From:          "Yeshivat Har Etzion's Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To:            yhe-parsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject:       PARSHA61 -03: Parashat Lekh Lekha


                   YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
      ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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                   PARASHAT LEKH LEKHA
                           
                 By Rav Yonatan Grossman

        Avraham and Terach's Migration to Canaan


     The beginning of our parasha surprises us with God's
sudden revelation to Avraham (still named "Avram" at this
stage).  Until  this  moment we have learned  nothing  of
Avraham's  personality or his uniqueness,  and  the  very
fact  of  God's revelation is unexpected. The content  of
the  revelation is even more surprising, considering that
we  find here the most significant selection made in  all
of Tanakh - the selection of Avraham and his descendants:
"And  I  shall make you into a great nation and  I  shall
bless you."

      Apparently, the text seeks to portray  an   absolute
selection, not based on specific actions - for  then  one
could imagine that if these actions ceased, so would  the
selection. Avraham's selection seemingly is dependent  on
nothing and therefore cannot be questioned.

      It  is clear, however, that Avraham found favor   in
God's  eyes,  and  that  the Holy  One  approved  of   his
actions.  The  text itself hints at this  (prior  to  the
destruction  of  Sedom): "For I know him,  that  he  will
command  his  children and his household after  him,  and
they will observe the way of God, to perform justice  and
judgment"  (18:19).  In other words, Avraham's  world  is
based  on  strong moral foundations. Such a  person,  who
places   morality  at  the  center  of   his    children's
education,  is a suitable messenger for the  values  that
God wishes to introduce. And so Avraham is asked to build
this world of ethics in Eretz Yisrael - the land that  is
special  to  God. But it is specifically  the  fact  that
later  on  the  text  hints at the reason  for  Avraham's
selection, which makes its absence here so striking.

      In  this  discussion, we shall focus on the   second
part  of  the text - in other words, not on the  lack  of
details about Avraham prior to his selection, but  rather
on  what we are told about him, in the background to  his
aliya to Eretz Yisrael.

      We  heard  something  of  this   background  at  the
conclusion of last week's parasha:

   "And  Terach  took  Avram his son,  and  Lot,   son  of
   Charan  -  his  son's son, and Sarai, his daughter-in-
   law,  wife  of  Avram his son. And they departed  with
   him  from  Ur Kasdim to go to the land of Canaan,  and
   they  came  as far as Charan and they dwelled  there."
   (11:31)

It  seems  that  Avram was not the first  member  of  the
family  who  thought  of  going to  Canaan.  Terach,   his
father,  had begun a similar journey ("to go to the  land
of  Canaan"), and even took part of his family with  him.
But  he never completed his intended journey; he remained
in Charan.

      The  Torah  then  tells us of Terach's   death,  and
immediately  thereafter  describes  God's  revelation  to
Avraham and His command to go "to the land which  I  will
show you." At first glance, it seems that the command  is
meant  simply  to tell Avram to continue in the  endeavor
started  by his father, to continue the journey to  Eretz
Canaan. If this is so, one could logically claim that  in
fact  the story of the selection of the Israelite  nation
begins with Terach, and not with Avraham.

     Before starting a discussion comparing the aliya (or
attempted aliya) of Terach to Canaan and that of Avraham,
let  us take note of another surprise contained in  these
verses.  After the text describes how Terach  dwelled  in
Charan (in the middle of his journey towards Canaan),  we
read:  "And the days of Terach were two hundred and  five
years,  and  Terach  died  in Charan"  (verse  32).   This
information concludes parashat Noach, and the text  moves
directly  on to God's revelation to Avraham. We may  thus
summarize   Terach's  life,  using  all  the   information
supplied explicitly in the text, as follows:

At  age 70: his children - Avram, Nachor and Charan - are
born.

At age 205: he dies in Charan.

We  may  add one more detail: when Avraham leaves  Charan
for  Canaan,  the text tells us: "And Avram  was  seventy
five  years old when he departed from Charan" (12:4).  If
Avraham was born when Terach was 70 years old, then  when
Avraham  left Charan for Canaan at God's command,  Terach
would  have been 145 years old (75 + 70). In other words,
Avraham  leaves Charan and heads for Eretz  Canaan  while
his father Terach is still alive and living in Charan.

       Various   Rishonim,  such  as   Rashi,  note   this
calculation.  But if Avraham indeed went to Canaan  while
his father was still alive, why does the text depart from
the  chronological order, describing the death of  Terach
prior to God's revelation to Avraham and his aliya? Rashi
addresses this problem:

   "Why  does the text describe Terach's death  prior  to
   Avraham's   departure?  So  that  it  would    not   be
   immediately apparent to all and that they  would  say,
   'Avram  did not treat his father with respect, for  he
   left  him  in  his  old  age and  went  on   his  way.'
   Therefore  the  text  refers to Terach  as  dead,   for
   wicked  people  are  called  dead  even  during   their
   lifetime..."

      Rashi's interpretation is quite strange, for if  it
is  indeed not proper to behave thus - to leave  an  aged
father  in  order to obey God's command -  then  why  did
Avraham  do  it? A literal reading of the text  does  not
seem   to  reveal  the  slightest  criticism  of   Avraham
concerning  this act. On the other hand, if a  person  is
required to fulfill the command of his Maker even at  the
expense of abandoning aged parents (and it should be kept
in  mind that God tells Avraham explicitly, "Get you  out
of.  YOUR  FATHER'S HOUSE"), and Avraham indeed does  so,
then  why  is  the text trying to hide this from  us?  It
would  seem  that,  on the contrary,  this  would  be   an
opportunity to stress the magnitude of Avraham's  test  -
that he had to leave his father while he was still alive!

      It  would  seem, though, that beyond this   specific
problem  there  is  a  fundamental  unease  with   Rashi's
explanation as elaborated by the Ramban after  he  quotes
Rashi's words:

   "[These  are] Rashi's words, and they are to be  found
   in  Bereishit  Rabba.  But I am  astonished  at   their
   words,  for it is common throughout the Torah that  we
   are  told  about the father's lifetime and  about  the
   birth  of  his children and then about his death,  and
   then  we  start to read about the son. Throughout  all
   the  generations this is the style of the text.  Noach
   himself  was still alive during Avram's days; likewise
   Shem,  his  son,  was  also alive  throughout   Avram's
   lifetime."

       In   other   words,  Sefer   Bereishit   introduces
characters  one at a time, and only after completing  its
description  of one's life does it move on  to  the  next
character  -  even if historically the next character  in
line  started his adventures while the previous  one  was
still  alive and active. In our case, too, the text first
describes  Terach's life, and only after describing  when
and  where  his  life ends does it move on  to  the  next
character who appears in the literary spotlight - Avraham
-  even though in fact much of Avraham's life is lived in
parallel to that of Terach.

      This  point  is  particularly   significant  for  an
understanding of the comparison between Terach's  journey
to  Eretz Canaan and that of Avraham. We do not know  why
Terach  decided to gather his family members,  leave  his
country and wander off towards a distant land. It may  be
that  economic  factors lie behind  this  transition,  or
perhaps  even  theological considerations connected  with
the  types of religious worship practiced in each  place.
We  may raise many different possibilities, but after all
of  them we remain amazed at the coincidence that  Terach
decides to go to the land which "incidentally" happens to
be  the same land that God chooses as an inheritance  for
the descendants of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov.

     The coincidence is so astonishing that we are led to
think  that perhaps Terach himself wished to go to  Eretz
Canaan because of the Divine command to Avraham his  son!
The  suggestion  here is that one day Avraham  approached
Terach  and  told  him  of the revelation  which  he   had
experienced,  in which God demanded of him  to  go  to  a
different   countr  It  is  reasonable  to  assume    that
revelations  of  this  sort  were  rare,  and  this    was
perceived  as  an exciting and significant event.  It  is
certainly possible that Terach decided to join Avraham in
his  journey to Eretz Yisrael, and that he followed  him.
It is true that the text first describes Terach's journey
on  its  own - prior to God's revelation to Avraham,  but
this is simply another example of the literary phenomenon
common  to  Sefer Bereishit, whereby the  text  describes
each   character   and   his  adventures    independently.
Obviously, there is also a deeper message which the  text
seeks to convey and which we shall discuss below.

      Previously  we  asked whether  Avraham   was  merely
continuing  the  journey undertaken by  his  father,  and
whether  this perhaps constituted the entire significance
of  God's  revelation to him. At this  point  we  propose
precisely  the  opposite: that it  was  not  Avraham  who
walked  in his father's footsteps, but rather Terach  who
journeyed in the wake of the revelation to his son.  Thus
it  is  no  coincidence  that the land  to  which   Terach
journeys  is the same place to which Avraham is commanded
to go.

     It  would seem that the text itself hints gently  to
the  fact that Terach was not the sole initiator  of  the
journey  from Ur Kasdim to Charan. We refer here  to  the
change of subject in verse 31: "And Terach took Avram his
son,  and  Lot,  the son of Charan - his son's  son,  and
Sarai  his daughter-in-law, wife of Avrahm his  son.  And
they  departed WITH THEM from Ur Kasdim to go to the land
of  Canaan." At the beginning of the verse the subject is
Terach: It is he who takes, and it is to him that all the
participants  are  related ("his son," "his  son's   son,"
"his daughter-in-law"). Hence we would expect the text to
continue by saying, "And they departed WITH HIM  from  Ur
Kasdim."  However, by using the expression  "with  THEM,"
the  text hints that those who went along (Sarai and Lot)
were  going along with AVRAHAM and with Terach,  and  not
with  Terach alone. According to what we have said above,
the  Torah  hints  here  that even though  the  character
currently in the spotlight is Terach, the journey  itself
was  Avraham's  initiative, and so  Lot  and  Sarai  were
joining  Avraham  no less than they were joining  Terach.
(Indeed,  after Avraham leaves his father  and  continues
towards Canaan, the other participants - Lot and Sarai  -
continue with him.) Ibn Ezra (11:29, 12:1) proposes  this
understanding.

      But  the  idea of the command to Avraham   preceding
Terach's  journey  seems to bear more  significance  than
just a solution to the local problem of these verses.  It
solves  at  least  two more difficulties  concerning  the
continuity of the text.

  i.   In God's initial command, there is a description of
     the place that Avraham is told to leave: "From you land
     and from your birthplace and from your father's house."
     It is difficult to apply these terms to Charan, where the
     family had settled only relatively recently. It seems
     more likely that such terms would describe the place
     where  a  person was born, where he grew up and   was
     educated. We certainly feel more comfortable reading this
     command as having been given to Avraham in Ur Kasdim,
     where he was born and grew up, rather than in Charan
     after the family moved there.

ii.   At the beginning of the Berit Bein Ha-betarim,  God
says  to Avraham: "I am God who took you out of UR KASDIM
to give you this land as an inheritance" (15:7). Here God
states explicitly that it was He who took Avraham out  of
Ur  Kasdim; it was not his father, Terach who did so.  To
put  it  differently, God took him out of Ur Kasdim,  not
out of Charan!

     As we noted above, the greatest difficulty solved by
this  explanation  is  the fact of  Terach's  journey  to
Canaan, his destination "coinciding" with that of Avraham
who  travels  at  God's command. But  we  still  need   to
explain  why the text devotes an entire unit to  Terach's
journey  to  Canaan if indeed he is simply following  his
son,  Avraham. Why does the text treat him as a  literary
character  who deserves a focus of his own,  rather  than
simply  as  part of the story of Avraham's aliya  to  the
land?

      It  would seem that the text seeks to compare these
two aliyot: that of Avraham at God's command, and that of
Terach  who  identifies with his son and goes along  with
him.  If  we  read the account of these two aliyot,  each
against  the  background  of the  other,  the  comparison
becomes immediately apparent:

AVRAHAM'S JOURNEY TO CANAAN:

   "So Avram departed, as God had spoken to him.
   And Avram took
   Sarai - his wife, and Lot - his nephew
   And  all  their  possessions which they had  acquired,
   and the souls that they had gathered in Charan
   And they departed to go to the land of Canaan,
   And they came to the land of Canaan."

TERACH'S JOURNEY TO CANAAN:

   "And Terach took
   Avram  -  his son, and Lot, son of Charan - his  son's
   son,  and  Sarai - his daughter-in-law, wife of  Avram
   his son
   And  they departed with them from Ur Kasdim to  go  to
   the land of Canaan
   And  they  came  as  far as Charan  and  they   dwelled
   there."

     The text juxtaposes these two journeys using similar
language, and thus the two great differences emerge  with
increased clarity: Firstly, Avraham travels "as  God  had
spoken to him," in contrast with Terach, who receives  no
such  command  from God. Secondly, concerning  Terach  we
read:  "And  they came as far as Charan and they  dwelled
there,"  while concerning Avraham we are told, "And  they
came  to  the  land of Canaan." In other words,  Terach's
plan  is  never fulfilled; he is detained along the  way.
Avraham,  on  the other hand, continues his  journey  and
arrives at the place he is supposed to reach.

      What  does the Torah seek to teach us by presenting
this  comparison  between  the  two  journeys,  with   the
differences  between them? In other words, why  does  the
Torah devote space to Terach's journey in its own right?

      It seems that what the text wishes to stress is the
significance  of  the  COMMAND in  Avraham's  journey  to
Canaan  and  in his abandoning the culture of Ur  Kasdim,
within which he grew up. Two people left their places and
began  again somewhere else: Terach, out of a feeling  of
identification and an inner, voluntary decision  to  take
part  in the Divine intiative just beginning, and Avraham
-  who does the same but because of a command, because he
accepts  God's authority over him. Of course,  this  does
not  necessarily mean that Avraham did not identify  with
the  command  - on the contrary, we hinted previously  to
the  fact that Avraham's personality was perfectly suited
to the founding of the new Israelite nation. But the text
emphasizes   the   absolute  command   with    which   the
establishment of the nation begins.

      The person who followed his heart's desire (Terach)
got  as far as Charan - the center of civilization at the
time,  and  he  remained there. His previous  resolve  to
journey all the way to Canaan crumbles in the face of the
attractions   of  Charan,  the  economic   and    cultural
prosperity  that he finds there. In contrast, the  person
who  traveled in the wake of the Divine command (Avraham)
continues  his  journey and arrives at his destination  -
Canaan.

       Self-sacrifice  for  Eretz  Yisrael,    which   has
characterized  Am Yisrael throughout the generations,  is
related  to  the fundamental command which underlies  our
connection with the land. On the basis of this command  a
profound   psychological  bond   was   built    over   the
generations, strong enough that to this day  no  enemy  -
however cruel or immoral - can break it.

(Translated by Kaeren Fish)

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ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433

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