שמענו אדני נשיא אלקים אתה בתוכנו
In this week’s Parasha, Chaye Sara, we meet Abraham, our first patriarch, in a long conversation with the Hittites, one of the peoples who inhabited the land of Canaan in those days. Abraham wants to acquire a piece of land from them in Qiryat Arba, Hebron, to bury his recently deceased wife, Sara.
MONOTHEISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM
Abraham negotiates with the Hittites. And as the negotiation progressed, we saw that the Hittites leaders – men famous for their violent conquests – treated Abraham with great respect and addressed him as “nesí Eloqim”, “A representative of God among us.” This is a very uncommon gesture since pagans people did not have an open mind about other gods or cults. The mythological gods competed with each other to prove their supremacy. And Abraham not only practiced a different religion, but his religion was “monotheism,”: which means that while the idea of other cults implied that “Our gods are more powerful than your gods”, the religion of Abraham held that: ” Your gods are fake”. The Hittites should have considered Abraham’s beliefs a great challenge, a threat, and an insult to their belief system. And they surely knew that Abraham did not keep monotheism for himself: Abraham was an activist, an iconoclast (“a destroyer of idols”), and the Hittites were idol-worshippers. And yet they respected him superlatively.… In those days, there was no religious tolerance. We saw, for example, in the story of Yosef and his brothers, that the Egyptians did not even sit down to eat at the same table with a Hebrew because they considered our menu – in this case: meat – abominable, offensive to their beliefs. How was it then that Abraham, being so different from the Hittites, was respected by them as he was by other peoples of the region?
In my opinion, the Hittites respected and admired Abraham not because but rather despite his beliefs (which the Hittites probably never fully understood) because of Abraham’s extraordinary human virtues.
Here are a few examples.
GENEROSITY:
In the pagan world, “the representatives of the gods on earth” would make their livelihood from gifts and offerings from idol worshippers. When MalqiTsedeq, a priest, “blessed Abraham, Abraham gifted him generously. These offerings to pagan religious leaders (priests, wizards, witches, magicians) were prevalent at that time. But Abraham, whom everyone saw as an ambassador of God, far from expecting others to support him materially because of his “spiritual role”, devoted himself to materially assisting others out of his own pocket. Abraham had a literally “open house” to welcome any foreigner who needed shade, water, or food, and Abraham did not ask for or accept any compensation for that service. In light of the above-mentioned common practice, this behavior of Abraham must have inspired the respect and admiration of all those who knew him.
RESPECT:
God spoke to Abraham and promised that he and his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan. But Abraham never behaved arrogantly in front of other Canaanites. His unconditional faith in the Divine promise could have led him to say to the pagans who inhabited the earth: “This land will be mine. And therefore, I can take possession of it without your permission.” Abraham dealt with the Hittites with dignity and honor and paid a very high price for the burial place. Abraham represented the epitome of the nobility of those observant Yehudim who know very well that “the closer one is to God, the more he must respect and behave with integrity towards others”, and especially towards those who profess another religion or are less observant than them (Qiddush HaShem).
HUMILITY:
Abraham’s humility becomes much more evident when we compare him, as our Sages did, to Bil’am. Bil’am was a pagan prophet and a representative of God among gentiles. HaShem communicated with Bil’am, as he did with Abraham and Moshe. But this privilege, instead of making Bil’am more humble, caused Bil’am to look down at other people and deal with them with disdain. Bil’am said to himself:” If God speaks to me, no one can be compared to me!” Bil’am’s behave with arrogance and contempt. He was unwilling to help anyone unless he obtained a substantial material benefit and retribution “for the services rendered.” Bil’am represents those gentiles or Jews who “misrepresent” religion. Abraham was precisely the opposite of Bil’am.
FIRST INFLUENCER
Although Abraham held different theological beliefs, which “he” was aware were superior to the ideas of the pagans who lived around him, he behaved with generosity and respect. He was always willing to help anyone in need, even those who did not share his creed and values. In his boundless humanity, Abraham asked God to spare the lives of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, the most corrupt cities in history.
And this is why even though Abraham’s ideas were very different, Abraham never had enemies. He was never judged negatively on account of his “radical” beliefs. Why? Because of his integrity, his humbleness, and generosity toward other human beings. And this is why Abraham is the Father of most world religions: the most impactful INFLUENCER in human history.
