Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” He built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him. He left from there to go to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and called on Yahweh’s name. Abram traveled, still going on toward the South.”
(Genesis 12:7-9)

Once Abram arrived, God appeared to him and clarified that he had arrived. Until God spoke to him, he had no idea that he had reached the end of his journey – though not of his exploration. Abram’s response to this vision was to worship God: he gave THANKS. This thanksgiving was before he saw it all, before he inhabited the gift, and before he had fully grasped what God was saying. He worshipped in thanksgiving simply because God showed him grace. Abram wasn’t even asking HOW at this point (his wife Sarai was barren). He didn’t worry about how God was going to do it. He was grateful God WAS going to do it.

Abram immediately began to travel this Land that had been given to him. At every step of his journey he built an altar and worshipped the Lord. Abram gave thanks to God for everything that he was seeing, and he made sure that he was seeing everything. He did not stop exploring. He wanted to see everything that there was to see. If God was giving it, he wanted to make sure he had a grasp of what God was giving. He wasn’t going to stop until he had fully grasped it.

The sage Or HaChaim writes: ‘וירא ה׳ אל אברם. G’d appeared to Abram. The Torah wishes to compliment Abraham on his great love for his Creator. G’d appeared to Abraham and promised him not only children but that his descendants would inherit the land he was on. Abraham considered the mere fact that G’d appeared to him as sufficient reason to build an altar for G’d. The feeling that G’d had deemed him worthy to appear to him was so overpowering that Abraham considered the promise of children and of the land as secondary. This is why the Torah stresses that he built the altar “to the G’d who appeared to him.” This is what David said in Psalms 16,11: “In Your presence is perfect joy.” Perhaps we find an echo of these sentiments when Ben Azzai declined to marry, saying that he was so in love with Torah that he could not do justice to the demands made upon him by marriage ( Yevamot 63).’

The sage Radak writes: ‘ויאמר לזרעך אתן, G’d told him that although He had bidden him to leave his homeland and to come to this country and to settle in it, He had not said that He would give this land to Avram forthwith by dispossessing the present inhabitants, as this was not practical, Avram being only a single individual. Possession of this land was possible only after his descendants had become sufficiently numerous. As of the time G’d was speaking to Avram, the land, instead of being an inheritance, would be like a gift to him, and he was expected to familiarise himself with his gift. He would encounter only sympathy and goodwill from the local inhabitants. When, in due course, his descendants, more than 600.000 strong, would come back here they would encounter hostility, and the conquest would take quite a while, the inhabitants being killed or driven out in stages, as was spelled out in greater detail in Exodus 23,30. ויבן שם מזבח, in response to this promise, Avram erected an altar there in honour of the G’d Who had appeared to him.’

The sage Steinsaltz writes: ‘He, Abram, then moved from there to the mountains, east of the city of Beit El, and he pitched his tent there. Beit El was to the west of his place of encampment, and Ai to the east. For many years, Abram and his family were primarily nomadic shepherds who lived in tents. It can be assumed that much of the land was uninhabited at the time, leaving large empty areas suitable for grazing. Abram found pasture for his flock between Beit El and Ai. He also built there an altar to the Lord, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Abram journeyed, steadily journeying to the Negev. Since he had not been told where to stop, and as he had not yet found a place where he felt sufficiently comfortable, he left Beit El and continued southward.’