2000 Years of Torah

There is a Midrash that said that the world was divided into three two thousand year periods.

The first period from creation was known as the period of תהו ובהו, which can be translated as chaotic. There was no real orderliness to the world. This is why the flood and Tower of Bavel, took place during this time.

The second 2000 years were known as the period of Torah, and the third two thousand years, the time of the arrival of Mashiach.

Avraham Avinu had a major role to play during this second period of Torah. If we add up the twenty generations from Adam to Avraham, we learn that Avraham Avinu was born 1948 years after creation. This means that the period of Torah began when he was fifty-two years old.

The Torah tells us that Avraham entered Israel with his wife, Sara and הנפש אשר עשו בחרן, “the souls that he made in Charan. Despite the fact that Noach himself studied some Torah, because he knew which animals were kosher, and his son, Shem opened a place of study, this was nothing compared to Abraham’s activities.

Rav Yosef Karo wrote that Shem and his partner, Eiver, never left the Beit Hamidrash. Their teachings were selfish. They did not reach out to others. They waited until individuals like Yakov Avinu, came there to study.
Avraham Avinu was different. He was the first recorded “Kiruv” guy.

He traveled from city to city and proclaimed, “There is a Master to this world.”

He traveled from city to city, and country to country, and spread the word of Hashem to the world. He single-handedly brought the light of G-d to the world. He taught the concept of monotheism to a world steeped in idolatry.

He passed on this trait of education to Yitzchak and his descendants. The darkness that prevailed, saw the light. The two thousand years of chaos had now given way to the two thousand year period of Torah. A great part of this was due to Avraham Avinu.