October 30, 2020
You can now watch a YOUTUBE recording of Rabbi Herzfeld’s D'var Torah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMp2R2CdAYE
Go To Yourself
Lech Lecha, 5781
Around the year 1914, the following scene happened on Pesach night in Warsaw. It was a scene that had happened in many homes, many times before, and would repeat itself in many homes afterwards.
A little boy named Shlomo, was sitting at the Seder table when his grandmother brought out a bottle of wine and poured the wine into a cup in the middle of the table. The grandmother told Shlomo that this was the cup of wine that was meant for Elijah to drink. Shlomo’s uncle assured him that Elijah would actually drink from the cup and so Shlomo watched the cup intently to see if Elijah would actually drink from it. Shlomo recalls that since he was given this sense of suggestion and expectation he thought that he saw the level of wine in the cup drop a little and thus he believed that Elijah really did drink from the cup.
This experience had a big impact on Shlomo’s life. Later on in life Shlomo conducted scientific studies on the role of social pressure in conformity. He became a world class psychologist (known as Solomon Asch) and designed experiments known as Ash paradigms that demonstrated people were more likely to put forward an opinion if others around them supported that opinion and particularly, if the people who suggested that opinion were more respected.
In one experiment he showed that only a minority of people were able to withstand social conformity even when the subject matter was a simple question about the length of a straight line. In another series of experiments he demonstrated “the power of prestige suggestion. He found that people were more likely to conform and to believe in a message when the person delivering it had high prestige. This research helps to explain why propaganda can be so effective. Asch's research into conformity directly contradicts social comparison theory, which emphasizes that people turn to concrete evidence first, and when none is available, they then refer to others' opinions. In contrast, Asch's research demonstrated that people will often completely ignore concrete evidence in favor of conforming with popular opinion” (https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/solomon-asch.html).
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks cites Asch as a way of demonstrating the greatness of Avraham. (I am specifically referring to an insight of Rabbi Sacks about this week’s portion as a way of reminding us to daven for him to have refuah sheleimah, Rav Yaakov Tzvi ben Liba.)
Rabbi Sacks tells us that when Hashem commanded Avraham, “lech lecha,” he was telling him to go and be unafraid to be yourself (12:1). Hashem was telling Avraham that in order to serve Hashem properly he had to be willing to stand alone in the world and share his opinions however unpopular they may be, secure in his belief that he was serving Hashem and not worry about conforming to social opinions.
Writes Rabbi Sacks:
“To be a child of Abraham is to have the courage to be different, to challenge the idols of the age, whatever the idols and whichever the age. In an era of polytheism, it meant seeing the universe as the product of a single creative will – and therefore not meaningless but coherent and meaningful. In an era of slavery it meant refusing to accept the status quo in the name of God, but instead challenging it in the name of God. When power was worshipped, it meant constructing a society that cared for the powerless, the widow, orphan and stranger. During centuries in which the mass of mankind was sunk in ignorance, it meant honoring education as the key to human dignity and creating schools to provide universal literacy. When war was the test of manhood, it meant striving for peace. In ages of radical individualism like today, it means knowing that we are not what we own but what we share; not what we buy but what we give; that there is something higher than appetite and desire – namely the call that comes to us, as it came to Abraham, from outside ourselves, summoning us to make a contribution to the world” (https://outorah.org/p/44514).
This image of Avraham as one who is bold and not interested in comforming to accepted world opinion is the exact same image of Avraham that is painted by Maimonides.
Maimonides introduces his Laws of Idolatry with an historical introduction describing how Avraham came to his understanding of Hashem and an explanation of why Hashem chose him. In Maimonides’ telling Avraham was truly a solitary figure raging against the normative opinions and behavior of his time:
As for their wise man, for example, their priests and their like, they supposed that there was no God save the stars and planets for whose sake, and in whose likeness, those images were made; but the Rock of Ages not a man was there to recognize Him or know Him, save some individuals in the whole world, for example, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, and Eber. And, on this path the world continued its course of circuity until the birth of the firmest pillar of the world, Abraham our father. As soon as this giant was weaned he commenced to busy his mind, in his infancy he commenced to think by day and by night, and would encounter this enigma: How is it possible that this planet should continuously be in motion and have no leader—and who, indeed, causes it to revolve, it being impossible that it should revolve itself? Moreover, he neither had a teacher nor one to impart aught to him, for he was sunk in Ur of the Chaldeans among the foolish worshipers of stars, and his father, and his mother, like all the people, worshiped stars, and he, although following them in their worship, busies his heart and reflects until he attains the path of truth, and, by his correct thinking, he understood when he finally saw the line of righteousness. He knew that there is One God; He leads the planet; He created everything; and in all that is there is no god save He. He knew that the whole world was in error, and that the thing which caused them to err was, that their worshiping the stars and the images brought about the loss of the truth from their consciousness. And, when Abraham was forty years old he recognized his Creator. After he came to this comprehension and knowledge he started to confute the sons of Ur of the Chaldeans, and to organize disputations with them, cautioning them, saying: "This is not the true path that you are following", and he destroyed the images, and commenced preaching to the people warning them that it is not right to worship any save the God of the universe, and unto Him alone it is right to bow down, to offer sacrifices, and compound offerings, so that the creatures of the future shall recognize Him. Moreover, it is right to destroy and break in pieces all of the images, so that the whole population of the future be not led to an error like unto these who imagine that there is no God save these images. When he had them subdued by his well supported contentions, the king tried to put him to death, but he was saved by a miracle, and went hence to Haran. There he stood up anew and called out in a great voice to the whole world, to let them know that there is One God for the whole universe, and unto Him it is proper to render service. And thus he went onward with his proclamations from city to city, and from government to government, until he attained the land of Canaan amidst his outcry, even as it is said: "And called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God" (Gen. 21.33). When the people who congregated about him asked him concerning his preachments, he replied by imparting knowledge to each and every one according to his mentality, to the end that he was able to turn him to the path of truth, until there congregated about him thousands, even tens of thousands, and they became the people of Abraham's household, in whose heart he implanted this great cause, concerning which he compiled books, and which he imparted to his son Isaac” (Avodah Zarah 1:1-2).
The Maimonidean description of Avraham is of a figure who thought about issues deeply and boldly and proudly shared his vision with the world. He knew that his opinions would be unpopular but he nevertheless shared them because he felt that they were necessary to impact the world for good. As a result of his conviction and courageous willingness to share his opinion, he himself had tens of thousands of students and ultimately transformed the world forever.
There is no single source upon which Maimonides bases his narrative of Abraham’s early years. (Migdal Oz ad locum says it is a collection of scattered homilies.)
But in part this description of Avraham is based upon the words and vision of Isaiah in the passage that is chosen as the Haftorah for Lech Lecha (Isaiah 40:27- 41:16).
Isaiah describes an inspiring and brilliant figure who will “arise from the east and perform acts of righteousness at every step.” This figure will carry with him a “sword.” It will not be an iron sword but a sword of righteousness (41:2). Its weapon will be truth and values that will come to dominate the wayward nations of the world.
Who is this figure carrying out this vision of righteousness? The Midrash says that this figure is Avraham (Midrash Tehillim 1:4). It is Avraham who awakened the world with his powerful call to righteousness.
Isaiah says that this figure who transformed the world did it by walking down his own solitary path that had never before been trod upon, orach beraglav lo yavo (41:3).
Isaiah tells us that a Jew’s responsibility is to look for truth instead of getting distracted by the popular ideas that are the flavor of the month. As Isaiah says:
“You will thresh ‘mountains,’ i.e. kings, crushing them, and turn ‘hills,’ i.e. princes, into chaff.”
This image of turning a king into chaff is exactly the task of the descendant of Avraham.
The Midrash describes the imagery of chaff in the following manner: “The tall stalk boasts saying, ‘The field was sown for my sake!’ The long leaves boast, saying the same thing. The tiny kernel says back to them, wait until the harvest; we will then know for whom the field was sown.’ At harvest time the farmer scatters all the rest of the stalk and just preserves the kernel of grain” (Breishit Rabbah, 83:5; cited in Haftarot with a commentary of the Lubaviticher Rebbe, 24).
The true descendant of Avraham does not get caught up in the hype of the world. The rest of the world is impressed by the stalk and the long leaves, but the true descendant knows those are the extraneous parts of the plant. It is the berry—the kernel- which is by far the most important.
Avraham taught us all that we must look for the kernel of truth and be unafraid to share this kernel with the world. This kernel of truth will give us all “energy” and “strength” necessary to carry a sword of righteousness in the world (Isaiah 40:30-31).
This is our responsibility.
We are the descendants of Abraham. We must carry on his mission of speaking truth to the world. We must use all our waking energy towards this goal.
Shmuel Herzfeld
