Lech Licha
This week I want to say over one idea that I heard from the current Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rav Shlomo Amar who is in town this week. He brought an interesting insight and lesson from the Parasha that I would like to bring you.
The Rabbi asked a question about Avraham Aveenu, as to why he was introduced at the age of 75 years old. What happened in the first 75 years in Avraham Aveenu’s life and why is there no mention of it? There must have been significant details from his first 75 years that could have been included in the Torah. In fact, we know from the sources of Midrash in Pirke DeRebi Eliezer that Avraham Aveenu had a very interesting 75 years. He was thrown into a fiery furnace by Nimrod. He was bad and had to run and live in a cave for ten years because they were pursing him. These stories and more are not covered in the Torah explicitly. Furthermore, the Torah does not expound how Avraham found G-d. The Torah does not cover Avraham’s path towards monotheism. So why is all that not mentioned?
The beginning of Avraham’s career in the Torah is at the beginning of Parashat Lech Licha where it writes; "VaYomer Hashem El Avram" (and G-d said to Avram). So Rabbi Amar explained that from here you can see that during his first 75 years, Avraham Aveenu was searching for Bore Olam. Avraham Aveenu looked at the creation, and he looked at all the different wonders of nature. Avraham Aveenu analyzed and probed various philosophies and ideologies. Avraham searched and explored until he came upon G-d. And that is the moment when G-d came to him and said "VaYomer Hashem El Avram". This comes to teach us that all the exploration, and all the ideas, philosophies and conjecture didn’t really mean anything.
So the Torah is teaching us that philosophy and ideology and searching G-d from a rationale stand point is fine before coming to know G-d. But once G-d reveals himself to you, so then there would be no need any more for a philosophical approach. We are all now living in a time after G-d’s revelation to the Jewish people. As such, it is worthless for us to delve into philosophical exploration and rationale proofs to attest that there is a G-d. If we were living before Matan Torah, before the revelation, then we would have been justified looking for proofs.
So we can learn a lot from the omission of details on Avraham’s life before 75. There are times like in this case that we learn not from what the Torah writes, but rather from what the Torah doesn’t write. Here the Torah is teaching us that the philosophizing about G-d is not relevant. It’s clear there is a G-d. So we learn that we should not investigate and theologize or search out divinity. Bore Olam has revealed himself many times over to us. We should not do as Avraham did in his early years. We know Bore Olam. We should be very careful not to involve ourselves in the winding roads of philosophy. Those who enter into that labyrinth of suppositions enter into a very dangerous path because sometimes they get so far entrenched and are unable to escape. So for us, it’s simple, as we already know G-d. We are alike Avraham Aveenu after his first 75 years.
