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rom age three Avraham Avinu was asking questions challenging the pervading belief system of the time and putting his very life on the line for his convictions. So why does the Torah skip these first formative seven decades of his life?

In our Torah reading this week Avraham Avinu begins his mission to mankind a journey that continues to this day. The previous two parshiyos Bereishis and Noach gave us a sweeping overview of the first two centuries of human history: Gan Eden the Tree of Knowledge the first murder the generation of the Flood and the story of theTowerofBavel. Now one unique personality steps onstage and from here on he is the central figure in the narrative. From parshas Lech Lecha and on the history of this man and his offspring becomes the theme of the entire Torah. Indeed all of Tanach is stamped with the impression of his personal story a story we’re still adding chapters to today.

Avraham was a man of courage a man who did not submit to social conventions and who defied Nimrod the arch-dictator who ruled his subjects with a reign of terror. Under Nimrod worship of the regime’s idols — the sun moon stars and other natural forces — was required by law.

But Avraham asked questions.

“At a very early age he began to wonder about the world. He would think about it day and night and ask himself ‘How could it be that this great wheel (the universe) is constantly turning and no one is turning it? And who brought it into existence for it could not have brought itself into existence?’ ” (Rambam Hilchos Avodah Zarah 1:3 based on Chazal).

Among the masses he was a single point of distinction.

“He had no teacher and no one to inform him. He was immersed in the society of Ur Kasdim surrounded by foolish idol worshippers; his parents and the whole nation were idol worshippers and he worshipped with them but he had an investigative and discerning mind and he discerned the truth and came to the correct conclusion” (ibid).

At the age of three says the Midrash Avraham’s spiritual journey began. It was a journey of hardship suffering and emotional struggles until he reached the age of 40. At that point he emerged from the struggle with a fully-formed faith in the One. His great mind had grasped the concept of G-d the unseen Creator from Whom all powers stem and without Whom there is nothing. He saw beyond the screen of multiplicity and separation that deceived the people of his society and in the words of the Midrash he succeeded in “patching up the tears” and forming a complete unified worldview. This restored his inner harmony enabling him to see G-d’s oneness behind the endless variety of nature while learning ethical conduct from the components of G-d’s universe. And thus Avraham formed his moral code.

And then he demonstrated his courage coming out with the truth publicly despite the threats of the ruling authorities. He expressed his opinion in the streets and confounded the idolaters with his incisive questions. He smashed the beliefs and myths that had become tradition when the generations that preceded him deviated from the path of Noach.

Nimrod realized that Avraham represented a challenge to his power over the people’s spiritual lives. The “refuseniks” who were following Avraham were undermining the stability of his rule in Ur Kasdim. Avraham was condemned to death by fire and as we all know he was miraculously saved from death and subsequently escaped to Charan which was situated on the way to thelandofCanaan.

That is the synopsis of Avraham’s early history a short biography of a courageous thinker willing to die for his beliefs a thinker who became the founder of the Hebrew faith. Yet most puzzling is that none of these facts appear in the written Torah’s account of Avraham’s life.

The Torah begins the story of Avraham with Lech Lecha. Hashem speaks to Avraham telling him to get up and leave his native land without offering a word of background about who Avraham is or any indication how he merits this special Divine interest. Noach the lead character in the previous parshah is introduced with the description “a righteous man perfect in his generations” (Bereishis 3:9) whereas not one word of praise is granted to Avraham.

The traditional commentaries ask this question and answer that by saying nothing about Avraham’s life before G-d’s revelation the Torah is indicating an absolute division between Avraham’s past and his future from that point forward. In parshas Lech Lecha Avraham is reborn. Up until then he was the embodiment of human discernment in its purest form. Up until then he was the great philosopher who came to recognition of the Creator and His absolute morality. He was a man of high status a man of influence. But from this point on he was in personal contact with G-d above and beyond his own powers of discernment. His Creator reached out and made him His particular protégé placing him on a path distinct from the rest of humanity. Now he would have a new life and new trials. Up until now he stood on his own two feet within the realm of human history. But from the moment G-d called out to him he was plucked out of that story and entrusted with a mission. He was chosen — the beginning of this Jewish concept that has caused us so much suffering a concept rejected even by some of our own people who see it as discriminatory against other nations.

And indeed this is a question that demands an answer. Why did G-d single out Avraham for this special relationship? Were the seeds of racist discrimination sown here?

There is no better source for an answer than the pesukim themselves. Without preconceived theories let us look at what the verses say about the selection of Avraham Avinu:

“Hashem said to Avram ‘Go forth from your land from your birthplace and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great… and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you’ ” (Bereishis 12:1-3).

Here we see a call to Avraham to turn his back on the civilization of his time to cut ties with his family to travel far from the land of his idolatrous childhood and to begin a new life in a new land so that eventually a great and blessed nation would come forth from him and the entire world would be blessed through him.

The final goal of Avraham’s mandate of estrangement from his familial roots as understood by the Patriarchs themselves by the prophets and all the commentators on the Torah down to the last of Avraham’s descendants in our generation was to bring blessing to all of humanity.

That is to say the man who chose the Master of the Universe was then chosen by Him to bring His word to the world by means of his personal example as a believer.

We need to clarify that G-d as He appears in Scripture did not abandon the human race to its fate as a first choice. He called to them repeatedly but they did not answer the call. In the Midrash we find:

“‘We treatedBabylon but she was not cured. Leave her and let us go each one to his own land’ (Yirmiyahu 51:9). We treatedBabylon— in the generation of Enosh [the generation that began worshipping idols]. But she was not cured — in the generation of the Flood. Leave her — in the generation of the Dispersion. And let us go each one to his own land — ‘And Hashem said… Lech lecha’ ” (Bereishis Rabbah 39:5).

Here we learn that Hashem entrusted His mission to one person and his offspring only after the moral failure of 2000 years of human civilization. For the world’s sake Avraham was chosen to show them the way.

Arnold Toynbee one of the world’s great historians and no great lover of Am Yisrael nevertheless made a fascinating observation about us and our mission (L’Arche June 1959):

“I dare say that Judaism will bring a new message to the world. Looking from the outside it seems extraordinary that twice in the course of history the Jews have allowed outsiders to run away with their religion to spread it over the world in garbled form. I am talking of course of early Christianity and Islam. It is something almost comic that outsiders should seize some of the essential truths of Judaism and make a worldwide religion of them while the Jews themselves kept their religion to themselves. Is not the real future of Jews and Judaism to spread Judaism in its authentic form rather than its Christian and Moslem forms over the whole world and human race? After all the Jews must have a more authentic form of Jewish monotheism than the Christians or Moslems have. And is that not going to be the ultimate solution of the relations between Jews and the rest of the world?”