24 | OCTOBER 29 • 2020 

SPIRIT

Of Influence
and Power
O

ur portion opens 
with the first words 
of God to Abraham: 
“Leave your land, your birth-
place and your father’
s house, 
and go to the land 
that I will show you.
” 
These words are the 
foundation upon which 
Abraham was to build 
our nation.
Generally, people 
conform to their sur-
roundings. They adopt 
the standards and 
absorb the culture of 
the time and place in 
which they live. 
I want you, says 
God to Abraham, to 
be different. Not for the sake 
of being different, but for the 
sake of starting something 
new: a nation that will not 
worship power and the sym-
bols of power — for that is 
what idols really were and are. 
I want you, said God, to “teach 
your children and your house-
hold afterward to follow the 
way of the Lord by doing what 
is right and just.
”
To be a Jew is to be willing 
to challenge the prevailing 
consensus of worshiping the 
old gods. Statues, figurines, 
icons, idols represented 
power. That is what Baal for 
the Canaanites, Zeus for the 
Greeks, and missiles and 
bombs for terrorists and rogue 
states are today.
Power allows us to rule 
over others without their con-
sent. Judaism is a sustained 
critique of power. It is about 
how a nation can be formed 
on shared commitment and 
collective responsibility. It is 
about how to construct a soci-

ety that honors the human as 
the image and likeness of God. 
It is about a vision, which has 
yet to fully be realized but has 
never been abandoned, of a 
world based on justice 
and compassion. 
Abraham is the most 
influential person 
who ever lived. Yet, he 
ruled no empire and 
commanded no great 
army. He is the supreme 
example of influence 
without power.
Why? Because he was 
prepared to be different. 
Leadership, as every 
leader knows, can be 
lonely. Yet you continue 
to do what you have to do 
because you know that the 
majority is not always right, 
and conventional wisdom is 
not always wise. The children 
of Abraham are prepared to 
challenge the idols of the age.
One reason why Jews have 
become, out of all proportion 
to their numbers, leaders in 
almost every sphere of human 
endeavor is precisely this will-
ingness to be different, refusing 
to assimilate to the dominant 
culture or convert to the dom-
inant faith. That is why, how-
ever small their numbers, Jews 
created communities. It is hard 
to lead alone, far less hard to 
lead in the company of others, 
even if you are a minority.
As Jews, we do not follow 
the majority merely because 
it is the majority. It is what 
makes a nation of leaders. 

Rabbi Bentzion Geisinsky lives in 

Bloomfield Hills, where he co-directs 

Chabad of Bingham Farms with his 

wife, Moussia.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi 

Bentzion 

Geisinsky

Parshat 

Lech Lecha: 

Genesis 12:1-

17:27; Isaiah 

40:27-41:16.

