Blood and Guts: Parashat Lekh L’kha

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Parashat Lekh L’kha 
Genesis 12:1 – 17:27

The story of the Jewish people begins with God’s call to Abram to journey to an unknown land in order to fulfill a mission – to be a blessing. While the move from Mesopotamia to Canaan is swiftly and uneventfully reported, once Abram and Sarai get to the Promised Land, life gets complicated. The pioneering couple have to meet many challenges – physical, spiritual and moral.

Abram’s faith is tested again and again. But, after Divine reassurance, the Torah reports: “And he (- Abram) had faith in the Eternal, and He (- God) accounted this for him as a righteousness.” (Gen. 15:6) Yet, right after we learn of Abram’s steadfast faith in God, the text continues: “And He said to him, ‘I am the Eternal Who took you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give this land to you to inherit it. And he said to Him, ‘My Lord, Almighty God, by what means shall I know that I will inherit it?” (vv. 7-8)

Commentators have been puzzled by Abram’s question. If he was full of faith in God, why was he seemingly asking for proof of God’s promise? Was his faith overcome by doubt? Some explain that he was worried that some fault of his or of future generations might cause God to retract the gift.

But God’s gift has not (yet) been predicated on Abraham’s or the people’s piety. Perhaps another way of looking at his question is possible. We may accept that Abram was steadfast in his faith. What he was asking for was  – “by what means shall I know” what I have faith in? What Abraham was seeking was a “means,” a concrete set of actions that would cement his faith into his consciousness and his being. God responds with a ritual of covenant-making, the Covenant Between the Cut Pieces (vv. 9-17)., followed later by the ritual of circumcision (Gen. 17:9-14). The ritual does not “prove” anything more than what was already promised by God and what was already accepted by Abram on faith. It could not convince someone who did not already have faith. What the ritual did was act out in real time, in real space, the bond forged between God and Abram, the bond that served as the grounding for their shared hope for the future.

This is a central function of all ritual. It serves to inscribe the fleeting and abstract feeling of faith into the material word of real experience. Abraham wished to transform his faith into “knowing.” The Biblical significance of this term is not related to intellectual apprehension. It refers to intimate, carnal relations. Two loving people “know” each other through physical union. The covenant-making rituals affirmed Abram’s and God’s mutual faith in one another through a carnal act, as well. Faith is not merely a matter of the head and the heart. It is a matter of hands and feet, of blood and guts. As a deep person of faith, Abram understood this. The ritual that God prescribes is not simply commanded from above. It comes in response to Abram’s own request of God to give him such a ritual to perform, so that his faith would not only be a righteousness, but also a reality.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Greenstein


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