The First Jew

(See here for context)

“G-d said to Avram: ‘Leave your country, your birthplace, and your father’s house, unto the land that I will show you.” Avraham was Seventy five years of age when G-d appeared to him, giving him this command.

Interestingly, other than mentioning his birth, along with the birth of many otherwise not Biblically noteworthy members of Terech’s (Avraham’s father) family, this is the first we hear of Avraham in the Bible. We are told nothing at all about this man to whom G-d sees fit to give personal commands, nothing about how he came to recognize G-d, nothing about how he devoted himself to, and succeeded in, spreading the knowledge of G-d in the world and nothing about how he was thrown in a fiery furnace in the process (he escaped miraculously!) The written Torah gives no account of the accomplishments for which (presumably), G-d sees fit to establish this relationship with Avraham, not even a brief one line intro similar to the one with which the Bible introduces Noach (source).

Why?

The answer in short: Avraham becomes the first Jew and the beginning of the Jewish nation at this very commandment. And the (written) Torah is interested only in recounting Avraham as founder of the Jewish nation.

The explanation: all of Avrahams prior accomplishments –his recognition of G-d, his self sacrificing dedication to making him known and his character refinements– were all of his own initiative and of his own doing. And therefore, no matter how high he reached, relative to his fellow man, his accomplishments could never break out of the human qualitative limitations to which he himself was subject. The pinnacle of mankind though he was, he was not yet a foundation for the Jewish nation.

With the commandment, this all changed. G-d, after seeing what Avraham had managed, basically said, “O.K. great. Now leave everything behind and go to the land which I shall show you.”

At that point, and precisely at that point, Avraham’s divine service, now initiated and directed by G-d himself, was freed of the human limitations to which it had hitherto been subject. Avraham was uplifted beyond himself and the rest of mankind to act as founder to the Jewish people.

Early history of the Jewish people: a translation of Rambam’s “laws of idolatry”, chapter 1

What follows is a translation of the first chapter of “Laws of idolatry”. (All text added by the translator is bracketed.)

Laws of Idolatry and the practices of Idolaters, chapter one:

Law 1: In the days of Enosh [see Genesis 4:26] mankind made a grave error, and the wise men of that generation began to give foolish counsel; Enosh, himself, was one of those who erred. Their error was thus: they said, “since G-d created stars and planets with which to conduct the world, and he placed them on high and accorded them honor, and they are servants who serve before him - it befits them that we praise them, glorify them, and accord them honor. It is G-d’s will that we exalt and honor that which he himself has exalted and honored. [This] is similar to a king who desires to honor his servants who stand before him. Thus is [,truly,] the king’s honor.”

After they came to this conclusion, they began to build temples for the stars and to offer them sacrifices. They praised and glorified them verbally and they prostrated themselves before them. All this was an attempt to fulfill the will of the creator in accordance with their false view.

This was the ideology behind idolatry. And this was what all idolaters in the know would claim. But they did not hold that there was no G-d other than the particular star [they happened to be worshiping]. [Indeed,] to this Jeremiah referred when he said, “Who does not fear you, O King of nations? For to you it is fitting; for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you. In but one way, they are foolish: their instruction regarding their idols, which are just wood!” [Jeremiah 10:7-8] This verse means to say that all know that you [G-d] are alone; their foolishness and error consist only in that they believe that this tripe is your [G-d's] will.

Law 2: A long time later, false prophets arose amongst men, claiming that God had appeared to them. They would say to the people that God had said things like,” worship this star “or
“worship all the stars”; “sacrifice unto it” or “offer unto it these libations”. [Or they would say,] “build for it a temple and make a proxy image to which all people-men, women and children- must bow,” and would then go on to describe some form they would make make up themselves, declaring it the form of the star about which had been the prophecy.

Before long, people began to place idols in temples, under trees, and atop mountains and hills. They would congregate at these places and would proclaim to all how the particular idol around which they congregated could bestow goodness, mete out harm and was, therefore, deserving of worship and reverence. Either priests would determine how the idol was to be worshiped, what one must do and what one must not, or charlatans would describe the same, claiming how the star, sphere, or angel, itself, had revealed it to them.

Before long, worshiping idols in various and strange ways, offering them sacrifices and prostrating before them became the norm. And finally, after even more time had passed, God himself came to be forgotten among men. The masses -men, women, and children- knew nothing at all, save for the temples and the wooden or stone idols which they had been raised to worship
and swear by; and the more wise among them, their priests for instance, came to believe that there was no God other than the various entities for which the idols served as proxy.

So, in the end, God himself became utterly unknown, save but to a few unique men, such as Chanoch, Mesushelach, Noach, Shem, and Ever; and, so the world went until the birth of the world’s foundation, namely, Avraham Avinu.

Law 3: As soon as this mighty one [Avraham] was weaned [the beginning of his third year of life], he began to contemplate day and night. He wondered to himself just how the sphere moves in a fixed path without anything directing it. He had no teachers nor guides of any kind, but rather, he was raised in Ur Kasdim among foolish idolaters. His father, mother, and all people, generally, served idols; and he served along with them. But he contemplated constantly until he comprehended the truth. He came to understand and know that there is but one God, who directs the sphere and created everything; he comprehended that there is not in all that is a god aside from him [the one God]; and he came to the conclusion that the entire world was mistaken.

Avraham was forty years old when he recognized his creator. And once he did, he began to argue with the people of Ur Kasdim. He would debate them, telling them that they were not not traveling on the path of truth. He would smash the idols, informing people how it is fit to worship God alone and that to him must one bow, sacrifice and offer libations, so that the coming generations will recognize him. He taught them how it was right to smash and destroy the idols so that people would not stray after them.

After he overwhelmed them with his proofs, the king [Nimrod] tried to kill him, but Avraham survived miraculously and escaped to Haran.

Once he was there, he began to teach, calling out in great voice to the whole world, informing them that there was only one God and that he alone is worthy of worship. He would travel from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom, congregating and teaching people, until he arrived to the land of Cana’an. There he continued to call out, as the Bible says, “there [too,] he called out in the name of Hashem, God of the world”.

When people would come to him, asking him about his message, Avraham would teach each and every person according to his own mental capacity, bringing the person back to the way of truth.

Eventually, Avraham amassed tens of thousands of followers, who are known as the “men of the house of Avraham”. He planted this great truth in their hearts and wrote many books on the subject.

Avraham taught his son Yiztchak (Isaac,) who, in turn, would teach others. Yizchak would go on to teach his son Ya’acov (Jacob), appointing him to teach and bring back all who would join him [Ya’acov].
Ya’acov taught all his children, but he separated Levi and appointed him the head. He sat him in the academy, enjoining him to teach the way of God and to keep all of Avraham’s commandments. Ya’acov instructed his children that they never allow a cessation of appointees from the house of Levi, in order that the learning never be forgotten. And so the matter developed until a nation who knows G-d was formed in the world.

But alas, after Israel spent many years in Egypt, they began to learn the ways of the Egyptians and to serve idols like them. The tribe of Levi, however, remained faithful to the heritage of the fathers; the tribe of Levi never worshiped idols.

A bit more time, and the great truth that Avraham had planted in them would have been uprooted; and the children of Ya’acov would have reverted to the ways and foolishness of the nations. But because of Hashem’s love for us, and in keeping with the vow he made to Avraham our father, he made Moshe [Moses] the master of all prophets, and sent him.

After Moshe had been made, and Hashem chose us for himself as his portion, he crowned us with his commandments and taught us the way to serve him. He taught us the laws of idolatry and the laws of they who stray after it.

Chapter 2: …

Genesis 12: 10-20 part 2 of 2

(The following four paragraphs are copied from part one to enable part two to stand on its own.)

Hashem commands Avraham to go to land of Cana’an: And the Lord had said to Avram, Get out from your country, and from your family, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. Soon after Avraham arrives, though, a “severe famine” forces him to leave southward to Egypt.

As he approaches Egypt, he turns to Sarah, his wife, saying, now I know that you are an attractive woman; when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘It’s his wife’ and they will kill me and keep you alive. [He then instructs her:] please say that you are my sister, so that they will favor me because of you, and that my life be spared thanks to you.

As planned, Sarah says that she is Avraham’s sister, and, indeed, the Egyptians favor Avraham with gifts on account of her.

Sarah, though, is taken to the house of Pharoah, but Hashem inflicts him and his household with a “severe disease”, causing Pharoah to return Sarah to her husband unviolated.

Rashi, commenting on Avraham’s intent when saying that the Egyptians will favor me because of you, interprets, “they will give me gifts.”

Avraham’s plan bears fruit, and, indeed, ultimately, Pharoah treated Avram well for her sake; so he had sheep, and oxen, and male asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and female asses, and camels.

How, though, could Avraham Avinu have done this to Sarah in order to receive gifts, asks the Zohar?

The Zohar answers that Avraham knew full well that Sarah’s righteousness ensured that she could not be harmed, and goes on to explain in detail how in the merit of a good wife, a man receives “wealth and all things good”.

This explanation, however, seems, at first glance, insufficient: True, Avraham knew that Sarah would not be violated, but, nevertheless, Sarah’s abduction itself was a negative situation; how could Avraham have enabled it in order to receive gifts!

The Lubaviture Rebbe resolves the issue thusly: I shall bless you, Hashem says to Avraham, when commanding him to head out for Cana’an (verse 1); “with money,” adds Rashi interperatively. Indeed, there are reasons to conclude that Avraham held that his being forced out Israel had something to do with the fulfillment of this blessing. So when Avraham saw a natural opportunity to bring it about, he understood that it was his obligation to capitalize on it.

Perhaps Avraham should have had doubts, seeing as how not only he but also Sarah had to be involved? For this reason, the Zorah follows its answer with a detailed explanation of how wealth comes about through\because of the wife; Avraham knew the divine dynamic and acted on it. (Indeed this can also be seen with close reading of the Zohar’s wording.)

The Rebbe adds that it’s possible to take out of the forgoing an important lesson regarding the service of G-d: According to the Zohar, Avraham and Sarah represent, respectively and collectively, the soul and the body. And just as G-d’s promise to Avraham was fulfilled specifically through Sarah’s descent into the house of Pharoah, so too, the perfection of the soul is brought about, specifically, through it’s descent into and encounter with the physical world. And just as Sarah’s descent into the house of Pharoah brought her no harm, so too the body’s descent into and encounter with matters of the world will bring no spiritual harm to the person. On the contrary, the body’s descent into this world is for an ascent, namely, that the body, thereby, achieves its perfection.

Genesis 12: 10-20, part 1 of 2: a simple approach.

Hashem commands Avraham to go to land of Cana’an: And the Lord had said to Avram, Get out from your country, and from your family, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. Soon after Avraham arrives, though, a severe famine forces him to leave southward to Egypt.

As he approaches Egypt, he turns to Sarah, his wife, saying, now I know that you are an attractive woman; when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘It’s his wife’ and they will kill me and keep you alive. [He then instructs her:] please say that you are my sister, so that they will favor me because of you, and that my life be spared thanks to you.

As planned, Sarah says that she is Avraham’s sister, and, indeed, the Egyptians favor Avraham with gifts on account of her.

Sarah, though, is taken to the house of Pharoah, but Hashem inflicts him and his household with a severe disease, causing Pharoah to return Sarah to her husband unviolated.

The Or HaChaim Hakodesh, Rabbi Chaim ben Mosheh ben Atar , commenting on [just] now, I know that you are an attractive woman, writes “Our Sages tell us that this speaks to the [extreme] modesty persisting between [Avraham and Sarah,] but we still need to understand why Avraham told this to her?”

The Or HaChaim answers his own question thusly: “Since Avraham wished to instruct Sarah to say that she was his sister, he anticipated that Sarah would ask him why he had placed her in such danger in the first place? He should not have brought her to a place like this. And even though the truly righteous trust in G-d, nonetheless, we have a rule dictating that “one that may not rely on miracles” (Tractate Pesachim 64b); Go and study the episode where Samuel demurs to G-d saying that “Saul will hear [about it] and kill me” (1Samual 16:2). Therefore, Avraham excuses himself, saying [honestly], that only now has he realized that Sarah was attractive, [meaning] that had he realized earlier he would, indeed, not have brought her to Egypt…”

“But why did Avraham pay attention [to her physicality] now”, the Or Hachaim goes on to ask? “Because… as he got close to Egypt, he acquired the knowledge that the King would take unto himself the most beautiful of women, so he payed attention and recognized this feature in her.

All the fat (best) is G-d’s. (Leviticus 3:16)

 

Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

In process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord.

Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat of it.

The Lord had respect for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering he did not have respect. (Leviticus 4:3-5)

“from the fruit of the ground”-It was poor in quality. But we have a tradition stating that it was linen.(Rashi)

Some say that Rashi quotes the tradition stating that Cain brought linen, which is considered by Torah to be a most prestigious specie of the vegetable kingdom, in order to explain how Cain thought his offering would be well accepted notwithstanding it’s being of poor quality.

Cain thought, for spiritual reasons that I may post later, that the quality of the specie being offered was the only critical factor governing the acceptability of an offering to G-d; he didn’t give much weight to the quality of the specimen itself.

Whereas Abel thought that what mattered most was the quality of the specimen, rather than the quality of the specie constituting his offering. So while Abel only brought sheep, which is considered by Torah rather less prestigious than cattle, he brought “the firstlings of his flock” and “the fat of it.”

We learn from G-d’s reaction that Abel was correct.

This idea is found as well in Rambam : One who wishes to be meritorious should force himself and bring [to G-d] from the very best of whatever specie he happens to be offering.

The Rambam implies that one should choose the best specimen of the specie he is offering to G-d, but he need not necessarily bring of the best specie. There is ample reason to suggest that he learned this from our episode.

The reasoning behind the idea is thus: the purpose of Torah’s directive that “all the fat(best) is G-d’s” is to express Man’s recognition in G-d’s ownership over the whole creation: “The whole world and everything in it is G-d’s.” (Psalms 24:1)

And since “the world and everything in it” includes both prestigious species and not, the concept of “all the fat (best) is G-d’s.” needs to be expressed in all species in the creation. Therefore, one needs always to bring “from the very best of whatever specie he happens to be offering.”

(Adapted from the teachings of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson.)

Non-Materialism

In the comment section to this post , I stated that I am soldier in the army of G-d.

In response, Tim Kindred stated that, he “will never recognise anyone as a soldier who does not represent a recognised government, or political movement and wear upon their person a distinctive mark of that government so as to permit them to be recognised as such,” and that “Religions are not recognised as lawful governments, therefor[e] they cannot have “soldiers”.”

Answering, Daniel Harr, one of Dean’s World’s most erudite contributers, stated that one may draw an analogy between being a soldier in the US army and being a soldier for G-d without equating the two entities in a simplistic fashion. (See the attached post for more context.)

Indeed, I agree with Daniel that one may draw such analogies in the way he described, but at the same time I wish to offer a response going in the opposite direction.

Generally, when we observe and describe the world we tend to look deeply at entities, abstracting the concepts and dynamics from the material instance in which they are embodied. Once we have abstracted the concepts and dynamics from the instance that is their material shell, we then classify material entities, comparing and contrasting as we go along.

Accordingly, one can certainly abstract what he sees as the conceptual structure embodied within an entity like, say, an army or a soldier, and find its twin in, say, a religious group serving G-d or any group ‘fighting’ to further a certain goal. And, conversely, someone else is able to disagree with the identification, pointing out what he sees as critical differences between said entities.

The question I am posing, or trying to answer really, is what is the ontological status of those abstract concepts and dynamics; and, relatedly, what is the ontological status of the various entity classifications we base on them.

An ardent materialist would argue, I think, that since materialism is an approach that “regards matter and its motions as constituting the universe, and all phenomena, including those of mind, as due to material agencies[,]” all conceptual underpinnings underlying material entities are no more than tools created by and in the minds of men to relate to their material surroundings, possessing no real existence outside of the mind.

The Torah, though, sees the world as a material manifestation of spiritual worlds, a low level of which being the conceptual structure underlying and embodied within it. Accordingly, not only do the conceptual underpinnings of the material exist outside of the mind, but also they are truly the main element of existence, the material being only their physical manifestation.

These spiritual underpinnings are the entities as they exist in the Torah. This idea is one of those that are encapsulated in the Talmudic phrases “The Torah precedes the world” and “the Holy One Blessed Be He looked in the Torah and created the world.”

Indeed the Torah sees our duty as bringing the material world to fully and perfectly reflect its true character, namely , the way it exists in G-d’s mind (so to speak) or , to say it differently, the Torah.

For example, Torah sees material kingship as the reflection of the kingship of G-d himself, with the awaited Davidic monarch its most perfect material manifestation. This is indeed why Jews are required, upon seeing any real king, even that of another nation , to make a declaration blessing G-d for bestowing his kingship upon humanity. Similarly, in the presence of a sage we bless G-d for placing his wisdom upon humanity, and so on and so forth.

Accordingly, and finally, when I stated that Jews are the army of Hashem and that I am a soldier in it, I meant it in the utmost.

Related Posts (on one page):

Repentence

 

Now is a special time; “The ten days of repentance”, a span of the Jewish calender beginning with Rosh Hashannah and concluding with Yom Kippur, is the period of time the Torah says is singularly auspicious for repenting.

But what is repentance?

In answer to this the question, the author of the Tanya writes:

The commandment to repent requires only that one abandon sin…..namely, that he commit wholeheartedly to never again rebel against the King, committing never again to transgress any royal commandment (G-d forbid), whether it be a commandment to do something or a commandment to refrain from doing something.

Although we find in Torah various prescriptions addressed to the penitent; for instance, there is a requirement to regret sinning, to confess the sin before G-d, to appease anyone unjustly harmed, and to make monetary restitution where warranted; nevertheless, the Tanya makes the bold assertion that all said prescriptions are essentially peripheral to repentance itself and that one can achieve penitence simply by committing to sin no more.

One of the Talmudic proofs for this approach is the well known law that “if anyone (even someone wicked) marries a woman on the expressed condition that he is completely righteous, we treat the woman in many ways as married, as we cannot be certain whether or not he had thoughts of repentance at the time of the marriage.”

When we examine the law previously mentioned, we see that, according to the Talmud, even a Jew who is known to be wicked can by the force of a momentary penitent thought be transformed into a “completely righteous” person.

Upon close scrutiny, however, it becomes clear that the approach is at least as stringent as it is lenient; true, repentance consists exclusively in a mere commitment, and, true, even one who is wicked will be transformed thereby into a completely righteous person, but this commitment must pertain not only to the particular sin he has transgressed but also to all sinning in general. He must commit “never again to transgress any royal commandment….”

Why need one commit never to sin in order to repent for any sin? And why does a mere commitment suffice to render him completely righteous when he has yet to rectify the evil that he has wrought through sinning; he may well have yet to confess before G-d, appease he whom he has unjustly harmed or repay what he has stolen?

The issue will become more clear after a few prefatory remarks regarding the somewhat dual nature of sin.

On the one hand, not all sins are alike. Sins differ greatly in the harm they do the world. They differ in the impact they have on the sinner. Some sins effect other people; while others effect only one’s self. We get a glimpse at the relative gravities of sins by taking into account the punishments alloted in the Torah; there are capital crimes, crimes that require flogging and crimes that command no punishment at all.

On the other hand, though, all sins, whether they be grave or trivial, have one thing in common: they are all acts of defying the royal command of G-d. They are all, without exception, acts of rebellion against the King of all kings.

Accordingly, when one wishes to make amends for his past conduct he must set about about doing two related but different things. He must of course fix what he broke. This may entail regretting and confessing. And it may even require that he be punished(the Torah sees punishment not only as a deterrent but also, and mainly, as a rectification of damage done to the soul.) And until he has so done he has indeed not cleaned up his mess. But most importantly, he must accept upon himself G-d’s sovereignty. A commitment to avoid this or that particular sin will not suffice. Because as long as he will not commit “never again to transgress any royal commandment (G-d forbid), whether it be a commandment to do something or a commandment to refrain from doing something,” he is basically saying that he is independent, that he will decide what commandment he wishes to obey or to disobey. This person is in open revolt against the sovereignty of G-d. But on the other hand, when he makes this commitment, thereby tendering himself as loyal subject to the King of all kings, he is indeed “completely righteous.” Though he still may have a whole lot of cleaning up to do.

(Adapted from the teachings of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson.)