Lech Lecha 5768

Does one EVER get beyond the first words of this week's parashah when expounding upon Avraham? Lech Lecha, go for yourself, for your own benefit, says Rashi, since "the road" leads to poverty, anonymity, and infertility, I promise you, says Hashem to Avraham (per Rashi), that I'll bless you in all these realms. And following Rashi's lead but taking things in a different direction are a whole line-up of interpreters, Chasidic masters foremost amongst them, who revel in new insights into those first two words.

But if our interpretive tradition is stuck on those two words, Avraham, for his part, goes on, spending the better part of our parashah walking – not just TO Eretz Yisrael, but, soon after his arrival, down to Egypt and back, then, upon his return, retracing his initial steps, then to the far north of the land in pursuit of the captors of his nephew, Lot. He walks a strange walk between severed sacrifices in the dream sequence of the covenant between the pieces. He walks the length and breadth of the Land in an act of symbolic acquisition, until his peripatetic life is immobilized by Brit Milah, and Avraham, temporarily, settles down. With all this moving around, changing mileau so frequently that set-painters for the Broadway play Avraham would go on strike, the man hardly has time to say K'riyat Shema before he's picking up and moving on…

In fact, a famous midrash in the Tanchuma on our parashah would seem to address precisely this question:

Let our master teach us: A Jew – may he accept upon himself the Kingdom of Heaven (i.e., recite the Shema) while walking?

The Rabbis answer: It is forbidden to accept upon oneself the Kingdom of Heaven while walking, rather, let him stand in one place and direct his mind toward heaven in fear and awe and quaking and trembling, while unifying the Name, and let him invoke, "Hear, O Israel, Hashem is G-d, Hashem is One", each word with heartfelt focus, and afterward, "Praised is the Name of Glorious Kingdom for ever and ever", and when he begins, "And you shall love…", then, if he wishes, he may resume walking, if he wishes, he may remain stationary, if he wishes, he may sit, for it is written, "when you sit in your house, when you go on your way, when you lie down and when you stand up".

One finds that anyone who is punctilious regarding the mitzvot, his rewards is great, for thus do we find regarding Avraham that he was punctilious regarding the mitzvot, therefore he was called the loving friend of the the Holy One (praised be He!), as it is stated, "the seed of Avraham, my loving friend."

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said that Rabbi Yonatan said: Even (the rabbinic ordinance of) Eruvei Tavshilim did they keep in the house of Avraham Avinu, as it is stated, "and he kept my commandment, my statutes and my torot" – now are there many torot? Is it not stated, "there shall be one torah for you"? Rather, "my torot" – these are the details of the commandments which Avraham punctiliously kept.

The Holy One (praised be He!) said to him: you are punctiliously keeping My commandments and you're dwelling amidst idolators, go forth from them!!" – Lech Lecha

Well, that's about how long it seems that Avraham stops, long enough to say Shema, "and he called upon (i.e., invoked, perhaps in the midst/presence of the locals) the Name of Hashem". Then, he was off again, moving from domain to domain, establishing himself only long enough to gain his "residency" permit (after all, he IS called Eitan Haezrachi, the steadfast citizen!), then on to the next whistle-stop.

But, wait! The midrash DOES depict Avraham as maintaining a household, one in which all the details of Jewish tradition as they were to unfold in history are kept with punctilious precision. He must have settled into some semblance of domesticity. In fact, the "minor" rabbinic mitzvah which he in credited with carefully anticipating is a most sedentary one: Eiruv Tavshilim. Recall that this is the rabbinic provision for cooking on Yom Tov for Shabbat when the former abuts the latter, without running afoul of violating the lesser sanctity of Yom Tov to prepare for the greater sanctity of Shabbat.

Let's skip the obvious question, one which has generated much insight as to the theological underpinnings of Halachah: How could Avraham keep Eruv Tavshilin, even before the rabbis ever thought of it so many generations later. Let's ask a different question: Why Eruvei Tavshilim? What does that have to do with Avraham's journeyings? In fact, precisely this questions is posed by one of the disciples of the Vilna Gaon, and he corrects the version to read Eruvei Techumim, the creating of a legal abode on the edge of one's Techum Shabbat, which allows one to extend the distance one can walk on Shabbat. Say that a great rav is speaking in the next village – if it is within 2000 amah (approximately one kilometer), then you can go; if more, you're stuck. By placing two meals worth of food in a secure place at the edge of your standard 2000 amah limit, you can reconfigure your walking distance to be centered on that new "abode" you've created, and now you've got twice the distance. This reading, of Eruv Techumim, IS attested to by some sources, most notably in Teshuvot Harashba.

Wow, I said to myself, that's great!! Look, Ur Kasdim is Avram's original abode, he leaves with his father, Terach, for Canaan, but they can't get there – they stop in Charan, about half-way in-between, and "settle down" there, until Avraham sets out for Canaan, now called "the land which I will show you". You see? Charan is Avraham's Eruv Techumin, it's what allows him to extend his reach, to come from Ur Kasdim all the way to "the land which I will show you". It allows him to encompass the world of Ur and the world of "I will show you" within the span of one lifetime's journey. By still having a proverbial foot in Ur, he can ultimately serve as the one who will bring everyone, even those who didn't accompany him on the journey, to Hashem.

But the only problem is: MOST versions of the midrash read Eruv Tavshilim. And, to complicate things further, there are even some which read Eruv Chatzerot, that type of Eruv which converts the courtyard around which many private homes are arrayed into a domain held by the composite "person" of all the residents taken together as one. What does THAT have to with Avraham and his incessant journeying?

Until it suddenly struck me: Eruv Techumim, deals with space; Eruv Tavshilin deals with time (Shabbat and Yom Tov) and Eruv Chatzerot deals with people. Here we have the "elementary particles" of our universe, according to Sefer Yetzira: Olam (world = space); Shana (year = time); Nefesh (soul = people). And guess to whom the composition of Sefer Yetzira is attributed? Yep – Avraham Avinu!

Avraham sees so clearly the ultimately Oneness, and he sees all too clearly, how the idolatry of Ur has generated a fractured world of evil and self-worship. How to anneal all those souls in all those places together and to bring them back to Eden, to the timeless here and now? Eruv! Mixing, by a very special means: by standing on the edge of two realms, being with each, of neither, holding on to both, and living the connection. Avraham HaIvri, the one who always seems on the other bank of the river, but he's over there only to get you to look up and out and over and beyond.

So you know what? Avraham invented the Eruv by being a living Eruv, touching all elements of being.

So which is the correct version of the Midrash, then? Is it Tavshilin, Techumin or Chatezerot! I'm all mixed up!!

"Did I hear you correctly", Avraham whispers in my ear, "you don't really know if the realm you inhabit is this world or the next?".

"That's right", I answer.

"O.K., I think my work here is done", says Avraham Eruvseed, and he tosses his lifesack over his shoulder, clicks twice at his donkey, and the dust, as numerous as his offspring, ascends as though reaching for heaven, as Avraham disappears into the horizon.