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.
Thursday, October 18, 2018
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.
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