2 minute read
Torah portion
SPIRIT TORAH PORTION Of Fathers & Sons
Which of the two himself. The Bible is uncharmajor protagonists acteristically silent about why of the akedah (bind- God suddenly commanded ing of Isaac) suffered the greater Abraham to leave Ur for test: the father who had to sac- Canaan. Maimonides concludes rifice of his son or the son that Abraham must have who had to undergo the discovered ethical monoanguish of being laid out theism through his own upon the altar? rational thinking and,
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Abraham received the therefore, merited God’s command directly from Rabbi election. God, but Isaac is even Shlomo Consider, however, more praiseworthy because Riskin that “Terah took his he only heard the com- Parshat son Abram … and mand from his father yet Vayera: they departed from Ur was willing to submit to Genesis Kasdim to go to the the sacrificial act. In doing 18:1-22:24; Land of Canaan; they so, Isaac becomes the ideal II Kings 4:1-37. arrived at Haran and Jewish heir, continuing the they settled there … and traditions of his father though Terah died in Haran” (Genesis he himself has not heard the 11:31, 32). Divine command. Why tell us that Terah had
But let us consider Abraham originally set out for Canaan if he never reached it? The Bible will soon record a meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek, king of Shalem (Jerusalem, capital city of Canaan). Is it not logical to assume that there was one place in the world where the idea of a single God was still remembered from the time of Adam, and that place was Jeru-Shalem, Canaan? If Terah had left Ur to reach there, might it not have been to identify with that land and with that God of ethical monotheism? May we not assume that Abraham identified with his father’s spiritual journey?
We may now understand why this story is followed by God’s command to Abraham: Conclude the journey you began with your father and reach the destination and perhaps the destiny which eluded him. God also guarantees the patriarch, “You will come to your fathers in peace and will be buried in a good old age.” (Genesis 15:15)
To which of Abraham’s fathers will he come in peace after he dies? According to the version we have just suggested, it refers to Terah.
Abraham, then, emerges as the true continuator of his father’s mission. The biblical message is that it behooves us to continue in our parents’ footsteps and to pass down the mission of ethical monotheism from generation to generation. Indeed, we must even attempt to improve upon their vision and accomplishments and to take advantage of the new possibilities the period in which we live may provide for us.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone and chief rabbi of Efrat, Israel.
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