Abraham, Lift up Your Eyes

This week's Torah Portion begins and continues with a promise to Abram (later changed by G-d to Abraham) that he will have a “multitude of descendants”. In the first covenant, the promise is that they will be : “like the (grains of) sand/dust of the earth” (Genesis 13:16). And, later: “lift up your eyes to heaven and count the stars in the night sky, if you (possibly) can... thus shall be your descendants” (Genesis 15:5).



In next week's Torah Portion, as well, G-d repeats this promise to Abraham (with the comparison to the stars) which is the verse which is printed on the SHOVAL (collectible tab) of the stamp shown here. Not sure why they chose a later verse in the Bible, instead of the original one.

Ephraim Moses Lilian was a Jewish artist (born Drohobytch, Ukraine 1874 – died Badenweiler, Germany 1925). The Israeli Postal Service issued in 1977 Three of his paintings depicted on postage stamps. This one showing Abraham gazing at the starry night sky; By the Rivers of Babylon; and, the 5th Zionist Congress.

I tried to find if any of his paintings were ever issued by any other country, but could not...

So, there are many interpretations to these Two comparisons. The simplest explanation is that Abraham had one vision during the day, therefore he could see the dust (but not count, for obvious reasons). The vision at night showed him the stars, which may be as many (we will never know) as the grains of sand on a beach (a beach, singular?!).

I believe that there is a more spiritual interpretation. Only millions (or billions) of sand grains can prevent the waters of the sea to “wash us away”! So, if we are believers in Hashem, we require the multitudes to stop the powers of evil and idol worship from taking over the world. That's quantity. And, indeed, nowadays about half the world's population believes in the One True G-d, so we are spiritual descendants of Abraham. However, it isn't “easy” to just be another believer! We require quality in addition to that “big number”. I know of many communities (of all faiths) who say they have this many members or followers. To give an extreme example, in 1993, for the first and last time ever, the FBI had tanks placing a siege on American soil against American citizens. The people in the Mount Carmel complex (near Waco, Texas) claimed to have thousands of followers. We, unfortunately, only know of Timothy McVeigh...

Every star has its own light. And, as the Hassidic Masters taught: “a little bit of light – pushes away a lot of darkness”. Every one of Abraham's spiritual descendants – is a unique and special star! It's not a coincidence that the “worldly” expression for someone with a special talent or quality is called a star! Even the famous sidewalk in Hollywood is called the Hollywood Walk of Fame and features more than 2,850 brass stars embedded in the 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and 3 blocks of Vine Street.

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