A BRIEF HISTORY OF A NAME

The Jewish people were not always called by this name. In the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, three names appear that define our identity: Israel, Hebrew, and Yehudi, each with its own background.

Israel is the oldest patronymic. We are Bene Israel, the descendants of Yaacob, who received the name Israel after struggling with and defeating an angel. Why are we called by the name of Yaacob and not, for example, the people of Abraham or of Yitsjaq?
The simplest answer is that several nations came from Abraham, and the same from Yitschaq. But the children of Yaacob, despite having gone through very deep conflicts, ended up united. From them came the twelve tribes and one single people: Bene Israel.

“THE OTHER”

The second name is “Hebrew” (ivri), which means “the one who comes from the other side,” probably referring to the other side of the Euphrates, that is, Mesopotamia. This term, which also has a very deep cultural meaning, appears in reference to Abraham, Yosef, Moshe, and other descendants of the Jewish people.
The Egyptians called the Israelites “Hebrews.” Even in the El Amarna letters—Egyptian documents from the fourteenth century B.C.E., the oldest sources outside the Torah that mention our people—they are identified as habiru (“Hebrews” in ancient Egyptian).

The third name, the most universal today, is Yehudi, and it appears much later. After the death of King Shelomo, the kingdom of Israel split in two: the kingdom of Yehuda, with its capital in Jerusalem, and the kingdom of Israel, also known as the kingdom of “the ten tribes,” with its capital in Samaria or Shomeron. When the Assyrians invaded Samaria in the year 720 B.C.E., the ten tribes were destroyed and exiled. Only the kingdom of Yehuda survived, which in English and Spanish is called Judea. Since then, we became known as Yehudim, “Jews.”
Thus it appears in Megillat Esther: Mordechai is not called Hebrew nor Israelite, but Yehudi. The Greeks and Romans also called us yehudim, and the territory of Israel was always known as “Judea”.

THE ROOT OF YEHUDI

But there is something more in this name. Beyond its fascinating history, the name Yehudi has a very deep spiritual meaning. And it was born in an intimate and special moment described in this week’s parasha, Vayetse.

Yaacob arrives in Haran and marries Lea. Lea had already had three sons, which was, in a certain way, the expected number. Let us remember that Sara had one child and Rivka had two. For Lea, having three children was the “expected evolution” of the next matriarch. But, to her surprise and joy, Lea gives birth to a fourth son, and her happiness overflowed. At that moment, she expressed her feeling in words of gratitude to God. Lea declared:
“HaPaam ode et HaShem — This time I will thank God,”
and thus the name Yehuda emerged, which literally means: “I will thank God.”

This is the first recorded instance in the Torah in which someone verbally expresses gratitude to God. That emotion became sealed forever in the name of her fourth son. And every time Lea pronounced the name of her son, she repeated her desire and need to thank God for the great blessing she had received from Him.

What, then, does Yehudi mean, beyond historical considerations?

In a world where spirituality tends to “activate” only in moments of crisis or convenience, where we forget daily about the Creator even while enjoying His blessings, our own name YEHUDI must remind us that the most genuine connection with God must be a relationship of “thanks,” when there are no urgencies or anguish.

JEWISH IDENTITY

In the United States, Thanksgiving occurs once a year. In the Jewish people, gratitude is a daily act. From Lea, who named her son Yehuda in order to thank God, Jewish identity became organically linked to that gesture.  The root of Yehuda is yod–dalet–he, which is also the root of the modern Hebrew word toda, “thanks ” and of the Hebrew word mode, “I thank.. .”

This is why, every morning, when we open our eyes, the first word we pronounce is mode, “I thank You [God]”:
Mode ani lefanecha melekh chai vekayam — “I thank You, God, for being alive, for the opportunity of this new day that begins.”

The identity of a Yehudi is defined by this act: starting the day with a word of thanks to God.

THE NEW GENERATION
In this week’s Parasha, we meet the second generation of the Jewish people: Isaac, Ribqa, and their children. At the center of this Parasha, we find the famous episode of the blessing that Isaac wanted to grant to Esav, but thanks to the intervention of Ribqa, he ended up giving to Yaaqob.

Let’s start from the beginning.
Isaac and Ribqa had two sons. Jacob and Esav. Jacob was a man of his house, docile, upright, and studious. Esav was the complete opposite. Pure adrenaline. A man of battle. A fighter. A great hunter.

When Isaac grows old, the time comes to choose his heir. It is not about who would inherit Isaac’s material wealth but about something much more important: Who would continue, lead, and promote the path and values of Abraham Abinu? Which of the two sons was the most suitable to be the future patriarch of the Jewish people? Isaac and Ribqa had different opinions. For Isaac, the undisputed candidate was Esav. But for Ribqa, the most suitable was Jacob.
We will try to understand why they thought this way in the following few lines.

THE CASE FOR ESAV
Isaac knew that Abraham’s faith would inevitably be attacked by idolatrous peoples, who would surely try to eradicate his descendants. Why? In the polytheistic world, each person had and served their local gods. They accepted that other civilizations had their gods, and they believed that the powers of those gods were true. The pagan gods could coexist with each other. Sometimes, people exchanged their gods or even forged alliances among them.
But Abraham’s faith, monotheism, is different. Monotheism “excludes” all other faiths. By affirming that there is only one “and only” God, monotheism expresses directly or indirectly that the other gods are fake. With this ideologically and politically revolutionary message, Isaac knew that for his descendants to remain firm in the faith of Abraham, they would have to fight and defend themselves against countless enemies, and he was not wrong!

Based on a famous Midrash that describes Esav’s hunting tactics, we realize that Isaac saw that Esav was an expert at identifying his adversaries’ weaknesses. He was a cunning warrior who knew the enemy’s language, a critical talent in warfare. Isaac knew that his son Esav possessed the ideal virtues to defend Abraham’s faith and that he could organize and lead an army. And Isaac was not wrong! In two weeks (Vayishlach) we will see Esav leading an army of 400 men. Isaac wants to choose Esav because he knows that Esav will be able to conquer the land of Israel and militarily defend his descendants from multiple enemies.

THE VISION OF A MOTHER
But for Ribqa, all the military qualities of Esav were incompatible with Abraham’s human values. Could Esav, a man dedicated to warfare, be as kind to foreigners as Abraham was? Could he be as diplomatic with his neighbors as Abraham was with the Hittites? Ribqa thought Abraham’s future successor had to be kind, sensitive, and generous like Abraham. Smart, rather than aggressive. Abraham’s successor had to differentiate himself from all other men by prioritizing study, not war! And these were the characteristics of Yaakob. According to Ribqa, Ya’aqob and not Esav should be chosen to lead Abraham’s nation.
In the end (no surprises here), the wife prevailed, and Yaaqob was Isaac’s successor.

However, we must recognize that, in theory, the ideal would have been an alliance of the two brothers: the spirituality of Jacob combined with the strength of Esav. For Ribqa, this alliance was impossible because, as the Tora mentions in the paragraph preceding this episode, Esav crossed a red line and distanced himself from his family by marrying two Hittite women.

JACOB, ESAV, AND MEDINAT ISRAEL
This interpretation, which I wrote a couple of years ago about the virtues that Isaac and Ribqa were looking for in the future leader of Israel, is very relevant today to understand our present.

After 2,000 years of persecution and being unable to defend ourselves by our own means, we have achieved today the perfect balance between the strength of Esav and the virtues of Jacob. I am referring to Medinat Israel’s people, spirit, and army.

Israel, on the one hand, is a spiritual paradise where millions of Jews pray and study Tora daily. The voice of Tora has never been heard as much as it is heard today in the State of Israel. Jews in Israel practice unlimited Chesed (kindness), generosity, and compassion at incredible levels. Israelis are also extremely intelligent and highly educated in all areas, with infinite intellectual creativity.

And on the other side, Israel has a very strong army, the IDF, which is showing the world that whoever messes with the Jews is going to pay a heavy price and that it will not be other nations that defend us, but ourselves. Our own army. Our new strong hands will pursue justice.

Medinat Israel represents the perfect balance that our patriarchs were looking for: the sweet voice of Yaaqob’s Tora that Ribqa wanted, combined with the strong hands of a warrior that Isaac was looking for. Which, when necessary, would dissuade, deter, and punish the enemy. All in one at the same entity: Yaaqob / Israel.

הַקֹּל קוֹל יַעֲקֹב וְהַיָּדַיִם יְדֵי עֵשָׂו
Jacob kept his spiritual voice, and he learned to use his hands.
“The voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands are [like] the hands of Esav.”

EFFORT AND BLESSING
In this week’s Parsha, Genesis chapter 26, we read that Isaac had to leave his land due to famine and came to Gerar, a city between Gaza and Beer Sheba, the land of the Pelishtim (Philistines). Isaac temporarily settled there and began to work hard. v:12-14 “Isaac sowed in that land, and that year he reaped a hundredfold [a hundred times more than he had planted]: HaShem had blessed him! Isaac enjoyed prosperity and continued to grow until he became wealthy: he had sheep, cows, and many servants…

Although HaShem blessed him, Isaac’s wealth did not rain from heaven; Abraham’s son was a very hard worker. He had to work very hard to plant in that arid area, and as the Torah tells us a little later, he had to dig again and again – without laziness and without giving up – to obtain the most scarce and precious element in the Middle East: water.

But now, the same verse that mentions Isaac’s wealth describes the feeling and reaction of the Pelishtim to Isaac’s success.

וַיְקַנְא֥וּ אֹת֖וֹ פְּלִשְׁתִּֽים
וְכׇל־הַבְּאֵרֹ֗ת אֲשֶׁ֤ר חָֽפְרוּ֙ עַבְדֵ֣י אָבִ֔יו בִּימֵ֖י א ַבְרָהָ֣ם אָבִ֑יו סִתְּמ֣וּם פְּלִשְׁתִּ֔ים וַיְמַלְא֖וּם עָפָֽר ׃
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֲבִימֶ֖לֶךְ אֶל־יִצְחָ֑ק לֵ֚ךְ מֵֽעִמָּ֔נוּ כִּֽי־ע ָצַ֥מְתָּ מִמֶּ֖נּוּ מְאֹֽד׃

The Pelishtim were envious of Isaac.
And all the wells [of water] that the servants of his father [Abraham] had dug… they made useless, filling them with earth.”

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JEALOUSY AND ENVY
The Pelishtim received a refugee, Isaac, weak and poor. And they sympathized with that Isaac. But once Isaac recovered, his success did not make them happy; quite the opposite: he bothered them. The Torah uses here for the first time in biblical history the word quin’a, which means: “envy” (ויקנאו אותו פלשתים “The Pelishtim were envious of Isaac.”

There are two possible reactions one can have to a successful person. The first, the best, is to learn from those who do things well and imitate them. The Pelishtim could have imitated Isaac’s efforts: working more, getting up earlier, getting drunk less, saving more, not spending as much, etc. But that didn’t happen! The reaction of the Pelishtim consisted of destructive envy that led them to do something inconceivable: covering with earth the water wells that Isaac had dug!

There is a big difference between the Hebrew words “jealousy” (jemda or ta’avá לא תתאוה), and “envy” (quin’a). “Jealousy” always refers to an object: I am jealous of what you have, and I would like to have it myself. I want to have your house, your money, your car. And in theory, once I have what you have, my jealousy disappears or should decrease. “Envy,” on the other hand, is a deep, toxic, and complicated feeling. It’s not about my desire to have what the other person has but about listening to the person who has it. When I envy you, I resent your success. I can not stand. I’m going to try to take away what you have. And if I can’t take it away from you, I will destroy it. Because what impresses me the most is that YOU don’t have it! Envy is destructive and, by nature, self-destructive. Envy/hatred led the Pelishtim to do the most irrational thing a Middle Easterner can do: destroy water wells in the desert. Which would hurt them, too.

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
Ramban, Nachmanides, says that the Tora goes out of its way to describe the details of this event to teach us that מעשה אבות סימן לבנים, “what happened to our ancestors is not just history,” but marks a pattern of behavior that will be repeated with their descendants. This story repeats itself in our days.

HaShem’s blessing and Israel’s success in the areas of education, innovation, technology, and economy arouse admiration in the world but also a lot of envy, resentment, and hatred, especially from Isarel’s neighbors, who aim to destroy the “water wells” that could benefit their citizens, to harm Israel.

Gaza’s history makes it clear.
On August 15, 2005, 8,000 Israeli Jews were displaced from their homes in Gush Qatif, Israel. That land, which had been conquered militarily by Israel in response to the war started by the Egyptians, was “gifted” to the Palestinians, who had democratic elections in 2006 in which the Hamas party was elected. The population of Palestine that elected Hamas knew—and knows perfectly well—the objectives of Hamas since they are explicit in its founding charter: in that charter, Hamas does not mention the desire to provide prosperity, human rights or social services to the inhabitants of Gaza to improve their lives. ALL THE LETTER SAYS IS THAT HAMAS WILL DEDICATE FULLY TO JIHAD, that is, to the armed struggle against the State of Israel until its destruction, and clarifies that it will reject all diplomatic negotiations and management. Just as the Pelishtim did with Isaac, Hamas is willing to impoverish its population and pursue self-destruction (immolate itself = jihad) to destroy Israel or, at least, to kill as many Jews as possible.

Gaza does not engage in terror because they are poor; Gaza is poor because it chooses to engage in terror. This idea is so mind-blowing to normal people that they refuse to believe it. And in some ways, those with a Western mentality, even Israel, forcibly “overimpose” their own ideals and try to help Gaza out of its poverty. The Palestinians of Gaza have received more money than any other population in the entire world. From the European Union, United Nations, and the United States, hundreds of billions of dollars. All this money that should have been dedicated to building schools and hospitals and providing clean water to the population has been dedicated to building war tunnels, buying weapons, developing more weapons, and all to destroy Israel.

It is challenging for an ordinary person to understand that envy transformed into hatred makes human beings lose their desire for prosperity and self-preservation to dedicate themselves to eliminating those who work and prosper. But the Torah already warned about it in the story of Isaac with the Pelishtim. And today, we see more clearly than ever that there is nothing new under the sun of Gaza.

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.

This week’s Parasha is about the last days of Abraham Abinu. After taking care of the burial of his wife Sarah, Abraham has a critical mission: to get a wife for his son Isaac (Ytshaq). Much is at stake. Finding a woman worthy of Isaac will allow Abraham’s legacy, his covenant with HaShem, to continue for posterity. But if the wife does not accompany Isaac in Abraham’s way, everything will be lost. At that time, as today, the children’s education and Jewish continuity depended primarily on the wife. For this challenging mission, Abraham sends his most loyal servant, Eliezer. He arrives in Haran, the land where Abraham comes from, and where he still has some relatives. Eliezer begs HaShem to guide his steps. And he proposes to do a “test” to find the future wife of Isaac. Eliezer heads towards the well. And he tells himself that when he arrives, he will ask one of the young women for some water to drink. If the woman agrees and also offers water for his camels, this would be a sign that she is a suitable wife for Isaac.

The rabbis are divided in their opinion regarding this event: Some, like Maimonides, say that Eliezer showed a lack of judgment: we cannot “put God to the test” (לא תנסו). A Jews should never say, for example, “HaShem, You are Almighty, and it is within your power to determine which way the coin will fall. I am not sure whether I should buy this house. Therefore, HaShem, I am going to toss a coin so that You reveal Your will to me: if it is Your will that I buy this house, make the coin fall ‘heads’. And if it is not Your will, let it be ‘tails’. “Maimonides indicates that this seemingly impeccable reasoning was part of the rhetoric used by idolaters to “force their gods to reveal their will”, which they then manipulated at will, claiming that they were following their god’s instructions.

Other Rabbis, while agreeing in principle with Maimonides’ opinion, say that in this case, Eliezer did not try to test God but to test the character and personality of the girl. After all, Eliezer didn’t ask for an arbitrary identifying sign: he did not say, for example, “if I see a young woman wearing a dress with flowers, she will be the one HaShem wants for Isaac,” or something like that. Eliezer set out to identify “qualities” that would test the girl’s good character.

As additional support for this second opinion, we should notice what virtues Eliezer hoped to see in Isaac’s future wife. 

Eliezer looked for the virtues of Abraham Abinu.

1. When Abraham welcomes guests, he offers them less than he ultimately gives them. Abraham offered them “a piece of bread and some water.” But in the end, he feasted them on tender meat, freshly baked bread, and delicious desserts. Part of the virtue of a Tsadiq (a righteous man) “is to do more than what he promises” (the opposite of politicians!).

2. Abraham served his guests with “enthusiasm” (זריזות). One of the ways to measure our enthusiasm is to see how quickly we do things. If a child or a teenager has to get up at dawn to do a task that he does not want to do, he will surely get up very slowly, dress in slow motion, with total reluctance, etc. But if he has to get up at dawn to fly to Disneyland, he will surely do that without delay, dressed up quickly and with great enthusiasm. When Abraham received his guests, the Torah tells us that Abraham “hurried” and said to his wife: “Hurry, mix the flour and prepare the cakes.” And then Abraham “ran” to his cattle and “hurried” to prepare the meat …

1. When Eliezer saw Ribqa he asked for water. Ribqa “hurried” to the fountain and said: “Drink, my Lord.” And she said, on her own initiative: “I am going to give your camels to drink, too.”

2. “And she “hurried” and “ran” to the source of water and watered the camels until they quenched their thirst”. 

This exceptional behavior is typical of people who practice chesed, acts of kindness at the highest possible level: They do more than they are asked or expected to do. They do more than they promised to do. And when they do their good deeds, they do it with enthusiasm, passion, and selflessness.

Ribqa passed the character test, reached the bar established by Abraham Abinu, and graduated with flying colors.

This week’s Parasha begins with a Divine call to our patriarch Abraham, “Lekh Lekha”: Leave your land and go to the land that I will show you [Canaan, Israel]. God speaks to Abraham and invites him to leave his land and settle in a new land, Israel, where HaShem will bless him with a multitude of descendants. Very nice indeed!  But the biblical text keeps its silence at a sensitive point. “Why Abraham?” What did Abraham do to deserve God’s attention?

CHOICE OR DETERMINISM? 

For those who are familiar with the style of the Tora, the absence of an explanation as to why people do what they do is the rule rather than the exception. Similarly, the Tora only sometimes reveals why HaShem does what He does. The biblical text does not explain, for example, the reasons for many Divine precepts. Why certain animals are pure or impure, etc. similarly (and I believe this is the most dramatic example), the Tora never reveals why God created the world. I’m not sure what the reason for that is. Still, it is notorious that Biblical Hebrew does not have the word why (the word lama, for instance, indicates the purpose of the action, not the intention of the subject; and something similar happens with the term madua’). Perhaps, as I once heard, this has to do with the belief in the absolute freedom of choice (for God and man). Providing the “why” will suggest certain determinism and limitations in the process of making choices. 

Or perhaps, as Rabbi Menashe ben Israel explains, the Tora wants to leave the task of “why” to us. We, the readers, need to find the answers to the why. Every generation can contribute with their point of view on the text, discovering new levels of understanding of the Book of HaShem. This would not be possible if the “whys” were explicit.

Let’s go back to our initial question. Why did God choose Abraham?

ABRAHAM MADE THE FIRST MOVE

The first answer is the story that every Jewish child learns at a tender age. Terach, Abraham’s father, was manufacturing and selling idols. Statues of the mythological gods that represented the different forces of nature. I imagine that “idolatry” must have been a great business (like “art”) because all the seller needed to make a good profit was to convince the buyer that one idol had more powers than the other, and for that, the customer had to pay a higher price! Terach must have been a great salesman. But when Terach wanted to teach his business to his son Abraham, something unexpected happened. Instead of helping his dad, Abraham challenged him with an impeccable but disastrous-for-business logic: “How can you claim that these idols are our creators if they were made yesterday with our own hands? Why should we consider these statues as gods since they cannot see, listen or speak? Abraham’s father was furious with his son. He was not fit for that type of business. Eventually, God “called” Abraham and invited him to move to His land because of Abraham’s honesty. And Abraham accepted the invitation.

HASHEM CALLED FIRST

The second answer concerns a text we recite EVERY day in our Tefilla in the mornings. “You are HaShem, our God, You chose Abram, and You took him out from Ur Casdim, and You changed his name to Abraham, and You found that his heart was faithful to You” אשר בחרת באברם והוצאתו מאור כשדים … ומצאת את לבבו נאמן לפניך. According to this pasuq (Nechemia, 9: 7-8.) God first chooses Abraham, almost arbitrarily, and then He finds out that Abraham is His faithful servant. Ironically, although we recite this pasuq daily, this viewpoint is less known (or less popular) than the first one. According to this interpretation, HaShem sought Abraham, and He prepared him and trained him to become the patriarch of the nation of Israel through the challenges and difficulties (nissiyonot) that Abraham had to experience throughout his life.

ADOPTING A CHILD

Rabbi Hayim Sabato from Yeshiva Bircat Moshe in Maale Adumim (Israel) says something exciting. The text describing the past of Abraham Abinu (at the end of last week’s Parasha) is very short in detail. Except for one circumstantial but revealing point: Haran, the brother of Abram, dies, and his orphan son Lot becomes now part of Abraham’s family. Abraham adopted Lot as his son. This supreme act of kindness made Abraham worthy of the Divine call.

WHO ANSWERED HASHEM’S CALL?

My favorite, a fourth opinion, is the beautiful interpretation of Rabbi Yehuda Alter (1847-1905) in his Book Sefat Emet. There, he says that “HaShem did not speak exclusively to Abraham, HaShem was announcing permanently and to many people His call to leave the land of Casdim and go to Israel, for those who wanted His blessing (המאמר’ לך לך’ שנאמר מהשם יתברך לכל האנשים תמיד). But people rejected God’s call or ignored it. And the only one who “picked up the phone”, and responded affirmatively to God’s call, and the challenges that taking this call would imply, was Abraham Abinu. I love this response for many reasons. But especially for its relevance. HaShem is permanently calling us. He constantly invites to follow Him. To follow His ways. His Voice is in His Book. The call of HaShem is in His Tora. And if we want to follow the steps of Abraham Abinu, all we have to do is open the Book and listen to His Voice.

 We become God’s chosen when we answer His call.

The conflict between Israel and Iran is not over yet. We are currently in a ceasefire after an overwhelming Israeli victory in the “Twelve-Day War,” a conflict in which Israel succeeded, at the highest possible level, in achieving its objectives: destroying Iran’s nuclear program and neutralizing its ballistic missiles.

Israel also demonstrated the incredible capability of its air force, which, within just a few hours, gained total control of Tehran’s skies. The Jewish Air Force proved to be unmatched by any other air force in the region. Israel also used its missile and drone defense systems with considerable effectiveness. It showed the incredible logistical and emotional preparedness and discipline of the Jewish State regarding its shelters—better than any other country in the world—and its citizens’ training to mobilize immediately upon hearing sirens and alarms. This readiness has saved thousands of lives that could have been victims of Iranian missiles.

It has been an incredible victory for Israel, and Iran knows it. The world knows it, too. There are still post-war negotiations between the U.S. and Iran to ensure that Iran does not continue its nuclear programs or missile production.

What else needs to happen now?

Suppose we visualize the most optimistic scenario of this story, which is still unfolding. In that case, some suggest an expansion of the Abraham Accords, potentially including countries such as Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and even Syria and Lebanon.

This week, giant billboards appeared in Tel Aviv showing Trump, Netanyahu, and Arab leaders promoting normalization with Israel under the slogan of the “Abraham Alliance” (see image above).

But until these messianic images crystallize, we must be realistic. First and foremost, we must recognize all variants of enemies: perhaps peace agreements can be signed with moderate Muslim states, such as Bahrain or the Emirates, but it is extremely dangerous to make agreements with Islamic or Islamized states. Because a state or an Islamic organization—such as Iran, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, or Al Qaeda—will not abandon their objective of destroying Israel. In any hypothetical “peace agreement,” they will use the strategy of taqiya, the religiously permitted lie in Islam, for political and military purposes. That is, to sign a peace agreement today with the hidden intention of attacking tomorrow.

If we forget this, then we have not learned the lessons of October 7.

Israel handed over Gaza to Hamas, free of Jewish presence. During those 20 years of supposed “peace,” Israel helped as much as it could to rebuild and benefit the inhabitants of Gaza. It yielded and looked the other way (hajalá) in the face of provocations from Gazans. Meanwhile, Hamas, instead of building their state with unlimited resources at their disposal, armed itself to the teeth, dug tunnels, and meticulously planned the massacre of 2023. We cannot allow ourselves to fall into the same trap again.

How can we avoid repeating this terror?

From the perspective of Judaism—and also of Israel’s modern situation—there is a fundamental teaching: the least Jewish word in the dictionary is “akhshav,” ( עכשיו ) “now,” as in the phrase “Peace Now” or “Hostages Now.” That mentality of resolving an immediate problem and leaving the consequences for our grandchildren is not part of the Jewish vision. Our patriarch Yaacob acquired the birthright from his brother Esav, a future blessing, which Esav sacrificed for a bowl of lentils NOW. That scene is not just a historical account; it is a warning. The Jew knows very well that there is nothing worse than sacrificing the future for immediate benefit. Even more so when those benefits come from political actors of very dubious reputation.

In any peace agreement that is signed, especially with its immediate neighbors, Israel cannot repeat the mistake of negotiating “land for peace.” The land conquered since October 7 in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza is not only a strategic guarantee, a security zone, a demilitarized strip CONTROLLED BY ISRAEL that keeps our enemies away from our borders and makes them less dangerous.

The land conquered by Israel is mainly the best insurance policy to prevent future hostilities. It is the most significant punishment for the perpetrators of the October 7 attack and their allies, which may deter them from committing the same mistake again.

Anwar Sadat cynically boasted that he gave Begin what he wanted most: a signed paper, and in exchange, he obtained what he wanted most: the land of Sinai. The documents signed today could be violated tomorrow, especially when governments change in the Arab signatory countries or even in the governments of those countries guaranteeing such agreements. But land does not change. It does not move. It remains there. It functions as a security buffer, essential for the defense of Israeli territory.

If there is going to be a peace settlement, let it be “paper for paper.” And let the land, conquered with the blood of our young soldiers, remain untouched. As it was in the days of Yehoshua Bin Nun, land obtained is consecrated land; it is not negotiable.

IN THE MIDDLE EAST, VICTORY IS MEASURED BY THE LAND GAINED IN BATTLE. AND DEFEAT BY THE LAND LOST.

We owe it to our grandchildren and to the brave soldiers of Israel who gave their lives to conquer it.

כָּל־הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר תִּדְרְכוּ כַף־רַגְלְכֶם בּוֹ לָכֶם יִהְיֶה
מִן־הַמִּדְבָּר וְהַלְּבָנוֹן מִן־הַנָּהָר נְהַר פְּרָת וְעַד הַיָּם הָאַחֲרוֹן יִהְיֶה גְּבֻלְכֶם׃

Every place that the sole of your foot will step upon [=that you conquer] will be yours; from the desert [of the Negev in the south] and to Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the western sea [the Mediterranean], will be your territory.

Debarim 11:24