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| Thu, 21 Nov 2024 03:01:52 -0600 — |
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D'var: Parashat Lekh-Lekha 5784 Commentary by Michael Goldstein Friday, October 27, 2023 |
| Genesis 12:1 — 17:27 |
| Genesis 12:1-2
And the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your land and from your birthplace 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 aggrandize your name, and [you shall] be a blessing. Abram his wife, Sarai, and Abram’s nephew Lot, go to Canaan, but because of a famine, they then move on to Egypt. Abram believes that since Sarai is so beautiful, Pharaoh will kidnap her and have him killed, so he asks her to say that he’s her brother. Pharaoh does take her and compensates Abram with servants and animals. Then God sends a plague that prevents Pharaoh from touching her. When Pharaoh discovers that she is Abram’s wife, he returns her, and has his soldiers escort them, Lot, and their possessions out of Egypt. When they get back to Canaan, Abram and Lot separate. Lot settles in Sodom, where he is captured by the armies of four kings. Abram and his men defeat the kings and rescue Lot. Sarai, being childless, tells Abram to try having a son with her servant, Hagar. Because Hagar does conceive, she becomes insolent toward Sarai. In response, Sarai treats her harshly so Hagar runs away but returns when an angel tells her that her son, Ishmael, will father a nation. Abram is 86 when Ishmael is born. When Abram is 99, God changes his name to Abraham, meaning father of a multitude of nations, and changes Sarai’s name to Sarah, meaning mother of nations. God commands Abraham to circumcise himself and the males of his household, as a sign of the covenant between God and himself. He circumcises himself and all the males of his household including Ishmael. Then, Genesis 17:19 reads; And God says: Indeed, your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his seed after him. As a young man, I learned, as most of us did, that you are born a Jew only if your mother was Jewish. When I asked why that was, I was told that we can always know who your mother is, but we can never be sure who your father is. However, in Lech Lecha, we find another, more appropriate reason. We are told that God changed Sarai’s name to Sarah because it means mother of nations and kings of nations and God made an eternal covenant with her son, Isaac, and his descendants. All of which brings me to the role of women in Judaism… God makes a deal with Abraham. Is Sarah part of it? After all, throughout the Parashat, God speaks only with Abraham, not with Sarah. And the sign of the covenant is circumcision, certainly only for males. I suppose some could argue that this established a covenant only between God, Abraham, and Abraham’s male descendants. Maybe Sarah and other women had their own religious practices and traditions. Or, perhaps, they were just passive members of the contract that was between God and men and valued only as child-bearers. I choose another way to interpret the text. The covenant’s principal element is that Abraham will become the father of nations. Women as child-bearers are essential to it. While God doesn’t talk to Sarah in Lech Lecha, He refers to her and does change her name. Genesis 17:16 says; And I will bless her, and I will give you a son from her, and I will bless her, and she will become [a mother of] nations; kings of nations will be from her. Even when Abraham doubts that Sarah can bear a child at age 90, God assures him that the covenant will pass through Sarah’s son, Isaac. Thus, the Torah makes it clear that not all of Abraham’s descendants are part of the deal, only the ones that come through Sarah. This highlights her role and makes Sarah and Abraham partners in the covenant. Of course, this interpretation leads us to ask; What about women who will not or cannot bear children? Are they excluded? Today we understand the covenant to include boys and girls, men and women. Just as boys are ritually circumcised, some rituals have evolved to welcome daughters into our Judaic community including baby-naming and foot washing ceremonies. In some places, a specific ritual is the norm. In others, parents decide what to do, often with their rabbi. I think we can look forward to seeing such rituals evolve. Just look at the changes in recent years that advanced the recognition of equal rights for women and others. In three of the four major Judaic movements, we see the ordination of women as rabbis and outreach to the unaffiliated and the stranger. In two of the four movements, there is ordination of gays and lesbians. There is increased focus on Hebrew, sacred texts, and Jewish ritual among Jews. Our people’s forced wandering from place to place, pogroms, slaughters, and other horrendous events have helped bring us back to Judaism. And Judaism welcomes us back. We should be proud. Michael Goldstein |
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