LECH LECHA Soul Survivors
In today’s Jewish world, few topics are as guaranteed to set the Jewish pulse racing, the keys tapping and the tongue wagging as the subject of intermarriage and assimilation. Jewish demographers globally are united in their prediction – we may almost call it the central axiom of contemporary secular Jewish belief – that given escalating trends of out-marriage, the very future of world Jewry is threatened.
In order to discover what the Torah might have to say on the matter of Jewish continuity in our era, we can do no better than to look at an early verse in this week’s Sidra. Narrating Avram’s response to his inaugural mission of lekh lkha (“leave your home for a land which I (G-D) will show you”), the Torah tells us that he took “his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot and all their possessions, v’et hanefesh asher asu veCharan and the souls they had made in Haran”. (Gen. 12:5)
Many inspirational ideas are derived from this verse. For one thing there is the comment of the Midrash Bereishit Rabba (39:14, 84:4): Rav Elazar said in the name of Rav Yosi ben Zimra: If all the nations united to try to create even a single microbe, they could not endow it with life – yet the verse refers to ‘the souls they had made in Haran’! It refers, rather, to the proselytes they had won over. Then why is the verb made used? Let the verse read ‘that they had converted’! No, it is rather to teach you that he or she who brings a Gentile near to G-D and converts him, it is as though he created him. The commentary Torah Temima asks: “why does the Torah not use the word bar’u, created, rather than asu, made?” Possibly”, it answers, “because asu implies ‘bringing to an ultimate state of perfection’”.
Here we have a hint of one radical solution to the problem of intermarriage which several contemporary Jewish thinkers have begun to voice seriously: embark upon a program of proactive proselytisation. It was done once, they say, and it could be done again! After all, does not the Talmud state in the name of Rabbi Elazar (Pesakhim 87b): The Holy One Blessed be He exiled Israel among the nations only in order that converts may be added to their number!”
On sober reflection, however, we might be forced to concede that geirei tsedek (righteous converts) of the calibre envisaged by the Talmud do not grow on trees! Even assuming a more proactive approach on the part of rabbis were to be halachically mandated, the likelihood of large numbers of Gentiles queueing up to dedicate themselves to a life of full-blooded Torah observance is extremely slim. What else of relevance to our topic might we glean from our verse cited above?
A clue lies in the word nefesh. We translated the word above as “souls”. In context, the word clearly has a plural connotation. However, nefesh is actually couched in the singular. The literal meaning is: they took “the soul which they had made in Haran”. What can this be teaching us? Perhaps the most vital lesson of all when speaking of Jewish continuity: that far more important in the Jewish community – local and global – than the number of Jewish souls is the amount of Jewish soul!
It is a fascinating aspect of biblical Hebrew grammar that with numbers above ten a singular noun is invariably used. Only with numbers between two and ten is the plural form of the noun used. The clearest example of this can be seen in the genealogical lists in the past two Sidrot – thus we have, for example shalosh shanim three years, eser shanim ten years – but chamesh esreh shana fifteen years, matayim shana 200 years. There is a lesson for us here too. When is it relevant to count a body of Jews? Only when the numbers are between two and ten. Then it is important to ascertain whether there are enough Jews to form a congregation, a kehilla, a community. Once we have more than ten Jews we can stop counting. We do not need demographers and statisticians to inform us exactly how many Jews there are in yennevelt in order to conclude therefrom – as if they were prophets – how near we are supposedly to the brink of extinction (G-D forbid).
Of course, if the aim is to decide upon the provision of resources for the various age and gender groups that is entirely a positive matter. On a microcosmic level, we must be concerned for the survival of every individual Jewish soul. But on a macrocosmic level we are concerned only for the survival of Jewish soul. “Not because of your numbers relative to other nations did G-D desire and choose you – – for you are the smallest of all the nations!” (Deut 7:7). It was ever thus. And right from the beginnings of our history in Egypt, it has been a case of the ‘survival of the spiritually fittest’.
We have never relied on numbers. Much more vital than the number of Jewish souls is the amount of Jewish soul!
