[Dean's World] Naftali: The First Jew

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Posted by Naftali:
The First Jew
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1194482326.shtml


   ([1]See here for context.) âG-d said to Avram: 'Leave your country,
   your birthplace, and your father's house, unto the land that I will
   show you.â Avraham was Seventy five years of age when G-d appeared to
   him, giving him this command.

   Interestingly, other than mentioning his birth, along with the birth
   of many otherwise not Biblically noteworthy members of Terechâs
   (Avrahamâs father) family, this is the first we hear of Avraham in the
   Bible. We are told nothing at all about this man to whom G-d sees fit
   to give personal commands, nothing about how he came to recognize G-d,
   nothing about how he devoted himself to, and succeeded in, spreading
   the knowledge of G-d in the world and nothing about how he was thrown
   in a fiery furnace in the process (he escaped miraculously!) The
   written Torah gives no account of the accomplishments for which
   (presumably), G-d sees fit to establish this relationship with
   Avraham, not even a brief one line intro similar to the one with which
   the Bible introduces Noach.

   Why?

   The answer in short: Avraham becomes the first Jew and the beginning
   of the Jewish nation at this very commandment. And the (written) Torah
   is interested only in relating about Avraham as founder of the Jewish
   nation.

   The explanation: all of Avraham's prior accomplishments; his
   recognition of G-d, his self sacrificing dedication to making him
   known and his character refinements were all of his own initiative and
   of his own doing. And therefore, no matter how high he reached,
   relative to his fellow man, his accomplishments could never break out
   of the human qualitative limitations to which he himself was subject.
   The pinnacle of mankind though he was, he was not yet a foundation for
   the Jewish nation.

   With the commandment, this all changed. G-d, after seeing what Avraham
   had managed, basically said, âO.K. great. Now leave everything behind
   and go to land which I shall show you.â

   At that point, and precisely at that point, Avrahamâs divine service,
   now initiated and directed by G-d himself, was freed of the human
   limitations to which it had hitherto been subject. Avraham was
   uplifted beyond himself and the rest of mankind to act as founder to
   the Jewish people.

References

   1. http://naftali.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/early-history-of-the-jewsih-people-a-translation-of-rambams-laws-of-idolatry-chapter-1/