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The Jewish people are enslaved in Egypt in this week's parsha--Shemos. The sages of the Talmud discuss three different actions of Abraham, the first Jew, which may have warranted this enslavement of his descendants (Tractate Nedarim, 32[a]). Rabbi Abbahu suggests the slavery was caused by Abraham when he ordered his Torah disciples to leave their studies and go to battle against the four kings in order to save Lot, his nephew. (Bereishis/Genesis 14:14). Shmuel suggests the slavery was a punishment for Abraham's request that G-d give him a sign to "back up" his covenant promising the Land of Israel to his descendants (Id., 15:7-13). Rabbi Yochanan suggests that the major shortcoming of Abraham was that he failed to teach Torah to the gentiles he captured during the above-mentioned war. Instead he returned them to the king of Sodom (Id., 14:21-24).
What can we learn from this debate? Each of the interpretations allude to a "fault" in Abraham's character. Rabbi Abbahu reminds us that Abraham was involved in influencing the entire world, not just by inviting people into his tent as we learn in the story of the three angels, but by establishing schools that delved into the nature of monotheism and how to serve G-d. The Zohar explains that Abraham was a target of the kings because he weaned people away from idol worship. G-d thus incited them so that Abraham would be forced to combat and defeat them, and thereby become so respected for his might that people would be attracted to his teachings. How then could Rabbi Abbahu have questioned Abraham's decision to lead his disciples to war?
According to Rashi and Rambam, fighting the four kings was one of Abraham's ten tests. These tests challenged Abraham's most basic instincts in order to ensure that he was truly following G-d's will. As essentially a man of extraordinary kindness, fighting was not natural for Abraham. The Zohar states that Abraham's explicit reason to go to the kings was not to fight, but to save Lot, and was willing to die in captivity with Lot if a ransom were to fail. It was only when he saw the Shechinah (Divine Presence) that he understood that he was meant to pursue the kings (Zohar 1:112b). Then, even as his disciples began to falter, Abraham put forth a defiant face and exclaimed, "I will go forth, even if I have to fall to sanctify G-d's name" (Bereishis Rabba 43:2).
Abraham overcame overwhelming obstacles and was victorious. The enemy was defeated, Lot was freed, G-d's name was sanctified, and many captives came under Abraham's charge. These people could have come under Abraham's tutelage, but he instead returned them to the king of Sodom. This undermined the very justification for taking his disciples away from their studies. A temporary cessation of Torah study which leads to a permanent transformation of idol worshippers into new students of Torah is a warranted interjection into an otherwise irrelevant battle of pagan kings. Rabbi Abbahu's point of contention with Abraham is thus inextricably tied to Rabbi Yochanan's charge--had Abraham realized the opportunity at hand to take these people out of the depravity of Sodom, his actions would have been a reflection of G-d's will.
Rashi states that Abraham returned the Sodomites to their king because he did not want to take personal gain from the victory. But in fact, those people were not Abraham's spoils, but G-d's spoils. The "personal gain" was only for G-d's sake. They were put in Abraham's control for the holiest of purposes, to learn Torah. Abraham thus missed the point of the entire battle, and, to some extent, the whole process of rectifying the physical world. Although Abraham embodied chesed (kindness), and actively pursued the path of righteousness, looking for virtues in others, and teaching Torah to those who came to him through his personal encouragement, he was unsure what to do with the "chesed" that G-d bestowed upon him when he won the battle. By returning the captives, he essentially said that he was incapable of changing the world on G-d's terms.
As a result, subsequent generations have been unable to realize the dictum of being a "light unto the nations" (Isaiah 42:6). Now, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe declared, the world has been refined to such an extent that we can finally influence the nations of the world as was Abraham's ambition, by opening our tents wide for all to come and learn. And, therefore, we particularly need to learn the lesson from Abraham that our conquest of the world is not for our personal gain, but rather for Hashem's victory. Now, more than ever, we must seize the opportunity with boldness, not with misplaced humility or caution.
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There are parallels between Abraham's war against the four kings and the modern situation in Israel. We did not win the West Bank and take Jerusalem in 1967 as "personal" or Jewish victories. The spoils of war, the hundreds of thousands of Arabs liberated from Jordan and Egypt, were an opportunity for us to spread the seven mitzvot and create righteous gentiles in Israel's midst that not only would never have fought us, but would have sacrificed their lives to help the Jews defend Israel and would have dedicated themselves to spreading Torah values to all gentiles. We did not win the wars for our own glory, or simply to gain strategic territory, or even so that Jews could inhabit the land and settle it. We didn't even win it so that people around the world would say that it was a miraculous war and that G-d protects the Jews. All of these reasons are peripheral to the Messianic purpose of the world.
Israel will be secure forever only when the rest of the world become Torah-observant Hassidic gentiles, a goal especially practical and realistic in our generation for the very first time. Thus, our service of G-d must entail a fight to SPREAD Torah until every inch of the earth reveals G-dliness--with all six billion people calling on G-d in "a pure language" (Zephaniah 3:9). When we succeed in this spiritual battle, G-d is the actual winner, for then a Dirah Bitachtonim, "a dwelling place for G-d in the lower realms," is created.