraham and Sarah in Pharaoh’s Palace,
by Giovanni Muzzioli, 1875

lagur (לָגוּר) = to live as a resident alien, to sojourn, to become a migrant.

And God does not object. In fact, God helps Avram pull off a scam that results in pharaoh giving Avram additional animals, silver and gold, and slaves—and ordering men to escort Avram and his household back to the border. (See my post Lekh Lekha, Vayeira, & Toledot: The Wife-Sister Trick, Part 1 and Part 2.)

Avram has further adventures in Canaan, and then the unsolved problem of his lack of descendants comes up again.

After these things, the word of God happened to Avram in a vision, saying: “Don’t be afraid, Avram. I myself am a shield for you; your reward will be very big!” But Avram said: “My lord God, what will you give me? I am going accursed, and the heir of my household is the Damascan, Eliezer!” And Avram said: “To me you have not given seed [a descendant], so hey! The head servant of my household is my heir!” (Genesis 15:1-3)

When the same person says two things in a row, with nothing in between except “And he said”, it indicates a pause while the one being addressed fails to respond. In this case, God does not respond to Avram’s first statement, so Avram adds an explanation.

Then hey! The word of God happened to him, saying: “This one will not be your heir; but rather, the one who goes out from your inward parts will be your heir.” (Genesis 15:4) Another vague promise. So Avram’s wife Sarai tackles the problem herself by arranging for her husband to impregnate her female Egyptian slave. Avram no longer has to have faith that somehow God will provide.

Second Isaiah

Avram at least has the advantage of hearing God tell him directly to emigrate to Canaan from Mesopotamia. When the Babylonian Empire falls, the Israelites living in exile there have only the words of a human prophet who tells them that God wants them to move back and rebuild the razed city of Jerusalem. The prophet is not named, but since the prophecies compose the second half of the book of Isaiah, the speaker is known as “Second Isaiah”. In this week’s haftarah, God declares (through Second Isaiah):

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
	Don’t look around anxiously, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you.
	Also I will help you.
Also I will hold you up by the right hand of my righteousness. (Isaiah 41:10)

The Israelites living in Mesopotamia are anxious about returning to Jerusalem for understandable reasons. Between 597 and 587 B.C.E., while the Babylonian army was conquering the Kingdom of Judah, many Israelites were forcibly deported to Babylon.

Half a century later, when Second Isaiah began prophesying, the new Persian Empire had swallowed up the Babylonian empire. The first Persian king, Cyrus, gave all deportees and children of deportees permission to return to their former homes and rebuild their former temples. But after their traumatic experience, the Israelites are reluctant to believe it would really be safe to move back to Jerusalem. Besides, they had seen the city burning down.

Assuring the exiles that their Babylonian conquerors are now powerless, God says:

Hey, everyone who was infuriated with you
will be shamed and humiliated;
They will be like nothingness,
And the men who contended with you will perish. (Isaiah 41:11)

But before the exiles can believe God will eliminate their enemies, they must believe that God is on their side now. And that is hard for people who remember when God failed to rescue them from death and deportation at the hands of the Babylonians. Then God promises to make the Israelites, not just the Persians, a weapon for defeating the Babylonian armies that seem as strong as mountains.

Hey, I will transform you into a new sharp thresher,
	An owner of teeth,
You will thresh the mountains
And crush the hills, make them like chaff.
You will scatter them,
	And the wind will carry them off,
	And a whirlwind will disperse them.
And you, you will rejoice in God
	And you will praise the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 41:15-16)

The Israelites in Babylonia hear (or read) the prophet’s speeches quoting God. But do they believe the quotes are real? Do they believe God will help them now? Do they set off for Jerusalem?

The Burning of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar’s Army,
by the circle of Juan de la Corte, 1630-1660

The book of Isaiah does not give an answer. The conclusion of book of Jeremiah reports that a total of 4,600 people were deported by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.³ (The poorest citizens of Judah were kept in the land to serve as “vine-dressers and field hands”.)⁴

The book of Ezra describes the return of 42,360 exiles to Jerusalem, along with their 7,337 slaves and 200 singers,⁵ but the archeological record indicates that the numbers are inflated.

It is also hard to determine how many of the exiles stayed in Babylonia under Persian rule. The city of Babylon had a large Jewish population when Philo of Alexandria wrote in the first century C.E., and had become the center of Jewish law and culture by the time the Talmud was written in the 3^rd-5^th centuries C.E.⁶ There is no historical record of a large in-migration of Jews to Babylon, so a lot of deported Israelites and their children must have stayed behind when Ezra and his group set off for Jerusalem.

Believing that God will help you is not so hard when your life has already been good, like Abraham’s. Believing that God will help you is harder when you, or your parents, can remember a time when God failed to rescue you from enemies—enemies who burned your city, killed many of your family and friends, and marched you off to a strange land. Jeremiah explains that God punished the Kingdom of Judah for the bad policies of its kings and for the widespread worship of other gods. Second Isaiah insists that now all that is forgiven.

What would it take for you to believe that God wants you to emigrate? What would it take for you to actually do it?

What if you were a Jew thinking about “making aliyah”—moving to Israel?

An alternative reading from Talmudic times says that Avram, Sarai, and Lot had not acquired slaves in Charan, but rather made converts. This reading, however, does not fit the society of the time, and is not supported by any other reference in the Hebrew Bible.
The site is named Eilon Moreh. An eilon (אֵל֣וֹן) is a large and significant tree, the kind that was involved in Asherah worship. Moreh (מוֹרֶה) means “teaching, instruction”.
Jeremiah 52:30.
Jeremiah 52:16.
Ezra 2:65-66.
Talmudic volumes were written both in Jerusalem (the Talmud Yerushalmi) and in Babylon (the Talmud Bavli), the two centers of Jewish scholarship. The Talmud Bavli is more complete and authoritative.

Chayei Sarah & 1 Kings: Old Age for Scoundrels, Part 1

And Abraham expired and died at a good old age, old and saveia, and he was gathered to his people. (Genesis 25:8)

Old Man on his Deathbed, by Gustav Klimt

saveia (שָׂבֵעַ) = (adjective) satisfied, full, sated. (From the root verb sava, שָׂבַע = be sated, have enough, be filled up—usually with food.)

The full and satisfying end of Abraham’s life in this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah (“The Life of Sarah”, Genesis 23:1-25:18) contrasts with the thin and bitter end of King David’s life in the accompanying haftarah reading (1 Kings 1:1-1:31). The haftarah sets the tone for King David’s final years when it opens:

And the king, David, was old, coming on in years, and they covered him with bedclothes, but he never felt warm. (1 Kings 1:1)

In their prime, both men have motley careers: brave and magnanimous in one scene, heartless and unscrupulous in the next. But in old age (about age 140-175 for Abraham, 60-70 for David) their paths diverge.

Abraham’s prime

Abraham commits several major unethical deeds after he moves his family to Canaan when he is 75. Although his behavior toward his nephew Lot is faultless, his behavior toward his wife Sarah and his first two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, is sometimes cruel, selfish, and immoral.

Abram’s Counsel to Sarai, by James Tissot, ca. 1900, detail

Twice when he travels to a new kingdom, Abraham asks Sarah to pretend to be his sister. He claims that she was unusually beautiful¹ and that the king has peculiar morals, considering adultery taboo, but murder perfectly all right. The king will take Sarah regardless, but only if everyone lies and says Abraham is her brother will the king let him live. In fact, both kings pay Abraham a bride-price for his “sister”. Both kings are horrified when they discovered the truth. Both times, Abraham gets to take back his wife and leave richer than when he arrived.²

Sarah also uses Abraham, by giving him her slave Hagar as a concubine for the purpose of producing an heir. (She is 75 and childless at the time.) After Sarah give birth to her own son at age 90, she sees that Hagar’s son Ishmael is not treating her son Isaac with respect. So she orders Abraham to cast out Hagar and Ishmael, in order to make Isaac the only heir. Abraham is rich, and could easily give his own son and his former concubine a couple of donkeys laden with water, food, and silver to ensure their safe relocation. Instead, Abraham sends them off into the desert with only bread and a skin of water. When they get lost and use up the water, Ishmael nearly dies.³ God arranges a rescue, but Abraham never sees his oldest son again.

Isaac has grown up, but has not yet married or had children, when Abraham hears God tell him:

“Please take your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac. And get yourself going to the land I will show you, and offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the hills, which I will say to you.” (Genesis 22:2)

Abraham knows he could argue with God. When he was 99, he argued with God about destroying Sodom, and God listened and agreed it would be unjust to annihilate the city if it contained even ten innocent people.⁴ Yet now, in his 130’s, Abraham does not argue with God. he does not even ask God a question. He gets up early and leaves with Isaac, two servants, and a donkey carrying firewood, without telling Sarah where they are going. When Isaac lies bound on the altar and Abraham lifts the knife, God has to call his name twice to get him to stop. After Abraham sacrifices a ram instead, he walks back down the hill alone.⁵ The breach between father and son is irreparable. Abraham never sees Isaac again.

Abraham’s old age

Is Abraham consumed by guilt and loss during the final stage of his life, from his late 130’s to his death at 175? No. But he has changed. This week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, portrays a man at peace with himself who meets all his responsibilities and also enjoys life.

The Torah portion begins with Sarah’s death in Hebron. Yet the last we knew, Abraham was living in Beersheba.⁶ Perhaps the two locations reflect a glitch in a redactor’s effort to combine two stories. Or perhaps Sarah left her husband after he returned without Isaac and tried to explain what happened. In an already difficult marriage, that would be the last straw. Yet the estrangement does not stop Abraham from traveling to Hebron and doing his duty as Sarah’s husband.

Abraham Buys the Field of Ephron the Hittite, by William Hogarth, ca. 1725

And Abraham came to beat the breast for Sarah and to observe mourning rites. Then Abraham got up from the presence of his dead, and he spoke to the Hittites, saying: “I am a resident alien among you. Give me a burial site among you, and I will bury my dead away from my presence.” (Genesis 23:2)

After some negotiations, Abraham buys a plot of land with a suitable burial cave, and buries Sarah there. In this way he also prepares for his own burial, and future burials in his family.

Isaac is not mentioned during the first scene in Chayei Sarah. But in the next scene, Abraham makes arrangements for Isaac’s marriage.

And Abraham said to his elder servant of his household, the one who governed all that was his: “Please place your hand under my yareikh, and I will make you swear by God, god of the heavens and god of the earth, that you do not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites amidst whom I am dwelling. For you must go to the land I came from and to my relatives, and you must take a wife for my son, for Isaac.” (Genesis 24:2-4)

yareikh (יָרֵךְ) = upper thigh, buttocks, genitals.

This is a serious oath. Isaac is in his late thirties at this point, and his father has obviously been keeping track of him from a distance. Now Abraham wants to make sure, before he dies, that Isaac marries and starts producing the descendants God promised. But he does not try to confront his estranged and traumatized son in person. He instructs his steward, and trusts him to deliver the right bride to his son.

Arranged marriage was the norm in the Ancient Near East, so Isaac is not shocked when his father’s steward arrives with a young woman for him. In fact, he falls in love with her.⁷

Once Isaac is married, Abraham takes a concubine again, and has six sons with Keturah.

And Abraham gave all that was his to Isaac. But to the sons of the concubines that were Abraham’s, Abraham gave gifts, and he sent them away from his son Isaac while he was still alive, eastward, to the land of the east. And these are the days of the years of Abraham, that he lived: 175 years. And Abraham expired and died in good seivah … (Genesis 25:6-8)

Abraham is virile and enjoys life his old age. He is also in charge of his own life, and takes care to meet all his responsibilities well before he dies. He divides his wealth among his sons and makes sure Isaac will not be harassed by his stepbrothers. After his death, Ishmael and Isaac bury their father in the cave he bought for Sarah’s burial. Whatever mistakes he made before the age of 140, Abraham leads an enviable life for his last 35 years. He is fortunate to be in good health, with both virility and a sound mind. He knows what he is doing, and he does it more thoughtfully than he used to. Abraham was always good at generating plans. But during the last part of his life, his plans are more reasonable, and take the other people in his life into consideration.

No human being is perfect. We may not commit such extravagant misdeeds as Abraham, but we have all hurt other humans. Occasionally we get the blessing of a frank conversation with someone we hurt, and an opportunity to apologize and make amends. But often the chance for a frank conversation never comes. Then the best we can do is to acknowledge our misdeeds to ourselves, and plan how we will behave more ethically in the future. Sometimes we can notice our own improvement, and find peace in our old age.

Perhaps this is what Abraham does in the book of Genesis. He never apologizes to Sarah, or Ishmael, or Isaac. But after age 140, he is careful to meet his responsibilities to everyone, even the people estranged from him. Abraham still pursues his own interests and arranges a pleasant life for himself, but he does it without any deceit and without endangering anyone’s safety. He dies old and satisfied.

Next week, in Part 2, we will look at the unfortunate counterexample of King David’s old age.

Sarah is 65 when Abraham pulls this scam on the king of Egypt in Genesis 12:10-20. She is 89 when he repeats it with the king of Gerar in Genesis 20:1-18, but during that year God is presumably making Sarah’s body younger so she can bear a son to Abraham.
See my posts The Wife-Sister Trick: Part 1 and Part 2.
Genesis 21:8-19. See my post Vayeira: Failure of Empathy.
Genesis 18:16-32.
Genesis 22:1-19. See my post Vayeira: Stopped by an Angel.
In Genesis 22:19 Abraham comes back to Beersheba without Isaac.
Genesis 25:67.

Lekh Lekha: Abraham’s Heir

When you die, what do you leave behind in the world of the living?

Someone inherits your wealth: land, money, or—for nomads in the Ancient Near East—the livestock and slaves you own. Someone may take your place at work or in your community. And some people will remember you and tell stories about you, for good or bad.

What do you want to leave behind, and who do you want to your heirs to be?

The question of inheritance is a major concern in this week’s Torah portion, Lekh Lekha (Genesis 12:1-17:27), and for the next six portions. For three generations, from Abraham to his grandson Jacob, the men and women in his family tree try to manipulate events in order to control who will inherit.

Abraham appears (under his original name, Avram) at the end of a long genealogy in last week’s portion, Noach. Nine generations after Noah, Terach was living in the city-state of Ur in southern Mesopotamia when he begot three sons: Avram, Nachor, and Haran. All three sons grew up and got married in Ur. Haran died there. Terach set out for Canaan with Avram and his wife Sarai, and Haran’s son Lot. Before they reached Canaan, they stopped and settled in the Aramaean town of Charan in northern Mesopotamia.¹ Later we learn that Nachor and his wife also settled in Aram.²

Possible heir #1: Lot

When Avram is 75, God tells him:

“Get yourself going away from your land and your clan and your father’s house, to the land that I will show you! And I will make you a great people, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and it will become a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who belittle you.” (Genesis 12:1-2)

In the Torah, someone becomes “a people” by having numerous descendants who become an ongoing society or even country. A great name means fame or a great reputation. Already God has promised Avram two roles that his heirs might inherit: the leadership of a whole people, and a name that can trigger divine blessing or curse.

And Avram went, as his god, Y-H-V-H, had spoken. And Lot went with him. And Avram was 75 years old when he went out from Charan. And Avram took his wife Sarai, and his brother’s son Lot, and all their acquisitions that they had acquired, and the persons that they had made [their own] in Charan; and they left to go to the land of Canaan. (Genesis 12:4-5)

Without an explicit direction from God, Avram heads toward Canaan, his father’s intended destination. Besides his wife and his nephew, Avram takes all his possessions with him—mostly livestock and slaves. He stops at the site of Shekhem in Canaan, where God appears to him and says: “I will give this land to your offspring.” (Genesis 12:7)

This confirms that Canaan was the right place to go. Avram does not question God’s promise to give Canaan to his offspring, even though he has no children and Sarai is already 65. The household migrates south through Canaan, from Bethel to the Negev. When a famine comes, they go to Egypt, where Avram uses Sarai to pull a scam on the pharaoh. (See my posts Lekh-Lekha, Vayeira, & Toledot: The Wife-Sister Trick, Part 1 and Part 2.)

It went well on account of her, and he acquired flocks and cattle and male donkeys and male slaves and female slaves and female donkeys and camels. (Genesis 12:16)

When Avram, Sarai, and Lot return to Canaan with and all their possessions,

Avram was very heavy in livestock and in silver and in gold. (Genesis 13:2)

At this point, Avram has great wealth to pass on to his heir. The right heir might also inherit his connection with divine blessing, and his ability to hear God. Avram’s presumed heir at the beginning of Lekh Lekha is his nephew Lot. But when they return to Bethel, Avram and Lot decide to go their separate ways.

Lot, who went with Avram, also had flocks and cattle and tents. And the land could not support them [if they were] staying together … And there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Avram’s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle. (Genesis 13:5-7)

Avram gives his nephew first choice of pastureland, and Lot claims “the whole plain of the Jordan”—the river valley and the land near the Dead Sea—because it has lots of water.

And they separated, each man from his kinsman. Avram stayed in the land of Canaan, and Lot settled in the cities of the plain, and he pitched his tent near Sodom. (Genesis 13:11-12)

The Torah never specifies the borders of Canaan, only the borders of the future kingdom of Israel.³ It does locate some towns as being in Canaan, but Sodom is not one of them. The passage above indicates that Lot rejects Canaan in favor of Sodom. This may be the point when Avram realizes Lot will not be his heir.⁴

As soon as Lot has left, Avram hears God repeat the promise that Avram’s offspring will someday own the land of Canaan.

And God said to Avram, after Lot had separated from him: “Raise your eyes, please, and look around from the place where you are, to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west. For all the land that you see, I give it to you and to your offspring forever. And I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, he can count your offspring.” (Genesis 13:14-16)

Possible heir #2: Eliezer

The next time God appears to Avram in a vision, God says:

“Don’t be afraid, Avram. I am a shield to you. Your wages will be very great.” (Genesis 15:1)

Avram does not ask what God is paying him for. But he does ask who will inherit God’s reward:

“What could you give me, when I am going childless, and the one maintaining my household is Eliezer of Damascus?” (Genesis 15:2)

When God does not answer, Avram explains:

“Since you have not given me offspring, then hey! The one over my household yoreish from me.” (Genesis 15:3)

yoreish (יוֹרֵשׁ) = will inherit

Perhaps Avram nudging God to provide him with his own son, so he can have the descendants God promised. There is nothing wrong with his steward Eliezer, especially if he is the same unnamed senior servant who, years later, goes out of his way to procure the right wife for Avram’s son Yitzchak (Isaac in English).⁵ But like most men in the Hebrew Bible, Avram wants an heir who is his own flesh and blood.

Then, hey! The word of God came to him, saying: “This one lo yiyrashekha, because one who goes out from your own loins, he yiyrashekha.” (Genesis 15:3-4)

lo yiyrashekha (לֹא יִירָשְׁךָ) = will not inherit land or property from you, will not get your possessions. (Lo, לֹא = not + yiyrashekha,יִירָשְׁךָ = will inherit land or property from you, will get your possessions.)

Then God again promises Avram an uncountable number of descendants.

Possible heir #3: Yishmael (Ishmael)

When Avram is 85 and his wife Sarai is 75, long past menopause, Sarai decides to give her husband an heir without waiting for a miracle.

And Sarai, Avram’s wife, had not borne children to him. And she had an Egyptian slave-woman, and her name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Avram: “Hey, please, God has kept me from bearing children. Please come into my slave-woman. Perhaps I will have a son through her.” And Avram paid attention on Sarai’s voice. (Genesis 16:1-2)

This was not an unusual strategy in the Ancient Near East. Childless women assign surrogates to their husbands and then adopt the resulting progeny both in the Mesopotamian laws of Hammurabi and in another story in Genesis, when Rachel and Leah ask their husband Jacob to produce more children for them by using their slave-women as surrogate mothers.⁵

And Hagar bore a son to Avram, and Avram called the name of his son that Hagar had borne Yishmael. And Avram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Avram. (Genesis 16:15-16)

The arrangement does not go well for Sarai or Hagar, but Avram acknowledges and grows fond of his son Yishmael (Ishmael in English).⁶

Possible heir #4: Yitzchak (Isaac)

When Avram is 99, and Sarai is 89, and Ishmael is 13, God appears to Avram again and says:

“Walk constantly in my presence, and be blameless. Then I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will make you very, very numerous.”

At first the deal appears to be that Avram will behave perfectly, and in return God will give him those long-promised descendants. But then God continues:

“Behold my covenant with you: You will be a father for a hamon of nations. And you will no longer be called the name Avram, but your name will be Avraham; because I will give you a hamon of nations. And I will make you very, very fruitful, and give you nations, and kings will go out from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for generations as a covenant forever: to be a god for you and your descendants after you. And I give you and your descendants after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, as a possession forever, and I will be their god.” (Genesis 17:4-8)

hamon (הָמוֹן) = crowd, noisy procession, uproar. (From the root verb hamah,הָמה = roar, make an uproar. Avram’s new name, Avraham, incorporates the root hamah.)

Now God’s side of the covenant is to give Avraham crowds of descendants who will possess the land of Canaan; and to act as their god, presumably by paying special attention to their welfare.

Then God tells Avraham what he must do for his side of the covenant:

“This is my covenant that you must keep, between me and you and your descendants after you: Be circumcised, every male among you. And they must be circumcised, the flesh of your foreskins, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and you.” (Genesis 17:10-11)

In future generations, God adds, the circumcision should happen when a male infant is eight days old; and every man should also circumcise his male slaves.

And God said to Avraham: “Sarai, your wife—her name will not be called Sarai, because Sarah will be her name. And I will bless her, and even give you a son from her. I will bless her and she will become nations; kings of nations will come from her!” And Avraham threw himself on his face and he laughed, and he thought in his heart: Can a son be born to a hundred-year-old? Or can Sarah bring forth a child at ninety? And Avraham said to God: “May Ishmael live before your presence!” (Genesis 17:15-18)

Avraham seems content with Ishmael as his son and heir. Why does he need another? God reassures him that Ishmael will have twelve children and found a nation of his own. But the heir to Abraham’s property and relationship with God will not be Hagar’s son, but Sarah’s son, whom he must name Yitzchak.

“And my covenant I will establish with Yitzchak, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.” (Genesis 17:21)

So Avraham’s own wife will miraculously give birth to Yitzchak, who will inherit God’s covenant with Avraham: God’s attention, the obligation of circumcision, and the equivalent of a deed to the land of Canaan. And that is not all Yitzchak inherits. God also blesses him⁷ and makes him a blessing to others.⁸ When Avraham himself dies at age 175, in the Torah portion Chayei Sarah, he leaves his wealth and livestock business to Yitzchak.

And Avraham gave everything that was his to Yitzchak. But to the sons of Avraham’s concubines, Avraham gave gifts, and he sent them away from his son Yitzchak while he was still alive, eastward to the land of the east. (Genesis 25:6)

Thus Yitzchak, the fourth person under consideration as Avraham’s heir, inherits his father’s wealth, livestock business, position as a blessing to others, deed to the land of Canaan, covenant with God, and ability to speak with God. Avraham left a lot to inherit, and he was happy with his heir.

And Avraham died at a good ripe age, old and satisfied. (Genesis 25:8)

When you die, what will you leave behind in the world of the living?

Someone will inherit your wealth. Someone may take your place at work or in your community. Some people will remember you and tell stories about you, for good or bad. And some may inherit your personality, or your attitude toward God.

Will you be satisfied with what you leave behind? Will you be satisfied with your heirs?

Genesis 11:27-31.
Genesis 22:20-22 and 24:10.
Numbers 34:1-12.
In chapter 14 of Genesis, invaders from the north raid Sodom and its neighbors, capture Lot and other residents of Sodom, and carry them off along with the loot. Abraham and his 318 men rescue all the captives, either because Sodom is one of Abraham’s allies at the time, or because he feels affection and/or responsibility for his nephew. But Lot returns to his home in Sodom, not to Avram’s camp in Canaan.
Genesis 24.
See my post Lekh Lekha: Belittlement.
Genesis 30:1-13.
Genesis 25:11.
Genesis 26:2-4.

Lekh Lekha: First Encounter

Two people hear God’s voice for the first time in this week’s Torah portion, Lekh Lekha (“Get yourself going”, God’s opening words). And the reactions of Abraham and Hagar to their first encounter with the divine are very different.

Abraham

God first speaks to Abraham¹ at the start of this week’s Torah portion, Lekh Lekha. There is no preliminary visual effect, just a voice.

And God said to Abraham: “Go for yourself from your land and from your clan and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great people, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so it will become a blessing.” (Genesis 12:1-2)

The rewards for obedience are significant: descendants for the childless 75-year-old old man, a divine blessing (which usually means health and prosperity), and fame that will lead people to say “May you be blessed like Abraham”. So Abraham leaves Charan.

And Abraham took Sarah, his wife, and Lot, his brother’s son, and all their personal property that they had acquired, and the persons that they had made [their own] in Charan. And they left to go to the land of Canaan. (Genesis 12:5)

Abraham obeys God without hesitation. But he makes his own decisions about who and what to take with him. He also decides his own route, heading southwest toward Canaan, rather than southeast toward his birthplace, Ur, or north into the mountains of the Hittites.

Fortunately, God confirms that Canaan is the right place after Abraham reaches the town of Shekhem.²

Abraham and God have many conversations in the book of Genesis, including one in next week’s Torah portion, Vayeira, in which Avram questions God’s plan to wipe out the entire population of Sodom and Gomorrah. He even tells God:

“Far be it from you to do a thing like this, to kill the tzadik with the wicked, [treating] tzadik and wicked the same! Far be it from you! The judge of all the earth would not do justice!” (Genesis 18:25)

Yet later in the portion Vayeira, Abraham fails to question God’s command to sacrifice his own innocent son Isaac.³ God issues that command as a “test”, and Abraham chooses blind obedience over standing up for justice. If God is testing Abraham’s sense of ethics, God learns that his protégé’s knowledge of good and evil comes into play only intermittently.

Sometimes, as at the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Abraham uses his own judgment. Sometimes he does not.

Hagar

The other person who hears God speak for the first time in this week’s portion is Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave.

Sarah, childless and post-menopausal, assigns her slave to Abraham in the hope that Hagar will produce a son for them by proxy. Once the slave is pregnant, her status in the household is ambiguous. Hagar treats Sarah with less respect, and Sarah reacts by oppressing and humiliating her. Hagar runs away.

And a messenger⁴ of God found her by a spring of water in the wilderness … and said: “Hagar, slave of Sarah, where did you come from and where are you going?” And she said: “I am running away from the presence of Sarah, my mistress.” (Genesis 16:7-8)

Hagar answers honestly about where she came from. But she does not say where she is going. Perhaps the messenger’s question makes her realize that she has no plan, and poor future prospects.

Hagar and the Angel, by Rembrandt van Rijn

Abraham can plan his journey from Charan to Canaan because he is the owner of a livestock business; he is accustomed to taking command and thinking out what to do. Hagar is only a slave, with no experience in making her own decisions.

And the messenger of God said to her: “Go back to your mistress and submit to oppression under her hand.” (Genesis 16:9)

We know that Hagar does not respond, because the next sentence begins with the messenger speaking to her again—a convention the Torah uses to indicate silence on the part of the one spoken to. Hagar does not want to return and submit to Sarah, but she is probably afraid to protest against the order.

And the messenger of God said to her: “I will definitely multiply your descendants, and they will be too many to count!” (Genesis 16:10)

Still Hagar does not respond.

And the messenger of God said to her: “Here you are, pregnant, and you will give birth to a son. And you shall call his name Yishmaeil, because God listened to your oppression. And he will be a wild-ass human, his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him. But he will dwell in the presence of all his kinsmen.” (Genesis 16:11-12)

Yishmaeil (יִשְׁמָעֵאל) = God listens. Eil (אֵל) = God + yishma (יִשְׁמָע) = he listens. (Many English translations spell the name “Ishmael”.)

This information is enough for Hagar. She herself may never escape slavery again, but God will ensure that her son is independent and has his own extended family of like-minded rebels. So she returns to Sarah.

But before Hagar leaves the spring, she speaks.

And she called out the name of God, the one who spoke to her. “You are Eil Roi!” Because, she said: “Have I not seen, even here, after [God] saw me?” Therefore the spring is called Beir Lachai Roi … (Genesis 16:13-14)

Eil Roi (אֵל רֺאִי) = God Who Sees Me. Eil (אֵל) = God + roi (רֺאִי) = is seeing me.

Beir Lachai Roi (בְאֵר לַחַי רֺאִי) = Spring of the Living One Who Sees Me. Beir (בְאֵר) = spring, well. Lachai (לַחַי) = to the life, of the living one.

Hagar realizes that the messenger is just a device for God to speak through. God has listened to her and seen her! She has heard God, and seen one of God’s manifestations!

Like Abraham, Hagar makes a considered decision to obey God. Unlike Abraham, she is amazed and awed by her first encounter with God.

Awed, but not cowed. Hagar waits silently until God promises a reward she considers worth sacrificing herself for. And she is the only person in the Torah who assigns a name to God.

What happens the first time God speaks directly to a human being? It depends on the psychology of the individual. Abraham is a clever person accustomed to leadership. Hagar is a pawn who yearns for independence, and treasures her encounter with the divine.

Both of them are certain that they do indeed hear God’s voice, not the voice of a demon or some subconscious part of themselves. Throughout the Torah, everyone to whom God speaks knows that the speaker is God.

I have had a few liminal experiences in my life, but I have never heard God speaking to me, and I am glad. Now, in the twenty-first century, someone who claims to hear words directly from God might be evaluated for schizophrenia—or made the guru of a cult. Regardless of where the voice in your head comes from, the most important thing is what you do as a result of hearing it. Abraham takes practical action to emigrate with his whole household, expecting certain improvements in his life. Hagar accepts her fate as a slave, and also names and remembers her amazing encounter with the divine.

At this point in the book of Genesis, Abraham is named Avram (אַבְרָם). Later in the Torah portion Lekh Lekha (Genesis 17:3-5), God changes his name to Avraham (אַבִרָהָם), which is written “Abraham” in traditional English translations.
Genesis 12:7.
Genesis 22:1-19.
See my post Bereishit: How Many Gods? on messengers or “angels” of God.