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The Israel
Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash
Parashat Hashavua This
parasha series is dedicated ********************************************************* Please say
tehillim for YHE alumnus Amit Schwartz, Ve-Yishlach lahem
meheira refuah sheleimah min ha-shamayim be-tokh she'ar cholei
Yisrael. ********************************************************* PARASHAT LEKH
LEKHA ********************************************************* Dedicated in
loving memory of my father, Shimon
Ben David Moshe z"l, by Craig Lubner. *********************************************************
********************************************************* Calling In
Hashem's Name By Rav Yehuda Rock In this
week's parasha we encounter, for the first time, a phenomenon that occurs
with some frequency among the forefathers: calling in God's Name. Avraham calls
in God's Name three times, Yitzchak once, and as we will see, it seems that
Yaakov continues this tradition twice, although the Torah's wording is different
in Yaakov's case. In this shiur we will attempt to understand the meaning
of the phrase "He called in God's Name" and its
significance. We will
begin by surveying the times that Avraham and Yitzchak called in God's
Name: Bereishit 12:8
"He built there an altar to God and called in God's Name." 13:3-4
"He went on his journeys… to the location of the altar that he had originally
made there, and there Avram called in God's Name." 21:33
"He planted a tamarisk in Be'er-Sheva and called there in the Name of God, the
Eternal God." 26:25
"He built there an altar and called in God's Name." What stands out is
that calling in God's Name usually occurs following the building of an altar
(without going into the question of the significance of the tamarisk). Later on
we will return to this point. The
classical commentators supply two explanations for calling in God's
Name.
The first explanation is that calling in God's Name means calling to
Him; in other words – prayer. Onkelos translates all four occurrences of
calling in God's name as prayer. Likewise, Rashi on 12:8 explains: "And he
prayed there for them." Similarly, the Ibn Ezra, in the first of two alternate
explanations, says: "The meaning of ‘He called in God's Name' is
prayer." The
Torah does not tell us why and for what they were praying. Rashi (based on the
Gemara in Sanhedrin 44b) attempts to fill in this gap by adding
information beyond that which is given in the text of the Torah: "He foresaw
that his children would fail in the sin of Akhan and prayed for them there." At
least according to Rashi, it does not seem as though there is any direct
connection between building the altars and praying. The Ibn
Ezra suggests a second explanation: "Calling upon people to worship God."
In other words, the call is not directed at God, but rather God's Name is the
content of the call, while the call is directed at people in general. The
Ramban, as well, explains the phrase in a similar fashion, emphasizing the
context of the building of the altar: "The correct explanation is that he would
call God's Name aloud there in front of the altar, proclaiming Him to people,
that He is God." The Ramban quotes a source for this explanation from
Bereishit Rabba 39:16, "'He called in God's Name' – this teaches
us that he caused God's Name to be called by every person. Alternatively: 'He
called' – he began converting converts and bringing them under the wings of the
Shekhina." Rashi on 21:33 explains the phrase in this general direction
as well. According to this
explanation, the verse here is not describing a specific action by Avraham, but
rather as a general course of action, campaigning for worshipping
God.
Modern scholars have suggested a third explanation. These critics point
to two verses from the Prophets. The first verse is from Tzefanya (3:9):
"For then I will make the nations pure of speech, so that they all to call in
God's Name, to worship Him together." The second verse is in Yirmiyahu
(10:25): "Pour out Your anger on the nations that have not heeded You and on the
tribes that have not called in Your Name."
From the parallelisms in both verses, we can conclude that calling in
God's Name is an expression meaning worshipping God in general. The background
of this use of the phrase could possibly be prayer or other verbal expressions
that employ God's Name, but in any case the phrase has already attained the
general meaning of worshipping Him. This explanation of calling in God's Name
works well with an earlier appearance of the phrase, in Bereishit 4:26:
"And to Shet, in turn, a son was born, and he named him Enosh. It was then that
calling in God's Name first began."
The fact that calling in God's Name by the forefathers occurs immediately
after building altars may be an indication that the specific form of worship is
sacrificial. We can
understand calling in God's Name more deeply by examining the meaning of the
word shem – name. In the
book of Devarim, the Temple's location is referred to as "The place where
God will choose to rest His Name." The word "rest" in this sentence is a (loose)
translation of le-shaken, which has the same root as the noun
shekhina; shekhina literally means "dwelling," and usually refers
to the Divine Presence. This noun stems from rabbinic times, while the Torah
uses this root as a verb. The noun used in the Torah, as in the verse just
quoted, is shem – name. The
word shem, then, beyond the basic meaning of "name" in the sense of what
something or someone is called, and beyond the secondary meaning of "fame," has
a tertiary meaning: that of the Divine Presence and glory. The reason is that
the conceptual meaning of shekhina is a place from which God's will and
glory are revealed and recognized. It is from the place of Shekhina that
God's Name goes forth. This
meaning of shem was known to Chazal. Regarding the words of the
people of Bavel, who when building the city and tower said, "And we will make
for ourselves a name (shem)," the rabbis commented: "It is taught: Rabbi
Yishmael said, there is no name (shem) but idolatry" (Bereishit
Rabba 38:8), and "They said: we will not accept that He should choose for
Himself the heavens and give us the earth; rather, let us make for ourselves a
tower, and make an idol at its top, and put a sword in its hand, and it will
appear to be battling against Him" (Ibid. 6). The rabbis understood that
the word shem in general denotes a divine presence. When referring to
God, it denotes His Divine Presence; in other cases, it can refer to the
presence of a pagan deity. The Ramban, too, also in the context of the Bavel
narrative, points out this meaning of shem: "But whoever knows the
meaning of shem will understand their intention in saying, ‘And we will
make for ourselves a name,' and will know the extent of what they thought to do
with the tower, and will understand the entire matter, for they had an evil
thought…." This
use of shem appears also in the context of building an altar and
sacrificing. In Shemot 20:20 it says: "You shall make for me an earthen
altar and slaughter on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your
flock and your cattle. Wherever I mention my shem (Name) I will come to
you and bless you." The divine revelation and blessing mentioned in the second
sentence of this verse are a result of the building of the altar and sacrificing
mentioned in the first sentence of the verse. Chazal in Bereishit
Rabba (82:2) interpreted the verse this way: "…This person who built an
altar for My Name – I will reveal myself to him and bless him…." The location of
the altar and the sacrifices, then, is referred to as the place where His
shem is mentioned, that is, as a place of Shekhina, the Divine
Presence. We can
learn from this that building an altar and sacrificing are, in essence,
establishing a place of Shekhina – a place where God's Will is done and
His Name is glorified and recognized. In view
of all this, we should interpret the forefathers' calling in God's Name in a
similar fashion. Avraham and Yitzchak traveled from place to place and
established institutions of Shekhina – altars for worshipping God, to
which people would come to worship, and through which God's Name would be
glorified in the world. The forefathers' calling in God's Name certainly was
done by building an altar and sacrificing, in accordance with the third
explanation above, but its meaning is not limited to this worship; rather, it
expresses a wider meaning and effect. This meaning certainly includes the kind
of presence which influences people to recognize God's glory and to come worship
Him, in accordance with the second explanation above, but not (just) by verbally
calling people, but by establishment and institutionalization of a place of
God's worship. So far,
we have seen that both Avraham and Yitzchak traveled from place to place, built
altars and called in God's Name. What about Yaakov? The precise phrase "called
in God's Name" does not appear in Yaakov's narrative. The Ramban (on 12:8), in
fact, believes that Yaakov was different than his fathers in this respect, and
attempts to explain the difference. However, there is
something similar by Yaakov. After purchasing the field in Shekhem, Yaakov
"erected an altar and called it El Elohei Yisrael" (33:20). And
later, in Beit-El (35:7), "He built there an altar and called the place El Beit
El." It would seem that Yaakov, like his fathers, intended the altars to be
public focal points for worshipping God, and in the context of his attempt to
publicize them, named them with God's Name, as though to say that here is a
place of shem, a place of Shekhina. |