B"H
Cheshvan 8, 5766 * November 10, 2005
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F O R F R I D A Y N I G H T
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Parshat Lech-Lecha
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The Transformation
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Abraham is often described as the first Jew, the first person to acquire the special relationship with G-d which characterizes the Jewish people. A non-Jew who recognizes G-d and who keeps the Seven Noachide Laws in his or her daily life can inherit the World to Come and is termed a Righteous Gentile; but a Jew represents something different.
For this reason we say in the blessings on the Torah which both men and women should recite every morning: Blessed are You, L-rd, our G-d, King of the Universe, Who has chosen us from all nations....
To be chosen is a very controversial idea. What is so special about a Jew? The Jew is chosen for a special task: to make the physical world holy. Every human being has the potential to recognize G-dliness in the spiritual and to live according to G-dly rules as an ethical and moral person. The Jew has also an extra responsibility: to bring holiness into the physical world as well. He or she achieves this through the practical Commands of the Torah which concern Jewish issues such as the Mezuzah on the door and kosher food in a kosher kitchen.
The story of Abraham's life tells us of a gradual transformation from the status of a totally righteous person observing the Seven Noachide Laws to that of a Jew. In this process a key event was the Covenant of Circumcision, which is in our Sedra1.
When Abraham was ninety nine years old G-d appeared to him and said to him: Walk before Me and be perfect. I will give you My Covenant. you shall circumcise every male... at eight days old2.
What is the significance of Circumcision? One way of understanding it is in terms of its opposite. The ancient Greeks followed a cult of the physical body. When they oppressed the Jews in the time of the Macabbees they banned Circumcision. The Sages tell us about Jews who had unfortunately adopted the Greek view of life and who tried to hide the fact that they were circumcised.
Circumcision, Brit Milah, means the recognition that the physical body in itself is not the sole key to happiness. When a Divine ingredient is added, the Command of Circumcision, then the body can become a route to holiness and fulfillment.
Although only the male is circumcised, the Covenant with our ancestor Abraham grants all Jews today, both men and women, the power to reveal G-dliness in physicality, through the many laws of the Torah which concern the practical world. Through these we fulfill our chief purpose in life: to make the world a dwelling for the Divine.
When G-d gave Abraham the Covenant of Circumcision, He also told him that his name would be changed from Abram to Abraham, and his wife’s name from Sarai to Sarah. They had both acquired a new identity. Then from their union, Isaac was born, ancestor of the Jewish people.
For a male, this state of sanctity has to be attained by a physical operation. The Talmud tells us that a female from birth is considered circumcised. The more aggressive male has to be changed, physically, in order to become holy.
The mother of the baby bears the brunt of the anxiety during the brief operation, which is hardly more troublesome than a routine blood-test. Perhaps her willingness to do so, through the ages, expresses her personal share in the Covenant which transformed Abraham and his wife Sarah into the first Jewish couple, and the Jewish people into the nation with the task to change the world.
Footnotes:
1. Genesis chs.12-17.
2. Gen. 17:2, 10-12.
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By Dr. Tali Loewenthal, Director of Chabad Research Unit, London
Brought to you by Chabad.org
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