New York Times’ reporter Bret Stephens tells a story in the latest issue of Sapir of a law student who approached him after a talk at Harvard asking how he, a journalist, deals with the power that comes from his job. He responded with a quiet chuckle, understanding internally that what his job entailed was not power, but influence. As he puts it in the article, “What I have, at best, isn’t power but influence. It’s important to understand the difference. Power is the capacity to control resources or compel behavior. Influence is the ability to persuade people and shape public opinion.”
Abraham, the hero of this week’s Torah portion Vayera, is also caught in this delicate predicament. While on the outside he appears all powerful in his stories, he is in fact only acting as a conduit for God. We see this dichotomy all over the portion, as Abraham must navigate very difficult tests, highlighted by the near sacrifice of his son Isaac, but also including such doozy as the banishment of Hagar and the battles with Avimelech. But the one that stands out most on the question of power vs. influence is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Abraham directly confronts God asking for the pardon of a community that is not even his own. If you are familiar at all with the biblical narrative, you know that these twin cities have a reputation of debauchery and crime, so much so that God issues their death warrant. Instead of sitting back and letting this happen to a group of people he has no ties to, Abraham asks God, “Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty?” He goes so far as to negotiate down from the potential of one hundred righteous people in the community all the way to ten, which sadly cannot be found in the entirety of Sodom and Gomorrah.
This is the dilemma of influence that Stephens points out in his article, as it only can go so far in forcing actions in the real world. But, ironically, for Jews today, the New York Times columnist writes, “in many ways, we are as powerful as we’ve ever been. Yet we are also at one of the lowest ebbs of our influence.” Despite political power in both Israel and America, Jews struggle with getting our message out, watching as the masses tell our story in ways unflattering to ourselves. Perhaps, the message of the Torah portion is that as attractive as power can be, ultimately all of life is under the control of God. Only by fighting for what we believe in – a true and just society – can we truly be at peace in this world.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex