By Rabbi Joshua (theatrically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
In the beginning of this week's parsha, God tells Avram (before his name is changed to Avraham) to leave his home and" go to the land that I will show you" (Bereishis, 12:1). Why doesn't God tell Avram exactly which land he wants him to go to? Rashi explains that He wanted to endear the land in Avram's eyes, and, also, to give him reward for each statement that He made in commanding him to go. Similarly, says Rashi, when God commanded Avraham to bring his son as a sacrifice, He used several expressions to describe Yitzchak, and also told him to sacrifice him "on one of the mountains which I shall tell you" for similar reasons. This similarity between the command for the akeidah and the command to leave home is interesting in its own right, and deserves separate treatment. However, I would like to concentrate on the final example of this style of command that Rashi brings, because I believe it sheds light on Avraham's mission towards the Jews and towards mankind for all future generations.
Rashi tells us that another command similar to the one given to Avraham is the one later given to the prophet Yonah, when God told him to go to Ninveh and "address to it the proclamation which I will say to you." I must admit that I have learned this Rashi countless times but have never noticed the fact that he quotes this verse from the book of Yonah, although the implications of bringing it in this context are extremely significant. As one doubtless recalls from hearing the book of Yonah read o as the haftarah on Yom Kippur afternoon, Yonah was sent by God on a mission to bring the sinning people of Ninveh to repentance. Yonah does not want to do this, and so leaves the Holy Land, trying to run away from God and the mission He is sending him on. In the end, after Yonah learns that he cannot hide from God or escape from his mission, God demonstrates to him the importance of having compassion for the people of Ninvah. Yonah accepts his mission, delivers God's message to the people of Ninveh, and thereby inspires them to repent and return to God. Since Rashi mentions God's command to Yonah to call on these people to repent as being similar, in form, to that of His command to Avraham in the beginning of parshas Lech Lecha, we need to understand the similarity between the two commands.
When God commands Avraham to go on is mission, he tells him that all of the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. Rashbam explains that the word for ’shall be blessed’-‘venivrechu’ is related to the word ‘havracha,’ or grafting, and it means that the nations of the world will be grafted onto you. One explanation of this statement, which I heard from Rabbi Tzvi Shachter of Yeshiva University, is related to the Torah's mention of the souls that Avraham and Sarah made in Charan
( Bereishis, 12:5). Rashi explains that this refers to the people who Avraham and Sarah converted, convincing them of the existence of one God and of the need to serve Him. Avraham's mission, then, was to bring all of mankind to accept this belief. The rabbis tell us in Pirkei Avos that there were ten generations between Noach and Avraham, and they all made God angry through their errant behavior, until Avraham came on the scene . Avraham, thus, had a universal mission, to improve mankind’s behavior after the generation of the flood. The midrash, in fact tells us that the sweet smell that God ‘smelled’ from the sacrifices Noach brought after emerging from the ark ( Bereishis, 8:21) was the smell of the fiery furnace into which Nimrod threw Avraham in punishment for challenging the then prevalent belief in idols.. This was, according to some commentators, the first test that God submitted Avraham to. By emerging from the furnace alive, Avraham demonstrated the truth of his belief in God. Together with Sarah, he went on to demonstrate his love for all of mankind, as creations of God, and sought to remove the separation that their actions had generated between God and themselves. Although Avraham was also to become one of the progenitors of the Jewish nation, that did not contradict his universal mission, but, rather, enhanced it, since the goal of the Jewish people is to act as God's representatives on earth, and to bring all of mankind to a recognition of God. This is what we say each day in our prayers, such as 'Shema' and 'Aleinu,' as well. Understanding Avraham as not only the progenitor of the Jewish people, but also as a guide for all of mankind, we can now return to Rashi's evocation of Yonah in the context of God's command to Avraham.
The midrash tells us that Yonah was reluctant to go on his mission to the people of Ninveh because he knew that they would very likely repent, and their repentance would, one way or the other (depending on which midrash one learns), have an adverse effect on the Jewish nation. God's lesson to Yonah was that all human beings are His children, that He loves them all, and that we, as a people command to follow in the ways and love them, as well. The greatest love a person can show another is to bring him close to God, as Avraham, out of his love for God and mankind, set out to do when he left his father's house. The existence of the Jewish people cannot contradict this goal, but must, rather, enhance it. That is why God delivered His command to Yonah in the same way that He delivered His command to Avraham, in order to endear the people of Ninveh in his eyes, so that he would want them to repent and come closer to God, thereby furthering God's goal for mankind. Rashi, by bringing this verse from Yonah as an example of the style used in the command given to Avraham,is telling us, in effect, that Yonah was being called on to further the work that Avraham began.
