Why Abraham?

Chapter 12 of Genesis begins with God making extraordinary commitments to Abraham (blessings, land).

Why? How did Abraham merit such a massive gift?

When the Torah introduces Abraham, there are no precursor heroic deeds and not even an assertion that he was righteous and God-fearing.

The lack of praise for Abraham is striking when compared to other Torah greats. For Noah, the Torah states, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” The next verse continues with “Noah was in his generations a man righteous and whole-hearted; Noah walked with God.” Only after this context is established does God approach Noah and share His plan that the world will be destroyed and Noah will be saved.

Moses’ introduction is elaborate. At his birth, we heard that “he was a goodly child”. Before he received any mission from God, he saw the suffering of his people and smote the Egyptian oppressor. As a freedom fighter, he needed to flee, and as a stranger in a foreign land he saved the hapless daughters of the priest of Midian. Only then do we see God approach Moses and identify Moses as the instrument of redemption.

Our Sages apparently were bothered by this. Midrashic interpretations abound about how Abraham found God and risked his life for his beliefs. The Midrash says he destroyed his father’s idols and was threatened by death when he was tossed into a fiery furnace. But these vignettes do not appear in the text. Why does the Torah omit the foundational reason that Abraham was chosen?

Abraham’s ascent is an example of a Torah story which is understandable as a self-contained story, but when one thinks about it more broadly is problematic. Some other examples from the time of the Patriarchs are:

• Why did God decide to have a Chosen People at all? Did He always plan on having such a nation?
• Why did God choose the particular timing that He did to form a covenant with one nation?
• Why are all the children of Jacob included in the covenant – even those who sinned – whereas some of the children of Abraham and Isaac are not included?
• What is the background of the love that Isaac had for his sinful son Esau?
• Why was Isaac intent on providing Esau with extraordinary blessings, including dominion over Jacob?
• Why are there detours in the text? There are long sections (e.g., the war in chapter 14 of Genesis) that seem irrelevant to the main topic of Genesis yet occupy a significant amount of space. What is the cosmic importance of these vignettes?

One approach to address these types of questions is by looking more carefully at the text. I found three verses in the Biblical text which describe extraordinary qualifications that Abraham has. The characteristics that are mentioned are:

1. Belief in God’s ethical compass. The Torah reports, “And he [i.e., Abraham] believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness”.

2. Ability to transmit the heritage of God’s word. God says about Abraham, “For I have known him, that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him”.

3. Obedience to God’s commands. An angel of God concludes after the binding of Isaac that various blessings come to Abraham “because you have hearkened to My voice”.

These are logical qualifications. One can readily see that if an individual and his progeny have these characteristics, the resulting nation will fulfill God’s desire to have a Chosen People who fulfill His will and are an example for all nations. Based on this logic, we have found a reason – in the text – for Abraham’s selection.

There is much more to say about these three characteristics to bolster the case that these are the right characteristics. I have documented much of this in my recent book: “Why Abraham” – published by Gefen Press. I’ll also comment on this and some of the other problematic topics in the future.