Brit, covenant, is a key word in chapter 17 of the Book of Genesis. It is used more than a dozen times and almost 200 times in the entire Tanach. Its meanings are varied. It can refer to a covenant, a pact between human beings, or between human beings and God.
Sometimes it indicates a political or military alliance (see Jacob and Laban, Genesis 31:44), and the first mention of brit is a covenant between God and Noah after the flood: “Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood” (Genesis. 9:11).
In parashat Lech Lecha, God says to Abram, now aged 99, “I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will make you exceedingly numerous… You shall be the father of a multitude of nations… and kings shall come forth from you” (Genesis 17:2, 4-5). In the process, Abram receives a new name, Abraham, the father of a multitude, as does Sarai, “my princess”, who becomes Sarah, “a princess”; she becomes a person in her own right. Circumcision becomes the tangible sign of this covenant.
A covenant is like a contract that obliges two parties with mutual responsibilities. God promises a land, a future, a fate, and Israel pledges to obey God’s law and to abide by it. But beyond that, the covenant between God and the People of Israel is one of partnership. Both have a part to play in mending the world.
After the Holocaust, Rabbi Irving Greenberg co-founder of Clal (the National Jewish Centre for Learning and Leadershp in the USA), says this covenant has changed and has become a “voluntary covenant”. All Jews now enter “voluntarily” into a covenant with God.
Or, as Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah would say, Jews are now “compelled’ to enter this covenant with God (Compelling Commitments, published by Liberal Judaism).
Covenant has become a mature commitment from a people that has decided to fully accept a partnership with the Divine to correct our world. In truth, we do not have a choice but to respond to this ethical imperative and to embrace this age-old calling that was heard on Rosh Hashanah through the shofar blasts.
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