Lech Lecha: vague instructions
Lech Lecha: vague instructions
In Lech lecha, Gd instructs people: Avram, Hagar. Sometimes the instructions are specific: cut up some animals, name the child Ishmael, circumcise all the males. Other instructions are nebulous: Go forth to the place I will show you. The instructions are followed.
When Avram goes to Canaan, he does not know where he is to go, what he is to do. He just goes. Once he starts, he just keeps going. When the famine strikes, he goes to Egypt. At that point, he knows that he has gone beyond the boundaries. He has come to an organized civilization, where the monarch can have anything he wants: His possessions, his wife, his life. Is it the organization of the society that informs Avram that he he will not inherit this land?
What does he do with his wife? They will be rewarded/penalized for her beauty, he will be killed to make her available. They come to a deception plot: brother and sister. Now he is showered with gifts until the truth is uncovered. Later, when Sarai says to Avram, in the context of the treatment of Hagar: "Gd judge between me and you", was this experience part of the judgement? Did this episode indebt Avram to Sarai?
When Avram rescues Lot, there were no instructions given. This was an undoing of Cain and Abel. Avram risks his life ( and his fortune) to rescue someone with whom he has just argued, someone whose values are questionable ( settling in the wealthy, but evil Sodom). Avram did what he thought to do. After the battle, he made up the tithe to Malchizedek
Some of Gd's demands are hard. Self mutilation ( milah) and cutting on the genitals of every male in the household, including his 13 year old son, Ishmael. But the uninstructed actions are even harder. The vague suggestions that we imagine we are hearing from Gd drive us on the path.
It is not all in the rules.
When Avram goes to Canaan, he does not know where he is to go, what he is to do. He just goes. Once he starts, he just keeps going. When the famine strikes, he goes to Egypt. At that point, he knows that he has gone beyond the boundaries. He has come to an organized civilization, where the monarch can have anything he wants: His possessions, his wife, his life. Is it the organization of the society that informs Avram that he he will not inherit this land?
What does he do with his wife? They will be rewarded/penalized for her beauty, he will be killed to make her available. They come to a deception plot: brother and sister. Now he is showered with gifts until the truth is uncovered. Later, when Sarai says to Avram, in the context of the treatment of Hagar: "Gd judge between me and you", was this experience part of the judgement? Did this episode indebt Avram to Sarai?
When Avram rescues Lot, there were no instructions given. This was an undoing of Cain and Abel. Avram risks his life ( and his fortune) to rescue someone with whom he has just argued, someone whose values are questionable ( settling in the wealthy, but evil Sodom). Avram did what he thought to do. After the battle, he made up the tithe to Malchizedek
Some of Gd's demands are hard. Self mutilation ( milah) and cutting on the genitals of every male in the household, including his 13 year old son, Ishmael. But the uninstructed actions are even harder. The vague suggestions that we imagine we are hearing from Gd drive us on the path.
It is not all in the rules.
posted by Sheldon Goldberg at 9:38 PM
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