Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 7 Cheshvan, 5784
Parsha Lekh Lekha: (Genesis 12:1 -17:27)
First Portion: Genesis 12:1-13
Good morning! Today we start a new Parsha – “Lekh Lekha” which means “Go for yourself.” I shared this before, but the Chumash I am reading has this to say:
“When God spoke to Abraham for the first time, the era of human/Divine cooperation began-a precursor of the future Sinaitic revelation. God told Abraham to leave his prior value systems and become a “partner” with God in enacting the Divine plan of Creation.”
My initial thought this year is the idea of “go for yourself.” Are we “going” to please someone ELSE? Are we acting and expanding for others? I go back to the idea of differentiation we learned yesterday and in last weeks’ Parsha:
- Freedom requires balance – emotions vs intellect, humility vs confidence, thinking as an individual while staying meaningfully connected to others.
The opposite of this is – thinking as a collective while trying to stay meaningfully connected to ourselves.
And I see this as an ADDITIONAL harmony and balance, right?
But this weeks Parsha is “go for yourself.” The idea is ALWAYS about self. We must start with becoming a partner within ourselves and with Hashem. We do not “go for others” or “act to make others happy” or “act to avoid hurting others’ feelings.”
No. Hashem first partners with Abram – “go for YOURSELF.”
In our culture, doesn’t this feel a smidge selfish? And yet, this is what we are called to. Remember the context. Terah lost a son, Haran. He tried to expand – got as far as a place CALLED Haran (spoiler – Terah likely NAMED it Haran to honor the son who passed away in Ur). And Terah got stuck. Here’s the beginning of today’s portion:
1And the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.
2And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will aggrandize your name, and [you shall] be a blessing.
3And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you.”
So let’s stop here. It’s a little confusing, TBH. I had to reread chapter 11 and 12 again. Chapter 11 ends with:
11:31And Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter in law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, and they came as far as Haran and settled there.
So. This seems to indicate Abram was born in Ur, and left to go to Haran, where they settled. Yet, Hashem is telling Abram to leave Ur and his fathers’ house.
- My thought is this: there are two options:
We went back in time. Hashem spoke to the family in Ur after Haran died. Abram convinced everyone to leave the safety of Ur and go to Canaan, and Terah took the lead to go. And Terah could only make it as far as he could – settled into Haran – while Abram took Lot and his wife beyond Haran. - In verse 1, “your land” and “your birthplace” and “your father’s house” are NOT all the same place. Hashem was connecting the journey that had already begun – the past, present and future. Ur, Haran and Canaan.
Either way, we get a beautiful picture of the overlap of Abram and Terah’s lives as father/son. And Abram/Hashem as a partnership. Let’s continue (12:4)
4And Abram went, as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was seventy five years old when he left Haran.
Abram was 75 when he left Haran. That might indicate #2 is likely above. Let’s keep going:
5And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had acquired, and the souls they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan.
6And Abram passed through the land, until the place of Shechem, until the plain of Moreh, and the Canaanites were then in the land.
7And the Lord appeared to Abram, and He said, “To your seed I will give this land,” and there he built an altar to the Lord, Who had appeared to him.
Abram listened to Hashem. He went. One of the things I love is the verse “the souls they had acquired in Haran.” This means to me, Abram has connected with other souls – who weren’t necessarily his family, but were CONNECTED with him. Again – differentiation – Abram was an individual AND part of a collective. He was MEANINGFULLY connected to others. Soul connections. And. He was an individual. Married to Sarai. Now. Let’s dig deeper into Abram’s marriage.
11Now it came to pass when he drew near to come to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Behold now I know that you are a woman of fair appearance.
12And it will come to pass when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife,’ and they will slay me and let you live.
13Please say [that] you are my sister, in order that it go well with me because of you, and that my soul may live because of you.”
What the eff, Abram?
Here’s my thoughts:
- It is obvious Abram valued life above all else. Even his marriage. This seems selfish. Unless Abram knew there was a higher purpose for his life BEYOND his marriage.
- Abram either did not care about his marriage – or he trusted Hashem enough to be securely attached to Sarai to allow this to unfold
- Abram was focused on his soul living. And attributing it to Sarai. He is basically saying his soul would be indebted to Sarai because of her decision here.
- Abram didn’t demand Sarai do this. He asked. It would seem. We may morally look at this and judge Abram for EVEN ASKING – or we can be curious about why?
- Was this part of the “partnership” Between Hashem and Abram? What about a partnership between Sarai and Hashem?
- Abram really was living out “Lekh Lekha.” “Go for yourself.” Abram was given this purpose by Hashem in the first verses.
We don’t know all the answers – and on our journey, that’s ok. We are learning to differentiate. To think for ourselves and work to remain connected to community. To balance logic and emotion. To balance a need to be attached and a need to be an individual. And to me? This is my takeaway. What about you?
My comments from the past two years:
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 5 Heshvan, 5783
A new Parsha this week! See below for some notes on Lekh Lekha. The Chumash has this wisdom for us:
“When God spoke to Abraham for the first time, the era of human/Divine cooperation began-a precursor of the future Sinaitic revelation. God told Abraham to leave his prior value systems and become a “partner” with God in enacting the Divine plan of Creation.”
We read that and likely think of this partnership between our bodies and an external God. But I have come to think maybe this partnership (that we discussed a year ago) is all within us. That we aren’t called to cooperate with an external God. We are called to cooperate with our Neshama – the part of Hashem in us. How do we become a partner within ourselves, and then go out? After all, Lekh Lekha means “Go for yourself.” It would seem this is all focused inside of us.
One of the things I’m chewing on in today’s portion is how Hashem asked Abram to leave his comfort zone; his homeland – and he asked Abram to leave for his own benefit. Hashem didn’t want Abram to be “stuck.”
It’s ALSO interesting that they traveled to Canaan. Remembering that Noah cursed Canaan.
It’s almost as if Hashem sent Abram to the very place that was cursed; in order to heal and establish that place. Because Noah did the wrong thing. He planted a vineyard.
It’s a healing process already being established. Hashem said “leave home and go somewhere cursed” – why would He do this, if not to heal?
Then there was a famine in Canaan – and so instead of trusting Hashem, the Torah said Abram went down to Egypt to settle there temporarily. It did not say “God told Abram to go to Egypt”. Abram went there on his own.
I wonder if that’s indicative on how when faced with great challenges (like a famine) when we try to solve our own problems (instead of waiting to hear from Hashem) our solutions are going to be a much longer path than just listening and waiting.
But Abram leaves Canaan to go to Egypt. And then? Makes a request of his beautiful wife Sarai to pretend not to be his wife. I’m sure THAT’s going to go well!
What do you think?
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 4 Heshvan, 5782
Today we read a new Parsha; Lekh Lekha – which means “go for yourself.” This is the passage where Abram leaves and heads to Canaan.
Today’s portion covers Abram leaving Haran. Remember yesterday Abram and His father Terah left Ur of the Chaldeans to head to Canaan. They made it as far as Haran and basically got stuck.
Once Terah died, Hashem told Abram to go. But here’s something interesting; the Torah says in Genesis 12:1; “God said to Abram, “Go further away – for your benefit – from your land, your birthplace and your father’s house, to the land which I will show you.”
This is a little confusing. Abram had ALREADY left his birthplace. Why was Hashem telling to leave his birthplace?
Rabbi Hananiah Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum in the 19th century writes;
“Abram was not commanded merely to leave his physical homeland, but also to “depart” from the undesirable habits he had acquired there”
The idea was a sequential removal of bad habits. Rabbi Teitelbaum continues to list the sequence:
- From your land: removing superficial habits that come from your surroundings and habitat
- From your birthplace and fathers house: removing the more deeply ingrained habits like those formed in your childhood by your family members.
This makes more sense why bringing up Abram’s place of birth would be included.
All of us have bad habits (maybe wounds) from our current surroundings AND from our childhood. I think a lot of times I want to focus on my childhood issues first; but I wonder if Hashem understands how difficult that is, which is why he asks us to start with more recent habits we’ve picked up living in the land? Maybe Hashem wants us to have some successes so that we won’t lost hope in dealing with our habits from childhood?
When it comes to spirituality and religion; I really think it is critical to go “on our own journey.” As I reflect on our children – I don’t want them to believe what they believe because of what the mother of my children and I believe. I want them to “go for themselves” and figure out what they value and believe so that their relationship with Hashem is theirs and not ours. How much of our own spiritual development (or lack thereof) is a result of being stuck in our parents/childhood belief system, and how much is our own journey away from this system of belief and towards making our own path.
Where am I “stuck” in my own beliefs because of my environment, and because of my upbringing? How can I go for myself on a spiritual journey to discover (as one friend calls it) “the source?”
The spiritual journey is a risky one. What if I believe the wrong thing? What if I believe something that hurts me?
But we know…Abram didn’t do it alone. He brought his wife and cousin with him. We aren’t alone on our journey- we have people around us we can talk about this with.
One Bonus thought/question:
In verse 11, Abram said to his wife Sarai; “Now I realize that you are an attractive woman.”
Rabbi Chaim Miller, translates the “now” meaning “Until now I hadn’t noticed, but NOW I notice you are an attractive woman.”
My immediate reaction is “really?” Abram? You didn’t notice your wife was attractive?
I’m trying to rack my brain as to how that’s possible. I’d love your thoughts on this…
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