Author’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the third of my talks in a series titled “The Journey.” This four part series was scheduled for the members of the Beth Israel Congregation of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“You are pitiful, isolated individuals! You are bankrupts. Your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on – into the dustbin of history!” Leon Trotsky

Trotsky shouted this at the Mensheviks on 7 November, 1917, at the Second Congress of Soviets. In our contemporary period, it seems that religious faith, regardless of tradition, has been played out and dumped into the dustbin of history. The absence and often mockery of faith in God is part of the steady diet provided by the entertainment industry and other sources. Influential religious authorities, educators, political leaders, and laypeople who claim a belief in God too often undermine faith with their conduct and words. We turn to science and materialism for answers while ignoring a deeper hunger to connect with our fellow human beings and the natural world. We want simple answers, if we want answers at all.

The dilemma of faith we face today is similar to that Abraham contended with. To be human is to contend with a perplexing mystery. Who is this God, and what does this divinity want of us?

Many of us have been taught that God is both immanent and transcendent. When we use the term immanence, we acknowledge that God is near, sustaining, and involved in creation and our lives. Transcendence refers to our inability to comprehend the Divine because God is distinct from, independent of, and infinitely above the physical universe. When we speak of God’s transcendence, we acknowledge that God is a Mystery above mystery that we are incapable of explaining. 

Rational analysis is our approach to the mysteries of the physical world. For example, quantum physics allows us to become aware of, and begin to subtly comprehend, the precision and harmony of the physical principles. These principles, or laws, explain how objects behave. I say "begin to subtly comprehend" because in quantum physics, one question leads to another. We can never fully grasp the mysteries of the cosmos. What we become aware of is the interconnection and relationships that transcend space and time. 

Rational and discerning faith enables us to perceive the connection between the spiritual and physical realms. As Rabbi Sholom Ber Schneersohn (1860-1920) observed, “Everything that exists in the physical world has its source in the higher spiritual realms. One may discover it here below and recognize its root Above—or perceive its root Above and thus understand its expression in the physical world.” Science allows us a subtle understanding of the physical principles, but it is incapable of explaining the spiritual realm, the Mystery that is above mysteries. 

Faith is a rational consent. Though commenting on biblical exegesis, Abraham ibn Ezra's reasoning applies to this point. ibn Ezra maintained that faith and reason are not mutually exclusive. He writes, "Rational analysis (shikul ha-da'at) is the foundation, because the Torah was not given to those devoid of reason; and the angel (mal'akh, meaning messenger or mediator) between man and his God is his intellect [intellectual capacity/reason].” Good exegesis of the Torah is foundational to our faith. 

But what if we had no Torah? What would be the basis for our Jewish faith and identity? This is the dilemma Abraham faced. On what did he base his faith?

The first eleven chapters of Genesis speak of One God who creates and sustains life. They make no reference to multiple gods or idolatry. Instead, the biblical authors describe humanity's wickedness (Genesis 6:1-5). And arrogance (Genesis 11:1-4). In the later text of the TaNaKh, the biblical authors allude to pagan deities, gods, and goddesses. However, unlike the Greeks and Egyptians, the Torah tells us nothing about the nature of these deities while acknowledging their existence.

According to the Genesis text, the oneness of God, monotheism, is fundamental for understanding creation. One God is both the creator and ruler of the universe. This understanding links Adam, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. This chain of understanding continues through the patriarchs and matriarchs, and the prophets, to the present. The Divine Name was not revealed until Moses, though the Torah establishes how the early monotheist discerned God.

El Elyon, God Most High (Genesis 14:18-20, 22), Roi, The God of Seeing or the God Who Sees Me (Genesis 16:13), El Shaddai: God Almighty (Genesis 17:1; 28:3; 35:11; 43:14), Shaddai, The One of the Mountain, The Mountain Dweller (Genesis 49:25), El Olam: Eternal God (Genesis 21:33), El Bethel, God of Bethel (Genesis 31:13; 35:7).   

For those who preceded and proceeded Abraham until Moses, religion was primarily informal and personal. There was no specific location for communal worship. Their religious practices were consistent with their outsider status, lifestyle, and belief in a family God. The clan's religion was determined by the head of the clan—the patriarch. For example, “the God of Abraham” (Genesis 31:53) and the expression, “God of the Fathers” (Exodus 3:15). The biblical texts provide no clear indication of what Abraham was taught about God. To get a sense of it, we can ascertain a belief in one God, El, the Ancient One. 

“Our rabbis taught: The sons of Noah were given seven commandments: To establish a legal system, refrain from blasphemy, idolatry, sexual immorality, bloodshed,	theft, and from eating flesh from living animals” (B. Talmud tractate Sanhedrin 56a. See also Genesis Rabah Noah 34.8, and Tosefta Avodah Zarah 8:4).

We cannot assume that Abraham’s ancestors observed this code. The Noahide Laws were composed as a rabbinic response to Jewish persecution by Romans and Christians. This code of conduct is for a righteous gentile. These laws establish God’s authority and form a baseline for observing the covenant. Before Noah, there was no covenant.

But does this mean Abraham’s ancestors' conduct was aligned with tzedek u-mishpat (righteousness and justice)? Had their faith become abstract? By this I mean, was their faith more related to their lifestyle and influenced by the surrounding society? In Laws of Idol Worship (Avodat Kochavim), Chapter 1, Maimonides writes that humanity initially believed in monotheism, but this belief was corrupted. People began to worship other gods. The authors of the Torah write, “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan; but when they had come as far as Haran, they settled there” (Genesis 11:31). 

Maimonides argues, based on the midrashim (Genesis Rabbah 38), that Abraham lived in a pagan environment. Though not articulated until the Book of Joshua (Joshua 24:2), Terah accepted Haran's social norms. Genesis chapter 11 reveals nothing about Abraham’s early life or his character. Abraham questioned and ultimately disavowed Haran’s social norms, including his father’s faith. The Biblical account provides no evidence of Abraham’s reasoning, nor does it provided an explanation of why God chose him to establish a covenant. Instead, chapter 11 transitions, without explanation, immediately to God’s call of Abraham. What was the basis for Abraham’s response to God?

Chaldean culture provides some insight. Chaldea was associated with astronomy and astrology. Abraham may have been interested in astronomy (Genesis 15:5; 22:17). Did his astronomical observations fill him with awe and wonder that went beyond aesthetic enjoyment and inquiry, allowing him to perceive the Divine Creator behind the physical world?  

There are a few things to pay close attention to in Genesis 12:1-4. 
 
“GOD said to Abram, ‛Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you’” (Genesis 12:1)

First, God’s reaching out to Abraham to establish a covenant. The intent can be understood as renewing the breath of life to maintain the Shekinah in the world and fulfill the Divine purpose of creating humanity that requires obedience. Obedience is Abraham’s obligation in the covenant. It is also a response Abraham will struggle with throughout his life. 

Second, God also assumes an obligation.

“I will make of you a great nation,
And I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you
And curse the one who curses you;
And all the families of the earth
Shall bless themselves by you.” (Genesis 12:2-3)

“I” is used four times. “You” is used 7 times. These stanzas establish God’s obligation in the covenant. Verse 2 reveals something beyond Abraham: the creation of a community, a people who descend from Abraham and Sarah. Their righteousness and faith are foundational to and model of faith for that community. Abraham may be central in these verses, but Sarah, too, has a decision to make. She must decide to keep the covenant, not just as a response to Abraham in a patriarchal society, but of her own free will before the Divine. The Hebrew word tzedek is applicable here. The word translates to “justice” in English. But the concept goes far beyond just fair treatment and equal opportunities. Tzedek is seen as a fundamental value that encompasses morality and righteousness.

Third, the personal language in these verses proposes more than a command requiring mere obedience. The wording suggest the bond of friendship that requires trust and love between the Divine and Abraham. That bond is repeatedly tested throughout Abraham and Sarah's journey. The first test is in this moment. The last will be the command to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham must continually decide whether to trust the Divine. He and Sarah often struggled with their trust, their faith in God, as we do. Abraham has a son with Hagar, as he and Sarah doubt the promise of having their own child (Genesis 16:1-3). Sarah even laughs at God (Genesis 18:9–15). Doubt can either strengthen and deepen our faith when it leads us to ask more questions, or it can destroy it.

Fourth, Abraham is being commanded, but ultimately, the choice is his to make of his own free will, whether to accept or reject the covenant. The covenant rests on his decision, just as it continues to rest with us as individuals and as a community. 

What is our response to the Divine Presence; what is asked of us? “Lift up your eyes to heaven and see who created those” (Isaiah 40:26).  Lifting our eyes to see fills us with wonder. Abraham is a person filled with wonder. “Religion,” Abraham Josuha Heschel reminds us, “is the result of what man does with his ultimate wonder, the moments of awe, with the sense of mystery.” This is the beginning of faith. 

We too are on a journey in the “grandeur and mystery of living.”  And as Abraham and Sarah made their decisions of their own free will to accept or reject the covenant, so must we decide.

Image:
Qais Al Sindy, Living as a Pilgrim, 2019. Oil and collage on canvas, 60 x 45cm.
Photograph: © Shai Azoulay
https://www.theculturium.com/abraham-out-of-one-many/
This is a painting of Abraham carrying a lamb on his shoulders.