Genesis Cycle 7 Lech Lecha

 Lech Lecha


 Hannah Arendt said this: True evil is not power but a gnawing mediocrity within humankind… manifested by a certain lack of thinking. This comment may have been insensitively transmitted given her era, but had the message been heard, we may not be in the mess we’re in now given world violence. In this message, I want to be sensitive.

What does Hannah Arendt have to do with this week’s parashah? 

  

Let's look and see.

  

This is a loaded parasha. This is where Abraham lies to the Pharaoh and says that Sarah...so beautiful.. is his sister. He fears that the Pharaoh will kill him. This is also where God tells Abraham to cut animals in half to create a b’rit.  Whether a historic method of agreement or not, it's uncomfortable and powerful.

For me, the most confusingly bothersome line is  quite mediocre, one easy to overlook. It’s line 12:16.  (Abram) thus acquired sheep, cattle, donkeys, male and female slaves, she-donkeys and camels. Soon we also see he has much gold and silver.

Fact:   I have never cared how rich Abraham is. And still don’t.  Stuff does not (in my opinion) a prophet make. The first time I read about the donkeys and maidservants  I was annoyed.  Now, I tolerate it…like I tolerated the actions of a very kind person today. He showed me photos of his truck, his RV, his sailboat, his plane, and his big house. All on his state of the art iPod.  I acted impressed to be nice. Then I smiled to myself.  After all, what if Abraham were alive today? Would the Biblical writers have revealed the square footage of his suburban castle, his summer homes in Nantucket and Maui, his modelesque girlfriends and collections of Mercedes and Humvees?

You bet.

 But here is a bit of plot: Sarah can’t have a baby. God tells Abraham to get out, to leave his home in Charan and the drought to enable her fertility.  So while traveling and going down to Egypt, they come across Pharaoh’s men.  Pharaoh wants Sarah so much…. And in time he rightfully wants them both gone so much… that I’m sure Pharaoh would have given Abraham his Presidential Yacht if he had one.

So then, what’s the lesson? To be spiritual is to have lots of toys, ancient or modern? To be  important like Abraham we better lie and manipulate so we can garner our millions?  I think not. Is the lesson to simply and only slam Abraham for his unethical actions?  Forgive me, feminists, but I also think not. This has been done very effectively and I'm grateful. Today though while it is a fundamental issue...there's that and more.

  

There's more than what though? Why does this donkey-stuff matter so much in a parasha in which we witness the first circumcision, the pain of Hagar, the infertility and treatment  of Sarah, the sacrifices of Abraham,  and the balanced  words from God to Abraham right at the start: Lech Lecha. After all, there’s enough midrash on all of the above to form another eruv…or sacred enclosure… around all of Los Angeles.

This is what I think: The listing of these things of ownership are crucial in that they bind us all to the need for  continual transformation. Here, we have the going forward, going inward and going down of Abraham.  Lech…he goes forward. Lecha…he goes inward.  And then, as the Zohar underlines, he goes down through levels of consciousness to the level of the mundane.

In other words, in order to find the makom where his wife Sarah can have a baby…. he needs to get closer to humanity as a whole. As we know child bearing and raising is a very human affair.

The listing of the possessions (in line 12:16) instructs as to his level. How far down has he gone? How much farther does he need to go?  He has arrived at a level where possessions help to identify him and are  important enough to be recorded.

Therefore, in their very solid form…not as metaphors but simply as what they are… these things whether grandiose or not are sort of like place-holders...like the crumbs in Hansel and Gretel for example. They mark the level where we find ourselves so that we can all raise ourselves back up.

Abraham does this very consciously.  Our condemnation of his mistakes is understandable. However, we want to find compassion for him given the connection he's creating between us...yes us....think of the crumbs of Hansel and Gretel... and God. But think about it.  He's transforming quickly...much faster than we can imagine... and it's difficult to adapt immediately to a new level of reality and then to adapt more again and again over and over. The question is whether we want to allow ourselves to transform that quickly if at each new level we will make sometimes very hurtful mistakes within community and/or family. Another question is if...honestly.... we even have the power to slow down our divine transformation. I'll leave that question to you.

One thing is clear…whether he is moving downward away from the Divine for good reason or upwards…. this action prevents him from getting stuck at any one place, from falling into as Hannah Arendt infers…that evil found in the mediocrity of an identity defined by the same rote behaviors and (lack of) thinking. I'm not talking about mistakes here.  Attention: Evil and hurtful mistakes are not one and the same.

There’s a great teaching on Abraham by the Ramban. The Ramban was a mystic of the middle ages  in Iberia. He’s seen as a bridge between Maimonides..the philosopher... and the kabbalists.  When Abraham leaves his tent to count the stars, Abraham (according to the Ramban) is actually taken high to the heavens. He looks down to count them.

 In other words, the courage of Abraham to transform from level to level within the mediocre enables his divine vision from a point beyond the mediocre itself.  If we can be like Abraham and undergo personal transformation in this humanity then think of the stars we will be able to see. Our sight will not be from the earth, but from the great love of the heavens. And then and only then... in this gift of divine vision… will we be able to move beyond violence.     

   

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