The
Tragedy of Pirud, Separation Parshat
Lech Lecha begins our contact with the “Avot” and specifically,
begins with the command of HaShem to Avram to leave his land, his birthplace
and his father’s house, and to go to the land that He will show to him.
“And Avram went in accordance with what G-d had said to him…And
Avram took Sarai his wife and
his nephew, Lot, and all the wealth that he had amassed, and the ‘souls
they had made in Charan’ (RASHI
explains this expression as meaning ‘individuals they had brought under
the wings of the Shechinah; Avraham converting the men and Sarah converting
the women’).” Then
the Torah describes Avram’s descent into Mitzrayim, because of a famine, a
move that would be repeated by his grandson, Yaakov, and his entire family.
Egyptian society was completely corrupt in the area of sexual
morality, as Yoseph would re-discover prior to that second descent.
Avram realized that if the Egyptians knew that Sarai was his wife,
his life would be in danger, so he asked her to say that she was his sister,
and allow herself to be taken to the house of the Pharaoh. Although most commentators make allowances for Avram, RAMBAN comments that it was a “great sin” for Avram to put Sarai’s life in danger. According to RAMBAN, the Torah does not refrain from telling the truth about our ancestors who, despite their greatness, were only human beings, and therefore not perfect. I’d like to offer a possible extension of this idea, whereby the Torah teaches that pirud, separation, or unresolved machloket, disagreement, can lead to major unforeseen consequences. The
Torah tells the story of the separation of Lot from Avram, Lot’s residence
in S’dom, a great “World War” in which Lot is taken captive by the
victors, and his rescue by Avram. The
destruction of S’dom is then described, preceded by Avram’s great debate
with HaShem over the justice of the punishment.
All this is interwoven with the birth of Yishmael and the promise of
the birth of Yitzchak. It
is possible, I would suggest, that the separation from Lot, the destruction
of S’dom, and events that followed
in the life of Lot; namely, the birth of Amon and Moav and their historic
consequences, in the eternal separation from Israel of those nations, had
their origin, to some extent, in another mistake on the part of Avram;
namely, giving up on Lot and on S’dom, that is only hinted at in the
Torah. In
Chapter 13, the Torah describes Avram coming up from Egypt, “he with his
wife and all that was his… and Lot was with him.. and Avram was very laden
with livestock, silver and gold” (Bereshit 13:1-2), some of those riches
having been given him by Pharaoh in “exchange” for his “sister.”
The Torah continues, “Also Lot who went with Avram had flocks,
cattle and tents,” (Bereshit 13:5), the uncle, naturally, having “shared
the wealth” with his nephew. However,
“The land could not support them dwelling together, for their possessions
were abundant…And there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Avram’s
livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock…” (Bereshit 13:7) At
this point, Avram may have made a critical mistake; “So Avram said to Lot,
‘Please let there be no strife between me and you… HiPa’red na
me-alai, Please separate from me; If you go left, then I will go right,
and if you go right, then I will go left’ ” (Bereshit 13:8-9).
“VaYipa’redu ish me-al achiv;” “And they separated one
from the other.” And
the rest is history. Lot
chooses the territory that includes S’dom, that Avram places outside the
domain where he will teach. Immediately
thereafter, the Torah describes the population of S’dom as “exceedingly
evil and sinful before HaShem” (Berershit 13:13). A
“World War” breaks out in the Middle East, “four Kings against the
five” (Bereshit 14:9). S’dom
is defeated; its population and property are taken, and Lot is kidnapped.
Avram learns the fate of his nephew.
He gathers his meager forces and pursues the four kings, soundly
defeating them with the aid of HaShem, and retrieves the people and the
wealth (Bereshit 14:1-17). The
King of S’dom says to Avram, surprisingly, “Give me the souls,
and take the possessions;” using the same “soul-language” that the
Torah uses in the beginning of the Parshah, in describing the activities of
Avram and Sarai, perhaps as an unconscious plea to Avram to share his
teachings with the People of S’dom. Avram
responds to the offer of the wealth by saying that he has learned his lesson
not to accept the smallest amount of material wealth from another human
being, but he returns the people, including Lot, to the King of S’dom, who
resumes, along with his citizens, his evil ways. “After
these events,” HaShem announces to Avraham his intention to destroy
S’dom and its twin city, Amora (Bereshit
18:20), “And HaShem said, ‘The outcry from S’dom and Amora has become
great …’. ” Avraham then
launches into a desperate dialogue with HaShem, trying to convince Him to
spare the cities. The
language used is “VaYigash Avraham,” and “Avraham approached
(HaShem), very similar to the language used in connection with Yehudah,
about whom the Torah will say, “VaYigash Elav Yehudah,” “And
Yehudah approached Yoseph.” Yehudah
took upon himself the responsibility of the brothers because he had,
according to RASHI on verse Bereshit 44:32, “tied himself into the matter
with a tight knot; to be excluded, if he failed, from both worlds.” Perhaps
here too, Avraham, considered by Jewish Tradition, as the “Amud
HaChesed,” the Pillar of Kindness in the World, felt responsible for
separating himself from Lot, and for not having attempted to teach the
inhabitants of S’dom, as he had attempted to teach the rest of the region,
the importance of kindness. An
argument in favor of the above interpretation can be made from the fact that
Chizkiyahu 16:55 refers to the City of S’dom and its suburbs returning in
the time of the Mashiach,
to their original, pre-destruction, state. Even
if the above interpretation is true, it must be remembered that the
“Avot” made many good decisions and they made a few mistakes. Both the
good decisions and the mistakes had cosmic consequences. The
good decisions, in the “eyes” of the Creator, vastly exceed, in quantity
and quality, the mistakes. And
the cosmic consequences of the good decisions vastly outweigh the cosmic
consequences of the mistakes. Of course, it is probably true that Avraham saw correctly that his household and the household of Lot were truly incompatible, and therefore the separation was justified and necessary, and also made an accurate judgment that there was no possibility of persuading the People of S’dom to change their ways. But it is nevertheless important to realize that the Torah paints for us unvarnished and accurate pictures of our great ancestors, from the perspective of “For there is no man so wholly righteous on earth that he always does good, and never sins” (Kohelet 7:20 Rabbi Pinchas Frankel |
