Dear TBZ community:
I imagine many of you share what I am feeling. This is all just too much: The pandemic and the rise of Covid numbers, the coming elections, the future of the Supreme Court, the coming of winter (and it is snowing today!), the not knowing when and how things will get better, the fear things will only get worse.
And add to all that, each of us have our own issues and struggles. For some of us it is health concerns, our own, our children’s or parents. For some it is our work lives, which is exponentially more demanding and challenging than ever before, for some it is not having a job or fear of losing the one we have or of our business suffering. For some it is financial concerns. For some it is raising our children during these very challenging times. For some it is being alone.
It is so easy, and normal, to get stuck, to feel stuck, and not to know how to move forward.
This week's parsha, Lech Lecha, is the beginning of the journey of Abram. It begins with the call from God to Abraham to leave his father's land and go forth to a new land, to a place that God will show him.
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ
אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ
The LORD said to Abram,
Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
We often encounter this story as the beginning of the journey of Abram, but if we read the text carefully, we learn that Abram started the journey with his father.
At the end of last week parasha on Genesis 11:31 we read:
וַיִּקַּ֨ח תֶּ֜רַח אֶת־אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֗וֹ וְאֶת־ל֤וֹט בֶּן־הָרָן֙ בֶּן־בְּנ֔וֹ וְאֵת֙ שָׂרַ֣י כַּלָּת֔וֹ אֵ֖שֶׁת אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֑וֹ וַיֵּצְא֨וּ אִתָּ֜ם מֵא֣וּר כַּשְׂדִּ֗ים לָלֶ֙כֶת֙ אַ֣רְצָה כְּנַ֔עַן וַיָּבֹ֥אוּ עַד־חָרָ֖ן וַיֵּ֥שְׁבוּ שָֽׁם
Terach took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan; but when they had come as far as Haran, they settled there.
Terach and Abram and Lot and Sarai started the trip together from Ur Kasdim to Canaan, but for some reason that we do not know, they got stuck in Haran and they settled there. Then Terach died.
Often we see the story of Abram as a story of separating himself from his father, rejecting idolatry and moving away from him, and that is part of our story. But when we notice that Terach and Abram started the journey together, we can read the story perhaps a bit differently.
After Terach died Abram had a choice - stay and settle in Haran or keep going.
God comes and says to Abram, keep going, keep going, your journey doesn't end here. There is a place that I will show you, there is hope and promise and new challenges, and I will be there with you. Keep going, do not get stuck.
The Ben Ish Chai, Rabbi Yosef Hayym from Baghdad teaches about Lech Lecha:
Lech Lecha: the capacity to walk (lech), to go forth, to not stop in one place, to not get stuck, this the thing that is actually lecha - yours. It is only the journey (lech)that is yours (lecha), that is in your ownership.
We are always on a journey, always and there are stops, and moments we are stuck, but we are invited to own our journey, fully, with its stops, with its stuckness and its vulnerability.
Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron writes in her book “When Things Fall Apart”:
“Anyone that stands on the edge of the unknown, fully in the present without reference point, experiences groundlessness.
That is when our understanding goes deeper, when we find the present moment is a pretty vulnerable place... completely unnerving and
completely tender at the same time”
In many ways we are standing on the edge of the unknown and at times it feels as if we do not have a reference point and we feel groundlessness and vulnerable. God calls Abram, and calls all of us, and says there is a reference point, there is a land I will show you. You can be grounded in Torah and values and stand by the edge of this unknown moment and keep walking, keep moving, keep going.
Things are not going to get easier. Next week will be hard; we will not know the results of the election on Tuesday, and whatever the results are, we know that the journey won’t be easy. And we will keep going and at times we will get stuck.
There is a song going the rounds of the internet that has become a little mantra for me. The Keep Going Song. It is a Lech Lecha song, a prayer, a heart-opening shot of emotions, of realness. It breaks my heart and it makes me laugh. It is a reminder to keep moving forth in this journey, and when we get stuck, to keep going. I am offering you this song as a gift for this coming week. And for the coming months.
