Parshat Lech Lecha6 min read

Abraham and Shem Were Afraid of Each Other After the War

Abraham had killed the sons of a righteous man and rode home expecting to be cursed for it. Shem came out on the road carrying bread and wine.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Abraham Came Home Expecting a Curse
  2. The Dust He Threw Became Arrows
  3. Shem Was Afraid of Abraham Too
  4. Bread and Wine on the Road to Salem
  5. Shem Taught Abraham How to Count the Year

Abraham came back from the war with his nephew alive and a debt he had not counted on. He had killed Kedorlaomer, king of Elam, and broken the kings who rode with him. Elam was a son of Shem. Shem was still alive.

Abraham and Shem Were Afraid of Each Other After the War Click for full size

"I have killed the sons of a righteous man," Abraham said. "Now he will curse me, and I will die."

Abraham Came Home Expecting a Curse

He had not been afraid during the fighting. The fear arrived afterward, on the road home in full daylight, with the rescued walking behind him and the carts creaking under other men's silver. Somewhere ahead of him was a man old enough to have walked off the ark, and that man had every reason to open his mouth against him.

A curse from an ordinary enemy is noise. A curse from a righteous man lands. Abraham had spent his life persuading strangers off their idols and onto one road, and he knew exactly what a mouth like Shem's could do to a house.

So he kept walking toward it. There was no other direction to walk.

The Dust He Threw Became Arrows

The victory had not been ordinary, which made the debt worse.

Abraham had gone out at night with three hundred eighteen men against four kings and their armies. He bent, took up a handful of dust, and threw it, and the dust flew at them as arrows and bows. He took straw and threw that, and it came down among them as swords and spears. God had made a shield out of the ground itself and tipped the kings over in front of him. Abraham chased them past Damascus and came away without a scratch.

The men he killed had not died to his strength. They had died to a miracle he had been handed and had not asked for. That is a heavier thing to carry to their father's door than a battle honestly won.

Shem Was Afraid of Abraham Too

What Abraham did not know was that Shem was coming toward him with the same knot in his chest.

Shem had fathered a line that had gone wrong in places, and he could not be sure how Abraham reckoned it. Here was a man who tore idols out of the world by hand. What did he think of the old survivor whose grandchildren had built half of what needed tearing out?

Two men stood at opposite ends of the earth, each of them conspicuous the way an island is conspicuous in open water, each visible to the other across a distance neither had crossed, each one braced for what the other was thinking. The islands saw and were afraid. The ends of the earth trembled. Then they drew near and came.

Bread and Wine on the Road to Salem

Shem moved first. He came out to meet Abraham not to accuse him but to soften him, and he came carrying bread and wine, the way a man goes to meet someone he is not sure of.

Then he opened his mouth and blessed him. "Blessed is Abram to God Most High, maker of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand."

Abraham stood in the road with a rehearsed apology still in his throat.

"Because you killed my sons," Shem said, "I bless you."

Abraham answered the only way he could. He divided the spoil and gave Shem a tenth of all of it, and from the king of Sodom he took nothing at all, not a thread, not a sandal strap. One man had come with blessings. The other paid in gifts.

Shem had built the ark. Abraham had come out of a furnace of fire. The carpenter steadied the smith, and the smith swung his hammer and beat the people of the world onto a single road, until the nations were saying it was better to hold to the God of Abram than to keep to Nimrod's idols. Abraham strengthened Shem with commandments and good deeds. What the two of them put up between them did not topple.

Shem Taught Abraham How to Count the Year

One thing was left to hand over, and it did not fit in a cart.

Noah had given Shem the reckoning of the year: how the sun marks the days and the moon marks the months, and how to catch the moment the two fall out of step and slide an extra month in to bring the seasons back where they belong. That is why Shem was called a priest. He was the firstborn, he served day and night, and he kept the calendar from drifting off the harvest.

He gave it to Abraham on that road. Abraham gave it to Isaac after him, and Isaac to Jacob. Years later Jacob tried to fix the year while he was standing outside the land, and God stopped him mid-calculation and sent the work home to his father.

So the two men who had walked toward each other braced for a fight went off carrying pieces of one another. Abraham had a blessing where he had expected a curse. Shem had a tenth of four kings' silver and a successor who would go on counting the months after he was gone.

And afterward, when it was all settled and there was nothing left to be frightened of, the word came to Abraham in a vision anyway, the thing you only say to a man who is still shaking. "Fear not, Abram."

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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Bereshit Rabbah 44:7Bereshit Rabbah

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah, 2022 · CC-BY

God's reassurance to Abraham: "Fear not, Abram." But whom did Abraham fear? Rabbi Berekhya suggests it was none other than Shem himself. The passage then draws a parallel to (Isaiah 41:5): "The islands saw and feared, the ends of the earth trembled…" Just as islands stand out in the sea, so too did Abraham and Shem stand out in the world.

Why fear? Bereshit Rabbah paints a picture of mutual respect tinged with apprehension. Abraham, it says, feared that Shem held resentment towards him because Abraham had defeated Kedorlaomer, king of Elam (Genesis 14:1) – and Elam was a son of Shem (Genesis 10:22). He worried that Shem might hold him accountable for the loss of his descendants.

Shem? He, in turn, feared that Abraham harbored ill feelings towards him for fathering wicked offspring. They were giants, yes, but also individuals confronting the consequences of history and lineage.

The commentary continues, noting that Abraham and Shem were situated at opposite “ends of the earth,” yet they “approached and came” to one another (Isaiah 41:5). What does this “approaching” look like? It was a relationship built on mutual support. "Each man would help the other," the text continues, drawing again from Isaiah (41:6). Shem aided Abraham with blessings, as we see in the words of Melchizedek (who the Rabbis identify with Shem himself!): "Blessed is Abram to God, the Most High…" (Genesis 14:19). And Abraham reciprocated with gifts, giving Shem "a tithe from everything" (Genesis 14:20).

The passage then takes an intriguing turn, drawing parallels to craftsmanship: "The carpenter encouraged the smith" (Isaiah 41:7). Here, Bereshit Rabbah interprets the "carpenter" as Shem, the builder of the ark, a vessel of salvation. The "smith," on the other hand, is Abraham, who was refined by God in the fiery furnace, a trial by fire that forged his unwavering faith.

And then, "one who smooths with a hammer, one who strikes on the anvil." The Hebrew word for "anvil" here is pa'am, which can also mean "step" or "once." The Rabbis see in this a metaphor for Abraham's ability to persuade others to recognize and follow God, leading them on a path towards closeness with the Divine. Abraham’s “hammer,” then, was his divinely inspired ability to persuade and guide.

The commentary concludes with a powerful image: "Saying of the glue: It is good" (Isaiah 41:7). This "glue" represents the nations of the world, who, the text suggests, would prefer to adhere to the God of Abraham rather than to the idolatry of Nimrod. Abraham strengthened Shem in mitzvot (commandments), good deeds, and as a result, "It shall not topple" (Isaiah 41:7), referring to Abraham's enduring legacy.

So, what are we left with? A glimpse into the complex, human relationship between two towering figures. Fear, respect, mutual support, and a shared commitment to building a better world – all interwoven in this interplay of interpretation.

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Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 8:4Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, trans. Rabbi Gerald Friedlander, London (1916) · CC-BY

Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating and sometimes enigmatic text, illuminates this very question. It tells us that the sun marks the days, and the moon the nights, their cycles an eternal promise: "they shall not cease." But it's not just about observing these celestial bodies; it's about understanding their movements, and aligning our calendar with them.

A secret, entrusted to a select few. Noah, after the flood, passed this knowledge to his son Shem. Shem, according to this tradition, was initiated into the principles of intercalation – adding an extra month to the calendar to keep it aligned with the seasons. Because of his knowledge and his service "by day and by night," Shem was called a priest, a Kohen (a priest), just as it says, "And Melchizedek king of Salem… was a priest of God Most High" (Genesis 14:18). Now, was Shem actually a priest? The text clarifies that it's because of his firstborn status and his dedicated service that he earned this title.

The story continues. Shem, in turn, passed this tradition to Abraham. He, too, mastered the art of intercalation and was also called a priest, as we find in (Psalm 110:4): "The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." The phrase "after the order of Melchizedek" is our clue, connecting Abraham back to Shem and the unbroken chain of knowledge.

Abraham entrusted this knowledge to Isaac, and after Abraham's death, Isaac continued the practice of intercalating the year. (Genesis 25:11) tells us, "And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son," and the text explains this blessing as a direct result of Isaac's mastery of intercalation, a "blessing of eternity."

Finally, Isaac passed the tradition to Jacob. But here, we encounter a fascinating twist. Jacob, while outside the Land of Israel, attempted to intercalate the year. But the Holy One, blessed be He, stopped him! "Jacob! Thou hast no authority to intercalate the year outside the land," He said. As we read, "And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-Aram, and blessed him" (Genesis 35:9). Why "again"? Because the first time, God prevented him. Only when he returned to the Holy Land could Jacob resume this sacred task.

This highlights a crucial point: the intercalation of the year, this vital act of maintaining the calendar, was intrinsically linked to the Land of Israel. Even when the Israelites were exiled to Babylon, they still relied on those remaining in the Land to determine the calendar. And when all were exiled, they intercalated in Babylon, a temporary measure.

Even Ezekiel, a major prophet, wasn't allowed to intercalate the year in Babylon when Ezra and the community returned to the Land. God tells him, "Thou hast no authority to intercalate the year outside the Land; behold, Israel thy brethren, they will intercalate the year," (Ezekiel 36:17).

This principle is emphasized: Even if the wisest and most righteous individuals are outside the Land, the authority to intercalate the year rests with those within it – even, the text somewhat shockingly says, with "the keeper of sheep and herds" or "the ignorant." Why? Because the connection to the Land is paramount. "Son of man, when the house of Israel dwell in their own land," Ezekiel states, "it is their duty to intercalate the year."

This passage from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer isn't just a historical account; it's evidence of the enduring connection between the Jewish people, the Land of Israel, and the cycles of time. What other ancient wisdom is waiting to be rediscovered, waiting to illuminate our understanding of the world and our place within it?

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Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Lech Lecha 19:1Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Lech Lecha

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

[(Genesis 15:1:) "Fear not, Abram."] This is what Scripture says (Proverbs 28:14): "Happy is the man who fears always, but he who hardens his heart shall fall into evil." And it is written (Proverbs 14:16): "A wise man fears and turns away from evil." Who is this? Abraham. And of whom was he afraid? Of Shem, whose sons he had killed, Chedorlaomer king of Elam and his three sons, as it is said (Genesis 10:22): "The sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram." So he was afraid, saying: I have killed the sons of a righteous man, and now he will curse me and I will die. What did he do? Shem went out to meet him to appease him, as it is said (Genesis 14:18): "And Melchizedek king of Salem." The Holy One, blessed be He, said: By your life, I will not curse you, but rather I will bless you, as it is said (Genesis 14:19): "And he blessed him and said: Blessed be Abram, etc." He said to him: Because you killed my sons, I bless you, as it is said (Genesis 14:20): "And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand, etc." What is the meaning of "who has delivered (magen) your enemies"? The Holy One, blessed be He, made a shield (maginnah) and cast them down before you. And our father Abraham would take dust and throw it upon them, and it became arrows and bows; and he would take straw and throw it upon them, and it became swords and spears, as it is said (Isaiah 41:2): "Who has roused up righteousness from the east, etc. [his sword makes them like dust, his bow like driven straw]." This is Abraham, of whom it is said afterward: "He pursues them and passes on in peace." This is the meaning of "who has delivered your enemies into your hand, etc." The Holy One, blessed be He, said: After these things are you afraid? "Fear not, Abram." Therefore it is said (Proverbs 28:14): "Happy is the man who fears always."

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