Chayei Sarah: ... Because It's Your Story Too.

I was chatting with someone from Ohev recently, and he made a fascinating observation about Abraham, though it really applies to everyone we read about in Genesis. If we didn't already KNOW Abraham was special, if he hadn't already been identified for us as our great ancestor, would we see it

in the text? If you could somehow remove everything you know about the Judeo-Christian tradition, and about Abraham as the ancestor of all of monotheism, would these stories impress you AT ALL? Not only is the subject matter often somewhat mundane, but if you didn't read the text TRYING to see Abraham as an awesome, unwavering, religious, upright, and all-around stupendous fellow, you might accidentally notice how flawed, afraid, and imperfect he really is. So why do we keep reading these stories, and why do we do so with such rose-colored glasses?

Don't get me wrong, sometimes the Torah is fabulously well-written. The drama between Jacob and Esau, the confrontations between Moses and Pharaoh; the Torah is full of terrific plot lines and good ol' fashioned storytelling. But it's also really boring at times, and it's

heroes can be remarkably unsympathetic. Nearly every, single Biblical protagonist is also flawed, and we have to look past his or her errors in judgment and behavior to continue rooting for him/her. Yet perhaps it is reminding us that we don't get to choose our family members OR our ancestors. We love them and we read their stories, not because they're inherently fabulous, but because they're OUR stories. And no matter how much we might wish that our relatives would be the greatest relatives in the history of humanity - that they'd be perfect and noble and innocent - ultimately, they're just people. 

The part that amazes me the most is how disappointed we are to hear that. For some reason, we WANT to think that Abraham, Moses, Rachel, and Miriam were perfect. I don't really understand it,

because WE are not perfect, and setting ourselves up to try and emulate perfection is almost guaranteed to end in disappointment and frustration. Wouldn't it make them more relatable and inspirational if they OVERCAME their flaws and shortcomings to achieve greatness anyway? We do the same thing with our athletes, movie stars, and politicians; we insist that they be immaculate, and we are shocked and horrified when they act just like us. Why do we set ourselves up for such failure?

I agree with my friend's earlier assertion, that we might not have thought too much of the Abraham story if we didn't know he was destined for greatness. But we do know. We know that Abraham is our ancestor, and we know that his story is important to us. 

So read this story with your eyes wide open. He's a regular guy from meager beginnings, with a lot of doubts and insecurities. But he made a great name for himself and he has become a symbol of so much more than just the few, short stories about his life that we read in the Torah. And his descendants did the same thing for themselves. And so can you.

Photos in this blog post:

 

1. CC image courtesy of derekGavey on Flickr.

2. CC image courtesy of viralbus on Flickr.

3. CC image courtesy of nineball2727 on Flickr.

4. CC image courtesy of mikelao26 on Flickr.