- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Lech Lecha
3697
"Lech Lecha meartzecha... Go forth from your land, your birthplace, your father’s house to the land that I will show you." Thus, spoke Hashem to Avrohom. Pursue my instructions and "I will bless you and you shall be a blessing...and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you."
Avrom Avinu left his native, idol-worshipping land crossing into Eretz Canaan. It wasn’t a short, easy voyage, not then - and not today. Changes at any stage in life are traumatic. Nevertheless, "deeds of the fathers are emblematic to sons." The parasha opens with Hashem’s directive to journey to the land, and ends with the mitzvah, brit mila the covenant, pre-requisite for entrance to Eretz Yisrael.
"Shaal avicha v’yagedcha" ask your father, he will tell you. At the Seder, Succa or Shabbat table, stories of Jews forced to flee, abandoning homes in exile are recounted tearfully, some miraculously... in appreciation. Ask courageous new olim about their complex passage and listen to awesome tales.
Observant Jews seek to strengthen daily mitzvah performance and yet many do not, or cannot, exercise the will to partake in the mitzvah to settle the land. As stated in Lech Lecha, "Arise, walk about the land through it’s length and breadth", a living legacy for the resolute.
May brit milah, first practiced by our exalted ancestor, precede massive Jewish response to the Almighty’s promise to the Patriarch.
Faigie Heiman born and raised in Brooklyn, an accomplished short story and essay writer, lives in Jerusalem with her husband and family. Her articles are featured in newspapers and magazines in Israel and abroad.
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