Abram and God’s
Mutual Faith
As Abram and God
demonstrate, Judaism understands faith as deep trust despite doubt, confusion,
and suffering.
By Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson
The following article is reprinted with permission from University of Judaism.
At a ripe old age, Abram receives a message from God,
telling him that he will yet produce an heir, and that the child will inherit
not only Abram's property, but also his father's covenant with God. Surely
God's promise would strain the credulity of even the most devoted
follower. Sarah had been barren
throughout her life. Now, her body no
longer surged with the monthly cycle of women--childbearing wasn't even a
possibility. And she herself testified
that her husband was far too old to father children. Yet, despite biological reality, God tells Abram that he will
have a child, and that his descendants will outnumber the stars in the sky!
In response to God's astounding promise, the Torah states
simply that "because he put his trust in the Lord, he reckoned it to his
credit." In that one ambiguous sentence, the Torah contrasts the rich
complexity of biblical faith and the flimsy superficiality of the contemporary
notion of faith.
For most religious Americans, "faith" means belief
in certain claims about the metaphysics of reality. Faith is perceived as a mental acceptance, a lack of doubt. Accordingly, true faith requires a
willingness to refrain from too much thought, to ignore the difficult questions
which life inevitably raises. And, as
a result, when those questions do arise--as indeed they must--this faulty
"faith" is often destroyed in its wake.
How different is the biblical-rabbinic understanding of
faith! Abram is portrayed as a man filled with tensions and doubt. In no way can he be said to enjoy peace of
mind. Instead, our parsha reveals him
worrying about his lack of heirs, about the state of his covenant with God, and
his relations with his neighbors. In the midst of all those struggles, Abram
has a discussion with God. And what
emerges is a radically different kind of faith experience. Abram comes to understand that faith is not
the passive acquiescence to an idea, nor does it require obediently stifling a
doubt.
Faith is a willingness to trust, despite one's doubts and
through one's tensions. Faith is trust.
The most simple reading of our biblical verse is that God reckoned
Abram's trust to his merit.
The medieval commentator, Rashi (11th-century France) notes
that God credited Abram's trust to his tzedakah (righteousness) because
Abram "did not ask God for a sign."
A more recent biblical work, the Torah Temimah (by Rabbi
Barukh Epstein, 19th-20th Century, Russia), understands our ambiguous sentence
differently---that Abram trusted God and considered God's promise as evidence
of God's righteousness. We often take for granted that we live in a habitable
universe--the sun rises and sets with predictable regularity, the earth
produces material which in turn nourishes other living things, and human beings
are able to produce and raise children to adulthood.
While the world may be far from perfect, it
is--nonetheless--regular, reliable and vital.
Evidence of God's promise is not hard to find. One way of understanding
our verse, then, is to see in it God's willingness to trust Abraham.
Another way to read the verse is to recognize Abraham's
willingness to trust God. Both are far
from predictable. Both represent little
miracles. There is insight in both readings.
Abram and God present faith as a willingness to trust, despite the
reality of setbacks and suffering.
Rather than some pale recital of a creed, Judaism insists on a rich
trust, demonstrated not by spreading the word, but by living the deeds.
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson is the Dean of the Ziegler
School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He is the author of The Bedside Torah:
Wisdom, Dreams, & Visions (McGraw Hill).
For a free subscription to his weekly email Torah commentary, please send
an email request to bartson@uj.edu.
