Lech Lecha: A Heavenly Strategic Plan

By Floyd Tuler, delivered Nov. 11, 2000

I have been working on a strategic plan at the office so when I stated thinking about my assignment for today, it occurred to me that one way to think about the Torah is as G-d’s strategic plan for humankind. The objective of this plan is to direct humankind to ethical behaviour. And with the parsha, G-d begins His third attempt to direct humankind towards righteous behaviour, His first two attempts not having worked out according to plan.

Recall first, Adam and Eve, while in paradise, defy His one prohibition that they not eat of “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” — already an indiction that things are not following the plan. By ten generations later, G-d brings on a massive flood to destroy the world that is full of corruption and violence.

In His second attempt, G-d spares Noah and his family and tried anew to establish an ethical world. But the world soon becomes populated by people whose major activities are self aggrandizement and ruthless extension of their own well being. Once again, G-d is not satisfied with the outcome of His efforts.

So ten generations from Noah, G-d seems to have given up hope of changing humankind all together. Rather He has a new approach. This time He sets out to establish a model family beginning with Avraham and Sarah in the hope that it and its descendants — the Jewish people — would ultimately make G-d and His will known to the world.

But then the question arises — why did G-d choose Avraham to be our ancestor and endow his with this world transforming mission? The Bible does not tell us. All we know is that G-d saw something special within him.

There are the Rabbinic stories we all learned as children such as how as a young man through reason alone Avraham concluded that there is one G-d. And then there is the one about how Avraham broke his father’s idols and then blamed it on the big one that he left standing with a stick in its hand. But the midrash that I find most compelling goes this way:

“Rabbi Yonathan said: A potter does not test cracked jars which cannot be struck even once without breaking. What does He test? Good jars which will not break even of struck many times. Similarly, the Holy One does not try the wicked but the righteous, as it is said, The Lord trieth the righteous.” So the very fact that G-d chose Avraham as the object of His trials was in itself evidence that he was worthy to be chosen.

Now G-d begins the implementation of the third and final draft of His strategic plan in the first three verses of Lech Lecha:

The Lord said to Avraham:
Get yourself out of your country and from your birthplace,
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I shall show you.
And I will make you into a great nation,
And I will bless you, and make your name great,
And you, become a blessing.
And I would bless them that bless you, And curse him that curses you;
And through you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Many commentators have remarked on the order of the charge. The logical sequence would seem to be first a person leaves his home, then his birthplace, and finally his country. But Nehama Leibowitz points out that this is a spiritual rather than a physical withdrawal. The cutting of one’s family connection is much more difficult than leaving one’s birthplace.

So going back to my ideas about the Torah as a strategic plan, here is the vision statement: There is one G-d and his major requirement for humankind is ethical behaviour.

And in next sedra we get the clearest statement of Avraham’s mission when G-d says: “I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is just and right.”

With the help of commentators such as Samson Raphael Hirsch and Nehama Leibowitz, I get it this way:

Lech Lecha — Avraham’s task was to go out, live alone with G-d, and have the courage to be his own person, even as a minority. He would have to make a complete and absolute break with his past in order to consolidate his belief in one G-d. He even gets a new name. He must dare to stand alone.

Then in the second stage comes the promise of reward. A people is to be created out of the Avraham. This surely must have appealed to Avraham and Sarah, who were childless and no longer youngsters. At first this people would stand alone without much contact with other peoples.

And finally, in the third stage, this people would behave in a manner that furthering their well being would mean the furthering of the well being and happiness of all nations. The more that this people that came from Avraham behave with honesty, concern for the welfare of all humanity, and love, the more they and the rest of the world will be blessed.

Here is what I think this all means for us, this people descended from Avraham, and for me personally.

Marcia and I have been overwhelmed by the warm, open welcome that we have received as newcomers to this community. When we were a young family, we chose to make life an adventure and follow where opportunities led us. We are of a generation of mobile Americans, having lived in the Midwest, the Southwest, and on both coasts — five states all blue on those political maps. And without doubt, our biggest adventure was the four years that we lived in Israel.

Each time that we took ourselves out of our comfortable habits and moved, we grew intellectually and spiritually. We were able to question the ideas that we had taken as fixed and learn from the new people that we met. I like to believe that we have contributed something of value tot he place and people that we left behind, and that we have brought something of value with us to the new place and people.

What we learn from Avraham is that although we may start with individual growth, to be of real value growth should lead to having a positive impact on others. And so following G-d’s strategic plan, our responsibility as Jews is clear, to strive to make the world a better place.