The Weekly Sedra – Lech-Lecha

The end of this week’s portion tells us about the Covenant (Brit) of Circumcision that G-d made with Abraham almost four thousand years ago.

Since then Jews have been making the same sign in the flesh of all their male children as an eternal reminder that we too are G-d’s people. The G-d of Abraham.

As we say in the blessing before performing the circumcision:

“Blessed are You G-d…….who commanded to bring him (this Jewish child) into the Covenant of AVRAHAM our patriarch”

But interestingly, the reason we do this commandment today is NOT because of Abraham!

Since the Torah was given on Sinai (over four hundred years after Abraham’s brit) the Jews do circumcision ONLY because it was commanded by G-d to Moses (Leviticus 12:3) (See Ramba’m on Mishna Chulin end perek 7)

This is not clear. If Abraham already did the commandment hundreds of years earlier then why did G-d have to give it again at Sinai? And, conversely, if the reason we circumcise is because of G-d’s command to Moses then why to we call it the ‘Covenant of Abraham’?

To understand this here is a story.

Rabbi Kaminetski in Dnepropetrovsk Russia was a very busy man. Besides having to direct the activities of his Chabad House; give Torah classes, visit homes, encourage Judaism, overcome opposition, collect money, run his schools and help as many Jews as possible both spiritually and physically he also had to worry about his personal life; educating his children etc.

So it wasn’t surprising that he had little patience for foolish requests.

For instance, once he was approached by a young gentile girl with a big cross dangling around her neck who asked him to give her dying grandmother a visit.

The girl explained that the old lady was over ninety years old, didn’t have a penny to her name, felt she was about to die and wanted a Jewish priest to perform the last rites and, oh yes, she lived over two hours drive away!

When the Rabbi asked why she didn’t just get a normal priest she answered that the old lady hated them all because of something some priest did or said to her some fifty years ago, so she said that a Rabbi would also do. She added that her grandmother was also bit senile which also could explain her strange request.

The Rabbi had no problem refusing: two hours drive for a demented gentile lady was definitely not his line of work.

But he didn’t say no immediately. He began asking the girl questions. Perhaps she had seen her grandmother light candles on Friday or separate milk and meat – something… anything Jewish? Maybe she once mentioned something about Judaism?

But it was a dead end. There was nothing. It was clear as day; there were some three hundred million gentiles in Russia and among them was this old lady her daughter and granddaughter.

Rabbi Kaminetski apologized, explained that he was sorry but he didn’t know any Church rites, this was definitely NOT for him and bade her farewell and that was the end of it.

But a week later the girl returned. This time she wasn’t as easily dissuaded as before.

She began speaking quietly but gradually raised her tone to weeping and moaning. She had traveled two long hours and would never leave until he fulfilled her precious grandmother’s last request. He had to have mercy. Only he could do it. The lady was dying!!

The Rabbi tried to make excuses but she just screamed louder. He tried to reason with her but she wouldn’t let him finish a sentence. He even considered personally taking her to the local Church and introducing her to a real Priest but it was all in vain. Her grandmother must have made her crazy as well.

The Rabbi was stuck. He couldn’t ignore or get rid of her. There were only two choices; call the police and get her kicked off his property or give in.

But suddenly it dawned on him that the police wouldn’t understand why he, a man of ‘the cloth’ wouldn’t give last rites to this heart-broken girl’s grandmother. And even if they did understand and did evict her, she would certainly come back – perhaps every day!

He gave in. Who knows, maybe the old lady had a hidden stash of money to give away, or maybe she had been an anti-Semite and wanted to repent on her deathbed. In any case there was no way out.

They drove silently and two hours later they arrived at a large run down hut in a typical Russian village. On the porch was sitting a very old woman in an old stuffed living-room chair. She was no more than skin and bones with a blanket covering most of her body and looked out of contact with the world. But when she saw the bearded Rabbi her eyes lit up and filled with tears. She began silently weeping.

The Rabbi walked up the few stairs and as he approached she looked deeply into his eyes and began speaking….in Yiddish!

“My whole life I have been waiting for this moment,” she said in a wavering voice.

“I am a Jew!”

She hesitated, took out a handkerchief and wept aloud.

“When I was nine, my parents were killed in a pogrom, and I was put in a Church orphanage. One nun there once told me that I must never tell anyone I am Jewish because all Jews get killed. Now I am ninety-six, that’s right, ninety-six years old, and my entire life I have been keeping this secret, even from my children.”

The Rabbi was surprised but a thought flashed through his mind; It could be that she had once worked in a Jewish home and learned Yiddish. Now she’s senile; she’s crazy and thinks she’s Jewish.

“I know what you are thinking,” She interrupted his thoughts, “You’re thinking that maybe I’m not Jewish, right? Well you should know that I remember how my mother would light the candles and make a Brocha (blessing) before Shabbos; Boruch Ataw etc.” (and she repeated the blessing). “And my father would put on T’filin and a Tallis and daven in Shul in the weekdays. And she repeated some more details.”

She paused for a few minutes, dried her eyes again and continued.

“My whole life I have been repeating these things because I was afraid that I would forget them. See, I remembered! But I didn’t tell my daughter because I didn’t know how to explain it.

“Now I want you to tell her and my granddaughter that they are Jewish too, so that they will remember. Will you do that Rabbi? And teach them what it means to be Jewish. Then I will be happy.”

This is what we got from Abraham; eternal Jewish identity.

The woman in our story felt only the smallest spark of it and it was enough to keep a flame burning in her all her life that she wanted to pass on to her daughter and daughter’s daughter; despite the fact that she had been separated from all Jews all that time and had only bad experiences of Judaism from the Pogroms.

Like Abraham, she felt like the FIRST Jew; alone, connected to the Creator of the Universe and His Torah above reason (despite all obstacles) and wanting to improve as much as possible of the world as she could.

But Abraham’s covenant, because it was before the Torah, only had the power to affect the Jews, not the entire world, permanently.

Through the Torah it was given the power to change the entire creation and fulfill what G-d promised to Abram upon giving him this commandment and changing his name to Abraham: ” I have made you the Father of myriads of nations.” (17:4)

This will be fulfilled, as Abraham saw in his vision (see Rashi 15:11), through Moshiach.

Moshiach will arouse Abraham’s offspring, those who bear his mark of the brit, to, in turn, arouse all people in the world; Myriads of nations, to worship ONLY the Creator (through the seven Noahide commandments).

That is exactly what the Lubavitcher Rebbe said time and time again:

Each and every Jew, has the power to change himself and the entire world. The power of G-d’s promise to Abraham and to Moses, to bring….

Moshiach NOW!!