A Fresh Look at Abraham

A Fresh Look at Abraham                                Israel365

The Torah portion this Shabbat is one of the greats. Abraham’s origin story—literally. Sarah by his side. A nephew named Lot, a couple of camels, and a faith brave enough to start walking when the map is blank. I love this story; it’s one of my favourites. But this week, for whatever reason, I couldn’t quite feel it.

Then I listened to Rabbi Elie Mischel’s Bible Plus class on Abraham. It isn’t limited to this parsha (it stretches beyond), but it brought the whole story back to life for me—fresh, real, close. I want to share a small slice with you.

What if Abraham didn’t begin as a spiritual giant—but as a child who refused to stop asking how the world holds together?

Rabbi Elie Mischel opens with a bold picture drawn from Maimonides: a young Abraham, weaned and wondering, staring at a sky that keeps perfect time and refusing the easy answers of his culture. No teacher. No Torah yet. Just a mind that won’t let go of the question. Decade by decade he pushes past idols and fashionably “spiritual” shortcuts and arrives—alone—at the One.

Two Hebrew ideas reframe Abraham’s greatness:

• Nadiv lev — a generous, moved heart. Not “checking the religious box,” but going all-in. That’s the pilgrim’s heart that walks to Jerusalem; that’s Abraham’s heart that walks away from everything familiar. Faith as motion.

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• Eitan — rock-strength. Rabbi Elie (via Rav Soloveitchik) describes Abraham’s inner granite: years of divine silence, public ridicule, and still he teaches, builds altars, and lives a new moral code. Not loud, not flashy—immovable.

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Seen this way, Abraham isn’t just “the first Jew”; he’s the prototype seeker. He discovers God through the world itself, then turns outward—“making souls” in Ḥaran—inviting men and women (with Sarah at his side) under the wings of Heaven. Passion plus steadiness. A burning heart with rock-solid legs.

(my comment: discovering HaShem through the world is taught by Rav Sha’ul in

Romans 1:20-23

His invisible attributes—His eternal power and His divine nature—have been clearly seen ever since the creation of the world, being understood through the things that have been made. So people are without excuse— ²¹ for even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. Instead, their thinking became futile, and their senseless hearts were made dark. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools. ²³ They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image in the form of mortal man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things”).

And that gorgeous line from Song of Songs—“How beautiful are your steps in sandals, O prince’s daughter”—suddenly isn’t romance; it’s a map. We are the “prince’s children,” walking after our father’s footsteps. The beauty isn’t in the destination—it’s in the steps. In choosing, again and again, to move toward God.

Why does this matter for this week’s reading? Because when God finally speaks to a 75-year-old Abram and says Lech Lecha—Go, it isn’t random. It crowns decades of unseen seeking. The public calling rides on a lifetime of private courage. That’s the secret Rabbi Elie surfaces: the parsha begins in the middle, but the faith that makes the middle possible was forged long before.

If your own faith has felt a little quiet or distant lately, this first session gives you a handhold: start with a question, take a step, and keep walking—heart moved, spirit steady.

Sha’ul said in Philippians 3:13-15 – “ I do not consider myself as having taken hold of this. But this one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the reward of the upward calling of God in Messiah Yeshua. ¹⁵ Therefore let all who are mature have this attitude”.

Or …

Hosea 6:1-4

“Come, let us return to ADONAI. For He has torn, but He will heal us.He has smitten, but He will bind us up. ² After two days He will revive us.On the third day He will raise us up, and we will live in His presence.³ So let us know, let us strive (press on) to know ADONAI. Like dawn His going forth is certain. He will come to us like the rain, like the latter rain watering the earth”.

This ought to be our spiritual posture. Pressing in to know the LORD!