Star and Dust
There are people of great achievement who are likened to the stars. And there are lowly people likened to the dust of the earth. Both are flawed. The stars are whole and a source of blessing when they behave with the humility of the dust. LECHA LECHA
Where was Abraham’s Faith?
Abraham is singled out in the Torah as a man of exceptional faith and devotion to G-d among his various other qualities. Yet, in this week’s parsha, a rather unusual exchange between Abraham and G-d ensues that seems to belie his identification with faith.
When G-d promises him Divine protection and great reward, Abraham demurs and states:
What can you give me, when I am going childless.. Behold you have not given me children…
In other words, Abraham turned down G-d’s gifts to him because it was worthless to him to have these gifts if he were not to father children.
Or Hachaim (one of the great Biblical commentators of the eighteenth century)
LECHA raises a strong question. Had not G-d already promised him children? Did G-d not say to him: “And I will make your seed as plentiful as the dust of the earth?” Why did he now doubt G-d’s words?
And, most importantly, how does this square with the characterization of Abraham as a man of faith in this very narrative, when it appears that he did not have faith in G-d’s promise to him that he would have children?
Or Hachaim raises an additional question, which he says is the key to answering the first one: Why does Abraham emphasize that “You [G-d] have not given me children?” It would have sufficed for Abraham to have said, “You have not given children.” It would have been obvious that G-d was referring to his children, since he already mentioned that he was childless.
Quality Versus Quantity
Or Hachaim’s answer to these questions is that when G-d promised him children he referred to them as “dust of the earth.” In Abraham’s mind this was not only an expression of abundance, but that it also LECHA portended that they will be as lowly and earthy as the dust of the earth. In other words, Abraham thought that he would have to sacrifice quality if he was to have the quantity of children that G-d offered him.
Abraham was clearly not completely content with this blessing. That is why, Or Hachaim explains, Abraham stressed the word “me” when he stated that “You have not given me children.” What he meant by that was that while G-d had indeed promised him children in great numbers, he nevertheless was apprehensive that they were going to be his children just in name, not in spirit. While he might be their biological father, Abraham feared, they will be under the influence of others whose less than ideal and lofty ways would rub off on them and render them unworthy of carrying on Abraham’s legacy.
Only when G-d promised him, in this parsha, that his children will be like the stars of the heavens was Abraham mollified.
Why the Dust of the Earth Metaphor?
The question, however, can be raised. If G-d really intended for Abraham’s children to be LECHA like the stars of the heaven, exalted and lofty souls, why did he previously use the metaphor of dust of the earth?
Furthermore, as Or Hachaim notes, G-d repeats the very blessing of “your seed shall be as dust of the earth” to Jacob together with the blessing for his progeny to be like the stars of the heaven. If “dust of the earth” has a negative connotation, why did he repeat it to Jacob?
Or Hachaim’s answer is that, independently, the “dust of the earth” metaphor can, indeed, be understood negatively. However, once G-d invoked the “stars of the heaven” metaphor, it shed new light and redefined the comparison of Jews to the dust of the earth in a positive light.
When one attains the status of a “star,” and also possesses the humility that is represented by the dust of earth, he or she is indeed worthy of the title “children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” who personified these very traits.
Viewing Dust from the Stars
On a deeper plane, dust is lowly to one who
LECHA does not possess the exalted perspective of the “stars of the heaven.” When one sees things from a heavenly vantage point, they can see the value in the dust as well. As RabbI Sholom Dovber (the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, whose birthday we will be observing on the 20th of Cheshvan, in close proximity to this Shabbos), once commented to a person who failed to see the qualities in simple folk:
To appreciate their exquisite beauty one must be a maven, a connoisseur, just as one must have a highly trained eye to appreciate the beauty of a precious diamond.
Messianic Age: Delights as the Dust of the Earth.
Perhaps this explains Maimonides’ description of the proliferation of physical delights in the future Messianic Age, that they will be as abundant as the “dust of the earth.”
On the one hand, it suggests that physical delights will be as available to us in an unlimited way, even more than one could possibly desire. On the other hand, because we will then attain the “star like” exalted LECHA status, we will be afforded the opportunity to better appreciate the incredible beauty and spiritual value of even the most prosaic and humble aspects of our existence—the dust of the earth. The higher we will reach, the more we will appreciate the true value of those things that appear at the bottom of the hierarchy of treasured things.
LECHA
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Lech Lecha by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
