TheSong of the Dove

 

Haran: The Lord asks Abraham to Make a Journey

Our story begins some 3,800 years ago, in the Mesopotamian town of Haran, where we meet Abraham the Patriarch. Tradition states that Abraham was the first person in history to understand through his own observation that there is, and must be, one all-powerful Lord who created and manages the Universe.³

Abraham, called at birth by the name Abram, had a giant intellect that enabled him to arrive at such a conclusion. In addition, he was privileged to have perfected the personality traits of compassion and loving kindness towards his fellow human beings, as a direct extension of his belief in a merciful Creator. Here we see that such privilege brought Abraham tremendous responsibility and even hardship, that the Lord places squarely on Abraham's shoulders:⁴

And the Lord said to Abram, "Pick up and go away from your land, from your birthplace and the home of your father, 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 magnify your name, and there will be blessing.

"I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:1-3)

Here we encounter the double-edged sword of divine chosenness for the first time. Abraham is uprooted from his familiar life, to an unknown role that awaits him in a strange place. Here, the Lord creates a dynamic that is to be Abraham's heritage, a role that Abraham will pass to his descendants. Abraham will make a difference in the world, and his fellow human beings will be judged, according to how they respond to his example.

Shechem: The Lord Speaks to Abraham

Upon arriving at the first stop on his destined journey, Abraham receives from the Lord an unspecified promise of real estate that is to be given to his descendants:

And Abram passed through the land until the place of Shechem, until Elon Moreh; and the Canaanites were at that time still in the land. And the Lord appeared to Abram and said: "To your descendants I will give this land;" and he built an altar there to the Lord Who had appeared to him. (Genesis 12:6-7)

Here we see the origins of the concept of the Promised Land. The Lord purposefully leaves unclear just exactly what that land is, and to which of the descendants of Abraham it will be given.

Note also that in building an altar, Abraham is stating for all to see that he believes in the existence and involvement of the One Lord, the Creator and Manager of all of reality. This is to be Abraham's primary job throughout his life, a role that he is to bequeath to his descendants.

Beth El: Abraham Builds an Altar

Abraham is in perpetual motion, a nomad wandering through the land that the Lord has promised him. The biblical narrative explains that he is making his way southward:

And he pulled up from there, [and headed] to the mountains east of Beth El, and he pitched his tent with Beth El to the west and the Ay to the east; and he built there an altar to the Lord and prayed in the name of the Lord. (Genesis 12:8)

Here again, Abraham acknowledges for all to see that he believes in the Lord. In Abraham's generation, people worshipped images of wood, stone, metal and clay, as well as the planets and the stars; anything that appeared to have supernatural power. Abraham's message was radical and revolutionary. Tradition says that along the route of his wanderings, many people began to worship the One Lord of the Universe, who existence Abraham would patiently explain to all who would listen.⁵

Hebron: Details of the Lord's Promise

Further southward, in the city of Hebron, Abraham pauses from his wanderings.

Abraham would like a successor, someone who will continue to teach the ways of the One Lord to the world. Abraham sees a potential successor in his wife's brother, Lot. Much to Abraham's distress, Lot is unable to live peacefully with him. The Lord tells Abraham to part ways with his kinsman.

At this point, Abraham is an old man, and still has no children - surely he wonders how the Lord's lofty promises to him will be fulfilled! Against this emotional backdrop, the Lord reiterates His promise to Abraham:

And the Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Lift up, please, your eyes and see, from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward. Because all of the land that you see, to you I will give it, and to your descendants forever.

I will place your descendants like the dust of the earth, such that, if a man could count the dust of the earth, then he could count your descendants as well. Stand up, walk yourself through the land, her breadth and her width; because to you I will give her."

And Abram camped, and came and settled in Alonei Mamre, which is in Hebron; and he built there an altar to the Lord. (Genesis 13:14-18)

Here, the Lord reveals a few more details about this elusive promise. Part of Abraham's job, then, is to wander in this Promised Land, creating an awareness of the One Lord by speaking about Him to all he meets. In this way, he prepares the land for his descendants to inherit.

It should now be clear why the very same city of Hebron in our time is such a point of contention between Jews and Moslems. What's at stake here is, who is Abraham's successor?

A Descendant Successor

Understandably, Abraham is beginning to feel impatient. For much of his adult life, the Lord has promised him that he and his descendants will inherit the land that he wandered to on the Lord's command. But so far, there are no descendants in sight, and Abraham is not growing younger.

Abraham has an idea: maybe his successor, the one who is to follow in his footsteps, is really a member of his extended "family", the members of his household: but not a real blood relative. Eliezer, Abraham's trusted chief servant, looks ideal for the job:

And Abram said, "Yes, You have not given me children; and here, my chief servant will succeed me."

And suddenly, the word of the Lord came to him: "This one will not succeed you; only one who is your direct descendant, he will succeed you." And He took him outside and said: "Please, look up in the sky, and count the stars - if you can count them." And He said to him, "such will be your descendants." (Genesis 15:3-5)

The Lord makes clear here that a successor will come only from Abraham himself. And the Lord's promise will be fulfilled by making Abraham's true descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Hebron: The Lord's Pact

Here, the Lord restates the promise of the land to Abraham and his descendants. Now, He raises the stakes as more details are revealed. The promise is now stated in the form of a verbal pact, and spells out the names of specific nations whose land Abraham is to inherit:

On that day the Lord concluded a pact with Abram which stated: 'To your descendants I have given this land, from the Egypt River to the great river, the River Euphrates: the Kenite, the Kenizite, Kadmonite, the Hittite, the Prizite, the Refaites, the Emorite, the Canaanite, the Girgashite, and the Jebusite territories. (Genesis 15:18-21)

If you were Abraham, wouldn't you be confused by now? But the Lord just said it - not a substitute family member, but a true flesh and blood offspring will succeed Abraham. And that successor will give rise to numbers that will be beyond counting.

Hard to believe? Certainly. But here, we see that the Lord tests those whom He believes in. This is a fundamental concept within each of the three major monotheistic religions that descend from Abraham, relating directly to his divinely-ordained role in the world.

Here also, the boundaries of the land promised to Abraham and his descendants are stated clearly for the first time. The boundaries of this territory are to be two great rivers, one in Egypt and one in Mesopotamia. Note also that the Lord uses for the first time the past tense: "I have given." This illustrates, to Abraham and to us, that the fruition of the promise is not dependent on time. If the Lord states that he has given the land to Abraham, than it must be considered given, although the facts extant at a particular time period may or may not look to our eyes as if the promise has actually been fulfilled.

The Lord Grants Abraham Exclusive Consideration

Here, The Lord reveals more details about the nature of the pact that the He has established with Abraham:

Abram was 99 years old; and the Lord appeared to him and said to him: "I am the Unlimited Lord. Walk yourself before Me and be wholly simple. I will give My Pact between Myself and you, and I will increase you very greatly. And no more will your name be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, because I have given you to be a father to a huge amount of nations.

I will make you extremely fertile, and I will give you to nations, and kings will descend from you. And I will set up My Pact between Me and you and your descendants after you, for their generations as an unending Pact, to be the Lord to you and your descendants after you.

And I have given to you and your descendants after you the land that you live in, the entire Land of Canaan, as an unending possession; and I will be their Lord. (Genesis 17:1, 2, 5-8)

Here we see some new elements. In order to show just how fertile the Lord intends for Abraham to be, He changes his name, adding a letter that literally makes Abraham the 'father of a huge amount of nations'.

In the above passage, the Lord promises that monarchs will come from Abraham. And the Lord guarantees that throughout all the future generations, He will be an active player in the lives of Abraham's descendants.

And here again, is the promise of the land, the entire Land of Canaan. Perhaps Abraham asks himself at this point, 'Beyond spreading the idea of the One Master of the Universe, what do I have to do to keep this Pact?'

Circumcision: Sign of The Lord's Pact

Here, the Lord reveals yet another piece of the puzzle: what Abraham and his descendants must do to fulfill their partnership in this divine pact that the Lord has offered to Abraham:

And the Lord said to Abraham, "And as for you - My Pact you will guard, you and your descendants after you. You will circumcise for yourselves all males. You will circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it will be for a sign of the Pact between Me and you. You will circumcise for yourselves from now on all males at the age of eight days, those born in your house and those bought with money, from all the descendants of foreigners who are not from your descendants. (Genesis 17:9-12)

Here, in the most private and sensitive of locations on a man's body, Abraham and his descendants are commanded to engrave a symbol of the pact between the Lord on one hand, and Abraham and his descendants on the other.

While the narrative gives no clear reason why such a sign was chosen to mark the pact, there are those who explain that circumcision represents the concept of keeping one's natural, human desires under the full command of the intellect. The place where man's most animalistic nature comes to the fore is the very place where the Lord says, so to speak: "Stop! Even here, you must rule with your intellect!"

This is understood as one of the main distinctions between men and animals - the ability to rule with sheer force of intellect over normal but animalistic passions and desires. Without such restraint, society could not function; and humans would not be able to worship the Lord in the way that He Himself stipulates.

The Birth of Isaac

Here, the Bible recounts the birth of a son to Abraham, in a most miraculous fashion, to his wife Sarah:

And the Lord gave special attention to Sarah, as He had said; and he did for Sarah as he had spoken. She became pregnant, and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the time that the Lord had spoken about.

And Abraham called the name of his son that had been born to him, whom Sarah had given birth to, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised Isaac his son when he was eight days old, as the Lord had commanded him. Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. (Genesis 21:1-5)

What does the Lord want from Abraham now? It looks like events are about to advance in an entirely new direction. But how will it happen?

Hebron: Abraham Purchases a Burial Place

As we have seen, the Lord has repeatedly promised the entire Land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants as an eternal inheritance. Nevertheless, out of respect for the present inhabitants of the land, Abraham insists upon buying from them a piece of property to serve as a family burial place.

Here, Abraham's actions, along with similar acts of purchase by his grandson Jacob, and later, by his descendant King David the son Jesse, are much more than symbolic actualization of the Lord-conferred responsibility of the stewardship of the Holy Land. They create a precedent for the concept of the monetary redemption of the Land of Israel, an idea that is central to the entire Jewish land-settlement enterprise of the past century. This idea of redemption of the land from the hands of other nations is a central theme throughout the Bible:⁶

Note also that tradition holds that Abraham wasn't buying just another plot of land. Abraham understood that the Cave of Machpelah, also known today as the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, is actually the long lost entrance to the Garden of Eden, to which a perfected mankind will someday return: ⁷

And Abraham listened to Efron, and Abraham weighed out the money to Efron, that he had mentioned before the Hittites: four hundred talents of silver, in the accepted currency of the marketplace.

And Efron's field that was in Machpelah, before Mamrei - the field and the cave that was within it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were within all of its perimeter - was transferred to Abraham as property, before the eyes of the Hittites, all of the city dignitaries. And afterwards Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of Machpelah, in front of Mamrei, which is Hebron, in the Land of Canaan. And the field and the cave that was within it were transferred to Abraham as a burial ground, from the Hittites. (Genesis 23:16-20)

Today, a structure built by King Herod of Judea some 2000 years ago straddles the purported site of the burial cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. This building, according to some opinions the oldest continuously-used place of worship in the world, is the focal point for some of the fiercest struggles between the descendants of Ishmael and those of Jacob.

What would it take for this important site to be a place of harmonious worship for all those to whom it is dear? First, we must work out clearly, for all to know and understand, the proper order of things: that is, what are the true roles of the different descendants of Abraham? How are the players supposed to relate to each other?

Abraham's Legacy to His Descendants

In this passage, the Lord Himself describes those qualities that make Abraham stand out, and that justify his unique position as the father of monotheism:

And the Lord said, "What, should I conceal from Abraham what I am doing? And Abraham will surely be a great and giant nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. I have chosen him in order that he will command his sons and his household after him, and they will guard the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what He said about him." (Genesis 18:18-19)

From here, we see the intensity, the urgency of the struggle between the various descendants of Abraham the Patriarch. What is the true way of the Lord that must be guarded? How will the blessings that are bestowed on the world through Abraham to come about? And, of course, still the question remains: who are the true descendants, the followers in the footsteps of Abraham?

Abraham's Spiritual Return

In the Philosopher's Corner section of this web site, we discuss the idea of the repairing the world through humankind's Return to the Lord's original plan for human beings on His planet. How does this concept of Return apply to Abraham the Patriarch?

We understand that Abraham was as spiritually complete as a person could be. Every day of his life, according to tradition, Abraham engaged in the process of sanctifying the name of the Lord in His world. But clearly, somewhere along the line, the descendants of Abraham went off the path that the Lord conveyed to Abraham. In practice, Abraham was unable to stamp his great righteousness into all his offspring in a way that it would be constantly out in the open - which is not unusual, if one thinks for a moment about the enormity of the task.

Perhaps Abraham's connection to the Return of his descendants can be that he would serve as an example to all the descendants of Abraham how to perform the Lord's will in the world. Abraham was completely righteous throughout all the trials that the Lord put him through. If Abraham's descendants were to place the goal of behaving as Abraham did throughout his life, that would be the sweetest success of all for Abraham.

FOOTNOTES:

3 The Great Exegesis (Midrash HaGadol), 12, 1:

[As a young man in the Mesopotamian town of Ur-Kasdim, Abraham the Patriarch worked in his father's idol-making shop, selling idols to customers. One day, he gave the matter some thought:]

" ... How much longer will we bow to the work of our hands? It is not fitting to serve and bow down to anything except the Land, because she brings forth fruit and gives life to us!" When he saw that it needed the rains, and if not for the heavens opening and bringing down rain, it wouldn't sprout anything - he again said, "It's not fitting for us to bow down to anything except the heavens."

Looking again, he saw the sun, that enlightens the world and causes vegetation to grow. He said, "it is not fitting to bow down to anything except it." But when he saw it set, he said, "This is no god!" He looked again, and saw the moon and the stars, which light up the night. He said, "to these it is fitting to bow down." But when the dawn came, they all were neutralized. "These too are not a god!" he said.

And he thought further, and said: "If it weren't for all of these having a Leader, then why would this one go down and that one go up?"

4 Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe the son of Maimon), Code of Law (Mishnah Torah), Laws of Idolatry, 1, 3:

He [Abraham] had no teacher, nor anyone to inform him of anything. He was stuck in Ur Kasdim, among senseless idolators. His father and mother and all the people were idolators, and he worshipped along with them, until his attention was diverted, and he understood. He grasped the true way and, by means of proper reasoning, he understood the line of righteousness.

5 Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe the son of Maimon), Code of Law (Mishnah Torah), Laws of Idolatry, 1, 3:

He would walk along, and call out and gather people from city to city, and kingdom to kingdom, until he arrived at the Land of Canaan. And since people would gather around him and ask him about his ideas, he would tell them, each and every person according to his understanding, until he returned them to path of truth. Thousands and tens of thousands gathered around him, and they became the members of Abraham's household. He planted in their hearts this great principal, and he composed books ...

6 The Genesis Exegesis (Breishit Rabah), 89, 7:

Rabbi Yudan (Judah) the son of Rabbi Simon said: There are three places that show that the nations of the world cannot cheat Israel by saying, 'You have stolen lands in your hands!' And here are the three places: The Cave of Machpelah (in Hebron); The Temple Mount (in East Jerusalem); Joseph's Tomb (in Nablus).

The Cave of Machpelah, as it is written:

"And Abraham listened to Efron, and weighed out the money to Efron. And the field, and the cave that was with it, were transferred from the Hittites to Abraham, as a burial place" (Genesis 23:15-20)

The Temple Mount, as it is written:

"And [King] David gave six hundred shekels of gold to Arnan for the place" (First Chronicles 21:24);

Joseph's Tomb, as it is written:

And he [Jacob] purchased the parcel of land where he pitched his tent, from the sons of Hamor, chieftain of Shechem, for one hundred kesitas (Genesis 33:19).

In modern times, these very three locations, Hebron to the south, Jerusalem in the center, and Shechem/Nablus farther towards the north, form the backbone of Yesha (Judea, Samaria, and Gaza). Yesha is the geographic and spiritual center of the Promised Land. Note also that Shechem (Nablus) is the burial place of Jacob's son Joseph (See Joshua 24:32). Joseph's tomb, which is clearly illustrated and marked on the third-century Madvata mosaic map of the area, still functions as a place of pilgrimage today.

7 Rabbi Shimon (Simon) the son of Yohai, The Book of Radiance (Zohar), Section Hayyei Sarah, p. 127a:

Rabbi Yehudah (Judah) said: "Abraham knew of a symbol in that cave, and his heart and desire were there. Because previously he had entered there, and he saw Adam and Eve laid to rest there. How did he know it was them [Adam and Eve]? He saw the form of a man there, and he gazed at it, and an opening to the Garden of Eden opened up for him."

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