“Lift up your eyes” is not a particularly uncommon phrase in the Torah, but perhaps this week we may find a beautiful idea of how Hashem brings to us midah kneged midah.
This week’s parsha includes the well-known incident of the
parting of ways between Avram and his nephew Lot. Avram has been the patriarch
of their small family of travellers, and Avram was the reason that they acquired
the wealth and fame that they did. Lot went along for all of it and revelled in
the family’s success. Avram’s flocks grew, and Lot’s flock grew. As Lot’s wealth
increased, however, he forgot that what he had was not from his own merit, butthat
he had benefitted from his relationship with Avram. It seems, based on what we
know of Lot’s behavior, that he grew arrogant.
According to the Midrash, Lot allowed his shepherds to let
his sheep go unmuzzled, to graze where they would. He acted as if he owned the
land because he took it upon himself that he would be Avram’s heir.
Lot’s behavior was worthy of rebuke, but instead, Avram
showed him respect and kindness. Rather than come to him and tell him that he
was doing something wrong, which, by that point, Lot would not have heard (since
he had already rationalized his actions), Avram spoke to him with utmost
respect. He looked at the younger man and told him to choose his path. Avram’s
telling him to choose to the left and he would go right or to the right and he
would go left has the subtle implication that Avram understood that he could
not influence Lot any further into choosing to follow a righteous path. Lot
would have to choose that for himself.
Then Lot lifted up his eye, as it says in Bereishis 13:10,
and “chose for himself” as it says in 13:11. He chose “kol kikar hayarden.” He
didn’t choose a settlement; he chose all of the plain of the valley of the
Yarden. When Lot lifts up his eyes, he does not have humility; rather, he has
his true nature – avarice.
Avram had no requirement to give Lot free reign on where he would
settle, but he wanted to treat Lot with dignity and respect. Perhaps, one could
wonder, he hoped rather that Lot would wish to stay with him and would offer to
amend his ways.
Four pasukim later, after Lot has departed for Sodom, Hashem
calls to Avram and instructs him to follow in the course of action of his
nephew. Hashem tells Avram to lift up his eyes and see the land. The situation,
as we see, is very different. Hashem is here, in 13:14, telling Avram that
everything that he sees – tzaphona v’negva v’kadma v’yama – north, south, east,
and west, would be his. Hashem’s use of the phrase that just described Lot’s
action, however, could be understood as an allusion to the way Avram interacted
with Lot.
Hashem had many reasons for singling out Avram. One of them,
perhaps, was the fact that Avram was able to treat Lot with such dignity. Lot disappointed
Avram (who had thought, at one point, that Lot might be his heir) in not being
able to live to Avram’s standards. When Avram saw that it was no longer
appropriate for Lot to dwell within his camp, however, he did not hesitate to
let him choose the place he would settle, to let him take from what Avram could
have seen as land that was promised to him. In return for his incredible bein
adam l’chavero, Hashem gently and lovingly reminded Avram that, no matter what,
all of this land was the Promised Land.
We often have times when we know that someone behaves in a
way we disagree with, when we feel we need give them tochacha. We are reminded
here that how we treat that person is just as important, if not more important,
than the guidance we wish to give them. Hashem did not draw Avram aside and
remind him of His promise as a reward for sending Lot away since he could not
live righteously, but the language of the Torah here signals the importance of Avram’s
constantly keeping in mind the dignity of another. It is a lesson that never
goes to waste!
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