Educating Against Egypt
Through his
experiences with his nephew Lot, Avraham learns valuable parenting skills.
By Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt
The following article
is reprinted with permission from the Orthodox
Union.
The birth of Yitzchak [Isaac] is anticipated with prayers,
prophecies and Divine promises. Moreover, his birth and upbringing are
prefigured by the trials and errors of his
father's two earlier son figures--one a nephew and the other a concubine's
child.
The patterns and mistaken assumptions that cost Avraham the
fidelity of both Yishmael and Lot also served as parenting instructors. The
course adjustments in the wake of these disappointments contributed to the
excellence of the third attempt. And although there can be no doubting the
primacy of transmission through Yitzchak, the Torah's deference to Yishmael and
to Lot's descendants suggests that even a failed son of Avraham is esteemed.
A careful reading of a small passage in Lech Lecha may
illustrate how a crucial element in faith-training is discovered.
Early in the parshah,
Avraham answers the Divine call: "And Avram went as the L-rd had spoken to
him, and Lot went with him (ito)...."
When Avram removes to Canaan, Lot is carried along by the very same verb that
carries Sarai.
Then comes the famine, which drives the Holy couple down to
Egypt, testing their faith in the G-d who had just promised them Canaan. Beside
the traumatic encounter with Pharaoh, the Egyptian detour rattles Avraham's
security in his mission. The Abarbanel (15th century commentator)
notes that despite the vast wealth--accounted in flocks and silver and
gold--the nefesh, the proselytes, are
missing.
For this reason, the patriarch hastens to his earlier altar
and to the work of calling out the name of the True G-d. He returns "lemasaav," which the Malbim (Rabbi Meir Leibush, 19th
century commentator) understands to refer to his regular missionary circuit.
Then the Torah moves to pick up another thread: the fortunes
of Lot. Though Avraham returns safely to his mission and his G-d, the Torah
subtly notes that his sojourn in Egypt did have one casualty: Lot.
"Vegam leLot
haholech es Avram" (And also to Lot, who went with Abram). A distance
has grown between the nephew and his uncle, the Netziv (Rabbi Naftali Tzvi
Yehudah Berlin, 19th century commentator) notes. All they share in
common now is rich holdings of property. The disputes between their shepherds
is a projection of their own loss of spiritual kinship, and until Lot has gone
his own way the Heavenly voice is absent from Avraham's camp.
The mature Avraham was able to put the blandishments of
Egypt's rich, sensuous civilization in perspective. He remained steadfast and
unblemished. But the young disciple, his roots yet shallow in the soil of
faith, was not so lucky. True, he dutifully returned to Canaan with his uncle
(for which the Abarbanel applauds him). Nevertheless, when his eyes scanned the
landscape of the Promised Land, it was clear what he was searching for--Egypt!
"And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it
was all well-watered...like a garden of the L-rd, like the land of Egypt...." The eyes which chose Sodom and
Amorrah were no longer the eyes of a son of Avraham.
The lesson of environmental influence was not wasted.
Yitzchak was destined to live out his entire life in the Land of Israel as an olah temimah (a whole/unblemished
offering). Avraham did not repeat the mistake that had cost him his precious
nephew.
There would be other lessons--the inexorable influence of
Noach's designations of blessing and curse, the absolute necessity of righteous
parenting from both father and
mother, the existence of many ways in the service of Hashem beside the way of chesed (kindness).
All these lessons would accrue, through painful experience
and absolute devotion, to the eternal credit of the future generations, which
twinkled as stars in Avraham's heaven, to us.
Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt is rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish
Center, Riverdale, N.Y.
