This week's article is part Mishlei, part midrash, and part insight into the pshat of the parashah - all thanks to Rabbeinu Bachya's introductory drashah, which centers upon a strange analogy.
Interesting discussion, but I wonder about the idea that "Perhaps this is why Avraham needed to leave his homeland... because his ability to spread knowledge of Hashem and His avodah to the world would be compromised if people associated him with the barbaric, immoral citizens of Ur Kasdim." Really, were the citizens of Canaan any better? Worse, if anything, because Avraham insisted on finding a wife for Yitzchak davka back in the old "cemetery." The perfume analogy actually may work better as a metaphor for the exile of the Jews in general -- it allowed the Torah to be disseminated among the nations of the world (a concept expressed by Shadal among others).
I wondered about that as well. I want to think about it some more, but offhand I'd say that maybe he needed to make a clean break and disassociate himself from Ur Kasdim, not because the residents of Canaan were better, but because, as an exile, he would not be associated with either population, which would allow him to build his brand.
I think this medrash is rather damning to Modern Orthodoxy, which plays in the tannery and associates with secular society in most aspects.
Definitely more damning to Modern Orthodoxy than to Haredim!
Interesting discussion, but I wonder about the idea that "Perhaps this is why Avraham needed to leave his homeland... because his ability to spread knowledge of Hashem and His avodah to the world would be compromised if people associated him with the barbaric, immoral citizens of Ur Kasdim." Really, were the citizens of Canaan any better? Worse, if anything, because Avraham insisted on finding a wife for Yitzchak davka back in the old "cemetery." The perfume analogy actually may work better as a metaphor for the exile of the Jews in general -- it allowed the Torah to be disseminated among the nations of the world (a concept expressed by Shadal among others).
I wondered about that as well. I want to think about it some more, but offhand I'd say that maybe he needed to make a clean break and disassociate himself from Ur Kasdim, not because the residents of Canaan were better, but because, as an exile, he would not be associated with either population, which would allow him to build his brand.