The Right Stuff

Parashat Lech Lecha — Genesis 12:1–17:27

I want to begin my weekly exploration of the Torah with a personal note.

As a Noachide, I’m sometimes asked if Noach is my role model. There’s obviously much to be said for someone who takes on the task of saving the world—and lives to tell about it!

Even so, the Biblical patriarch Avraham is my role model. This towering figure is perhaps the finest example of a Noachide found in the pages of the Torah.

Most Jewish readers know Avraham as Avraham Avinu—our father—the patriarch with whom God established an everlasting covenant, as described in this week’s portion, Lech Lecha.

That covenant would be instrumental in the formation of a nation whose prime directive is to know God and make God known to the world. It calls on the Jewish people to bear witness that there is one God who loves and sustains His creation.

Ultimately, this is a nation chosen to build a House of Prayer for all nations.

Why Avraham?

What distinguished him from the people of his generation?

God had already established a covenant with Noach, promising never again to destroy the world through a global flood. That covenant, or brit, was accompanied by the universal moral obligations traditionally expressed in the Seven Noachide Laws.

Six are prohibitions: idolatry, blasphemy, murder, theft, forbidden sexual relations, and eating flesh taken from a living animal. The seventh is a positive obligation: Establish Courts of Justice.

Together, these seven commandments provide the foundation for a peaceful, civilized, and just society.

The precepts reveal that the major transgressions of the Flood generation was theft.

Theft is more than taking someone’s property, murder takes a life, kidnapping takes away freedom, adultery violates the sanctity of marriage, and idolatry directs worship away from the Creator. Although these are distinct legal categories, they share a common moral thread: Theft.

This week’s Torah portion begins in the aftermath of the rebellion at the Tower of Bavel, whose builders sought to make a name for themselves. According to Jewish tradition, Nimrod, a powerful ruler who defied the Creator, was a central figure in that rebellion. He sought to usurp honor belonging to the Creator and elevate himself above his fellow human beings, positioning himself as a ruler with godlike authority. The project ended in confusion and dispersion.

Against this troubled background, the Torah introduces Avraham.

Noach and Avraham shared two important distinctions: both were chosen by God for extraordinary purposes, and both would profoundly affect humanity’s future.

Noach preserved the human family from destruction.

Avraham would establish a family through whom knowledge of the Creator would eventually be revealed to the world.

At the age of 75, this righteous soul embarks upon a new chapter of his life’s mission. Over the next 24 years described in Lech Lecha, Avraham encounters a world in which the powerful continue to disregard the rights of others and injustice remains widespread.

For example, in Egypt, Pharaoh takes Sarai into his household, unaware that she is Avraham’s wife. God afflicts Pharaoh’s household, and Sarai is restored to Avraham (Genesis 12:15–20).

In another example, a quarrel develops between Avraham’s shepherds and those of his nephew Lot. Rashi, citing Bereishit Rabbah 41:5, explains that Lot’s shepherds allowed their animals to graze on land belonging to others.

Because this was a family quarrel, Avraham did not appoint himself judge or demand punishment. Instead, he recognized the danger of allowing the conflict to continue and offered Lot a peaceful solution.

“Let there be no strife between me and you,” he said, inviting Lot to choose where he wished to settle (Genesis 13:8–9).

When the Four Kings swept down defeated the cities of the Jordan Valley and carried Avraham’s nephew Lot into captivity, Avraham gathered 318 trained men, pursued the invaders, and rescued the captives (Genesis 14:14–16).

An equally revealing demonstration of his character followed.

The king of Sodom offered Avraham the recovered possessions as a reward. Avraham refused, yet insisted that his companions, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, receive their rightful shares. Even though the Torah describes Sodom’s inhabitants as “wicked and exceedingly sinful against HaShem” (Genesis 13:13), Avraham rescued their people, recovered their property, and refused to profit from their misfortune.

The central thrust of my narrative is to demonstrate how Avraham’s inner drive to do what was right reflected the moral principles embodied in the Seven Noachide Laws. These precepts principles shaped his character, preparing him for an even greater role.

He possessed the right stuff to be the father of God’s nation.

Jewish tradition calls him “the first Jew”—not because he lived as a Jew in the later historical and legal sense, but because he represents the spiritual root and model of Jewish identity itself.

Likutei Moharan (142:8–10) expresses this beautifully. Avraham is described as “the first convert,” a man who had no teachers or established tradition from which to learn, but who possessed a heart that yearned for the service of God. Thus, converts who come after him are associated with his name. In a profound sense, they are his spiritual descendants.

At the Covenant Between the Pieces, God tells Avraham that his descendants will not immediately inherit the Promised Land because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete” (Genesis 15:16).

Generations later, when Israel is preparing to enter the land, after its forty years in the wilderness, judgment had arrived for the 7 nations collectively know as Amorites. Their iniquity was complete, their vile behavior condemned by the universal principles embodied in the Noachide commandments.

As related above, the Torah narrative reveals a fascinating aspect of God’s covenant with Avraham: HaShem’s justice extends to all humanity.