Shabbat Lech Lecha

The Wandering Jew

The Wandering Jew is a myth that was spread across Europe in the 13th century by the Church. It condemned the cursed Jews for the death of their founder to wander across the world until the Second Coming. Thereby justifying the dispersal. But for us, it can be seen as a kind of blessing.

Avraham was told to leave his land, his birthplace and his father’s home. An interesting sequence. You might have thought it should have started with birthplace, then father’s home and finally country. And he’s told to head towards the unknown. The text is open to many different possibilities.

Avraham was born in Ur (Iraq today, down on the Persian Gulf). The oldest civilisation in that area at that time, some 4000 years ago. And it was his father who moved the family first from Ur to Haran, which was in Southwest Turkey, where Syria is today. But we were not told why. Sometime later, Avraham was told to head towards Canaan. Why in stages? And at what stage did God tell him to go to Canaan?

Was Avram’s father’s migration for commercial reasons? Avraham did very well for himself in Haran. The Talmud is quite explicit that travelling has negative impacts on family life and oneself. Yet the commentators understand the duplication, of the term ‘’ Lech) ‘go for yourself’ and then (Lecha) means ‘go and you will then do well for yourself.’ As if to indicate that God is promising that things will work out and it will all be to his benefit in the long term.

As soon as Avram arrives at the Land of Canaan, he wanders around from place to place looking for somewhere to put down his tent. He finally settles to the South where Hebron is today. But then in this land, which is later described as flowing with milk and honey and producing seven grains and types of fruit, there’s a famine, and he and his entourage go down to stay in Egypt. There it is fraught and dangerous and yet he manages to extricate himself.

Then he arrives in the land of Canaan with flocks and herds and wealth. Then his nephew and partner Lot wants to strike out on his own and ends up in Sodom and Gomorrah, where Avram gets involved in the war between the five kings and the four kings; he has to pursue those who captured his family across the river Jordan into the unknown, with enough men from his own camp and those of his allies to defeat the kings and bring Lot and his family back. And through it all, his wife is barren, and at this stage God changes his name from Avram to Avraham, promising him a son and heir.

What are we to make of this? On one level, the broad direction that has been laid out for him is not short-term. On the contrary, it’s very long-term. Another 400 years before the children of Israel came to their homeland and began to play a significant part in the history of the Middle East. And even then, under constant threat. As for his political troubles and the conflicts in his personal life within the family and beyond, these are going to happen to most people simply because of the nature of human beings and nature itself. Unpredictably, good things happen, and bad things happen. We just have to find ways of coping and adjusting. Nothing in life is guaranteed and one needs to have a long-term vision of what one wants to achieve. And one needs a mission, a goal and a moral, ethical and humane approach to life. To be able to interact, negotiate and get on with other people even if they may start off as one’s enemy.

This is such a relevant message for us today in the world in which we find ourselves.  We Jews know we’ve always had to move on. Into our homeland and out of our homeland. To the east, to the west, to the north and the south. We have always been in a state of tension if not conflict of one kind or another with the cultures and people we encounter or live amongst – either military, cultural or spiritual We are used to the unpredictable and we are used to a sense of alienation. I believe that this has been our strength: our adaptability, and the fact that we have been cross-fertilised with so many different cultures and challenged to overcome adversity. Of course, not without costs, sometimes unbearable.

The promise of God to Avram/Avraham to go forth, to move, and things would work in the long term does not mean the path will always be smooth. But it does mean that it’s a path that historically we have had to travel and cope with. Furthermore, Avram is also called a wandering Aramean in the Bible and the Haggadah. We are known as the Children of Israel but also as Hebrews, Ivri, Ivriim, those who move on. Today, just as much as ever.

Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.