Each to be judged on its own merits

Avraham Avinu, our father Abraham, was unique in his time. While others were idol worshippers, he intuited that there was one all-powerful, albeit invisible, God. And as the Torah shows us, he was a man of faith in that God. The faith is tested throughout the book of Genesis. One, or perhaps two, of those tests of that faith comes in the portion of Lech Lecha, where God commands the then-Avram to “Go.” There is a dispute in our tradition whether it is a command or an invitation. But he is told to leave behind his father’s house, his birthplace and the land where he grew up, and head to a new place that God would show him.

Avraham was no refugee. He did not need to leave. No one was forcing him out. But what he needed to do was abandon his birth family and the land where he grew up. That is why he is told in such a descriptive manner of the place he was leaving. God simply could have said “Leave this place.” But instead, we are told of all the different ways this home influenced him. This is the land and home that helped to form him as a person. This is where his parents raised him.

But those influences could not be part of his life if he was going to evolve further as the founder of a great people. Furthermore, he had to prove his faith in God by agreeing to leave without having any knowledge of the land to which he was headed, a land where he would be the father of a great nation of some kind.

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By his taking on the belief in God, Avram was no longer really “at home” in his native land, its people and their influences anymore, including his birth family. By leaving he could escape their influence, sideways glances and judgment. And he had enough faith in God that his new place would be an improvement.

Rabbi Sampson Raphael Hirsch interprets the words Lech Lecha to mean that Avram is going into some form of isolation before becoming a great leader. This is much like Moses, who disassociates from Egypt and his own people in Midian before coming back to lead them out of Egypt. They both needed to get away from their environments so they could begin their transformation into great leaders.

A Midrash explains that “to the land where I will show you” is not just about the land, but also about the journey. While he is on the journey to the land, God will place wisdom inside of Avram that he will need moving forward. Avram will now be under God’s influence.

But in today’s world it is not so simple to leave our influences behind or even monitor the influences on our children as they are in places we don’t know, whether it is in the real-life world, some form of media or the online universe. The influences are everywhere and we are assaulted by them on a daily basis. It is hard to discern the truth and agendas of those influences. But each influence, real person or somewhere in the ether, needs to be judged on its own merits if we are to maintain our moral, intellectual and Jewish centers.

Judaism demands that we be independent thinkers, that we do not conform to outside influences, that we be the shepherds of our own standards rather than the sheep who merely repeat the beliefs of others. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks said, “One reason why Jews have become, out of all proportion to their numbers, leaders in almost every sphere of human endeavor, is precisely this willingness to be different. Throughout the centuries, Jews have been the most striking example of a group that refused to assimilate to the dominant culture or convert to the dominant faith.”

Our survival as a people depends on us being independent thinkers and nonconformist. In Pirkei Avot 1:6, Yehoshua ben Perachia reminds us among other things to “judge each person on their own merit.” And so it must be for all of the influences in our lives. PJC

Rabbi Yaier Lehrer is the rabbi of Adat Shalom Synagogue.