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.