Parashas Lech Lecha
Abraham My Lover – The First Ger Tzedek
Rabbi David Katz
God loves Abraham. Abraham was a Ger. Abraham loves God.
Under these terms, one will conclude and realize the true meaning of the text, “Abraham
My Lover” – and that this Love is unconditional, running the gauntlet of every
faction of Love contained in the Torah. If you want – Love God, Love Israel,
Love Jews, Love Gerim, Love Torah, Love your neighbor, Love your wife, Love
your son – every true love on Earth, then perhaps one should invest time into
understanding Abraham, the first [Ger Tzedek] of all Gerim. To put it simply,
Jews are commanded to Love [to which the commentators will apologize for the
difficulty that runs towards perceived impossibility of this command] while the
Ger [i.e. Abraham] simply falls in love.
To first understand matters, we as people don’t dictate our
emotional affairs with God [when undeserved]. If I feel like loving God [or at
least convince myself of this new religious flavor] there is no guarantee that
God will openly Love me back. Yes God loves us all, yet as Torah will show time
and time again, if one is so bold as to claim to Love the God of Israel, your
grace period is quite short, and soon you will have the merit of meeting “Mr.
Test” – for any serious follower of Torah will have his faith based on love
tested promptly by God. Yet the Torah is littered with exceptions to the rule
no matter what; sometimes it’s the widow, or the orphan, or the Levite….or the
Ger. And always remember, God Loves the Ger. He just does.
Yes we try to Love God and sometimes it works out and
sometimes we stumble in our efforts, not different than any flesh and blood
relationship. Where God is different, is that His side of the equation is not
based on a flesh and blood [emotional] response. God might weigh it out as a
test as was mentioned, He could enter merit into the equation, this could be a
matter of repentance; there are essentially a myriad of ways that God will act
towards a human yearning for Him. At that rate all we can say is that God is
Good, righteous, Just, and the True Judge. Some will experience a clear path to
God, others will be met with challenges. Yet the biggest perceived impediment
to God’s Love [as the Love is always there, that’s the point of the effort and
the Torah on the matter to encourage the Servant of God to Love God through
various agencies and Mitzvot, all leading to Love Hashem your God] might not be
in the ingredients of which we approach Him, rather in the withdrawal of the
subject’s own Love! In fact if one is compelled to Love God from trial, one can
ask why do good people suffer, and if from the source of Blessing, one can belittle
the actual dynamic taking place as a perceived happenstance.
Underneath the complexities of Life and Love – “He loves
me/He loves me not” – for whatever reason, and all of one’s struggles and life
made easy moment’s, the relationship might be different than you ever imagined,
in fact, you may be operating the Abraham program, all the while you are
searching for merit in Abraham! In other words, as you search for God, and to
offer Love to Him, He may have already found you; Joe average may be perhaps
something different to God. Sometimes God pours out His love for the sake of
His love, and this becomes the foundation of being a Ger [Tzedek]. Should this
be the case, instead of “trying” to Love God, one would need to realize “God loves
me!” – I am a Ger, and at that point, it becomes the journey of falling in
Love.
The Torah is for Jews and Gerim. Jews are commanded to Love
God, Love your fellow, Love the Ger, etc. One could even say this is one reason
why God created the Jews out of the World’s Gerim, to be a Nation that would
forever be charged and bound to the task of preserving the art of Love. Moses
reiterates often in the Book of Devarim, “What does Hashem your God want from
you – only to Love Hashem your God!” This is the very premise of the Shema, in
which we proclaim a Love for God after declaring his unique One-ness over His
peoples. This begs the question then, as to the nature of the Ger – if he
really even exists.
The good news is that he does exist, and the journey of the
Ger is unique in the eyes of God, for if Noah found grace in the eyes of God,
we can at least say the same thing about every Ger; one could call it the
Naaman moment, when one realizes he is having a God/Jewish moment, and needs
the prophet of Israel stat! Ok, not always is there a prophet of Israel standing
nearby, but thanks to God’s providence [mazal], Jews and [invisible/unknown]
Gerim are intertwined, and have been
since God said “I am Hashem Your God, and even going back to Shem and Abraham
where it all began to take its current shape. Thus for every Naaman moment, a
Jew [even if unbeknownst to himself] will have his “be a light to the nations
moment” – and this is where the falling into Love begins, not much different to
Naaman, who departs from Elisha the Prophet, in order to properly fall in Love,
and fall out of idolatry.
It is here, the Ger
Toshav is born, and the path of the Ger Tzedek begins; he need not search for
Abraham outside of himself in a mythological what if scenario, for he is now a
student of Abraham, finally realized as a Lover of God in God’s eyes. This is
where the path to the Garden of Eden and joining hands with the Shechinah will
fill the heart of the Ger. God loves the Ger, and the Ger Loves God – not much
different from Shir Hashirim, and the Love that King Solomon compares to the
Holy of Holies.
The Ger in Love, who loves by responding to and recognizing
God’s love upon him, for simply realizing that he is a noble Ger to God, will
literally fall in Love on many levels and to many furthest extents. He will
Love Israel, Love the Jews, Love his fellow man, etc. – in short, for every
Torah precept of Love, the Ger is there. The irony is in his relationship with
the Jew, for the Jew knows not of this Love, struggles with his inclinations
that counter love, and even denounces the Love of the Ger; the entire time the
Ger is there in Brotherhood for the Jew, yet the Jew remains blind to the
Divine dynamic. Oddly, this scenario plays out throughout the entire Torah,
from Kain and Able, Yishmael and Isaac, all the way until today. For all that
the Jew is challenged by the yolk of Heaven, the Ger has fallen into place, and
has become a standing partner in Serving God.
How ironic is it then, that Loving Ger should be discouraged
from Torah, prayer, Brotherhood, Mitzvot, song and dance, etc. To put it
mildly, the Ger has been put into a place of Love, and his soul’s desire now is
to express this Love! – all in the name of serving God from Love, and most uniquely
from the lack of command, rather from the very fact that God has Loved him, and
he has seen this Love and acts to preserve it for eternity. The Ger under the spread
wings of the Shekinah, will delight in the path of Torah such that the Zohar
explains that this is the way to healing all of the World’s sufferings […urging
people to accept their divine role and place, such that God’s Love reaches all
of the Torah’s subjects; Gerim, Priests, Levites, etc. All must be realized and accepted to find
content within the soul, and this alleviates suffering].
The crown jewel to such philosophy is the Shabbat, for it resonates
in the exact light of the Noahide Laws. Just as one takes the Laws in the
fashion as Moses taught at Sinai, so too a Ger is to take Shabbat. Not for his
sake is he to take Shabbat, but to join the Brit of Yisrael [who is sworn to
guard preservation that God created the World as represented by Shabbat; this
serves as the World’s continued existence as well], as an expression of Amen to
the Jewish command of Shabbat. The Torah hints at this by stating “My Sabbaths
you shall keep” – implying two peoples’ Sabbaths; along with commentary that
suggests this is the deeper appreciation as to why Hashem created Shabbat in
the first place, was for World Peace between those who keep the Torah.
In short, God Loves the Ger. The Ger Loves God. Abraham was
called by God His Lover, and the Ger from then on until the end of time shall
be subjected to falling in Love. There is nothing to fear from such providence,
for one’s salvation is finally find this Love; Blessed is the Ger to be of the
first to know God’s Love, and Blessed is Am Yisrael to have a faithful
Lover/Brother in the Ger. One day the Jews with give back the light and Love
the Ger as he was created to do, but ironically, by that time, the Ger’s Love
will already have played its part in bringing Moshiach. Torah of Moshiach? –
learn to Love, and that journey began with the Ger. You may even want to call
him Tzedek…like Abraham who loved God, as the father of all Gerim, and who
fulfilled the Torah’s deepest desire, in making Gerim. As Torah states, God
loves the Ger, and there is no greater Honor to God, than having Gerim return
to walk the Divine path.
Audio Shiur Tonite Sunday 11 P.M. [Tzfat Time]
Posted in: Article,Ger,Ger Toshav,Ger Tzedek,Noah,Noahide,Parsha,Shiurim,Soul Mazal,Torah,Truth,Tzfat,Yeshivat Shem V'Ever
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