Location, Location, Location! Toldot

In Lech Lecha, God famously instructs Abraham to go to the Promised Land. In the Torah Portion Toldot, God advises Isaac, Abraham’s son, not to leave that very land. Genesis 12:1,26:2-3. What is the fixation over this parcel?

Sans Hebrew Bible, extra-biblical sources support the Promised Land’s uniqueness. Geography and history shows Canaan’s incubation effect. It nurtures survival.

South of the Promised Land, with Egypt, the Merneptah Stele offers the first piece to the answer. The Stele’s inscription first identified the existence of a people called “Israel.” They were a known entity during Pharaoh Merneptah’s reign.

It was during one of his military campaigns from 1213 to 1203 that the Pharaoh encountered the Israelites in Canaan. Not too long after Merneptah’s reign, in the year 1177 BCE, the region’s civilization collapsed.

Eric Cline’s 1177BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed details the history of this particular fall. With the collapse, cities’, cultures’, languages’, and societies’ sustainability were challenged.

With the collapse, many nations and city states were left in ruins; some, never to be resuscitated. While the ancient world crumbled around them, the Israelites somehow survived.

Did their location matter?

Living on a continental land bridge, the Israelites politically and culturally grew. The two relatively small nations- Judea & Israel- learned lessons of conflict, coexistence, and defeat.

Great civilizations and Empires challenged them and forced them to define and redefine their national identities. All consuming external powers necessitated them to reflect and interpret their failures. The external forces became part of their theology. The Israelite Deity was a universal force willing to employ foreign powers as agents to exact its plan.

The Israelites’ existential thirst became further refined after the Northern Kingdom’s collapse. The two separate nations essentially reunited into one nation. The Judeans incorporated the likes of the Prophet Elijah into their national narrative. Scribal communities integrated scripture.

With the First Temple’s destruction, the Israelites would further evolve as a nationless people.

During their existence in the ancient Levant, the Israelite’s meaningful contacts included Egypt, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome. They encountered the shapers and the makers of civilization. With these Empires, governance, religion, laws, literature, art, language, commerce and societal norms were all exchanged. Dominant cultures even became the lingua franca of the region- Aramaic and Greek.

The cultural flow, however, extended outward as well. Perhaps the most impactful exchange was the Hebrew Bible’s translation into Greek, the Septuagint. Via the publication, Israelite culture and values was transmitted throughout the Greek Empires.

For the Israelites, each encounter with foreigners vaccinated them. The Israelites would survive. In the end of this period, their culture became portable. Their values and scripture placed them upon the existentialism’s pantheon.

Toldot

In Toldot, in time of a famine, God appeared to Isaac and said “Don’t go down to Eqypt. Reside in the land that I say to you. Stay on in this land, and I’ll be with you and bless you.” Genesis 26:1-2. God further indicated that “all nations of the earth will be blessed through your seed because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my watch, my commandments, my laws, and my instructions. ” Genesis 26:4-5.

In essence, the location, and its magnetic-like property served as the world’s access point with respect to the Israelite Deity’s values, laws and instructions. These values, laws and instructions proved valuable to the outside world as they were adopted and disseminated. The world has truly been blessed as envisioned by the Genesis verse.

Thus, in the time of Isaac, the project of the Israelite nation was still in its inception. Thus, it was not the time to venture off into foreign lands.

Conclusion

In sum, the geographic location generated the narrative. The land bridge between continents combined with its proximity to antiquity’s great civilizations created a meeting point upon which societies frequently had interactions.

Had Abraham and Isaac located themselves in another part of the world, there may not been the likelihood that God’s commandments, laws and instructions would have been buried somewhere and lost in history.

Likewise, had Isaac left the area during the nation’s formative development, there is no guarantee it would have survived. Isaac’s family could have easily integrated into another culture.

Be well!!

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