[Index of all Weekly Divrei Torah pages]
The birth of Avraham, the first Jew, occurred some 850 years after the birth of Noah, in the year 1948 on the Jewish calendar. That, of course is nearly a third of the way into the sweep of Jewish history, which will ultimately encompass 6000 years (we are now in the year 5772).
Since we are making such astounding progress, it is appropriate to pause and reflect on the two main characters of the last two weeks, who populate the Torah portions – Noah and Abraham. If the Torah timeline swept us through over two thousand years in just two weeks, and yet paused to focus on these two personalities, it is a sign that they had something to offer the world. Noah figures prominently is last week’s Torah portion (appropriately called “Noah), while Abraham dominates this week’s portion (Lech Lecha).
There is some ambivalence in last week’s parsha regarding Noah. The Torah describes him as a tzaddik, or righteous person “in his generation.” The commentaries differ – some say the Torah means to imply that were Noah alive in the later generation of Avraham, he would not be a tzaddik, while others say that he would have been considered a tzaddik in any generation. A bit later, Rashi describes Noah as one with “shaky faith.” That is, “he believed and did not believe” that the rains would come and destroy the creation. And therefore, he was hesitant to board the “ark” until the rains actually came down and forced him to enter. On Rashi’s words, we are forced to ask, how could it have been that Noah was not sure whether God’s word (that the rains would soon wash away the creation) would come true. As a perfectly righteous man, he must have had total belief in what God told him.
Therefore, explains the Ilana deChaya (R” Menachem Mendel of Rimanov), it was precisely because of his righteousness that Noah did not see any evil in his fellow man. He had a “good eye,” with which he could not detect anything negative about his fellow man – and that is why he had difficulty believing that God would bring such a punishment down upon them. Since he thought that all of his contemporaries were also righteous people, he did not believe that God would destroy his generation until he actually experienced the rain descending and overcoming the world.
Fast forward some one hundred and eighty years, to the generation of our fore father, Abraham. Here, we have a man who according to all accounts, was a tzaddik, whether in his own generation or any other generation. The difference between him and Noah is that Avraham was not only concerned over the people of his generation, but was actively involved with them. In fact, when God announced to Abraham that He wished to destroy a certain evil part of the world (the five cities associated with Sodom and Gemora), Abraham remonstrated with Him. Unlike Noah, who could see no evil in his fellow man, and therefore did not even pray for them, Abraham pleaded with God not to destroy this corner of the world. He asked God, “if there are forty five righteous men,” and then “if there are forty…thirty…twentyŔ etc until it was clear that God would not destroy the cities if a certain number of righteous men were present. Clearly, Abraham was concerned enough about his generation to pray for them, and in this we see the difference between him and Noah.
Ultimately, though, it is not only about the righteous people of our generation that we must be concerned. As the Jews entered the land of Israel, Moshe bound them in a covenant making all of us guarantors for one another. This was a new level of concern and righteousness that Moshe brought into the world. In fact, he did so even before the Jews approached the land of Israel. Some forty-one years earlier, as the Jews stood at Mt. Sinai, Moshe descended from the mountain with the tablets of the ten commandments in his hands. When he discovered that the Jews had sinned with the golden calf, he dropped the tablets from his hands and let them shatter on the ground. He then returned to the summit of Mt. Sinai and pleaded with God for forgiveness on behalf of all the Jews (not only the righteous). At that point, God Himself proposed something new – He proposed to Moshe that He would destroy the Jewish people and replace them with a new nation descended from Moshe alone. To which Moshe replied, Ӆerase me from Your bookŔ - that is, Moshe wanted nothing to do with the offer. Moshe was interested only if God would provide forgiveness and acceptance for all of the Jews, and not only those who were righteous. From this, we learn that the true level of Jewish leadership is that which includes and envelopes all Jew, of all stripes and sizes. Only with such an attitude will we be able to greet meshiach when he comes – with all of the Jews together.
And perhaps that is why Jewish history seems to slow down just as we arrive to our parsha (Lech lecha). In fact, we will be ‘living’ with Abraham not only this week, but for the next two weeks (through parshat Chayei Sarah). So, unlike the previous two parshas, which traversed two thousand years in two weeks, the next three Torah portions traverse only about one hundred and seventy five years (the life span of Abraham). The message is that when it comes to the Jews as a people, we must “slow down” and focus upon each and every individual, as did Abraham (and more so Moshe Rabeinu later in our history). And that takes time…until the arrival of Meshiach who will take each and every Jew by the hand and lead him into the time of geula and redemption.
Based upon Ilana deChaya and upon sichot of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ztz’l Rabbi DAvid Sterne, Jerusalem Connection in the old city of Jerusalem