If you look into the story of Avraham and Sarah, the subject of this week’s Parsha, there is something quite shocking. Think about who Avraham was and how he lived for the first 75 years of his life, and how the Torah introduces him. At the end of the last Parsha there is a list of the generations from Noah, after the Flood, until Avraham, and there is some elaboration on Avraham’s family. We know that his father was Terach, his wife was (at that time called) Sarai, and a few other details of the family. We also know that Terach took his family and travelled from the family home in Ur Casdim to Charan and died there, and that one of his sons, Haran, dies while he was still alive. The next thing we know, beginning this week’s Parsha, is: “Hashem appeared to Avram.” Why? What did he do to deserve that revelation? He was 75 years old at the time, had his life been uneventful until then? In fact, when we read the Midrash, we see that Avraham and Sarah were great leaders who had brought huge numbers of people out of idolatry to believe in Hashem. Avraham had, on his own, recognized the Creator, sacrificed his life for his belief in Hashem, and been saved by a miracle. The king Nimrod (the Hitler of that time) threw him into a furnace because he had destroyed Terach’s idols and he came out unscathed. Quite a career and quite a life! The written Torah tells us none of that! “Hashem appeared to Avraham” is our introduction to this unique, amazing individual!
Torah means lesson, and the purpose of the stories in the Torah is to teach us how to live our lives as Jews. There is a powerful lesson here, relating to Avraham’s faith in Hashem and its impact on all future generations. There are two kinds of faith or belief. You take a look at a house. You know with absolute certainty that a builder built this house and nothing will shake that belief. But that belief is based on your understanding that houses don’t build themselves and you are, after all, looking at a house. You have not seen the builder, and you are relying on your knowledge and your intellect. Now imagine that you saw the builder at work. It’s not that you believe in a builder more, it’s that you have actually seen him or her and your belief is therefore based on what you have actually seen. You need no intellectual work or any other knowledge to recognize it. You have seen it with your eyes.
Everything Avraham did until he turned 75 was based on his absolute belief in one G-d, the Creator of heaven and earth. He, together with Sarah, was so sure of it that he convinced a large segment of the population of it, and was willing to give up his life for this belief. That is not the Avraham that the Torah introduces us to as the father of our nation, no matter how lofty and worthy he was. When Hashem appeared to Avraham, his faith reached a whole new level. He had now seen Hashem and therefore experienced Him in a way that was essential, not related to his knowledge or intelligence. His faith was no longer something he figured out or understood, it was absolute, a part of himself.
This is the inheritance that Avraham passed down to each of us. We each have a soul that is a part of Hashem, and the soul has an unshakable bond with Hashem that has nothing to do with what we know or what we have learned or understood. It “sees” Hashem. This is why we see so often Jews who have had no visible connection to Judaism, sometimes for generations, suddenly become interested in pursuing their heritage, sparked by something that they cannot understand. When this happens, we know that it is not something foreign to them. It is their inner essence, an inheritance from Avraham and Sarah, that is simply waking up.