Why, then, does the previous parsha end with Avram leaving with his father? "And Terah took Avram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter in law, the wife of Avram his son, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, and they came as far as Charan and settled there. And the days of Terach were two hundred and five years, and Terach died in Charan." The implication seems to be that far from breaking with his father, Avram was continuing a journey Terach had already begun. How can we reconcile these two passages?
Most commentators, including Rashi, give a simple answer: the two passages are not in chronological order. The passage recording Terach's death is placed before G-d's call to Avram to protect Avram from the accusation that in leaving Terach, Avram failed to honor his elderly father.
Chief Rabbi Sacks provides another possibility. He writes: "Abraham's spiritual insight did not come from nowhere. Terach had already made the first tentative move toward monotheism. Children complete what their parents begin…[Terach] had set out on the long walk to the land which would eventually become holy, but stopped half way. Abraham completed the journey his father began."
As parents, we will watch our children break away from us and chart paths of their own. We can feel more secure knowing that even when our children feel they are breaking new ground, they are, in fact, living out the ideals and aspirations they learned from us. We must, however, wait until they are adults for them to realize how much of their journey they owe to us.
Excerpted from an article by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Read the article in its entirety at http://www.chiefrabbi.org/UploadedFiles/Articals/lech5770.pdf.
Published in honor of the bat mitzvah of Jane Laurel Friedman.
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