By Rabbi Brian Zimmerman
Parashat Lech L’cha
Almost a year ago, Sharon Wisch-Ray, the editor of the Texas Jewish Post, asked all the DFW-area rabbis to sign up for their usual yearly d’var Torah weekly selections.
I looked at the different dates that were still available and searched for a distant date with a great portion. Lech L’cha was still available and stood out for a few reasons. It is a great portion that chronicles the earliest moments of the beginning of the Jewish people. There’s always something meaningful to share no matter how many times one reads it. It was also far off in the future, which is perfect for a rabbi who sometimes procrastinates. It would be a couple of weeks after the end of our busiest holiday season.
It is Abram’s journey to becoming Abraham, the man who finds God and gets a new name.
It is a Torah portion full of incredible events. Abraham saves his nephew, Lot, from the threat of death in the city of Sodom; he almost loses his beautiful wife to the King of Egypt; he fights wars with four other kings; he fathers a son from his wife’s handmaiden which will lead to a great heartbreak later — and all of this as he searches out a new promised homeland in which God will make his offspring as many as the stars in the sky.
Living in the Jewish calendar, I paid no attention to the secular one. It never occurred to me that I would be writing this article one week before a difficult election. It also never occurred to me that my article would not be printed until after that election date. As I am not a prophet or even a successful gambler, I have no idea what will happen, how our country will react or how well we will be coping when you read this.
Lech L’cha is a Torah portion about risk-taking. Abraham goes out into the unknown.
“Lech l’cha,” those first words, are frequently translated as to go forth. But the great French Torah commentator Rashi suggests that it really means to look inward, to go inside yourself to find your way out. What an interesting interpretation. The story is about a man who leaves the land of his birth; experiences wars, famine and destruction; and puts himself and his family in great danger, taking great physical risks, and in the process travels on a deep spiritual journey.
Where do we go when the going gets tough?
We find ourselves at a similar moment of challenge.
I recently read that more and more of us are leaving our old communities, neighborhoods of birth, our family churches, synagogues and mosques because we no longer want to deal with the tension from dialogue with people who are different. We are moving to states and cities, neighborhoods, schools and worship spaces where we will find like-minded voices, safe from the uncomfortable. Given all that we have been through, it is understandable that we are tired of conflict and the challenge of different voices.
We seek sanctuary in the sameness.
This Torah portion reminds us that spiritual strength comes from our interaction with what is different. To be a Jew is to go out like Abram and find God amidst the unknown in a world of different voices and beliefs. It is a world of disorder, distrust and sometimes violence and danger. It is also the vision on which our country was built: a place of sanctuary for outcasts fleeing danger.
Lech l’cha! No matter how much the urge to hide or retreat, go forth!
Go forth physically and spiritually.
Abram gets a new name, Abraham, and moves closer to an understanding of God within himself. As we go farther into the wilderness, may we each get a little bit closer to discovering who we are meant to be amidst the voices and faces of those who are unknown.
Brian Zimmerman is a rabbi at Beth El Congregation, Fort Worth.