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Filling the (Age) Gap

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Lech Lecha
8 Cheshvan 5774 / October 11-12, 2013
10/11/2013

Dan Horwitz photo

In this week's portion, we begin to learn a bit about Abraham (at the time, still called Abram). When introduced, Abram is already 75 years old; granted the years might have been a calculated a bit differently back then, given that biblical characters were often cited as living very long lives. (Noah, for example, is said to have lived to the ripe old of age of 950!) This little bit of information alone leaves me with so many questions, such as:

What were Abram's first 75 years like?

Why did God wait so long to give him instructions?

After 75 years, wouldn't Abram have been such a creature of habit that he would've protested somehow when asked to leave his home?

Fortunately, we have a vast rabbinic tradition of trying to answer such questions.

For example, the Midrash helps shed some light on what Abram might have been like as a younger man, and why God might have chosen him:

Terach, Abram's father, worshipped and sold carved idols. Once when he was away, he left Abram in charge. An old man came to make a purchase. Abram asked him his age, and the man said he was between fifty and sixty years old. Abram mocked him, questioning how he could view the carvings of another man's hands, produced perhaps only a few hours ago, as his god. The man was convinced and gave up idol worship. Later that day, a woman came with a handful of choice flour as an offering to the idols. Abram took a stick and broke all the idols except the largest one, andplaced the stick in its hand. When his father returned and saw the damage, he demanded an explanation. Abram explained that when the flour offering was brought, the idols fought with one another as to which should be the recipient; and that in the end, the biggest of them took up a stick and destroyed the others. Terach was not convinced…

[Paraphrased from Genesis Rabbah 38]

For millennia, Jews have tried to fill in the gaps in our sacred texts, and to answer the questions that don't seem to have readily apparent answers. While predictably frustrating at first, this has created an incredible opportunity for creativity.  There is now a genre being referred to as "contemporary midrash" (this link shares quite a bit about BibleRaps.com, which is awesome), allowing for us today to fill in those gaps we perceive in the text.

This Shabbat, reflect on the questions you have about the Torah that are unanswered. Seek out those potential answers offered by our ancestors. If you don't find them satisfying (or even if you do), get creative and compose your own Midrash. And then share it with me! In this way, we can all engage with the Torah's narratives (even the tricky ones), and continue the millennia-old Jewish tradition of exegesis.

Wishing you a Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Dan

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What's My Age Again?

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10/11/2013

What's My Age Again? photo

The first of what is sure to be many, many engagements was brought to my attention via Facebook this week. The happy couple whom I have known for some time suddenly looked different to me: older, more mature, and quite frankly brimming with a kind of happiness that I am having a hard time standing.

At 23 years old people are getting engaged? As in engaged to be married? As in married for the rest of their lives? Apparently so. I had an inkling this day was coming and I thought when it did I would be ready (and slightly older) for it. I'm not.

And that's when it really hit me. That I have six very good friends, and of those six, six have serious boyfriends. Is marriage really around the corner, on the horizon, being "discussed" within these relationships?

It's like you're in grade school when you write his last name with your first and wonder what your kids might look like, except it's now and we’re 23. The 23rd year of life just rolled around and a switch got flipped. My friends without boyfriends got them and got serious, and those who had ex-boyfriends got back together with them, and got even more serious.

Sometimes I don't feel old enough to have a degree or even to drive a car and on the complete other extreme people feel old enough to get married and commit their life to someone. I can't even commit to what I'm eating for dinner, let alone another individual. If we commit to a relationship does that mean we've already committed to everything else?

Maybe you hit 23 and it's time to move away from nights out with your girlfriends and toward nights in with your boyfriend. Or, maybe you realize that the prospect of an engagement isn't what's holding you back from a relationship but the idea that you're growing up is. Or maybe you hit 23 and realize you're just 23. 

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