G-d said to Abram, "Go for yourself from your land, from your relatives, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you." (Gen 12:1)
The first five verses in this parashah is dealing with conversion topic. Imagine what Abraham had to tell his father.
“Dad. We need to talk.”
“Yes, my son?”
“I have to go to some unknown land because G-d commanded so.”
Probably the foremost challenge in conversion process is when you’re telling your parents, your relatives, and your friends. You hardly can predict their reaction. It’s a very daunting moment. They may look at you (dressed up with strings hanging around from your waist) as if you are an alien from Mars. They may think that you joined the most backward and fanatical cult. And what do you mean you can’t eat from my table anymore?
Almost every converts had to deal with this situation. Remember, for all situation, a convert-in-process shall allow their parents and friends a time to adjust to the idea. I think this is also the main reason why G-d did not command Abraham when they were in Ur Kasdim, his native land, but at later point when the whole family had journeyed and settled in Haran, some hundred kilometers northwards. It is to allow the whole family to wrestle with Abraham’s idea.
As Yanki Tauber wrote in The First Jew:
A Jew is a journeyer. To be a Jew is to be constantly moving from what you are to what you can be, and from what you have made of yourself to yet a deeper truth of what you are. To be a Jew is to be engaged in a perpetual quest to improve yourself and improve G-d's world; to transcend the world and transcend your self; to transcend even as you improve and to improve even as you transcend.
Abraham is the first to struggle the idea that the idols are not G-d. He keeps improving the idea until he reaches the conclusion that there is only one true G-d, the Creator of the universe.
When the family starts their journey, it is written: "Terah took his son Abram, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of Abram his son, and they departed with them from Ur Kasdim to go to the land of Canaan." (Gen 11:31)
Take notice that actually they knew their destination from beginning. The Midrash notes that Terah ultimately repented from idolatry, however he stops far from the destination because he stops improving, he stops transcending, he stops in Haran, while Abraham continues to higher level. That makes Abram became Abraham, the first Jew, the first convert.
Back to what a convert-in-process may face, if he or she is married, he or she has to deal with their spouse as well. Our parashah seems to tackle this too.
Abram took his wife, Sarai (Gen 12:5).
It is understood that Abraham took Sarah through persuassion. The Zohar explains that because a man is forbidden to take his wife to a foreign land without her consent. Thus, same principle applied to conversion today. For further insights on dealing with parents and spouse, I suggest to read Anita Diamant's Choosing a Jewish Life.
Lastly, Abraham is regarded as the first Jew simply because Abraham did not keep the knowledge for himself, rather he spread it to anyone who would listen and influenced many people to acknowledge G-d (that also tells why Noach failed to be the first Jew). The souls they made in Haran (Gen 12:5) refer to those whom they had converted to the faith in one G-d, for Abraham converted the men and Sarah the women.
B'ezrat Hashem, with G-d's help, the author is now following the footsteps of Abraham.
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