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Isaiah 42:1-9

BY RABBI JOSHUA MARTIN SIEGEL

God’s promise to Abraham was “in you will all the nations of the earth be blessed.”

This represents an important change in the biblical narrative. Before, all blessings came from God. With these instructions to Abraham, the source of blessing was transferred from God to human beings. A case could be made that this was the beginning of the spiritual role of human beings beyond their own survival because they joined God as the source of blessing.

At its core, being a blessing means bringing the love of God to another. In Jewish tradition, Abraham is a symbol of unconditional love. It would be a blessing to feel this unconditional love and pass it along to another.

Understanding Abraham’s role also helps us understand what a blessing is when it teaches later in the Bible, “I set before you blessing and curse, life and death, therefore choose life.” Blessing is equated with the very nature of life itself and it is put into the hands of human beings – an awesome responsibility.

Later on in the Bible, blessing is separated from the human being and given to a whole community. There is a responsibility for human beings to be a source of blessings, but even more so, it is the responsibility of the covenanted community to be a blessing.

This is where the teaching of being a light to the nations takes on meaning. The role of a covenanted community is to be a blessing – a people who bring light and moral exemplification to the nations.

However, over and over again, we are reminded that you can’t be a light to the nations just by teaching God’s Word; rather you are most effective when you live it. Therefore, all participants in a covenanted community, who take their responsibility to be a light to the world seriously, must first look at themselves and then to the community of which they are a part.

This process can work both ways. Individuals can influence the quality of light in the community and the community can lead its participants toward the light.

This obligation is especially important in the times of darkness in which we live. The world is hungry for the light of redemption, for the light from above, for the light of renewal. And those who see themselves as part of covenanted communities have a prime responsibility to express this light to themselves, to each other and to the world. In other words, we are called to be a blessing – the instruction originally given to Abraham.

This is the criteria by which we must judge ourselves, our community and our religious institutions. Are we living up to what we teach? Are we sending a light to others in a humble and effective way? Are we a source of light when there is so much darkness?

It is not easy, but it is absolutely essential if our world is to again be able to see a life of blessing which was promised to Abraham and which we inherited.

Rabbi Joshua Siegel is retired. He teaches a class on “The Ethics of the Fathers” at the conference Mission Center Thursdays at noon.