To change the world, look in the mirror first
The first item on the agenda in this week’s parsha, Lech Lecha, is “GO!”
Abraham has just appeared on the biblical scene. G-d told Abraham that, for his own benefit, he should “Go from your land, from your birthplace and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”
According to Maimonides, this would be the first of the famous 10 tests of faith that Abraham would face in his lifetime. Leaving his comfort zone and traveling a long distance to unknown territory was not easy.
According to all opinions, the 10th and final test is found in next week’s reading, the akedah (the binding of Isaac), Would Abraham be prepared to sacrifice his beloved son, the one he had waited 100 years to be born?
The first test of faith took Abraham around the existing world where he would spread monotheism, a feat of unimaginable magnitude. Abraham basically took on the whole world — and won! Virtually singlehandedly, he transformed much of the world to believers. As I have written elsewhere, this made Abraham the most influential person in all of human history. Billions of believers of all faiths throughout the millennia, all owe that faith to Abraham.
Yet, in the Torah itself there is little explicit mention of this transformational, world-changing achievement. A phrase or two is all we can find. But when it comes to the akedah, the final test of faith, the Torah devotes an entire chapter. Furthermore, the test of sacrificing his son has always been considered Abraham’s most important, and difficult, test of faith. We refer to it regularly in all our prayers.
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Surely, the private drama on a mountaintop between father and son pales in insignificance when compared to making a global impact on the minds and hearts of billions? Wouldn’t we expect that this first test of faith should have much more biblical space devoted to it than to the private tale of the akedah?
A powerful answer is that the binding of Isaac represented Abraham’s personal mission to G-d, whereas Lech Lecha — to go out and spread the word far and wide — represented his universal mission to humankind.
And before you can change the world you have to know yourself and recognize your personal, spiritual mission.
That is why, while the 10th test is last chronologically, it may well be the very first in importance.
In recent times, we have been exposed to a lot of noise coming from too many of our fellow Jews who have joined forces with our enemies in attacking Israel claiming it is guilty of genocide or deliberately starving Gazans. Groups like the Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Justice for Palestinians, among others. And then there are the many Jewish celebrities with millions of “followers” who have openly condemned Israel on the international stage.
May I be so bold as to suggest that the vast majority of these Jews are, tragically, completely ignorant of Jewish history, including the history of the founding of Israel over the last hundred years. And in their pathetic illiteracy they have swallowed, hook, line and sinker, the prevailing misconceptions so forcefully publicized by the well-funded Islamist PR machines and disseminated globally by unapologetic sponsors of terror.
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We are not colonizers. Israel has been our homeland for millennia, long before the birth of Islam or the more recent artificial concoction of a Palestinian nation.
These Jews play into the hands of our enemies as cliched useful idiots. If Jews themselves agree, then surely it must be so, goes the shallow argument.
The facts are that if the fundamental cause of the Middle Eastern conflict is the Jewish “occupation,” why did the Arabs launch an attack on Israel to start the Six-Day War back in 1967 when there were no “occupied territories”?
Why when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered more than 90% of the “disputed” territories to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Camp David in 2000, did Arafat flatly refuse it without even making a counteroffer (with President Bill Clinton, who presided over those peace meetings, angrily stating that Arafat lied and was never negotiating in good faith.
Because the Palestinians don’t want their state, they want our state! They simply cannot accept us in the neighborhood and want us out completely. We have no partner for peace, no matter how much we may compromise.
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Other than Israel, is there any nation that would tolerate thousands of missiles being fired from a neighboring country without retaliating mightily? Israel has been remarkably restrained in its response.
As for justice? We invented justice. Our Torah is the ultimate source of true justice. “An eye for an eye” in our view means the monetary value of an eye, not to gouge out the perpetrator’s eye, or chop off hands as is done in many Arab countries to this day.
Is Israel perfect? Of course not. Human errors happen. But there is no deliberate genocide. What an archetypal big lie! Israel remains the only democracy in the entire Middle East, and its laws are fair and equitable to all, Jew and Arab alike.
So Jews, get educated! Discover the facts and stop undermining your own homeland and its courageous people. When you understand the truth, you will no doubt stand together with your brothers and sisters and defend them from the terror, hate and the diabolical schemes to destroy Israel completely.
Like Abraham, if you want to change the world, you must first know who you are. Without having a personal mission of your own spiritual identity, you will never be able to successfully take on a universal mission. It will fail and backfire with serious damage.
Remember, only if you know who you are can you hope to change the world.
