Chayei Sarah 5767 -- Bringing Godliness To Earth

When Avraham makes Eliezer vow not to take a Canaanite wife for Yitzchak, he takes the vow “Bashem, Elokei Hashamayim v’elokei Haaretz – By the Almighty, God of Heaven and God of Land” (24:3). Avraham then promises Eliezer that he will not go unaided: “Hashem Elokei HaShamayim Asher L’kachani MiBeit Avi uM’eretz Moladti … Hu Yishlach Malakho L’fanekha… -- The Almighty, God of Heaven, who took me out of my ancestral home and `and will send an angel ahead of you” (24:7).

What we immediately notice is that God is referred to differently in these two passages. First, as both God of Heaven and God of Land, but second, only as God of Heaven. This difference is particularly striking when we think about the context: that is, assuming that Avraham wanted to refer to different aspects of God in these two situations, we might have expected that he would do so in a manner opposite to his actual choice. In the first instance, Avraham is swearing an oath, invoking the power of God. Oaths are intangible things, perhaps belonging to the Divine ether, which we back up with the power of the Almighty. We therefore might have expected Avraham to simply refer to Elokei HaShamayim in this context. Moreover, it is surprising that Avraham refers only to Elokei HaShamayim when he promises Eliezer angelic help. Angels and other siyata dishmaya (heavenly help) such as Avraham promises, are a manifestation of God’s power on earth. It is therefore very surprising that Avraham referred only to God of Heaven here.

So why is God first called Elokei HaShamayim v’Elokei Haaretz, and then only Elokei HaShamayim? Ramban and Rashi each answer that the discrepancy is based not on the difference between oaths and angelic help, but on the chronology embedded in Avraham’s statements. That is, whereas Avraham’s first statement – the vow – occurs squarely in the present, his second statement – promising Divine help – refers to past occurrences to describe God (“Asher L’kachani MiBeit Avi uM’eretz Moladti -- who took me out of my ancestral home”).

According to Ramban, Hashem Elokei Haaretz does not mean “The Almighty, God of the Earth (the world)” but instead means “The Almighty, God of The Land,” that is, the Land of Israel. When God took Avraham out of Ur Kasdim, Avraham had never been to The Land. Therefore, God was not yet God of the Land of Israel, and so could not be called Elokei Haaretz, which, to the Ramban, means Elokei Eretz Yisrael. God could therefore only be described as Elokei HaShamayim.

Rashi says that Hashem Elokei Haaretz really does mean “God of the Earth.” There is an obvious problem with this approach: God has sovereignty over the world just like the rest of the Universe – this is, after all, God we are talking about. God was just described by MalkhiTzedek, the King of Shalem, as “Koneh Shamayim V’Aretz – the owner, via creation, of the heavens and earth” a few chapters prior. So how could the Torah describe the Ribono Shel Olam as only the God of Heaven, even in the past?

This was bothering Rashi, and he has an answer: Before God first appeared to Avraham in Ur Kasdim, people were not accustomed to having the Name of God in their mouths. Thus, when Avraham describes how God took him out of his homeland, he uses the descriptor that was then appropriate – Elokei Hashamayim, God of the heavens only.

The Hizkuni agrees with Rashi and brings a proof. In the first b’racha of the Amidah, which praises God based on our ancestors’ relationships with God, we say “Barukh atah Hashem, Elokeinu v’Elokei Avoteinu: Elokei Avraham, etc.” We do not say “Barukh atah Hashem, Elokeinu Melekh HaOlam.” As the Hizkuni points out, it would not be accurate to say that God was Ruler of the World at the time that this relationship with the first Jew was formed. Therefore we simply call God “Elokei Avraham.”

The status of God as Ruler and God of the Earth is therefore dependent on what happens in the human sphere. This is reminiscent of a famous question based on two verses in Psalms that are seemingly contradictory. The first verse states “Lashem HaAretz u’mlo’ah, tevel v’yoshvei vah – The earth belongs to God, along with all who dwell upon it.” The second states “HaShamayim, Shamayim Lashem, v’haAretz Natan Livnei Adam – Heaven belongs to God, but God gave the Earth to human beings.” So who does the earth belong to – humans or God?

The Gemara in Berachot offers one solution (I believe in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak): before we make a bracha, the world is God’s; by means of the blessing, God allows us to acquire the world and derive benefit from it. Note that this interpretation reads the verses in the chronological order that they were just presented.

But what if you reverse the verses such that initially God gave the world to human beings, but at the end the world belongs to God? This is an approach that I heard from Rabbi Elie Silverberg, I believe in the name of Rav Joseph Soloveitchik. According to this reading, we do not acquire the earth from God. Rather, we take that which God gave to all of humanity from the start and sanctify it. This idea can also be found in the Rashi to Parashat Terumah. The Torah commands the Jewish people to make an elevating donation of materials to God. Rashi says: “To God? To God’s Name.” We are not literally giving these materials to God – they are of the earth, and God gave the earth to us. We are, however, given the commandment and the opportunity to elevate those earthy materials to a more meaningful plain.

Perhaps, then, we can understand the puzzle of the contradictory psalms not as before a beracha and after, but before Avraham and after. Jewish life is not a matter of merely acquiring the earth to exploit, with proper gratitude to God, but about infusing this world, which is ours to manage, with Godliness and righteousness. Before Abraham, these virtues were widespread only in the heavens; Abraham spread them on the earth, and made other people accustomed to them.

May we merit to spread Godliness and righteousness and may we soon see the verse fulfilled: “V’Hayah Hashem L’Melekh al Kol Haaretz, Bayom Hahu Yih’yeh Hashem Echad U’shmo Ehad – And God will become the Ruler over all the Earth. On that day God will be recognized, by name, as The Unique.”