Musings on Parshat Lech Lecha Continued:Blessings From Dust To Stars;Avram the Iconoclast

Following are some of the ideas, insights and interpretations that emerge from our weekly Chumash learning group at the Young Israel of Oceanside, Long Island. We cite sources when possible. Some of our interpretations may derive from ideas we may have seen elsewhere, possibly without attribution. Or we may simply have forgotten the source. For this we apologize. We invite your comments, observations and participation.

Blessings From Dust To Stars

After Avram and Lot part ways, Hashem promises Avram that He “will make your offspring like the dust of the earth”. Later, after the story of the battle of the Kings Hashem tells Avram to “look at the sky and count the stars…that is how your descendents will be”. Rabbi Jonathan Muskat notes that the earlier image of dust suggests universality and large size whereas the imagery of discrete stars in the sky suggests Jewish individuality-- reminding us that in the galaxy of Mankind, each person is important and not to be ignored no matter what his or her social or financial position.

The imagery of stars may also be seen as a   focus on the individual characteristic of Avram’s offspring.  Hashem is predicting that Avram’s descendents (despite their relatively small size as a nation) will be individuals who prove to be luminaries, shining lights unto the nations of the world. This forecasted Jewish genius is manifest in many ways including the large number of Jewish Nobel prize winners and in the extraordinary medical and scientific breakthroughs emanating from the State of Israel. The shining ethics and morality is evident in the release of Gilad Shalit and the relief and joy felt by Jews around the world for the saving of this one, single Jewish person.

Avram the Iconoclast

According to the Midrash, when Avram was still a young child, he realized that idol worship was nothing but foolishness. To make his point, one day, when Avram was asked to watch his father’s store, he took a hammer and smashed all the idols - except for the largest. His father came home aghast. "What happened?!" he shouted. "It was amazing, Dad," replied Avram. "The idols all got into a fight and the biggest idol won!” With his beliefs, his words and his manner Avram challenged and overturned traditional beliefs/ customs / values. With his actions of destroying icons he was literally the world’s first iconoclast, a word derived   from the Greek roots eikon (image) + klaein (to break).

I think that Avram inspired by example and not by preaching and lecturing.  ”Vayikrah B’shaym Hashem”, means “…and he (Avram) called in God’s name” .The root KRA also means “to encounter”; the prefix Baies may also mean “utilizing”; the deeper meaning of ”shaym” is “the essence of something”. Translated this way, the Torah is telling us that whenever Avram encountered anyone, he dealt with them using the essence of Hashem (ethical and caring). He was fair, honest and compassionate. His behavior told it all; he had no need to lecture.

Avram was extraordinary in that he came to an understanding of and belief in Hashem on his own in the face of a surrounding pagan society. Midrashim portray Avram as a man of unusual character and stature. Rabbi Menachem Leibtag observes that the Torah elects to focus on Avram’s mission rather than dwell on his past. His view is that Avram was chosen to re-direct Mankind back to Hashem  particularly after the city of Babel experience when Man displayed an antagonistic attitude towards G-D and enunciated an egocentric goal  of “…LET US make bricks…LET US BUILD…AND WE WILL MAKE A NAME FOR OURSELVES”.

The Land of Israel is strategically located between the two great centers of ancient civilization, Mesopotamia (where he was born) and Egypt (where he and his children would return to). Avram was assured of a growing number of offspring to inhabit this special Promised Land.  Both ZERA (offspring) and ARETZ (land) are not   rewards but are the necessary tools to achieve this goal of redirection.

Rabbi H.L. Berenholz