It’s true, Jews have a superpower

We meet Abraham when God does.  And when we do, we know nothing about him other than his lineage and that his family is on the move towards Canaan.

Here is what we think we know.  Abraham searched for God first in the sun, moon, stars, and sky, finally to understand that God is transcendent.  That is a legend not found in the Torah text.

Abraham’s father, Terach, was the proprietor of an idol shop.  Legend, not Torah.

King Nimrod condemned Abraham to die in “the fiery furnace.”  Legend, not Torah.

While undoubtedly true that Abraham was a spiritual seeker, we also see that God sought him. God felt that Abraham possessed a unique quality, and the Torah text makes this clear in the way in which God consoles Abraham regarding his fear that he will not have children to fulfill his nation-building mission. God brought Abraham outside and invited him to “look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them…so shall your offspring be.”

This most magnificent metaphor comforted not only Abraham. To this day, it allows every generation of his spiritual progeny to feel exceptional.  Carl Sagan famously reminded us that we are “star stuff.”  Indeed, but as Jews, God imbued the very nobility of genuine star status among us nearly 4,000 years ago.

It is through this encounter that we now understand what God saw in Abraham and why of all the people who preceded him, of the nearly 30 million people in the world at that time, God chose Abraham.

Let’s go back to God’s challenge to Abraham to “count the stars, if you are able to count them.”  We think, of course it is impossible to count the stars; there are so many of them.  And yes, that indeed is a challenge.  But God wanted to know if Abraham could count the stars, not because they are nearly infinite in number, but because this episode occurred during the day.  The sun will not set until seven verses later as God and Abraham seal an eternal pact, one that God had confidence to enter into because above all the people in the world, Abraham has demonstrated that he possesses the superpower to see stars in broad daylight.

We are charmed and moved by the image of one light banishing darkness.  Of one candle sharing its light with another, increasing light without diminishing its flame.  These are beautiful concepts.  They enable us to appreciate small kindnesses, and they move us to perform acts of chesed.  If those ideas about seeing light in the darkness stir our souls, how much more inspired will we feel about a person who has the ability to peer into the sky, face overwhelming sunlight, and see beyond its brilliance. Had God asked anyone else to look up that day, he or she would have basked in the bright glow that bathed the entire sky.  But Abraham could see the invisible.  He viewed the stars that were eclipsed by the sun washing over everything in the sky. His eyes pierced the light until he saw each and every star in the heavens.  He saw every one of us. That is who God wanted to establish a Divinely inspired nation.

As Abraham’s spiritual heirs, as the bearers of God’s trust to create an interdependent, holy people, we are reminded to use our superpower to honor that trust. To comfort those who feel inconsequential among the masses so that they know that they are valuable.  To assure those who feel invisible while other concerns compete for our attention that they are seen.