As anyone who reads my Divrei Torah knows, I believe that the Torah teaches us a great deal about how we promote social and emotional intelligence in our educational communities. At the same time, sometimes I worry that we place too emphasis on promoting social and emotional skills because of their long-term impact on a person’s life, and not enough emphasis on how the values of kindness, patience, caring and others impact our relationships with others on a daily basis. When I read this week’s parasha, the story of Abraham helps me better understand what it means to teach another person to see the value of living a life of holiness in the here-and-now.
Parshat Lekh Lekha begins with God’s dramatic call to Abram to leave his family and the place of his birth, and go to an undetermined place. The parasha states:
“The Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1-2).
While it is relatively easy for us to understand what it means for God to tell Abram that he would receive blessings at the end of his journey, it is less obvious to our commentators what God means when he says to Abram that “you shall be a blessing.” In general, the perspective of our rabbinic commentators on this passage is that Abraham, and later and Isaac and Jacob, form a precedent of devotion to God that benefits all future generations of Jews, what is oftentimes referred to as zechut Avot, or the “merit of our ancestors.” However, an equally important strand exists in our rabbinic commentaries where Abraham’s blessing is not rooted in a merit for future generations, but in how Abraham’s conduct makes him a direct source of blessing to others throughout his life. In his commentary on “And you will be a blessing,” Rashi writes the following:
“And you will be a blessing”: The blessings are put into your hand. Until now they were in My hand: I blessed Adam, Noah, and you. But from now on, you will bless whomever you wish (Rashi, Bereishit 12:2).
In Rashi’s commentary, Abraham is not portrayed a person who will receive blessings from God, but rather is a person for whom God gave the ability to bestow divine blessings to others.
Rashi’s commentary is echoed in the commentary of Isaac Abravanel, who argues that Abraham himself is the blessing that God sends throughout the earth, and it is the qualities that Abraham exudes that impact people and communities throughout his life. Abravanel writes:
“The goal of his journeying is hinted at in the expression, “you shall be a blessing” (Bereishit 12:2), for He commanded him that when he would journey, there would be a blessing among the peoples because he would teach them and make them know the truth faith in such a way that the world would be perfected by means of him. And He (may he be blessed!) informed him that His providence would adhere to those people who accept his teaching and learn his faith” (Isaac Abravanel on Bereishit 12:2).
In this commentary, rather than the Abraham’s deeds being a later source of blessing, Abraham himself is the source of blessing in the eyes of Abravanel. As Abraham went on his journey, the qualities that led God to choose Abraham constantly impact others.
The perspective taken by Abravanel is reflected in a recent book by Professor Jon D. Levenson of Harvard University, whose book Inheriting Abraham examines the diverse and distinct ways that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam use Abraham as a means of enhancing their community’s religious faith. Regarding Abraham’s later impact on the Jewish tradition, Levenson writes:
“In the Hebrew Bible, the point is not that these men were righteous but that they were the recipients of God’s gracious promise, and the Jewish people benefit not from any merit they supposedly accrued but from the irrevocable promise to them that centers on their descendants….the blessing on Abram has positive consequences for “all the families of the earth,” whose prosperity is owing to him through the benefits conferred by his descendants, the Jewish people” (Jon D. Levenson, Inheriting Abraham, 31).
According to Levenson, the Torah establishes that Abraham is, “not simply a byword of blessing...he is a universal source of blessing” (Ibid). While Abraham ultimately impacts the world in the long-term, our parasha makes clear that his impact was also tremendous in the short-term.
When we educate our children to become exemplars of social and emotional intelligence, we typically frame these values in terms of how building these skills allows individuals to reap benefit over the long-term. As result, we oftentimes forget to remind our children that being a person who exudes certain qualities causes them to be a blessing to others in the here-and-now, in the everyday interactions that ultimately paint the picture of who a person really is. May we teach our children to embrace the example of Abraham, recognizing that a life of holiness leads us to be a person who is, in word and deed, a blessing.
Shabbat Shalom!
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