F rom the moment G-d called out to Avraham he was plucked out of the story that had defined him up to that point and entrusted with an eternal mission as the father of the Chosen Nation — a concept that has caused the Jewish People untold suffering. Why then did Hashem single out Avraham for this complicated relationship?

In the two weeks since Simchas Torah the Torah readings of Bereishis and Noach presented us with a sweeping overview of the dawn of human history: Gan Eden the Tree of Knowledge the first murder the generation of the Flood and the story of the Tower of Bavel. The background is in place. Now one exceptional personality steps onstage — a unique world-changing figure — and from here on he is the central character in the narrative. The history of this man and his offspring will unfold as the theme of the entire Torah. Indeed all of Tanach is stamped with the impression of his personal story a story that has not yet ended. Even today we are adding chapters to it.

Who exactly was Avraham?

He was a man of free spirit. A man of courage a nonconformist. A man who did not submit to social conventions who defied Nimrod — the arch dictator who held his subjects under a reign of terror. Under Nimrod worship of the regime’s idols — the sun moon and stars and other natural forces — was required by law.

But Avraham questioned the party line.

“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).

He alone among the whole society around him was engaged in these thoughts. Among the blindly obedient 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 an exhausting journey full 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 Hashem. 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 “sewing together the tatters” and forming a complete unified worldview seeing G-d’s Oneness behind the endless variety in nature.

And then he demonstrated his courage:

Contemptuous of the dangers of proclaiming the truth he came out with it publicly. Ignoring 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 traditional since the generations before him had deviated from the path of Noach.

Nimrod realized that Avraham posed a challenge to his control over the people’s spiritual life. The “refuseniks” who were following Avraham were destabilizing his ironclad 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 the land of Canaan.

That is a synopsis of Avraham’s early history a short biography of a brave and courageous thinker willing to die for his beliefs who became the father of the Jewish faith. Yet isn’t it puzzling that none of this story line appears 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 a word of background about who Avraham is or how he merits this special Divine interest. The traditional commentaries offer many answers to this question but one consensus is that there is an absolute division between Avraham’s past and his future from that point forward. 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 is in personal contact with G-d above and beyond his own powers of discernment. Hashem has reached out and made him his particular protיgי placing him on a path distinct from the rest of humanity.

Up until now he has stood on his own two feet in the realm of human history. But from the moment that G-d called out to him he is plucked out of that story and entrusted with a mission. He is chosen. From here stems our status as the Chosen Nation — the concept that has caused us so much suffering a concept rejected even by many 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 of an answer than the pesukim themselves:

“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).

It’s 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 after a great and blessed nation would come forth from him all the families of the earth would be blessed through him.

The final goal of Avraham’s mandate of estrangement from his familial roots down to the last of Avraham’s descendants in our generation was to bring blessing to the entire world living by the ethical code of the
One G-d.

G-d however did not abandon the human race to its fate as a first choice. Hashem entrusted His mission to Avraham and his offspring only after the moral failure of two thousand years of human civilization. For the world’s sake Avraham was chosen to show them the way.

One of the world’s great historians Arnold Toynbee (in the French monthly newsmagazine L’Arche June 1959) made a fascinating observation about the Jews and their world mission although he personally was not particularly fond of Am Yisrael:

“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?” (Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 682)