Faith and Fellowship: Avraham's Legacy for Exile

1“Hashem said to Avram, ‘Go for yourself’ …”¹ On this verse the Midrash says: “R' Yitzchak said: This is like a man who was traveling from place to place and saw a palace ablaze with light. He said, ‘Can you say this palace has no master?’ The owner of the palace looked out at him and said, ‘I am the owner of the palace.’ So too, because Avraham Avinu was saying, ‘Can you say this world has no master?’ the Holy One, blessed be He, looked out at him and said, ‘I am the Owner of the world.’ That is why ‘Hashem said to Avram, Go for yourself.’”²

2We may explain this by first citing a teaching of Chazal: “Rav said: Avraham Avinu kept the entire Torah, as it says, ‘Because Avraham listened to My voice.’ Rava said, and some say Rav Ashi: Avraham Avinu kept even eiruv tavshilin.”³ Why did Chazal choose this mitzvah in particular, rather than any other Rabbinic mitzvah? Avraham Avinu surely kept those as well.

3aWe can explain it this way. The Midrash says that Bnei Yisrael in Egypt had scrolls that were their delight each Shabbos, and in them it was written that the Holy One, blessed be He, would redeem them.⁴ They read them on Shabbos, the day Israel rested from its labor. Another Midrash tells how they came to have that day of rest: “‘Moshe grew up … and he saw their burdens.’ He saw that they had no rest. He went and said to Pharaoh, ‘If a man has a slave and the slave does not rest …’ So Moshe went and instituted the day of Shabbos for them.”⁵ The Tur, the classic code of Jewish law, cites this to explain the words of the Shabbos morning prayer “Moshe rejoiced in the gift of his portion.”⁶ Because Moshe Rabbeinu chose Shabbos as the day of rest, the prayer calls it by his name.

3bIn these Midrashim Chazal have revealed to us where Bnei Yisrael found the strength to hold firm in the harsh and bitter exile of Egypt. It came only in the merit of two things, the same two that always shield the people of Israel in every exile. The first is faith in Hashem. The second is strengthening one another by gathering in groups: “Each man helps his fellow, and says to his brother, ‘Be strong!’”⁷ On holy Shabbos Bnei Yisrael sat together, group after group, and read their scrolls, which said that the Holy One, blessed be He, would one day redeem them. This gave them great strength, and they found the courage and the power to endure the exile.

4This power, this foundation, is Israel's inheritance from Avraham Avinu. As soon as Hashem promised him, “I will make you into a great nation,”⁸ Avraham laid the foundations for the survival of the people of Israel in exile. The first was the merit and power of faith; the second was strengthening one another and banding together as a group. So we find that Avraham Avinu gathered people into groups and taught them the Torah of Hashem and faith in Hashem. On the verse “And he called there in the name of Hashem, God of the world,” Chazal say: “Do not read vayikra, ‘he called,’ but vayakri, ‘he made others call.’ This teaches that Avraham Avinu had every passerby call out the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He.”⁹

5With this parshah the founding of the Jewish people begins; here the Holy One, blessed be He, tells Avraham Avinu, “I will make you into a great nation.” To build and found the people of Israel, the very first thing needed is to establish faith, to believe that the palace has a Master. Without faith, the people of Israel has no advantage at all over the other nations, for it is its faith that sets the House of Israel apart from every nation and tongue. It seems that this is why the Midrash tells of Avraham Avinu's faith in this very parshah. With the words “The owner of the palace looked out at him and said, ‘I am the Owner of the world,’” it teaches us that Avraham recognized his Creator even before the command “Go for yourself.” After he had recognized his Creator, Avraham Avinu would also gather the people in groups and make Hashem's Name known in the world, as we saw in Chazal's teaching that he “made others call.”

6aThis is what the Rambam writes: “But as for the Rock of the worlds, there was no one who recognized Him or knew Him except a few individuals … until the pillar of the world was born, and that is Avraham Avinu. … He began to stand up and call out in a great voice to the whole world, and to make known to them that there is one God for the whole world, and that it is fitting to serve Him. He went about calling out and gathering the people from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom … calling out, as it says, ‘And he called there in the name of Hashem, God of the world.’ When the people gathered to him in thousands and tens of thousands … he planted in their hearts this great principle.” So far his words.¹⁰

6bThe Ra'avad challenges this in his critical glosses on the Rambam: “Avraham says: I am astonished, for Shem and Ever were there. How could they not have protested?” So far his words.¹¹ The Migdal Oz, a commentary on the Rambam, answers the Ra'avad there. Avraham Avinu, he explains, went about calling out and gathering the people from city to city, and he convened public assemblies in which he spread and made known the word of Hashem and faith in Him. Shem and Ever were different. They did protest to those close to them, and they taught the way of Hashem to the few who came to them, but they did not go out to assemble and gather the people and spread Torah and faith among them. This is what the Rambam means: Avraham Avinu was the first to spread and make known the word of Hashem and faith in public. We see, then, that it is above all with Avraham that we find the people gathered together, group after group. Through this he was able to plant faith in Hashem in their hearts and make His Name known in the world.

7This answers our question: in light of what we have said, we can understand why Chazal chose to say that Avraham Avinu kept the mitzvah of eiruv tavshilin, which allows cooking on Yom Tov for Shabbos. Shabbos is the sign and the covenant of faith in Hashem, for it testifies that “in six days Hashem made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He ceased and rested.”¹² So when Chazal wanted to teach us that Avraham kept even the Rabbinic mitzvos, they chose eiruv tavshilin, which is done in honor of Shabbos. They were hinting that the heart and foundation of Avraham Avinu's avodah, his service of Hashem, was the service of faith, which is bound up with the mitzvah of Shabbos, the day that testifies to faith in Hashem. For the same reason, it was on holy Shabbos that our forefathers in Egypt strengthened their faith in Hashem, saying that the Holy One, blessed be He, would redeem them: Shabbos and faith belong together.

8We need to learn from our forefathers and walk in their ways, gathering on holy Shabbos to learn together as a group. As Chazal say on the verse “Moshe assembled”: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moshe: Go down and make great assemblies for Me on Shabbos, so that the generations that come after you will learn …”¹³ Public assemblies like these bring a person to faith in Hashem, as we saw with Avraham's gatherings, and Israel is redeemed only in the merit of faith.¹⁴ May Hashem grant that we be privileged to see this very soon. Amen, may it be His will.