toreng3.htm
2.
Parashat Lekh-Lekha in the framework of Biblical History
4. The
Transition of Avram into Avraham haIvri
6. Detailing the Trials of Abraham
9.
About the Four Altars of Solomon
10. The Axes
of Avraham haIvri’s Journeys and the Merkavah-Chariot
that he built.
12. The Merkabah
of the Patriarchs.
Appendix
“A”: Abraham as Geomancer, according to the Zohar, Lekh-Lekha
Appendix
“B”:
Construction of the “New Jerusalem Diagram” by Abraham.
The name of the
Parashah that we are dealing with is “Lekh-Lekha” – which
the Koren translation renders as “get thee out” and we’ll translate initially
as “walk for thyself”. This is the first command that was given to Abraham
(while still called Avram). What does this “walking” – halikha -
mean?
The first time we encounter
the word root “HLKh” is in the Prashah of Genesis-Bereshit:
“And they heard the voice of the Lord God (YHWH-Elohim) walking
in the garden in the breeze of the day” (Gen. 3:8), and the scared Adam, having transgressed, was
hiding, instead of joining Him and “walking with God” as would Hanokh-Enoch
and No’ah-Noah later do.
“And Hanokh
walked with God, and he was not, for God Took him” (Gen. 5:24). Our sages of blessed memory esplained that Hanokh’s
“walk with God” was so becoming, that the Master of the Universe took him and
appointed him to become an archangel, called Metatron, who is in
charge of all the workings of the world. Also in the case of the next righteous
person it was written “and No’ah walked with God” (Gen.
6:9). But Abraham was commanded, after he
underwent appropriate trials, “walk before me, and be perfect” (Gen.
17:1). All these instances of these righteous
acts, translated as “walk”, are rendered in Hebrew not as halakh, but
as hithalekh, which is a reflexive form. So what is the
difference between active and reflexive walking, and what is the difference
between walking with God and walking before God?
Are these walks different, or could they be complementary?
The Ba’al Shem Tov
thought that “Lekh-Lekha” means, “go into your essence” (which in
Hebrew makes perfect sense of these words). Abraham had to find the divinity
within him. HE had to go towards the quality that is the root of his particular
soul – which is the quality (Midah or Sefirah) of Hesed-Mercy,
as in the verse (Mikha 7:20) “thou will
show Emet-truth to Ya’aqov, Hesed to
Abraham”.
Noah, who “walked with God”,
did not perform independent action: he did not argue with his creator before
the coming of the flood, and did not try to save the doomed humankind. Abraham,
who was required to show independent action, was capable of arguing with his
God. For his sake God agreed to save Sodom, if there would be there 50
righteous people, and even only ten. Being so identified with the Sefirah
of Hesed could have cause God to “change his
qualities” (la’avor al Midotav). The walking of Abraham before
God is like that of a scout who goes before the main corpus; as in the Song of
the Sea, when all Israel sang (Exodus 15:16):
“till thy people pass over, O Lord” (Ad ya’avor Amkha YHWH) which
was explained by Hassidic commentators as “till thy people overtake Thee, O
Lord” (which can be read from the same Hebrew words) – meaning that all the
whole people of Israel would serve as the avant-garde of the Divine forces in
the world.
It is written about Adam
“And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden” (Gen. 2:15), in total passivity (the Hebrew word for “put him” is
vayenihehu, related to menuhah –
rest). Noah was commanded “Come thou.. into the Ark” (Gen. 7:1), which is an accompanied walk, like a mother who
teaches her child to walk and calls “Come”. Even the angels of heaven are not
commanded to walk. In the vision of the prophet Zekharya (Zechariah) “I will
give thee passage (ma’halakhim) among these who stand by” (3:7), meaning the angels, and the Midrash explains that
the angels stand fixed in their place and in their spiritual rank, whereas
those humans who are righteous are capable of “walking” of moving and advancing
in their spiritual rank.
This connects also with
Abraham’s being an “Ivri” – which means “Hebrew”, but also has to
do with “Avor” – to pass, or go beyond. This is the appellation
he is referred by the one who escaped from Sodom (Gen. 14:13), and what is apparently meant is about Abraham’s
lineage from Ever. But Ivri is also one who can
make a passing and transformation, who can transcend.
The combination of Lekh-Lekha
is very rare in the scriptures. Just once more, on his way to the Akeda,
the offering of Isaac-Yitzhak, would Abraham be commanded
“Lekh-lekha l’aerets haMoriah” – “get thee into the land of
Moriyya” (Gen. 22:2). This combination
would return twice in the Canticles (2:10,13) when the beloved is commanded:
“Rise up, my love, my fair one, and walk thee” – Lekhi-Lakh. In
order to consummate her love, the beloved has to experience going into her own
essence, to get lost in byways. IT was for a reason that our sages allegorized
the love in the Canticles to the love of God to his people.
Thus the command “Lekh-Lekha”
that was given to Abraham and his offsprings is a unique command, which allows
them to introduce new leadership styles to the world. The “Messiah Complex”
that (us) Jews are so involved with – the individual urge to do something to
redeem the whole world[1] - is an authentic derivative from our being “The
Children of Abraham”. Whereas the Eastern religions are religions of sitting
down, contemplation and passivity, the religions of the Children of Abraham are
intended to push on, to strive towards the redemption of humankind. In the
command of Lekh-Lekha is therefore enfolded the formation of the
three religious-spiritual movements, which drive – halekh –
and guide humankind till this day.
Parashat Lekh-Lekha in the framework of
Biblical History
We have noted at the outset
that the stories of Genesis have generally a three-fold structure, both in the
overall wide framework, and in the details (a fractal structure). We have also
noted that the history of “This World” (Olam haZeh) is made of
six thousand years, in parallel with the six Days of Genesis that make a
trinity, “two thousand years chaos (Tohu), two thousand years
Torah and two thousand years Days of the Messiah”. OR in a different manner,
from three levels of cognition, which are the Worlds of “Beri’ah”,
“Yetsirah” and “Assiyah”.
In the Parashah
of Lekh-lekha there begins a new stage in the history of
humankind, but it too is integrated with the structure of the stages that
preceded it: the ten generations from Adam and his grandson Enosh to Noah, is
the thousand-year era that corresponds with “The First Day”. The ten
generations from Noah, his son Shem and grandson Evver – the
progenitor of the Ivrim-Hebrews, are the thousand-year era that
corresponds with the Second Day. Together, these are the two thousand years
that are called “the Era of Chaos”. In the first “Day”/millennium “the earth
was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep”, without
place to land and set roots. The second “Day”/millennium is the time of
division between “the waters which were under the firmament from the waters
which were above the firmament” (Gen. 1:7).
This era was started with the flood, in which the waters from above and from
below the firmament returned to unite – “on that same day were all the
fountains of the great deep broken open, and the windows of heaven were opened”
(Gen. 7:11). And thereafter the division
was re-established and a covenant was made with Noah: “And I will establish my
covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of
the flood, neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth” (Gen.
9:11).
The third “Day”/millennium
that opens with Abraham, is the era of the Torah. There is, of course, a
difference between the third millennium/”Day” of “the primordial Torah” which
was not yet written upon tablets and scrolls, but transmitted as Living Torah,
and the Torah of the fourth millennium/Day. It is clear that Abraham was not a
“Jew” (since, strictly speaking, Judah – from which the word Jew derives) was
his grand-grandson) and did not know the commandments of Moses and Sinai. Thus
the Qur’an affirms (Sura 3:67) “Neither
was Abraham a Jew nor a Christian, (but also certainly not a Moslem, which
came much later – Y.H), but upright and obedient, and not an idolater”.
(In an aside we may recall
that the fourth millennium/Day was the period of the Kingdom and of the two
temples, a period in which the written Torah was becoming disseminated among
the people of Israel (who were getting limited during that period to the
framework of “The Jewish People”). In the fifth millennium/Day (from the period
of the Mishnah till the commentaries of RaShY to the Torah and
the Talmud) the Oral Torah became written and fixed. In the sixth
millennium/Day, there were formed (or at least published) also the teachings of
the Kabbalah and Hassidut.)
It is worthwhile to view the
stories of the three patriarchs are also written in a three-fold pattern: That
of Abraham as corresponding with Olam haBri’ah, of Yitzhak-Isaac
as corresponding to Olam haYetsirah, and that of Ya’aqov-Jacob
to Olam ha’Assiyah (see table below). These levels are also in
correspondence with the three parts of the Tselem – the Divine
Image – in which Adam was formed: Neshamah, Ru’ah
and Nefesh (NaRaN).
This division would assist
us in understanding the roles of the Patriarchs.
Abraham appeared upon the
stage of history at the third millennium/Day of Genesis, and started the
“Assembly of the Merkavah” (“Divine Chariot”), which is
geared to disseminate the Word of YHWH-God in this world. The motive of the Merkabah-“chariot”
is taken from the vision of Ezekiel, who describes the divine throne as carried
upon the backs of four animals. In Jewish mysticism there is repeated treatment
of the Merkavah in its two meanings: as a vehicle and as that
which is assembled (murkav) from four components. “The
Patriarchs are the Merkavah (Midrash Genesis Raba, 47:6). According to this conception, Abraham is situated on
the Right side, which is identified with Mercy, Isaac on the Left side – the
side of Judgment, and Jacob ties the two of them in the middle as
representative of Tif’eret – Beauty and Compassion – eventually
they would be joined by King David – the representative of Malkhut-Kingship
behind at the center giving the material support and push to the assembly. Most
of the assembly work is done in the events at the Book of Genesis. This is not
yet physical construction (as was done eventually by the kings David and
Solomon, who built Jerusalem and the Temple there), but it was the construction
of the collective memory of the nation, the creation of the national identity
of the offsprings f Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who obey “The God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob”. This is the formation of the Israelite Tree of Life.
The first Adam is the
creative prototype - he is the seed. Noah is the Golem-pupae, he
provides the matrix-womb for the next stage of the project; he preserves the
potential for the future. Avram – who is Abraham – is the one who emerges and
comes forth and makes the first messianic steps. Already at the beginning of
his journey he is called Av-Ram – “High Father” – and he has the potential of
becoming Av Hamon Goyim – “Father of multitude of nations”. But
he has still to obtain the letter H’e, the last letter of the
name of YHWH, which represents the Shekhinah, the
feminine Divine Immanence, the present Existence- the HoWeH, and
that is the goal of his journeying.
In Abraham is made a further
attempt to give the Tree of Life to Humankind.
Both Adam and Noah were
“husbundsmen/bondsmen of the Adamah” – Ish ha’Adamah. Adam
received the toil of tilling the soil as punishment. On the whole, the term Ish
ha’Adamah is not a title of honor in the Bible. The writers and editors
of the Bible were in a bitter argument with the agriculturalists, who were
deeply involved with rituals of the soil.
Abraham, on the other hand,
was a nomad and shepherd, as was Hevel-Ebel. The command that
took him away from his land and parental home is the command of wandering: Lekh-Lekha.
He, who came from Haran, and his family was from Ur Kasdim – both
places upon flowing rivers – he chose to “on still toward the Negev” – the
Negev is the Southern desert of the Land of Israel, “Negev” meaning “wiped dry”
a land scarce of rain. He taught the residents of the dry land about universal
divinity. The agriculturist, as if tied to his land and his field – he is bound
to form the idol, the “Ba’al” (husband and owner) who should rain
upon his field. The nomad is a universalist, and so is his God.
Also the prophets, many
generations after Abraham, generations after the settlement and transition to
agriculture would still harp upon the memories of “when thou didst go after me
in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown” (Jeremiah 2:2).
In his travels as a nomad in the land, Abraham “marked” the territory that would become allotted to his grandchildren. And since they too would very likely become workers of the land and be exposed to all her lures and temptations – the marking that Abraham does over the territory is aimed not only to mark a homestead, but also to sow in her seeds of succor to that ill, and to mark the spots for restitution, and especially the place of the Temple to be, in which the first of the crops is dedicated to the Lord who represents all Being.
Both Adam and Noah had each
three sons. On the face of it, this should give a sufficient basis for the
establishment of the whole Tree of Life (for, as we showed, according to the
Kabbalah, the pattern of the Tree of Life in the Torah has three distinct lines
in it – of Hesed, Gevurah and Tif’eret-Rahamim.
But the sons of Adam killed each other (so the third was effectively only the
second) and
did not keep the balance. The sons of Noah (who behaved two against one) have dispersed
to all directions (even though they sought to cling together). Therefore the
task was given upon Abraham to start erecting and connecting these three lines
upon which the whole Tree of Life would be erected: Abraham - according
to the Kabbalah – is from the side of Love and Mercy – Hesed.
From his two sons was chosen one – the second, Yitzhak
(Isaac), with whom he is to be bound, and who was forbidden to leave the land –
and he is from the side of Gevurah/Din, Rigor and Judgment, the
Side of the Law[2]. From the two children of his Abraham’s son – again
one was selected, Jacob, from the side of Tif’eret, who had to
learn to live in the Land of Kena’an-Canaan. These three aspects,
which generally work against each other – especially when they operate in a
single point in time – exist simultaneously and harmoniously in the collective
memories of their offsprings.
In Abraham is the
rectification for the first Adam and his sons – who failed through hatred among
brothers – a rectification through the qualities of Love and Mercy. In Yitzhak-Isaac
who would succeed him – who was raised alone, as individual, and married (alone
among the patriarch) a single wife, is therefore regarded as individual and
stand offish, who represents the qualities of Rigor and Judgment – will be
found the rectification of Noah and his sons, who transgressed through
animal-like cohabiting and lack of distinction; and Jacob – who unites the
aspects of Hesed and Gevurah through Tif’eret
– would become the rectification of the Family of Abraham itself – namely:
rectification of the third experiment of Genesis, in which the first patriarch
veered to the Right and the second patriarch to the Left. The third patriarch
balanced among them – a completion through a kind of enfolding of the system
into itself.
In the sequel we shall show
(and that will be a novelty) that there is a virtual pattern, even more
complete, that is enfolded within the Biblical narrative and is oriented to the
future: also the other offsprings of Abraham and Isaac are not really rejected
and have very important historical roles. Ishmael is distanced but does not
disappear, and the sons of Isaac are two - Esau and Jacob - and both will be
included in the spiritual inheritance. (Eventually this doubling would be indicted
with Joseph, the favored son, and the two tribes that issued from him – Ephraim
and Menashe). The three eventual “Children of Abraham” are, therefore, Ishmael
(the Moslems), Esau (the Christians) and Jacob (the Jews). These three stand as
the tree branches of the Tree of Life, whose pedigree may still appear in the
completed alignment of the twelve tribes of the New, Whole, Israel.
(But even this novel presentation does not negate the accepted view that was brought above – that in the threefold alignment of Abraham-Isaac-Jacob, who appear together in the collective memory, the Tree of Life has been erected. The Arabs did not remember their being sons of Abraham and Ishmael until Mohammed appeared, and also the Christians do not know their being related to Esau, as the Jews maintain. Without the Tree of Life of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, also Christianity and Islam would not have emerged. )
The Transition of Avram into Avraham
haIvri
In the course of Parashat
Lekh-Lekha the name of the protagonist is changed from “Avran”
to “Avraham”. As already noted: the name -- or actually names –
of Avram-Avraham – is meaningful to our narrative.
Some of the meanings are
hinted by the text itself: Av-Ram (namely “High )or Exalted( Father”) is indeed a patriarch with an exalted fatherly role,
but only when he became Avraham, and when he begot children of
his own – he could become “a father of many nations” (17:5). In order for this
to happen – Avram and Saray have to share among
them, and receive new names. Saray shares with Avram
half of the letter Y’od in her name, and now she would become Sarah
and he Avraham. This completed operation is precisely parallel to
the structure-process of the name of YHWH – the Y
that denotes the highest world (Atsilut) descends using the letter
Waw (which has the form of a line) and divides into H’e
on this side and H’e on that side, because the H’e
denotes the practical world (Assiyah)
The letter Y’od
(which is the tenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and has a gematria value of
10) is the letter that serves to connote the future tense, the unrealized. Saray
would have to divide it equally with her husband, so that each one of
them would receive the letter H’e (the fifth letter in the Hebrew
alphabet, and its value in gematria is 5), which serves to connote the present
tense.
Avram could not realize his vocation and to leave the
present daily because he was to high, Saray failed to realize her
vocation because she left the divine promise for seed in the realm of the
future. Only Avraham and Sarah could together form
the Tree of Life.
This process of converting
the names is described only towards the end of this Parashah,
after half a dozen trials that Avraham experienced on his way (see below). We
shall try to examine why.
In order to pass the
conversion of their name (which signifies their inner quality) on their
transition from the hidden and to the revealed, they both must pass liberation
by means of laughter. Abraham is the first to laugh: already before the
covenant of the divided sacrifices (Brit ben haBetarim) Avram had
complete trust in the ability of God to give him progeny “And he believed in
the Lord, and He counted it t him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6) and yet he was still given a divine promise in the
covenant, but in the very ceremony of the change of his name and added promise
of progeny from Sara – Abraham behaved differently – “Then Avraham fell upon
his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to him who
is a hundred years old? And shall Sara, that is ninety years old, give birth?” (Gen.
17:17).
Sara’s time for laughter was yet to come, when she eavesdropped on the saying of the angel to Abraham: “I will certainly return to thee at this season; and, lo, Sara thy wife shall have a son… therefore Sara laughed within herself, saying, After I am grown old shall I have pleasure?…” (Gen. 18:10, 12).
Now, after Abraham gained
half of the Y’od of Sarah, Avraham
became a completed man, with 248 members-AVaRim (AVRaHaM in
gematria = 248 = RMH). According to the system of the
Talmud, a man has 248 members – Avarim – (or the number of bones)
that are connected by 365 ligaments. In this system, a “member” – Evar
– is a structure with 4 levels – bones, ligaments, flesh and skin. The
significance of this system is that it also describes the superior, immaterial
man, made in the pattern of the Torah – which contains 248 (or ReMaH)
positive commandments and 365 prhibitions. The same letters also make up the
word ReHeM (womb), which is the root of the words RaHeM
(have mercy) and RaHaMim (compassion) and most directly –
the Aramaic word for Love and loving-kindness. The attribution of Abraham as
“The Man of Compassion/Love” is the basis of the Kabbalah for interpreting the
travails and trials of Abraham.
Attaining this completion,
Abraham became ready to rectify the blemishes of the Tree of Knowledge. For
this end, he would complete all the Twelve Trials that were put upon him along
the Parashot of Lekh-Lekha, va’year and Haye
Sarah. (They are surveyed below)
The first divine promise to Abraham is not limited to the conquest of the Land of Canaan and the formation of a small and separate nation, but he was promised, “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). The message is universal and global. We may of course claim that the realization of this promise came only with the formation of the monotheistic beliefs and religions, so that Abraham and his seed had to wait for at least another two thousand years until “the families of the earth” would recognize the one God and the religion of Abraham. Yet it is possible to view Abraham as one who already realized this promise-command in his own lifetime.
Abraham wandered in the Land
of Canaan-Kena’an the son of Ham, the one
without inhibitations, and brought to it the culture of Shem.
What is that culture? It is the one that relates to the tp part of the Tselem
(the divine image that we embed) – the Neshamah –which is
connected with conceptualization, with calling a name to each creature, and is
also the domain of The Holy Name. This was the only possibility to reach a
whole pattern of relationship of heaven and earth until “in thee shall
all the families of the earth be blessed”. This is why the trials that Abraham
underwent are so important, in order to rectify all that needed correction in
the pattern of the Whole Man. “And God did test Avraham” (Gen. 22:1), in Hebrew “ve’ha’Elohim nisa et Avraham”,
made him into a Nes, a sign and an exemplary, in contemporary
language – a model.
Whereas the journeys of Abraham delineated a geographic-geomantic and geometrical pattern for the future inheritance and settlement of the land, his twelve trials delineated a pattern in time – much as the cycle of the twelve constellations and the months of the year – and marked the character of the future Twelve Tribes. As we analyze the trials of Abraham, we shall see how they got engraved in the collective memory – and how they constructed the mythos – of the future nation.
According to the traditional
interpreters, Abraham experienced ten trials, and stood them all in honor. We
shall see that it is possible to find at least twelve trials, and that Abraham
did not completely pass any one of them. Yitzhak-Isaac on
the other hand, passed a single one trial – the trial of the Binding-Akedah
– perfectly, and therefore did not have to stand for further trials.
In Tractate Avot “The Wisdom of the Fathers” (5:4) is written: “Ten trials experienced our father Abraham and passed them all, to show how great was the love of Abraham our father”. Several of the traditional interpreters count these trials:
|
Ovadiah of Bartanura |
Maimonides (RaMBaM) |
RaShI |
|
The fire at Ur-Kasdim |
“Lekh-Lekha
meArtsekha” |
Hiding from Nimrod |
|
“Lekh-Lekha
meArtsekha” |
“And there was hunger” |
Rescue from Nimrod’s Fire |
|
“And there was hunger” |
Taking his wife for the
House of Pharaoh |
Exile from his homeland |
|
Taking his wife for the
House of Pharaoh |
War with the Four Kings |
The Hunger |
|
The War with the Kings |
Taking Hagar for a wife |
Taking his wife for the
House of Pharaoh |
|
Covenant ben
haBetarim (exile prophecy) |
The Four Kings and exile
of Lot |
The Circumcision |
|
The Circumcision |
Taking of Sara by King
Elimelekh |
The Ben haBetarim vision |
|
Taking of Sara by King
Elimelekh |
Expulsion of Hagar |
The Circumcision |
|
Expulsion of Hagar |
Expulsion of Ishmael |
Expulsion of Ishmael |
|
The Binding |
The Binding of Yitzhak |
The slaughter of Yitzhak |
Rabbi Yonah Girondi counts –
in comparison – counts the first five trials according to the manner of Rabbi
Ovadiah, the sixth and the seventh as Maimonides, the expulsions of Hagar and
of Ishmael as one trial – the eighth – the Binding of Isaac as the ninth, and
then he adds as the tenth trial the burial of Sarah, which was not counted by
the other commentators.
These different counts raise
several questions: first there were counted the affairs with Nimrod, which are
from the Midrash, and were not brought in the text of the Book of Genesis. On
the other hand, an important trial, having to do with the negotiations at Hebron,
which brought the first settlement of the Children of Abraham in the land, was
not included in the majority of the counts. As we shall see in the sequel, a
careful reading of the text reveals that there were actually twelve trials.
It seems as if what was
important for the editors of Tractate Avot was the principle of the Ten.
Contemporary scholars of the Kabbalah see the mention in Tractate Avot the
first hint to the doctrine of the Ten Sefirot, as the basis of the mystical
teachings of Israel (there teachings, which were initially known as Ma’asei
Bereshit (“the workings of the Beginning/Innitiation”) and Ma’asei
Merkavah (“the workings of the Assembly”, were withdrawn – apparently -
at the times of the Sages and became publicly known only after Maimonides
published his own ideas about the Ma’asei Bereshit and Merkavah,
which he regarded as corresponding with the Greek Physics and Metaphysics. If so,
the books of the Kabbalah appeared as a response in order to announce what were
the Ma’asei Bereshit and Ma’asei Merkavah mentioned
by the sages).
The Maharal,
who lived and wrote long after the Kabbalah became public (and hinted at the
names of the Sefirot in the names of his books), contended
with the different counts and recommended the counting of Rashi
as the right one, and even excused the omission of counting the trial of Sarah
and Avimelekh in that counting by ten is an essential principle that stands as
basis: “Because it is in ten the number of parts that can be exchanged that are
different from each other, because there is a person who passes one trial and
does not pass another, and by ten trials one is tried by all trials, and this
is known. And furthermore, just as the world was created by ten (divine)
Sayings, because there is in the world a separate and supreme level which is
indicated by the number ten (a clear allusion to the ten Sefirot –
Y.H.), so was Abraham tried by specifically ten trials….”.
From the perspective of the
Kabbalah, it is appropriate that Abraham should be tried by specifically ten
trials, but we may claim that things are anyway enfolded, and so each trial has
ten possible aspects, according to the pattern of the Sefirot.
According to this concept, Abraham was tried by ten trials, or was checked by
ten different criteria, concerning each one of these twelve significant events,
both with regards to his relationship to God and to his progress to the still
far away aim of possession the whole land. In this way it clarifies also the
writings of the Maharal: “there is a person who passes one trial and does not
pass another, and by ten trials one is tried by all trials”.
A pattern of twelve trials
in which the hero is tried is well known in ancient myths. This, for example,
is the number of trials of Hercules in Greek Mythology. Even today, by the way,
are employed schemes of twelve in various correction programs, including “The
Twelve Step Program” of the Alcoholics Anonymous. These programs are intended
for self-change and liberation from addictive syndromes.
We claim thus, that Abraham
passed twelve trials.
Abraham stood the test both
of “Elohim” who tried Abraham in trials of courage and judgment,
and trials of “HaWaYaH” (Being), which tried Abraham in trials of
Love and Mercy. We can see, in retrospect, that Abraham had to stand for the
full twelve trials because he did not pass completely and perfectly any one of
them. But there was another reason: Abraham had to undergo twelve trials, in
order to delineate the future outline f the Twelve Tribes.
Let us arrange the twelve
trials according to their issue and according to their position in the three
different portions:
|
No. | Chief Trial |
Nature of the Trial |
Hint at the parallel Tribe |
A. Parashal Lekh-Lekha
|
1. Lekh-Lekha |
Severing family ties |
Reuven (unstable as water) |
|
2. Descent to Egypt |
Yielding his wife to
Pharaoh |
Shim’on (the Dinah affair) |
|
3. Separation from Lot |
Severance within family |
Levi (uniter of the
Tribes) |
|
4. War of the Four Kings
and promise of Inheritance |
No confidence of his
ability to inherit the land |
Judah (Kingdom of David) |
|
5. Taking of Hagar |
Deportation of Ishmael |
Naftali (a hind let loose) |
|
6. Circumcision of Ishmael |
Despair of son from Sarah |
Dan (cutting of Din) |
B. Parashat vaYera
|
7. The 3 guests and the
promise of son from Sarah |
The negotiation over the
people of Sodom |
Gad (the gathering – Hitgodedut
– of Sodom |
|
8. The Avimelekh Affair |
Repeated yielding wife to
the King |
Asher (yield royal
dainties) |
|
9. Sending off Ishmael |
Yielding the beloved son |
Yissakhar (pay for
offering the maid to husband) |
|
10. Covenant with the
Philistines |
Yielding of the coastal
lands |
Zevulun (the sea traders) |
|
11. Binding of Isaac |
Yielding the miraculous
promised child |
Yoseph (sold by his
brothers) |
C. Parashat “Haye Sarah”
|
12. Aquisition of the Makhpelah
burial ground |
Negotiation with Ephron |
Binyamin (Rachel’s Tomb) |
Detailing the Trials of
Abraham
Since Abraham was positioned
in an exalted mythical role, which has to do with the high level of the
divine-human image, the level of Neshamah, it is important for
the scriptures to show that Abraham was also a flesh-and-blood mortal, a real
human being like any of us, given to weaknesses, is in need of trials, and does
not always stands them with full success.
The First Trial is of Lekh-Lekha, of “Get thee out of
thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, to the land
that I will show thee”. This is the first stage in the Hero’s Journey –
severance from the earlier heritage, from the familial allegiance, and from the
loyalty to blood and soil. In his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, Joseph
Campbell analyzes the universal myth of the Hero, and shows that in every case
the story of the Hero starts with his severance from his birth environment. It
is possible to say that Abraham, who comes from the place of Cain, of farmers
and city people, to become his brother Ebel, in order to stand for the
reformation of all humankind. The promised reward for this total renunciation
is a promise for permanent settlement in the future to come, for his progeny.
He was going to see the land, but not to inherit it in his own lifetime.
Abram stands the test, but
only just. The exit from his country and kindred was not made by him, but by
his father, and until his father died - he did not continue on his journey.
Abram also did not completely leave his father’s house, since he took Lot – his
brother’s son – along with him; and when the question of his son’s wedding
arose – he demanded that the son should marry someone from his own family of
origin. With all that, Abram did get to the Land of Canaan, and laid the
foundations for a material hold on it. (In the sequel we shall show how this
foothold realized the initial part of “The Hebrew Merkabah”. There were laid
the foundations of the belonging to the land of the Children of Abraham, which
would be completed through the acquisition of a burial estate for the
patriarch, one that attaches the sons to it.
Yet at this stage, Abram had not yet been promised the possession of the land, but only a universal, which does not necessarily demand a homestead: “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. … and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen 12:2-3).
(From an
ontological-mythical perspective, this is the stage of the journey of the sperm
towards the ovum).
The Second Trial is the contention of Abraham with the first famine
that fell upon the land since he moved there (and his decision to descend to
Egypt) and with taking his beautiful wife into a foreign territory and the
decision to display her as his sister, (namely, one who is permitted to
others). In this double trial there is a compound desertion – of the land and
of the wife.
It would be hard to maintain
that Abram stood this trial with glory. He yields and deserts in these two
aspects: he leaves the land promised him by God, and was ready to lie and to
abandon his wife, for the sake of his personal security. The king of Egypt had
justification to complain to Abram: “What is this that thou hast done to me?
Why didst thou not tell me that se was thy wife? (Gen. 12:18). In the sequel we shall see how a very similar
experience recurs to Abraham with Abimelekh. The difference is the concerning
the King of Egypt, the scripture does not even allow for an apology by Abraham,
as he would to the King of Gerar in the Land of the Philistines (Palestine).
We might actually be able to
justify Abraham by leaning on contemporary historians and researchers who point
at the likelihood that mariages of brother and sister were indeed the norm in
Abraham’s family (which traditional commentators could not conceive), and that
the family of Abraham was actually a matriarchal family. At any rate, this
event recalls what we shall see in the Vayera portion – that
Abraham did not observe the commands of the Halakha and not even
those of Moses. A certain justification for the conduct of Abraham is implied
by the Kabbalah: Av-Ram – the Neshamah, or eternal
Divine Soul – belongs still to the higher worlds (and so is the family of Nahor
and Lavan, in whom the Kabbalah sees “the Supreme Whiteness” (Loven
ha’Elyon). In those higher worlds, there are no incest taboos. On the
contrary: The Divine Images: “Father”, “Mother”, “Son” and “Daughter” of the
higher worlds are engaged in recurring copulations, some of them never cease.
As representative of the Higher World, Abraham might be still familiar with
incest. (As was also the norm for the Pharaoh, who was considered divine).
However, as noted, even if Abraham is the issue of the Higher World, the scriptures take pains to attribute to him qualities of the lower world, in which there are significant and requisite separations and boundaries.
Avram then collected the
great property he had amassed through this disagreeable occasion, and returned
to his land as a rich man: “And Avram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and
in gold” (Gen. 13:2). So now he had the
basis to succeed in the land even materially, to sell and to buy (as he would
do in the acquisition of the Cave of the Makhpelah). He then
retraced his steps and returned to the place where his tent has been at the
beginning, between Bet-El and ‘Ay; to the place of the altar, which he had made
there at the first, and there Avram called on the name of YHWH.
The issue of the descent to
Egypt and the exit with a great property,
would recur, with the exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt, as described
in the Book of Exodus. It was the marking of the place where, in due course,
the People of Abraham would be formed. (from an ontogenetic-mythical
perspective, this was a stage akin to pregnancy: Egypt was the matrix, the
womb, for the formation of the Hebrew People – “that thy seed shall be a
stranger in a land that is not theirs” (Gen. 15:13) – and the Children of Israel who were born there
would emerge to return to the desert).
The Third Trial happened immediately when Avram returned to the land
as a rich man. There flared the conflict between the shepherds of Avram and the
shepherds of Lot over grazing grounds: “And the land was not able to bear them,
that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they
could not dwell together” (Gen. 13:6).
The solution was separation and the division of the land between them. Now
Avram had to agree to the separation from his kinsman, from whom he did not
want to separate before, even though he was commanded to leave his father’s
house. Lot chose for himself the fertile valley of the Jordan, namely Jericho
and the other towns there, a region that is reminiscent of Egypt “Lot lifted up
his eyes and beheld all the plain of the Yarden, that it was well
watered everywhere… like the garden of the Lord-YHWH, like the
land of Mizrayim-Egypt” (Gen. 13:10). But immediately after he gave up on the choicest
part of the land, then the Lord promise Avram that he would receive all the
rest – from the place where he stood and lifted his eyes – since the Sodom and
the cities of the Jordan rift are low, and cannot be seen by observation from
the high spot of Bet-El in the context of “Northward, and southward, and
eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give
it, and to thy seed for ever” (Gen. 13:14-15). The land that he could see,
namely without the Jordan valley, was promised to him and to hi seed. For the
sake of this possession of the land, there duplicated the promise that his seed
will be plentiful “as the dust of the earth”.
Avram was not entirely rid
of Lot, because when the latter got involved in wars that had nothing to do
with him, and became a prisoner, Avram set out to save him, even though
required the test of a war until victory over the military power that none of
the kings of the land could contend with.
After his victory over the foreign kings, Avram received recognition from the local people, affirming that they wanted him and accept him as a one blessed by “the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth” – even if they themselves still gave Avram no rights of possession in the land.
In the Fourth Trial to this count, it becomes evident that Avram, who
overcame all the kings, was still afraid of something, because the epiphany
starts with an encouragement “Fear not, Avram” (15:1). It is immediately evident that Avram was still full
of worries about the inheritance of the land and was not confident with the two
promises that he has already received from the master of the universe. Even
after he received a promise and on the face of it had faith “And he believed in
the Lord-YHWH, and he counted it to him for righteousness” (15:6) – still he asked for a proof “by what shall I know
that I shall inherit it?” (15:8).
Until that point Avram only
received promises for the future: “to thee I will give it” (13:15) in future
tense. Now we are just before the ceremony of the covenant that, following it,
we shall see for the first time a completed thing: “In the same day the Lord-YHWH
made a covenant with Avram, saying, To thy seed have I given this land… “ (15:18), in the past tense.
Thus the covenant was signed
– but for a heavy cost. Four hundred years of soujourn would wait for his sons,
in a land not their own, where they would be slaves and tortured by hard labor.
They would also experience what happened to Avram, and would also finally exit
from there with much property, but the inheritance of the land would be delayed
for many generations. (the years of the scheduled exile parallel the number of
silver shekels that Avraham paid eventually, in order to establish the
connection of his seed with the Land of Canaan – by means of the tomb estate –
namely, to the promise that the years of exile would eventually pass, and the
connection between his seed and the land that had been promised him would be
renewed.
The Fifth Trial is the case of Hagar: Saray, Avram’s beautiful but
barren wife, offered him her maid, Hagar, and from her issues his firstborn
child, Ishmael- Yishma’el. This was also a trial for Hagar, who
overcame her humiliation and her torment under her mistress. She bequeathed to
her children those qualities that would in time become the foundation of their
religion – acceptance and submission (which is the literal meaning of “Islam”).
With the annunciation of the angel, which is also a command (“Return to thy
mistress, and submit thyself to her hands”, Gen. 16:9) – an angel who the Islamic tradition connected with
Gabriel – it was promised to Hagar that there would be reward for her misery
and her suffering under her mistress: “I will multiply thy seed exceedingly,
that it shall not be numbered for multitude”.
The trial of Abraham is in overcoming his natural fatherly feelings, and his handing the woman who carries his son in her womb over to the dominance and jealousy of Saray. Hagar’s endurance created for the two women the possibility of living together – a possibility that will diminish later. Also Abraham’s overcoming of his natural heart’s feeling to his offspring – which brings to the flight of Hagar – would bring a still more painful repetition of the trial, with the deportation of Hagar along with the son. This act created a kind of stigma that would repeat and open with the binding of Isaac. There is a reason why the story of Ishmael served as a framework for writing a historic/mythical alternative to the Torah – the writing of the Qur’an. According to the Moslem tradition the angel Gabriel dictated the Qur’an to the prophet Muhammad, and the Qur’an includes also the other son – Ishmael, the mythical father of the Arabs – among the followers of the covenant and the promise that God promised Abraham. What is seen in the Torah as deportation – Shiluah – is understood in the Qur’an as mission – Shlihut – for building the Qa’aba in Mecca. So the reason for Abraham’s trial was to be revealed only more than two thousand years later, when Muhammad revealed to the Arabs that they were the children of Abraham and commanded them to hold to Abraham’s religion. It is as if Muhammad gave Abraham a rebirth among the children of Ishmael.
The sixth
Trial took place thirteen years later, as the
boy Ishmael was growing. The new act changes the definitions. Abram was again
promised to become “a Father of
many nations” (17:4), and was asked to come to a covenant by
circumcision along with his son Ishmael. His name and the name of his wife were
changed, which signifies a change in their identity. Avron received the letter H’e and became Avraham, whereas “Saray” lost a H’e (fifth letter, see above) from her Y’od and became “Sarah”. It was here that there came the special promise to
Sarah, that she would be blessed with a son and that kings will issue from her.
Avraham fell on his face and laughed, which would seem to an onlooker as an
incomplete faith in the promises of God. Only after receiving further
confirmations, both concerning Yitzhak-Isaac and concerning Yishma’el-Ishmael, did Abraham circumcise himself, his son
Ishmael and all his host.
But not only Sarah gained on
that occasion, for not only the son of Sara would inherit, but God promises:
“And as for Yishmael I have heard thee” (uleYishma’el
shma’atikha – a word play in Hebrew). IT is for a reason that his name was
called Yishma’el. To Yishma’el-Ishmael was promised
– for the first time – the ideal pattern (that would later be renowned
particularly with the issue of Isaac and Jacob), the Twelve-Fold Pattern: “Behold,
I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him
exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget and I will make him a great nation” Gen.
17:20). But the relative failing of Abraham –
his lack of confidence in the promise for a son from Sarah – which expressed
itself in laughter – would still mark the challenge for the next generation.
Therefore the name of this son was dictated beforehand by God to become "“Yitzhak”
– namely “He who will laugh” – and to rectify the principle of Laughter
to its core.
Up to here we surveyed the
six trials found in the Lekh-Lekha portion. For the sake of
completeness, we shall present here briefly the further trials, which will be
treated in detail in the next chapter.
The Seventh Trial is in Parashat
vaYera, with the arrival of the three miraculous visitors. This is a
trial for Abraham and for Sara alike. One of the angels came to announce to her
about the birth of her son and received the same response that Abraham already
failed in – a laugh of incredulity in the face of what sounded absurd. The
trial for Abraham was connected with the judgment f the people of Sodom.
Abraham knew that they were mostly sinners, but his nephew was among them and
perhaps other virtuous people. Abraham then argued persistently with God, and
even dared utter to him “Shall not the judge of all the earth nt do right?” (Gen.
18:25).
The Eighth Trial: is like a repetition on the second trial, which did
not fare so well, and this time with Abimelekh King of Gerar, in the Land of
the Philistines.
The ninth Trial: is like the fifth trial – deportation of Hagar, and this time along with the
son, Ishmael.
The Tenth Trial: negotiations with Abimelekh and Pikhol, captain of
his host, over territory and water (wells), concluding with the making of a
covenant in which Abraham effectively yields his promised rights in the Land of
the Philistines. (And just as Abraham made a pact with the Egyptians – the issue of Ham – here he made an
accommodation covenant with the Philistines – issue of Yefet)
The Eleventh Trial: The binding of the younger son – Yitzhak-Isaac,
which amounts to a repetition and intensification of the trial of deporting his
firstborn son, Yishmael-Ishmael.
The Twelfth – and last -
Trial: in the portion of Haye
Sara, is the negotiation with the peole of the land concerning the
acquisition of a burial estate – and with it an ultimate connection with the
land.
We have thus twelve trials
that some of which are repetitive trials over the same issue (yielding the wife
to the ruler of the land, sending Hagar away to the desert and the giving up on
the two sons – each in turn). In this way, it is possible to reason out the
difference in the counts – there are twelve trials that are also ten different
trials, possibly trials with characteristics that relate to the Ten Sefirot.
All the trials of Abraham
were meted just to nurture in him patience. We have seen that the failure of
the first Adam) according to the Mekubalim) was in his haste to
eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge before the setting of the Cosmic
Sabbath. Noah was guided to great patience in building his ark, a construction
that apparently required a hundred years, but when he exited from it he hurried
to get drunk. Abraham too was called upon to build a kind or Ark or Merkavah,
that would hold out when the Land of Israel would be inundated by the waves of
invaders from the region of his own land and heritage of Babel, and which would
hold firm the people of Israel through the extended exile. The seed that
Abraham sowed was aimed to grow the Tree of Life on earth only after four
thousand years! The superhuman Jewish paitience is our inheritance from
Abraham.
Abraham gained his first
revelation (if we disregard the Midrashim) only at the age of 75,
and generally, many years had elapsed between the different revelations. Even
though he was promised many children, already in the first commandment of Lekh
Lekha (“and I shall make thee a great nation” 12:2),
his firstborn son Ishmael was born only when Abraham was 85 years old, and
Isaac-Yitzhak when he was 100. The next epiphany, after
the birth of Isaac, was only towards the Binding. On that occasion, Isaac-Yitzhak
carried on his back the wood fr the sacrifice, so we must surmise that he was
already a youth (even if we do not accept the Midrashim that he was
already 37 years old). Abraham received repeated promises concerning
inheritance of the land and a son from Sarah, but the actualization of these
promises was by no means immediate. The inheritance of the land would be only
in the far future, in fact only about four hundred years from Abraham’s time.
Moreover, the command to raise Isaac-Yitzhak as Olah
sacrifice is seen as a call to give up on all the hopes that were nurtured in
Abraham until then.
From the different details
told about Abraham, it is evident that he was an enthusiastic person. We can
see this in his immediate resolve to pursue the four kings to rescue Lot, “And
Abraham ran to the herd” (18:7), his
immediate approach to ask for the people of Sodom (18:23), “And Abraham went early in the morning” (19:27;
22:3). But the divine training brought him to an
enduring carrying of the yoke - “the yoke of the Kingdom of heaven” – and to
perform whatever was required of him, even when the command completely
suppresses the natural enthusiasm. The apex of this training was, of course,
the Akedah (Binding of Isaac), but this aspect of the prophetic
training of Abraham is apparent in all the trials he underwent. It seems that
Abraham was called upon to maintain the normal life of a leader of a tribe and
a patriarch, yet to maintain throughout these a regular state of preparedness
for receiving the divine message, even if it would tarry for twenty years. Many
of the actions of Abraham, especially the erection of the altars, were symbolic
acts and were apparently done in private. The Akedah, for
example, was conducted in the presence of the two involved in it, without any
spectators. Abraham was not called upon to announce about any thing that
transpired during his epiphanies and in fact (again, according to the
scriptural text and not the Midrashim)Abraham was not called to convert
others or to propagate about his God. In actual fact, the religion of Abraham
was not different from that of his neighbors, who also acknowledged his God.
Adam was placed in “a garden
eastward in ‘Eden” (Gen. 2:8) which was an enclosed place, Noah was brought
into the Ark, namely inward into himself, and only Abraham was exposed to the
outside. He wandered through a very wide terrain, from Ur-Kasdim
(later Land of Babel), through Haran, the Land of Kena’an
(Canaan) and Egypt (and according to the Qur’an and the Midrashim also
Arabia, see below) and was seeking. The seeking after the sacred place is a
universal search, and is known in almost every sacred site in the world, and in
every initiation of a temple there is performed a ritual of orientation to the
four directions and fixing the place as “the navel of the world”. But the
search of Abraham is particularly both universal and unique, because Abraham
did factually reach “the navel of the world” – the center point of the earth’s
continents.
We are used to divide the
earth into Eastern and Western Hemispheres according to the Greenwich meridian,
which was fixed at the heyday of the rule of the British Empire, which regarded
the Greenwich London Observatory as the center of the world. But in fact, most
of the land masses – Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia – are in “the Eastern
Hemisphere”, and only the two Americas, the area of which is much smaller, are
at “the Western Hemisphere”. So that in fact the middle line, which the land
masses east and West of it balance, is between 30-40 degrees East, which passes
also through the Middle East. Also the middle latitude of the land masses is
not the equator, because the areas of the continents North of it – Asia,
Europe, North America and most of Africa – are much larger than the areas of
the continents South of the equator – part of Africa, Australia and most of
South America. Therefore the latitude that the continental areas North of which
balance with the continental areas South of which is between 30-34 degrees
North, which also pass in the Middle East. Now the Adamah is the
continents, and Adam-Humankind is a land creature. Therefore “the
navel of the earth”, the middle point (center of gravity) of the earth’s
continents and thus the true center of humankind, is somewhere in the Middle
East, most likely in the Land of Israel.
The journey of Abraham, along the whole “Fertile Crescent” from Ur to Egypt, was aimed to find that exact central point in order to found the sacred center for all of humankind, as appropriate to the one who was first blessed “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3), and after the binding of Isaac at Mount Moriah was told “and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:18).
It is not by chance that the
Land of Israel merited becoming the goal of Abraham, and the focus for
restitution for the whole earth. This land (in its entirety, including both
sides of the Jordan River) has a great geographic, climatic and ecological
diversity, and can thus serve as a representative model for the whole earth. It
is situated in the sub-tropical zone, and would have been all desert, if not
for its location by the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore its Northern part is
watered by rain, its Southern part is a desert, and its center is an
intermediate zone between the fertile terrain and the desert. The Afro-Syrian
Great Rift, which is a very remarkable geological phenomenon, forms in this
land four longitudinal areas: the coastal plain, the Western Mountains, the
Jordan valley and the high plateau of the East. These four regions are distinct
climatic region. Therefore we have three latitudinal and four longitudinal
strips, totaling twelve climatic-ecological regions, with different
characteristics. This diversity contributes for a huge diversity of fauna and
flora societies, and makes the land kind of a natural botanical-zoological
garden. Noah had a responsibility for a very limited biosphere, whereas Abraham
was destined to inherit this diversified land, the land of the twelve regions
destined to become the land of the twelve tribes. Through the journeys of
Abraham through the length and width of the land, and through the twelve trials
that he passes (see below), he marks the course and the archetypal pattern for
“settling the world” (Yishuvo shel Olam) in general.
In the ancient world, the
ceremonial arrangement of a land into twelve regions, and the marking of twelve
directions from its sacred center were aimed to create upon earth the heavenly
order expressed by the zodiac. With the creation of the luminaries, the sun and
the moon, it was written “and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for
days, and years” (Gen. 1:14). The twelve months (namely moons) in the solar
year enabled man to observe twelve sectors in the sky, with the groups of
stars, the constellations, found in these sectors. The ideal arrangement for
human habitation was conceived in ancient times as the organization of the
Twelve-Tribe Land[3]. And indeed, the natural conditions of the Land of
Israel encourage the setting of the ideal settlement pattern in it.
Esotericists regarded the
journeys of Abraham as searches and checks into the interior of matters, even
as replications of the Acts of Creation. The sentence “and the souls that they
had acquired in Haran” (Gen. 12:5)
is interpreted in the Kabbalah to relate to the magical formation of souls and
of human bodies from clay – like a human emulation of the creation of man by
God. Sefer Yetsirah, which is the oldest of all Kabbalah texts,
is attributed to Abraham, who according to this book was a magus who “knew to
permutate the letters by which heaven and earth were created”… “And since our
father Abraham, peace be on him, observed and looked and saw and analyzed and
understood and engraved and hewed and combined and formed and met with success,
then the Master of All blessed be He revealed himself to him… (Sefer
Yetsirah, ch. 6 verse 4).
Following the Sefer
Yetsirah, the Sefer haZohar portrays Abraham as a
“geomancer” – an expert in geomancy, which deals with earth energies and the
powers from the four cardinal directions that seek to control the land (see Appendix
“A”). Abraham roamed the world and the Land of Israel, in search of the
best place to connect with the divinity in order to locate the site for the
future Temple (a search that peaked in the story of the Akedah –
the Binding of Isaac, to be related in the next chapter).
If Abraham was a geomancer dealing with sacred geometry, then we may surmise that at each point that Abraham came to examine he would conduct a magical ritual: he