summary

Last week's Torah portion, Noach, took us through the legend of the Flood and the subsequent building of the Tower of Babel. When we heard that the people had dispersed at the end of that episode we were given their genealogies. One line, that of Noah's son Shem led us to Terach and his son Abram and his brothers, Nahor, and Haran.

As this week's parasha (Genesis 12:1 - 17:27) begins, God says to Abram: "Lech lecha" meaning "Go forth" from your home and father's house "to a land that I will show you (Genesis 12:1)." God promises to bless Abram and make of him a great nation. So Abram sets out with his wife Sarai, Lot and "the souls that they had acquired in Haran where they had previously settled (Genesis 12:5)."

When they arrive in Canaan, God again appears to Abram to tell him that God will assign this land (Canaan) to Abram's descendants. Abram first settles in Shechem, but then moves southward. A severe famine induces him to go to Egypt. Worried that the Egyptians will kill him and take his beautiful wife, Sarai, Abram instructs her to say she is his sister. The ploy apparently works, with Sarai being taken into Pharaoh's palace. God, however, afflicts the palace with a plague and Pharaoh discovers the lie and sends Abram and Sarai away.

Returning to the land of Canaan, conflict between Abram's and Lot's herdsmen develops, and Abram suggests that they go their separate ways. Lot chose to settle in the well-watered plain of the Jordan, near the city of Sodom, while Abram remained in Canaan. As the portion continues, an intertribal war breaks out during which Lot and his families are taken captive. When Abram learns of this, he gathers soldiers, pursues the captors, and frees Lot and his family.

Sarai, who has not been able to become pregnant, gives Abram her handmaid Hagar to bear a child. But when Hagar becomes pregnant, tensions develop between the two women and Hagar runs away. An angel of God appears to her and tells her to return, promising her a son, Ishmael.

God again appears to Abram -- now 99 years of age -- repeating promises of the Covenant. God changes his name to Abraham, which the Torah ascribes with the meaning "the father of a multitude of nations. God also changes Sarai's name to Sarah. God introduces a sign of the covenant: every male shall be circumcised at eight days old and promises that Abraham and Sarah will bear a son, Isaac, who will carry on the covenant.

commentary

In such a packed parasha one hardly knows where to begin. That is also how I often feel at this time of year. In our festival cycle I have gone through my times of self-reflection and resolved to do differently. So many things to do though and which to do first? In the cycle of nature, it is a time of flux, especially with our befuddled seasons and so I am always scratching my head when I get a moment in the garden, what should I be doing or doing first? And then comes the cycle of Torah portions to give me a kick to move forward and restart my progress through the year with intent.

Of course, there is the literal, ‘lech lecha,’ God telling me to go and get on with my life. However, I do not think that the ‘lech lecha’ is given in a sharp tone. Rather one that is loving. It seems to me that Abram and Sarai are characters in common with those that have come before in the opening two chapters of the Book of Genesis. Despite the attempt by a Museum in the USA to present the Book of Genesis as the factual account of the beginning of the world, most Jews would consider these early chapters at the very least as being our ‘foundation myth.’ It is in this dreamy, mythical state that I begin my Jewish year. Then I come to Abram and Sarai. They mark the crossover from the mythical to the real, the alarm clock between dream state and alertness, between theory and action.

Both their names are changed as they move into the real world which involves human relationships that bring the characters to life without the need for expansion by our Rabbis of old (although they do, of course, add to our understandings). Previously, God had made no demands on Abraham in return for God’s promise. Now, he and his descendants will bear the mark of the covenant on their flesh, circumcision henceforth making them partners in the obligations of the covenant.

Now my year begins, a renewal of time and focus. The Gerer Rebbe suggested that what was special about Abraham was not that God spoke to him but that Abraham heard God. His journey had no given destination other than to “a land that I will show you.” But Abraham heard and went and on the way enjoyed and was afflicted by becoming a real person. We do not know where our year’s journey will end up but in the words of Arthur Green commenting on the Gerer Rebbe:

“Thank you, Eternal One, for all that nervous energy. Life as an angel might have been easier - standing still to do Your bidding. But it is our walking, our ever climbing (and sometimes falling!) from rung to rung that makes us human. Despite all the struggle and pain that go along with growing, we wouldn’t have it any other way”.

click here to contact us, or phone 07891 439 646