Lech Lecha: What Motivated Avraham's Kindness?

by Rav Moshe Leib HaCohen Halbershtat, founder and head of the Yoru Program for the Training of Rabbis and Community Leaders, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel.

This week's Torah portion of Lech Lecha (B'reshit 12-17) begins with G-d's command to our Patriarch Avraham to leave his homeland and go "to the land that I will show you." Avraham then took his wife Sarah and the rest of his family and all those they had taught about G-d, "and they set off for the land of Canaan."

The Medrash Rabba (39,1) quotes the simile cited by R. Yitzchak: 

"[Avraham is] analogous to a traveler passing from place to place, who saw a building with a candle burning inside. He said: ‘Could it be that this building has no one in charge?’ The owner of the building looked out at him and said: ‘I am in charge.’ Similarly, because Avraham was saying: ‘Is it possible that this world has no one in charge?’ The Holy One, blessed be He, looked at him and told him: ‘I am the owner of the world and I am in charge.’"

Rashi explains that Avraham Avinu saw the heavens and earth, and the sun in the daytime, and the moon at night, and the shining stars, and said to himself, "Could there be such a vast enterprise as this without someone running it?" G-d looked down and gave him the answer: "Yes, Someone is in charge – Me." 

This opening passage of Lech Lecha also tells us about the people that Avraham and Sarah "made." The Medrash (ibid. 39,14, and Yalkut Shimoni 66) quotes R. Elazar ben Zimra: 

"If everyone in the world would gather together to try to create even one mosquito, they would not be able to give it life – and yet the Torah states that they "made" souls in Haran?! [Answer:] This refers to the people that they converted [to belief in G-d]. But if they converted, then why does the Torah say that they "made" them? It teaches you that whoever is mekarev [from the same root as "kiruv," meaning "to draw near"] an idol worshipper and converts him, it is as though he has created him. And why is it written in plural ["they made"]? R. Huna said: Avraham converted the men and Sarah converted the women."

Later on we read, "Avraham planted an eshel in Be'er Sheva" (21,33). The Gemara tells us that this a form of rest stop, or possibly an orchard, where he could give passersby room and board, and from there accompany them along their way. In short: Avraham was a one-man kindness operation. The above verse continues: "and there he called in the name of G-d, Lord of the Universe." The Sages say that this means Avraham proclaimed G-d's name to all the people and caused them to recognize and say His name. How so? "After they ate and drank and were about to thank him [Avraham], Avraham said, "Was it my food that you ate? It is food that belongs to the G-d of the universe! Thank and praise Him, He Who spoke and created the world!" 

Avraham Avinu was born in a generation of idol-worshipers and spiritual darkness – and he was the one to bring it light. He looked around and came to a simple and logical conclusion that if there is Creation, there must be a Creator. Avraham set out on his Divinely-ordained journey, and wherever he traveled, he brought the message of faith in the Creator. Thousands of people flocked to him, and Avraham and Sarah taught them faith in G-d. As a great man of chessed, kindness, Avraham hosted and fed them, accompanied them on their way – and taught them that everything is from G-d. 

If we were to ask what was the main legacy that Avraham left to the world, it would seem that he symbolized the essence of faith in G-d, for this was his main message to the world. 

However, let us look at these sources:

*  "You will keep truth with Yaakov, kindness to Avraham" (Micha 7,20).

* "Simon the Just was one of the last of the Men of the Great Assembly. He would say: 'On three things the worlds stands: on the Torah, on service of G-d, and on acts of kindness." (Pirkei Avot 1,2). Rav Chaim of Volozhin explained: "Yaakov Avinu instituted the pillar of Torah, for he was a "dweller of tents." Yitzchak instituted the pillar of service (prayer)… and Avraham instituted the pillar of kindness, as is known: He "planted an eshel in Be'er Sheva" [as we explained above]."

We see that the Prophet Micha, and then the Sages after him, when they defined the flagship attribute of Avraham Avinu and what he symbolizes, their answer was clear: Chessed! Why is this? Certainly he raised up the concept and actualization of chessed to heights that the world had never seen before, helping thousands of people as he did. But still, how can this be compared to the message of faith in G-d that he brought to the world? This message brought about a change in the world that still reverberates among all mankind even today, thousands of years later! Even the chessed that Avraham did was recruited for the purpose of spreading the tidings of faith in the Creator!

Let us explain.

There can be various reasons why one is motivated to do chessed. Some of them are negative, in that he might want to gain influence over people so that they will support him politically or otherwise. Or it could be that he wants to help those who are suffering in order to quiet his conscience. Alternatively, it could be he has reached the logical conclusion that the right thing to do is to help others in need. There might be other motivations as well.

Avraham Avinu did chessed for none of the above reasons. Rather, he simply wanted to be like G-d. The Gemara (Sotah 14a) teaches: 

R. Ḥama son of R. Ḥanina says: "What is the meaning of that which is written: 'After the Lord your G-d you shall walk' (D'varim 13,5)? How it is possible to do so, given that 'the Lord your G-d is a devouring fire' (4,24)? The meaning is that one should follow G-d's attributes. For instance, just as He clothes the naked, as is written: “G-d made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them” (B'reshit 3,21), so too, you should clothe the naked; just as He visits the sick, as with Avraham Avinu (18,1), so too, should you visit the sick; and just as He consoles mourners, as is written, "it came to pass after the death of Avraham, that G-d blessed Yitzchak his son” (25,11), so too, should you console mourners; and just as G-d buried the dead – Moshe Rabbeinu (D'varim 34,6) – so too, you should bury the dead.

Avraham Avinu discovered his Creator on his own, and sought to cleave to Him in every aspect of life by walking in His paths and exemplifying His attributes. The reason why he spreads the truth of G-d among all mankind is because he wishes to do kindness for them. Everything that he does is simply chessed, because this is what G-d does; his motives are totally pure, for the sole purpose of being like G-d. The Prophet Micha revealed to us this innermost and essential truth of Avraham: the attribute of chessed. Avraham did not welcome guests and feed them, etc., simply to teach them about G-d; rather, he did so purely to do what G-d does and to help people. He did so both spiritually and materially, and all from the same pure and true motivation. And this is why what symbolizes him is, in Micha's words, "Chessed l'Avraham."

Emuna: Refusing Anti-Torah Military Orders

by Rav Eliezer Melamed, Rabbi of Har Brachah, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Back in 2005, when the late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to carry out the Disengagement – a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from all of Gaza, including the destruction of 19 Jewish communities whose 9,000 residents were scattered around the country (some of them in new communities) – it embroiled Israel in one of its most scathing controversies. One of the questions that arose was how a soldier must act if ordered to participate in the destruction of Jewish communities.

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, Dean of the Yeshivat Hesder in Har Brachah, explained in an article at the time why such refusals were a Torah imperative.

The Fundamental Mitzvah of Settling the Holy Land

Our Sages have taught (Medrash Sifri, Re'eh 53): "Living in Eretz Yisrael is equal to all the other Torah commandments." This is because this mitzvah is not only fulfilled by individuals living in the Land, but is also the very basis for the complete and absolute existence of the Jewish People, and facilitates the fulfillment of their destiny to disseminate faith and Torah for the rectification of the entire world. 

It is therefore clear why it is such a cardinal mitzvah, and why the Prophets spoke so frequently about the future flowering and building of the Land, and why our greats throughout the ages pined so strongly to grace its very dust. 

This mitzvah of building and settling the Land also embodies the principle of Jewish Unity and Love of all Israel, for it is fulfilled by the nation, for the nation. It is so important that the Torah even commands us to endanger our lives by warring for the Land and for its protection, and sometimes even husband and wife must be separated in order to fulfill it (Shulchan Arukh Even HaEzer 75,4).  

Religious Zionism

The mitzvah of ensuring that the Land of Israel is built-up and remains in our hands is the foundation and basis of the Religious-Zionist Movement's approach to Aliyah, settlement, defense of the Land, and the establishment of the State of Israel.

It is, furthermore, the root and source of the Religious-Zionist view of the entire process that the Jewish People has been undergoing for well over a century, namely, that it is the "beginning of the sprouting of our Redemption," as foreseen in the visions of the Prophets. All of the educational institutions of the Religious-Zionist movement teach and inculcate the values of love of nation, land, and state, as well as service in the IDF, participation in the social and economic yoke of the country, and involvement in all networks of our national life, not only in Israel but even abroad. 

Cooperation With All?

A sharp rabbinic dispute arose towards the beginning of the modern Zionist movement, as to whether religious Jews could/should cooperate with the secular Zionists. Many of the rabbis who became the beacons of today's flowering and extensive Religious Zionist movement, such as HaRav Kook, Rav Herzog, Rav Amiel, Rav Uziel, Rav Goren and many more, ruled that because of the tremendous importance of the mitzvah of settling the Land, it is important to work with the secular movement in order to build Eretz Yisrael and its institutions and hasten Israel's Redemption. 

As such, it is clear that one may not take part in any activity that uproots the great mitzvah of settling and building the Land – that which is the basis of all we stand for and all we do. As such, even if one is ordered to do this in a military framework, he must find the way to avoid doing so, even at the expense of outright refusal. 

That is to say, if there is a collision between the values of supporting the government of Israel in all its activities and the basic principle of building Eretz Yisrael, our Rabbis ruled that there is a clear and absolute preference to the timeless values of the Torah over the rules of a given government or regime, which by its very nature is not permanent. 

This principle applies to all the mitzvot of the Torah, and not only to the great commandment of settling the Holy Land; the government has no standing to negate a Torah commandment. So ruled IDF Chief Rabbi Goren, without fear of the Chief of Staff's rebuke. (See Bavli Sanhedrin 49a and Rambam Kings 3,9.)

Ideally, of course, we must do all we can on the political and legal planes in order to avoid or head off anti-Torah commands from being issued in the first place. We must do all we can to void and retract the Disengagement. And if we don't succeed at first, we must stand with self-sacrifice in passive resistance against anti-Torah laws and regulations, which, as Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook said, are "null and void in comparison with the eternal statutes of the Torah."

What About How it Looks?

Many fear that the image of the entire Judea and Samaria settlement enterprise will be tainted if its members refuse military orders. This is of course an important point, and rabbis and experts must be consulted any time this danger exists in order to recommend the best approaches. 

But at the same time, we must remember that short-term damage is not always that which determines how we act. Often, the educational value of a given act is more important, even if it causes some temporary harm to the cause. This is true in this case, because it defines very clearly the importance of the mitzvah and of our connection with Eretz Yisrael. It also establishes in our hearts the overriding value of the Divine command over transient political values. By standing strongly and stubbornly for the Torah's values, we are marking the right and true path, along which we will all walk one day. This has been borne out many time in our history. 

But what happens if left-wingers see that we are refusing orders in the name of our Jewish values, and decide that they can also refuse orders that contradict their liberal values? They might refuse to serve in the army if their job is to protect "settlers" and take part in the "conquest" of the land from its Arab residents!

The answer is: We must distinguish between truth and deception. Our stance is one of truth, founded in Torah and even in logic, while theirs is one of falsehood, based on mistaken human misconceptions. While we are loyal to eternal truths, human morality sometimes finds itself on the side of a Stalin, the "sun of the nations," and sometimes embracing and kissing Arafat, the father of modern-day terrorism. The values that guide us are not only moral, but are those that build the nation, while the values that call for the expulsion of Jewish residents and for a refusal to fight our enemy are those that destroy us from within. The dispute regarding refusal of orders must focus on this point, and not only the formal and external symmetry between the different types of "refusal."

Outposts Too? 

Under the Rabin government [10-12 years before the Disengagement], Rabbis Goren, Yisraeli, Kapach, Neriah and Shapira ruled that soldiers must refuse order to evict residents of Jewish communities. But later a different issue came up: What about hilltop outposts, which are not yet full-fledged communities, but rather the beginning steps towards building them? Is it permitted to take part in IDF actions to take them down? 

Some rabbis ruled that if the intent of the evacuation is not to give the hilltop over to Arabs, but just to maintain the rule of law and even to "show the world" that we are not violating international norms and the like, then military orders to do so need not be refused. However, others, including myself, feel that such an evacuation causes great harm to the Jewish settlement enterprise in the Land, and that bringing desolation upon any part thereof is forbidden. 

In any event, the question has not been totally resolved, and therefore the body called the Rabbis of Judea and Samaria issued this ruling: "Every settled hilltop is part of the mitzvah of settling the Land, and it is forbidden to evacuate it… We ask every soldier to ask his commander to release him from all activities having to do with evacuating Jewish outposts, for reasons of conscience and faith." 

And what happens if one's commander does not agree to release him? In such a case, as of now and until there is an agreed-upon ruling, which we hope to reach soon, each soldier must consult with his own rabbi and follow his instructions.