How quickly the Torah goes from creation of the world to stories of the origin of all of humankind to particularization. The stories of the book of Bereishit from here are out center the ancestors of the Israelites specifically, while relaying founding stories of how the Israelites – literally the children of Jacob or b’nei yisrael – relate to some of their relations who are objectified as other – progenitors of many other peoples they neighbored and interacted with throughout the rest of Torah (and beyond).
It is important to zoom in and zoom out, generally. In Lech L’cha, there is a zoom in, and in, and in, until we understand that one of Terah’s sons, Abraham, and one of Abraham’s sons, Isaac is where Adonai’s blessings will flow. Zooming is important to understanding nuance and detail, to knowing an issue, a person, or a people more deeply. And, it also can result is narrow perspective.
This season is the olive harvest in Palestine, for example. Israel just deported 2 American Jewish women for their presence with Palestinian olive farmers during the harvest. The harvest, year after year, is a time and a place for Israeli settler violence attempting to intimidate and dispossess Palestinian olive farmers from their trees, their livelihood, their culture, and their land. Participating in the olive harvest in 2005 was one of my first acts of solidarity with Palestinians.
To read parashat Lech L’cha with only the zooming in, one might read particularly chapter 15 as “proof” of Jews, as the inheritors of b’nei yisrael, as given a divine deed to all the land of Palestine. And yet that is to ignore both facts on the ground and the cousin relationship between the children of Jacob and the children of Ishmael, whom Abraham himself names in this parasha.
As we continue reading Torah from here, let us do so knowing that it will tell us one important narrative and cultural origin story, but not the only of the many peoples of that land from which it emerged. Let us celebrate and embrace Jewish culture and history, and also acknowledge it not as the only culture and history that matters nor has claim to the place of its origin. As we learn and tell our story, let us also learn and tell the stories of those around us.
Shabbat shalom,
R’ David
It is important to zoom in and zoom out, generally. In Lech L’cha, there is a zoom in, and in, and in, until we understand that one of Terah’s sons, Abraham, and one of Abraham’s sons, Isaac is where Adonai’s blessings will flow. Zooming is important to understanding nuance and detail, to knowing an issue, a person, or a people more deeply. And, it also can result is narrow perspective.
This season is the olive harvest in Palestine, for example. Israel just deported 2 American Jewish women for their presence with Palestinian olive farmers during the harvest. The harvest, year after year, is a time and a place for Israeli settler violence attempting to intimidate and dispossess Palestinian olive farmers from their trees, their livelihood, their culture, and their land. Participating in the olive harvest in 2005 was one of my first acts of solidarity with Palestinians.
To read parashat Lech L’cha with only the zooming in, one might read particularly chapter 15 as “proof” of Jews, as the inheritors of b’nei yisrael, as given a divine deed to all the land of Palestine. And yet that is to ignore both facts on the ground and the cousin relationship between the children of Jacob and the children of Ishmael, whom Abraham himself names in this parasha.
As we continue reading Torah from here, let us do so knowing that it will tell us one important narrative and cultural origin story, but not the only of the many peoples of that land from which it emerged. Let us celebrate and embrace Jewish culture and history, and also acknowledge it not as the only culture and history that matters nor has claim to the place of its origin. As we learn and tell our story, let us also learn and tell the stories of those around us.
Shabbat shalom,
R’ David
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