Parashat Lech Lecha- Torah as History

Vayomer A-donai el Avram, “Lech lekha mei’artzekha umimolad’t’kha umibeit avikha el ha’aretz asher ar’ekha.

And A-donai said to Avram, “Get yourself out of your land and of your birthplace and of your father’s house to the land that I will show you. (Breishit 12:1)

The Torah is the story of our people. While it contains history, it is not a history text. While it contains information on creation, it is not a science text. It is a book of ideology and theology, teaching us the information we need to become and remain Jews. It also does not exist in a vacuum. And although we call it the Torah she’bikhtav, even without the documentary hypothesis, it was not originally written in its current form. It is continuously revealed from Sinai on. One opinion in the Talmud is that the Torah, with the exception of the Aseret Dibrot, was given and repeated orally until Moshe wrote it down just before his death. Even in the Torah itself, Moshe paraphrases and edits.

There is a wonderful commentary called The Five Books of Miriam, written by Dr. Ellen Frankel. It contains traditional and modern commentary with a focus on the women’s point of view. The Mishnah and Talmud and the Midrash, and beyond, make up the Torah she’b’al peh, the Oral Torah, which developed over time through oral traditions that continue well past the writing down of the text. They help us to understand the what, why, and how of the Torah and our People. It is this Oral Torah that Dr. Frankel tries to capture. She begins with a poem by Merle Feld:

My brother & I were at Sinai

He kept a journal

Of what he saw

Of what he heard

Of what it all meant to him

I wish I had such a record of what happened to me there

It seems like every time I want to write

I can’t

I’m always holding a baby

One of my own

Or one for a friend

Always holding a baby

So my hands are never free

To write things down

And then

As time passes

The particulars

The hard data

The who what where when why

Slip away from me

And all I’m left with is

The feeling

But feelings are just sounds

The vowel barking of a mute

My brother is so sure of what he heard

After all he’s got a record of it

Consonant after consonant after consonant

If we remembered it together we could re-create holy time sparks flying

Dr. Frankel gives a descriptive subtitle to each parasha. Lekh Lekha is Destiny. In the parasha God tells Avram he must leave his land, his, birthplace and his father’s house. The story is Avram’s to tell, but it shares the destiny of others, of our future. It connects to Sarai as well, and to Eretz Yisrael. Tradition teaches that Sarai too was a prophet and a proselytizer, teaching and converting the women in their household. It is Sarai who suggest the surrogacy of Hagar to ensure the future of our people. And it is Sarai who says to Avram, ‘God will choose between us.” And God chooses Sarai; “What ever Sarai tells you, do.” Nonetheless, Sarai’s story is told through Avram’s eyes. However, when we delve into the written and oral together we get a fuller story, “recreating holy time sparks flying.”