Genesis - Cycle One - 1201-1727 - Lekh Lekha

Sometimes the circumstances seem impossible. There’s pain, heart breaking conflict. The hard part is the more we struggle to connect, the more we may bring about disconnection. It’s ironic. It can get devastating. In the world of Torah, though, time is not linear. The path to harmony is circuitous. Endurance therefore is key.

Now let’s look at Abraham. None of us have been so perfect that we can’t relate in some way to his clumsiness. Look at the ten generations from Adam to Noah then from Noah to Abraham. Abraham is faced with ten major struggles. Does he succeed? Some say yes. Some say no. It’s a matter of opinion. But he still gets to receive the covenant…the reward for all of the generations…that which all would have deserved had they mended their ways (Rashi).

Why?

I believe that the answer can be found right before the covenant, in line 15‐17. The sun set and it became very dark. A smoking furnace and a flaming torch passed between the halves of the animals.

This is quite a visual, not an everyday event. To understand it we need to know at least some of those ten major struggles.

The first has to do with the sterility of Sarah. This is her unique character trait…how we pinpoint her. Yet God keeps telling Abraham that he will father nations. That must be really strange. When God tells Abraham to leave his land and go out, the verb reflects back on him causing a split within himself. There’s his body and that which is beyond his body. But both need to be solid and distinct to merge and to enable him to create. It’s not surprising therefore that in Lekh Lekha Abraham wants so badly to create (a child) that he takes discernment to the extreme…to the place of separation (and conflict).

So we watch as Abraham separates from his wife, Sarah. He does this (supposedly) to save his own life and therefore his marriage. Sarah then has to marry and obviously have sex with the Pharoah. This is pretty twisted. On a heightened level though Abraham is merely trying to keep his grasp on the divine (on his love). He wants to split male and female in order to merge more efficiently. Giving so much up on the earthly plane can be seen as cowardly. The question remains, how much must we sacrifice? What is the edge? Is there one?

Then there are more conflicts, more dichotomies, all caused by Abraham. He causes a split from his nephew Lot because they have so much that the land can’t support them. Then there’s the war and Abraham’s decision to split his forces to overtake the victors, to create a division within himself. Later in the parasha, Abraham is silent when Sarah sends Hagar away. He allows the separation to happen.

Abraham’s weakness (in my opinion) is that he confuses separation with discernment. He seems to think that one is the other. But we don’t always need to separate to know boundaries, to be whole. We just need to see the boundaries. There’s a difference. Too often in life we pull back from someone so the boundaries won‘t be broken. In truth though all we really need is a lot of light and good vision. In truth, our struggles are self imposed. We suffer more than necessary. So does Abraham. So do his loved ones. But this suffering (we soon learn) is certainly better than not trying, than ignoring God’s blessing, than avoiding our responsibilities on this earth, than ignoring divine consciousness.

When God asks Abraham to look at the sky it is possible that God is lifting him out of the terrestrial sphere and above the stars. We will need this gift of distance to understand what happens next. After Abraham brings a heifer, a goat, a ram, a dove and a pigeon, he goes into a trance and as the sun sets he splits the animals. When it gets dark, the furnace and the flaming torch pass between the halves of the animals.

How do we look at this? First, it is clear that the animals themselves are life torn in two. They are the manifestation of separation The furnace and torch are said to be agents of the Shechinah. If you consider the story with Nimrod, the furnace represents evil. In any case, it holds the fire in darkness, while the torch holds a fire with light. The torch enables us to discern. The furnace causes us to confuse discernment with separation. The fact that they both pass between the animals means that the conflict between the earthly and the divine is not only seen by God but is the ultimate sacrifice to Him. It means that knowing the boundaries brings us closer to having no boundaries. It means that our actions on this earth are holy not if we avoid the struggles , but if we jump into them, see them, see their blood, know them, taste them, light them up with the fire in our hearts, and with the unseen fire (good and evil) from within our souls. This is why Abraham is chosen to receive the covenant. He never loses focus and endurance. Despite confusion that causes all kinds of pain, he always seems to accept that the path to God is a long one with many twists and turns. He does not give up.

So, may we work at discerning boundaries. May we try not to confuse discernment with separation. May we yearn for divine connection and, like Abraham, may we always work towards bringing the sacred and the earthly realms onto one plane. May we know that the greater our struggle, the greater we are blessed. May we see that our very life form is proof that the act of merging takes a lifetime and that all kinds of events happen in a lifetime. May we know that we can’t always see where the events are taking us but that each impossible circumstance is a reflection of God, the holiest of states, a reason to laugh, a reason to cry with gratitude. May we be worthy of the covenant.