Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster explains the Jewish interpretation of Abraham and God's covenant promise.
There appear to be roughly two cultures - honour cultures and victim cultures. We now see both of these playing havoc in our country.
This wasn’t always the case. In my youth the most obvious honour cultures were based far away, in Sicily, or transported even further away, to the US - we all watched the ‘Godfather’ movies emanating from Hollywood at the time. The closest we came in this country was maybe in studies of Shakespeare’s story of family feud - ‘Romeo and Juliet’ - conveniently set in Italian Verona!
Seventy years ago, victim culture also received short shrift. Service was encouraged in schools, and often personified by devoted teachers and other members of society.
Having said that, Jewish Holocaust survivors and refugees were not helped in any way to settle in to this country. They did not receive therapy. Government funding was withheld and the Second Generation of survivor families were also left to fend for themselves. In many cases, English had to be learned on the hoof and the lesson of gratitude was instilled into us every second of the day.
Gradually, however, when Tony Blair took over the reins, we suddenly became a ‘victim’ culture, seemingly overnight. The death of Princess Diana was of considerable assistance to Blair, as he dubbed her ‘the people’s princess’ and took every opportunity to challenge the stoic stance of the royal family.
On the day of Diana’s funeral, my daughter phoned from Tel Aviv to let us know she was OK. A bus had exploded in front of her, scattering body parts all over the streets. This was just one of many such terrorist instances experienced by Israel during this period and ongoing. But, unlike here, Israelis picked themselves up and carried on with their lives.
I think it is fair to state that Queen Elizabeth, for all her faults, represented not ‘honour’ but dignity. Unlike honour, dignity can surprise with a sudden flash of humour. This is dry and self-deprecating irony - much missed by people who leave the country. Deep down, the Queen knew that it wasn’t about her - it was about what she tried her best to represent, having pledged her life to serve this country, this people and this way of life.
In the last 30 years, however, the main institutions of this country have come to represent not dignity, but victimhood and honour, two sides of the same coin - dignity tends to stand slightly apart.
Just before this time, from around 1966 to 1990, the Jewish community was represented by Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jacobovits and the Prime Minister was Margaret Thatcher. Whether you agreed with either of them or not, everyone knew they stood for something greater than themselves. Even the BBC told me how much they had enjoyed working with Rabbi Jacobovits, because ‘he knew where he stood and didn’t mess you around.’ Now, alas, this is no longer the case and religious leadership is sadly absent in this country, being reactive rather than proactive.
This is perhaps not the place to dissect what has gone wrong; why religious leaders no longer lead; why so many well-meaning rabbis and their flocks are emigrating to Israel in droves.
All this is presaged in our Abraham stories, currently read at Shul in the Book of Bereshit (Genesis). Was Abraham a real leader, or merely a follower?
Noah preceded Abraham. Noah was a good man, but that was it. He did what he was told and followed orders to the letter. He built the ark to the exact dimensions ordered by G-d and managed to save his immediate family together with the animals.
Abraham, however, was different. He didn’t keep his head down and had a fiery personality which he had to learn to keep under control. From early childhood Abraham thought for himself, cementing monotheism. He realized that his father’s idols were pernicious and therefore destroyed them.
In Judaism, Abraham is the first Jew but he is also regarded as the original forefather by Christians and Muslims i.e. by around half the world’s population.
However, Abraham was sorely tested by G-d. The Akeda (binding of Isaac) is only one of ten such tests involving Abraham.
Before that he destroyed his father’s wooden idols, demonstrating that they were human constructs, subject to wear and tear like the rest of us.
He was then instructed to leave his entire way of life - his country, his kindred and his father’s home (Genesis 12) and make his way into the unknown, charged with G-d’s mission. It wasn’t good enough to be a victim and to feel sorry for himself. It wasn’t seemly to rant and rage against his father’s idolatry. Abraham had to make the very difficult decision to start again, in a special Land ‘that I will show you.’
This type of behaviour was unheard of in the ancient world and is not compatible with an ‘honour’ lifestyle. In giving up his nearest and dearest, the rebel Abraham was taking on G-d’s mission to the world. And what was G-d’s mission? Not to be a victim and not to espouse honour, but to spread G-d’s teaching of how to live a quietly dignified life in the world.
People haven’t understood that G-d’s promise to turn Abraham's descendents into ‘a great nation’ (Genesis 12:2) doesn’t mean that they will be an exceedingly populous, rich, or well-endowed nation. Rather they are to demonstrate by example how to live a life in which being a victim or putting on a permanently brave face i.e. either over- or under-emoting, has no place. Instead, dignity means battling with G-d’s mission in mind at all times, becoming the human being that G-d wants us to be.
The Dalai Lama has stated that ‘the Jews have learned the secret of survival in exile.’ In his own era, Abraham ‘made souls’. He didn’t use forceful conversionary tactics. He simply taught by example, leaving it up to others to follow or not. In this he was assisted by his wife Sarah, who acted as both a help and a counterweight where necessary.
En route to the Promised Land he encountered greed, lust and violence. He had to deal with money matters, war where necessary, and betrayal by his nephew Lot, who travelled with them. Abraham had to handle the world’s jealousy, which is still with us. Abraham isn’t only a biblical figure: we can find our own reflection in Abraham.
In Genesis 17 Abraham and Sarah are given the extra letter ‘heh’ to their names. The letter ‘heh’ signifies openness going forward. It is bound on three sides, but is open on the left and this signifies an open attitude to the future. The Jewish interpretation is that through Abraham and Sarah, G-d will bless the dignified Jewish people and through the Jewish people all people will be blessed (Editor's note: this differs from how Christians interpret this passage for themselves).
What the world needs now is this openness to the blessing, the blessing which comes from G-d’s covenant with Abraham, the dignified person, regarded in Judaism as the first Jew, and the forefather of both Christianity and Islam.
