The New Avrohom

Why does Avrohom get rewarded for leaving his house but not Lot?  It would seem that Lot who left voluntarily should get at least the same credit as Avrohom? The true test for Avrohom was not the physical act of leaving, rather it was to leave behind all connections to his previous life and to become a new person that was totally devoted to Hashem.  The possuk says” veescha lgoy gadol”, I will make you into a great nation.  The midrash Tanchuma is bothered it should have said veesumcha, and I will put you in position to be a great nation?  The midrash answers that Avraham was being made into a new person by leaving his father’s house behind.  Lot left his home physically, but not emotionally and spiritually.  He still had that connection to the bad roots of his upbringing inside of him.  The Michtav MeEliyahu points out contradictions in Chazal if Lot is a tsaddik or a rasha.  He reconciles the contradictions by differentiating between the outward appearance and the internal being of Lot.  Lot externally looked like he was a great person but inside he never changed himself.  How could Lot go from living with Avrohom to living together with the horrible people of Sedom?  It seems a tremendous switch in lifestyle?  The answer is that he didn’t take the hashpea of living together with Avrohom to heart.  Internally he remained a Sedomite and jumped at the opportunity to join them.

Rashi (end of Noach) says that the death of Terach is recorded at the end of Noach even though it didn’t occur yet so that it wouldn’t seem as if Avrohom didn’t fulfill the commandment of honoring his father. The Maharal at the end of Noach asks but his father was still alive? Is the Torah lying to us?  The answer is that vis-a-vis Avrohom Terach was dead.  Avrohom became completely detached from the influences of his father that he grew up with.  It is the changing of his roots, of his internal makeup that is the reward for Avrohom. It could be the reason Avrohom was commanded in the mitzvah of milah was to part of the process of becoming a new person.  Through making a physical change on the body Avrohom was literally transformed into someone else.