As a young boy, a fire broke out in the home of the Maggid of Mezeritch. After safely evacuating, he stood with his mother, watching the flames consume their home. His mother began to cry. The young boy tried to comfort her. “I’m not crying over the house,” his mother explained, “but rather over the loss of our family history tree.
It went all the way back to Rabbi Yochanan HaSandler, a noted Tana in the Gemara.”
“If so, said the boy, I will start a new dynasty for you.” This story may shed light on a foundational question. The Ramban asks, in the beginning of this week’s parsha, whenever a personality is introduced in the Torah, whether it be Noach, Moshe Shimshon or Yirmiyahu, there’s always a backstory.
Noach is introduced as the lone righteous man in his generation, and this sets the stage for him building the arc and preserving human and animal life. We read about Moshe’s birth, his miraculous survival, his upbringing in the lap of luxury. And this paints the picture of a conscientious hero who managed to feel the pain of his brethren despite all odds.
Yet when it comes to Avraham, we have nothing. No introduction, no narrative. We simply open with Hashem speaking to him. The Midrash and Gemara are replete with stories and anecdotes, painting a rich picture of Avraham’s intellectual honesty and curiosity, of his courage to stand alone as a disruptor and even risk his life for his ideals.
But in the text of the Torah, we find no mention of his extraordinary early years. Why is that? I would like to share a daring thought. Avraham’s bio is that he has no bio. It’s the lack of a bio that tells us all we need to know. You see, for Avraham’s to be who he was, fiercely independent, ignoring the indoctrination and pressures of society, to think on his own, to heed the call of monotheism.
Avraham needed to shed his backstory, his narrative. He would have to transcend where he came from. To truly understand Avraham is to understand that he never allowed those around him, the culture that surrounded him, to hold sway over him. This is the foundational quality of Avraham, the soul of a true leader who possessed intellectual, moral, and spiritual integrity.
The ultimate father of nations. May we all emulate our patriarch and stay true to our values and ideals, irrespective of our surroundings. Wishing you a wonderful Shabbos.
