Lech Lecha 5785 Unity of blessings, diversity of curses

ByRabbi Anita Josefa Barzman MD Founder, micro-mishkan.net

(ג) וַאֲבָֽרְכָה֙ מְבָ֣רְכֶ֔יךָ וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ֖ אָאֹ֑ר וְנִבְרְכ֣וּ בְךָ֔ כֹּ֖ל מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥ת הָאֲדָמָֽה׃

(3) I will bless those who bless you
And curse the one who curses you;
And all the families of the earth
Shall bless themselves by you.”

This verse, very early in this week's Torah portion, Parashat Lech Lecha, contains a powerful teaching about blessings and curses, about what unifies and connects us, and what separates and divides us.

This teaching emerges from two elements of the verse: the comparative use of either plural or singular, and the repeated use of one verb to represent blessing - ברך - and two different verbal roots to represent curses קלל and ארר:

בראשית י״ב:ג׳

וַאֲבָֽרְכָה֙ מְבָ֣רְכֶ֔יךָוּמְקַלֶּלְךָ֖ אָאֹ֑ר וְנִבְרְכ֣וּ בְךָ֔ כֹּ֖ל מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥ת הָאֲדָמָֽה׃

Genesis 12:3

I will bless those [plural] who bless you And curse the one who curses you;
And all the families of the earth
Shall bless themselves by you.”

I note (along with Rashi and Ibn Ezra) that here, "those you bless you" מְבָ֣רְכֶ֔יךָ refers to "those" in the plural, and then we have "the one who curses you",וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ֖ which is in the singular ("the 'one' who curses you").

I see a suggestion here that in the realm of blessings, there is multiplicity and abundance and connection with others; and in the realm of curses, there is alienation, standing alone, being separate. Perhaps blessings bring us into a unified field with others; shall we say, A unified field theory of blessings?

Also of interest to me is that the same verb is used with regard to blessing - √ברך - but two different verbs are used regarding cursing - √וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ֖ אָאֹ֑ר - קלל√ ארר .

There is no doubt that the start of Parashat Lech Lecha includes verses that thrill us. "Lech lecha... go out from your original place, to the place I will show you..." Of course, we are stirred and inspired.

And being blessed, and knowing that those who bless us will be blessed... well, this is thrilling too. And we can notice that in these early verses in this Torah portion, the verbal root ברך is repeated 10 times (14% of the 73 times that this verbal root occurs in the 12 portions in the Book of Genesis; also worth mentioning is that of all of the occurrences of this verbal root in the Torah, more than half of these (53%) occur in the Book of Genesis. Here, at the start of the Torah, we have many opportunities to learn about blessings).

An additional interesting element here is that in this verse - Genesis 12:3 - ברך appears three times in this one verse, the only example of this in the entire Tanakh (there are numerous verses in which this verb occurs twice - but no others in which it occurs three times).

What about curses? What about the idea that: "I will curse the one who curses you"? Do we similarly thrill to hear that those who curse us will be cursed? Is this really what we desire?

Having noted these details, I wonder: could it be that all blessings are the fundamentally the same, flowing from one superordinate, cosmic source - a "unity of blessings"? Similarly, could it be that, in an opposite way, curses and hatred come in many forms, and tend to divide us?

Let's turn our attention to the two different verbs for "curse" that are in this verse.

וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ֖
√קלל
This is the piel participle in the masculine masculine singular: "the one who curses you".

to be slight, be swift, be trifling, be of little account, be light

(Qal)
to be trifling, be of little account
to be swift
to be slight, be abated (of water)
(Niphal)
to be lightly esteemed
to appear trifling, be too trifling, be insignificant
to be swift, show oneself swift
(Piel)
to curse
to make despicable
(Pual) to be cursed
(Hiphil)
to treat with contempt, bring contempt or dishonour
to make light, lighten

From Gesenius:

So this first verb we have here for "cursing" has an attribute of diminishing, making light of, regarding someone as despicable; we might say, "looking down" on another.

This contrasts with ברך which, in its fundamental meaning in the qal, is about "bending the knee" - in other words, acknowledging that we understand we are in a relation to another that is above us or greater than we are.

Worthy of note here - perhaps particularly for those of us who are interested in promoting positive inter-religious / interfaith relations - is the appearance again of the verbal root קלל later in this Torah portion. This is the verb used for Hagar׳s initial feelings towards Sarah, after Hagar becomes pregnant with Ishmael:

בראשית ט״ז:ג׳-ה׳

(ג) וַתִּקַּ֞ח שָׂרַ֣י אֵֽשֶׁת־אַבְרָ֗ם אֶת־הָגָ֤ר הַמִּצְרִית֙ שִׁפְחָתָ֔הּ מִקֵּץ֙ עֶ֣שֶׂר שָׁנִ֔ים לְשֶׁ֥בֶת אַבְרָ֖ם בְּאֶ֣רֶץ כְּנָ֑עַן וַתִּתֵּ֥ן אֹתָ֛הּ לְאַבְרָ֥ם אִישָׁ֖הּ ל֥וֹ לְאִשָּֽׁה׃(ד) וַיָּבֹ֥א אֶל־הָגָ֖ר וַתַּ֑הַר וַתֵּ֙רֶא֙ כִּ֣י הָרָ֔תָה וַתֵּקַ֥לגְּבִרְתָּ֖הּ בְּעֵינֶֽיהָ׃(ה) וַתֹּ֨אמֶר שָׂרַ֣י אֶל־אַבְרָם֮ חֲמָסִ֣י עָלֶ֒יךָ֒ אָנֹכִ֗י נָתַ֤תִּי שִׁפְחָתִי֙ בְּחֵיקֶ֔ךָ וַתֵּ֙רֶא֙ כִּ֣י הָרָ֔תָה וָאֵקַ֖ל בְּעֵינֶ֑יהָ יִשְׁפֹּ֥ט ה׳ בֵּינִ֥י וּבֵינֶֽיׄךָ׃

Genesis 16:3-5

(3) So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian—after Abram had dwelt in the land of Canaan ten years—and gave her to her husband Abram as concubine.(4) He cohabited with Hagar and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was lowered in her esteem.(5) And Sarai said to Abram, “The wrong done me is your fault! I myself put my maid in your bosom; now that she sees that she is pregnant, I am lowered in her esteem. ה׳ decide between you and me!”

Now, let's explore the second verb we have here for cursing, ארר. Compared with קלל, this verb has more of a monochromatic semantic cloud, a more unitary meaning of "cursing", in the different binyanim.

to curse
(Hophal) to be made a curse, be cursed
(Piel) to curse, lay under a curse, put a curse on
(Niphal) to be cursed, cursed
cursed be he (participle used as in curses)
to curse
(Qal)

From Gesenius:

Now that we have explored these two words that convey the meaning of "curse", I'd like to return to my suggestion that this verse can teach us that blessings connect us, and curses divide us.

I will include here the observation that the roots for "bless" - ברך - and "compassion" - רחם - share two letters. It is widely accepted that in situations where there are two shared letters in verbal roots, there is a shared semantic cloud of meaning. When we blessed, we are in a state in which compassion can arise more easily. Perhaps we could say that blessing and compassion resonate with oxytocin - the substance in our bodies that is produced when we are feeling safe, loved, connected.

Whereas curses, cursing, being cursed... these are actions that make us afraid, that separate and divide us. In my physician's mind, I see the experience of cursing / being cursed as one that promotes fear, flight or fight - adrenaline. A state of high activation in which we feel threatened, vulnerable, uncertain.

I've been working on this Sefaria sheet all of this week of Lech Lecha, starting two days before our 2024 election (Tuesday 11/5/24). Thus, I've been hyperaware of an atmosphere of curses and division.

Which has led me to wonder: do we really desire that those who curse us would be cursed?

Now, perhaps more than ever in our lifetimes, it is urgent that we find ways to turn away from curses, and towards blessings.

In Chevruta just yesterday with two dear friends (Maggie Smith and Tali Pressman, treasured fellow students at The Ezzree Institute), we talked about the unifying action of blessings, and the harmful and divisive effects of curses. Tali shared a beautiful image: that the flow of blessings is always present, like the ner tamid - an eternally shining light. Maggie reminded us that what we put forth comes back to us, and also that there is an ugliness to curses (reflected in a term for curses in Spanish, palabras feas.

A powerfully evocative verse from this week's Haftarah deepens / broadens our understanding of the transcendent source of blessings, the Divine Source, the first and ultimate source of blessings:

ישעיהו מ״א:ד׳

(ד) מִֽי־פָעַ֣ל וְעָשָׂ֔ה קֹרֵ֥א הַדֹּר֖וֹת מֵרֹ֑אשׁ אֲנִ֤י ה׳ רִאשׁ֔וֹן וְאֶת־אַחֲרֹנִ֖ים אֲנִי־הֽוּא׃

Isaiah 41:4

(4) Who has wrought and achieved this?
The One who announced the generations from the start—
I, GOD, who was first
And will be with the last as well.

At this difficult time, let us find comfort and inspiration in another verse from this week's Haftarah:

ישעיהו מ״א:ו׳

(ו) אִ֥ישׁ אֶת־רֵעֵ֖הוּ יַעְזֹ֑רוּ וּלְאָחִ֖יו יֹאמַ֥ר חֲזָֽק׃

Isaiah 41:6

(6) Each one helps the other, saying to their fellow, “Take courage!”