Parashat Lech-Lecha
October 14, 2021
Rabbi Harry Pell, Associate Head of School
In this week’s parashah, in one of Bereshit’s made-for-Hollywood dramatic moments, God takes Avram outside, presumably out of his tent, and tells Avram to look up at the stars.
Bereshit 15:5 reads:
וַיּוֹצֵ֨א אֹת֜וֹ הַח֗וּצָה וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ הַבֶּט־נָ֣א הַשָּׁמַ֗יְמָה וּסְפֹר֙ הַכּ֣וֹכָבִ֔ים אִם־תּוּכַ֖ל לִסְפֹּ֣ר אֹתָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֔וֹ כֹּ֥ה יִהְיֶ֖ה זַרְעֶֽךָ׃
God says to Avram — look up at the stars, and count them if you can, but actually they are impossible to count, and so too will your descendants be too numerous to count.
Bereshit 15:5 reads:
וַיּוֹצֵ֨א אֹת֜וֹ הַח֗וּצָה וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ הַבֶּט־נָ֣א הַשָּׁמַ֗יְמָה וּסְפֹר֙ הַכּ֣וֹכָבִ֔ים אִם־תּוּכַ֖ל לִסְפֹּ֣ר אֹתָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֔וֹ כֹּ֥ה יִהְיֶ֖ה זַרְעֶֽךָ׃
God says to Avram — look up at the stars, and count them if you can, but actually they are impossible to count, and so too will your descendants be too numerous to count.
Rashi considers three explanations for what this pasuk really means. First, maybe it is peshat, straightforward, and when it says that God took Avram out to look at the stars, it simply means that God took Avram outside to look at the stars. God used the stars to make a point, and that’s all there was to it.
Alternatively, Rashi cites a fantastical explanation: When God takes Avram out to look at the stars, it doesn’t mean that God did so in a conventional way! It means that God took Avram up into the heavens to look down at the stars . . . from above!
But my favorite of Rashi’s interpretations on this pasuk is what Rashi labels as midrash, conscious that he is sharing an interpretation from the collection of Bereshit Rabah. God didn’t take Avram out of his tent to gaze at the stars. Instead, God spoke to Avram and told him: you have to get out of your astrologically determined fate, by which you will die without an heir, because this is not your true fate! Avram won’t have a child, Rashi envisions God having said to Avram, but Avraham will! You must get out of your fate!
How often do we feel trapped by fate? As if nothing we could possibly do would change our situation? Rashi’s midrashic answer to this feeling is to say no — we are only trapped by our fate if we allow ourselves to be. Avram needed to have his name changed to Avraham, and his destiny changed with it. Sometimes, we need to do as Avram did, and get out of the fate we thought had been predetermined. Perhaps we need to take action, perhaps we need to change our attitude, but whatever you do, God tells Avram and us, don’t think that you can’t change your fate. We can, and like Avram in this moment, we must.
Shabbat Shalom.
Shabbat Shalom.