Intimate Distance: Parashat Leka L’Kha

Posted on by

0

beachTorah Sparks
Genesis 12:1–17:27

In this Torah portion we join Abram and Sarai (their names will be changed later in the portion to Abraham and Sarah) on their journey and adventures. The portion quickly transports them to their destined home, the land of Canaan. They travel through the countryside until they arrive at Shechem. There God appears to Abram and promises the land to Abram’s descendants. This is the first time—but not the last—the Torah tells us that God has appeared to Abram. The Torah portion opens with God speaking to Abram, but it does not say that God has appeared to him.

What is the nature of this appearance? We are used to the idea that God has no visible form. Later in the Torah this is emphasized more than once. So what does it mean to say that God “appears”? Philosophers and mystics have grappled with this question. For now we must leave the question open. But the report seems to point to a particular sense of God’s Presence. Is it a sense of intimacy? Is God’s Presence felt to be more palpable and near than when only God’s voice is heard? Or might this sense be one of awe and distance? We can see images in the distance, but if God’s voice is a mere whisper, then our ears will tingle with a sense of God’s closeness. We are left to our own imaginings, our own midrashic powers, to decide.

Still, whether with a sense of intimacy or distance, God’s Presence appears to Abram at Shechem and he builds an altar “to the Eternal appearing to him.” (Gen. 12:7) And then Abram moves on. East of Bethel he encamps “and he built an altar to the Eternal. And he called out in the Name of the Eternal.” (v. 8)

So we have another altar built to God. But this time it does not commemorate an appearance by God. There is no report that God communicated with Abram at this place. There is no report that Abram sensed God’s Presence. On the contrary, this time Abram calls out to the Eternal. Nor does the Torah report that God responded to Abram’s call. (Some read this “calling” by Abram to mean that he was preaching to others in God’s Name.)

Although the act of building an altar is identical in these two places, we find two drastically different kinds of religious experience attached to each act. In the first there is a special connection to God. In the second it is a completely human act. God is affirmed and perhaps sought out, but God’s Presence is not confirmed. Nor is God’s Presence a necessary prior condition for Abram to build the altar.

Abram has experienced God before, in Shechem. That is enough for Abram to continue worshipping God even at a moment and a place, in Bethel, when God is not clearly present or attentive. Most of us are in Abram’s Bethel situation. We are not in close communion with God at present. And I am not sure how many of us have ever been in Abram’s Shechem situation. But we have Abram’s story to tell us of moments when God’s appearance was a lived experience. Is reading this Torah portion enough for us?  Can it sustain us so that we can continue to call out in God’s Name?

 

Image:  “Self Portrait at Dawn” © Jörg Reuter altered and used with permission via Creative Commons License 2.0

Latest posts by Rabbi David Greenstein (see all)

What do you think?