LECH L’CHA: WHAT IS AVRAM (LATER AVRAHAM) REALLY SUPPOSED TO BE DOING
In the third parasha in the book of B’reishit (Genesis) God tells Avram (chapter 12 verse 1) “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land I will show you”. The language in the Torah lech l’cha, “Go… for or to yourself,” not just lech, “go.” So, what is the point? God could just have said “go” as in physically leave but the language makes the verb reflexive as if Avram is the object of the verb or the beneficiary of the act.
My read is that Avram is being sent out of his native land not just for the physical reality of being someplace else, even though that someplace is the land which will come to be known as the land of Israel (a name to be given to Avram’s grandson). There is also some internal or spiritual benefit to making the move. Avram is being told to move his body in order to benefit him internally, to make room for spiritual and/or intellectual growth. So which is it, a physical change or a spiritual change?
Of course, the answer is probably some of each. If Avram, with beliefs different from his compatriots, stays in his native country he will probably be subject to torment and derision for his deviance and might even be coerced into the patterns followed by his neighbors. There is a time to stand up and fight for one’s beliefs, but Avram is in a primitive society where strength-in-numbers is a real existential factor. This may be the respect in which the “l’cha” part of the command to move is truly “for” yourself.
What about the non-physical aspect of the reflexive, the “to yourself” element? By changing his location and surroundings Avram moves away from his comfort level and is force to look within for strength and a new sense of purpose and direction. He is now in a position where habit and custom do not help; he must develop his own, new system of behavior, belief, and interaction with his “Lord.”
Avram, at God’s bidding, has put himself in the position of building a whole new society, both political and faith-based. He now has the responsibility of establishing his own (or God’s, as Avram understands it) set of societal norms and rules. Avram needs to look deep within himself to develop a relationship with God. He also has to determine how he is going to live by and express that relationship.
That introspection and self-awareness is Avram’s greatest challenge. I would suggest that it is also ours. At the reading of this parasha we are just finishing a season in most of which we have engaged in some level of introspection into our shortcomings. In these passages, we are being told that thus activity, over forty or fifty days, is important and good it is still not enough. We are being told to dig deep into ourselves, our psyches, our souls, if you will, and decide who we really are or who we aspire to become.
This, to me, is the great challenge and point of Lech L’cha. It presents us with the opportunity to define and refine ourselves. I might be so bold as to suggest that prayer and study, informal and formal individual and communal are excellent tools in pursuing this goal. Lech-lacha. Go forth and may we all attain spiritual and mental sheimut (peace and contentment).
