All week, I have been sharing some perspectives on the arc of the Genesis narrative leading to Abraham and how some of its eternal truths and enduring challenges might speak to us in our contemporary context. As we complete a summer that was the warmest on record, the emergency of climate change becomes even more apparent. The Genesis stories serve as one more reminder of our responsibilities to our planet’s wellbeing and the security of the generations that will follow us. (If you are starting to read these texts midweek, you may want to start from Monday’s Kavanah for context.)

Bereishit – The Gift of Hope

לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ – “Go…you . . .from your native land…” After so much destruction and disappointment God speaks to Abraham and Sarah. Genesis moves from the universal account of primeval humans to the story of a nation and that is the subject of the remainder of the sacred book that was to become our Bible. The Israeli musicians Amir Gilboa, Shlomo Arzi, and Gidy Koren wrote about Abraham: (listen to it here at minute 2:00)

Suddenly a man wakes up in the morning
He feels he is a nation and begins to walk
And to all he meets on his way he calls out ‘Shalom!’

Corn stalks are growing up behind him
Between the cracks in the sidewalk.
Lilac trees shower down rich fragrance on his head.
The dew drops are sparkling, and the hills are a myriad of radiance
They will give birth to a canopy of sunlight for his wedding.

Suddenly a man wakes up in the morning…

And he laughs with the strength of generations in the mountains,
and the shamed wars bow down to the ground,
to the glory of a thousand years flowing forth from the hiding places,
a thousand young years in front of him
like a cold book, like a shepherd’s song, like a branch.

Suddenly a man wakes up in the morning
He feels he is a nation and begins to walk,
and he sees that the spring has returned
and the tree is turning green since last fall’s shedding leaves.[1]

The Torah’s vision of humanity descended from Abraham and Sarah is marked by mitzvot—it is the very way we define our nationhood referenced in the song. These are sacred obligations that organize, limit, and structure human behavior. As the Torah frames it and as we have embraced the idea as Jews, we are distinctly not free to do anything we wish. We are bound and limited by the obligations that establish our unique identity as Jews. Judaism is the very opposite of the overreach that offends God at the flood, the tower, and the destroyed city. The hope inherent in Abraham and Sarah’s journey from Ur to Canaan, from Moses’ ascent of the mountain is all humanity must embrace limits (individually and collectively) through sacred, planet saving, obligations so that we can sustain our society and this world, a precious gift that must be passed with love to the next generations.

— Rabbi Ron Stern

[1] Source for Translation: http://www.hebrewsongs.com/song-pitomkamadam.htm