Genesis 12:1 -17:27 - Bad People and Good
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen
We are living under conditions that remind us of how much we Jews can be hated and to what extremes our enemies can go in order to express such hatred. The dishonesty and ignorance peddled on social media to vilify Jews and refuse to accept our right to exist or even defend a Jewish homeland defies logic. Let alone the facts.
We are inevitably inclined to think that the whole world is against us. This was expressed 2000 years ago in the famous phrase “ It is well known that Esau will always hate Israel.” And yet if you go back to the Torah, you will see that this just isn't the case. Throughout history, as much as we have been attacked, murdered, and despised, there have also been good people amongst the nations who have befriended, supported and helped us.
This week we read about Avram’s encounter with the people he met when he journeyed from Haran in what is now Kurdistan, down to the land of Canaan. There he experienced famine and had to travel down to Egypt. He was worried about how the Egyptians were going to treat him. He heard that the Egyptians regarded wives as dispensable, but blood relatives were not.
This may be why he risked Sarah being taken into Pharaoh’s harem. And yet as a result he benefitted enormously. Initially, he was welcomed and treated well. But when Pharaoh discovered that he had been misled he rightly turned on Avram and asked him to leave.
Although not without the wealth he had accumulated. Pharaoh did not misbehave. Quite the contrary, he rebuked Avram for his dishonesty. When it came to Sodom Avraham refused to be enriched by them, because he considered their money tainted. But this was not the case with Pharaoh.
The next phase of the story was when Avram’s nephew Lot chose to go down to live in Sodom, a community with no moral values. They hated aliens and thought nothing of raping and murdering visitors. Sodom was then captured by marauding invaders who took the inhabitants into slavery. Avram by then had made allies, the Amorites, Mamre, Eshkol, and Aner. Together they pursued the invaders and rescued Lot and the people of Sodom. Clearly, there were good people amongst the local population with whom Avram had established excellent relations.
On the way back, Avram encountered another local man Malkizedek the King of Shalem who was a priest of El Elyon, a name identical to that of Avram’s God. He provided the returning warriors with bread and wine and blessed Avram. Who then repaid him by giving him a tithe.
The text is not clear whether this was a tenth of the booty he captured or an ongoing charitable donation. Either way, this shows that there were non-Jews that Avram got on well with and trusted. In addition to the bad people there are also good, supportive, and charitable ones who did not play politics or behave in an inhuman way.
We can learn from Avram that while we should be on our guard and recognize that evil exists and is all around us. But we should not assume that everyone is like them. There are good people, even within communities and religions that outwardly appear to be against us. We should try our best to value them, their support, and their love. And by befriending others we can educate them and get them to understand our point of view and our rights to defend ourselves even as we try for the peace which others have always denied us.
Shabbat Shalom
Jeremy
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Jeremy Rosen was born in Manchester, England, the eldest son of Rabbi Kopul Rosen and Bella Rosen. Rosen's thinking was strongly influenced by his father, who rejected fundamentalist and obscurantist approaches in favour of being open to the best the secular world has to offer while remaining committed to religious life. He was first educated at Carmel College, the school his father had founded based on this philosophical orientation. At his father's direction, Rosen also studied at Be'er Yaakov Yeshiva in Israel (1957–1958 and 1960). He then went on to Merkaz Harav Kook (1961), and Mir Yeshiva (1965–1968) in Jerusalem, where he received semicha from Rabbi Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz in addition to Rabbi Dovid Povarsky of Ponevezh and Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Shapiro of Yeshivat Be'er Ya'akov. In between Rosen attended Cambridge University (1962–1965), graduating with a degree in Moral Sciences.