When you Choose Shabbat, you choose to learn that every Shabbat is different and special. This week I learned about Parashat Lech Lecha, the third weekly Torah portion in the annual cycle of Torah readings. The words Lech Lecha can be loosely translated as, “Go Out”, “Leave” or “Get Out You”; a command from G-d addressed to Avram and Sarai who at the time were residents of Ur Kasdim in Mesopatamia (Iraq).
According to Wikipedia,, Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1 through 17:27) contains a total of 6,336 Hebrew letters, 1,686 words, 126 verses and 208 lines of the Torah Scroll. This week’s Torah reading includes many moving parts; G-d’s calling of Avram, Avram’s passing off his wife Sarai as his sister and dividing the land with his nephew Lot, Sara’s tensions with her maid Hagar and Hagar’s son Ishmael and the covenant of circumcision (brit milah), to name a few. In the Torah portion, G-D makes a covenant with Avram promising to make his descendant’s a great nation and changes Avram’s name to Abraham, who has a child with Hagar and names him Ishmael. G-d them promises Abraham’s barren wife, Sarah, that she will have a child.
Rabbi Michael D Klein of Temple Torat Emet offers his insights on this week’s Torah reading, Lech Lecha for Shabbat November 9, 2024 aka 8 Cheshvan 5785:
“How much faith would it take for a family to leave everybody and everything behind and to travel 2500 miles based on a promise from G-d? This time of year, when we commemorate Kristallnacht, I think of my family including my Father z”l and others, who escaped the Shoah, at the peril of their lives, to travel to unknown lands. I think of the Pilgrims, who escaped persecution in Europe and traveled by ship crossing over an unknown ocean to an unknown continent in order to seek a freer life for their families.
G-d tells Avram and Sarai to leave their ancestral homeland of Ur and to travel to an unknown location where they will fulfill the covenant and be blessed by inheriting the Land of Canaan-later to be named Israel. There they will become the ancestors of a great nation and will have a special covenantal relationship with G-d. Not only do Avram and Sarai obey G-d’s commandments, they establish their lives in Beer Sheva and are known far and wide in ancient Canaan as an outpost of welcome and hospitality to weary travelers, many of whom adopt the faith of their host and hostess.
Dealing with global change is never easy. What Avram and Sarai accomplish is a template for all those who must face seemingly insurmountable difficulties based on the adage, “Faith Moves Mountains”. When we are compelled to deal with upheavals in our lives, this is the ultimate challenge. Do we have enough faith in G-d to follow our innermost connection to faith and take the spiritual path?“
Questions to Ponder :
- What other motivation might have caused Terach to leave Ur?
- How does the narrative of Avram and Sarai represent a paradigm shift in the relationship between G-d and humans?
- How do G-d’s words to Avram and Sarai contain both promises and challenges?
- How does Avram’s challenge G-d in the Sodom and Gomorrah story? What does this represent?
Rabbi Michael D. Klein attended Yeshiva College of South Florida and served as Torah Reader, Hebrew teacher, Chazzan and spiritual leader of various synagogues throughout South Florida. In January 2015 he became Ritual Director, Bnai/Bnot Mitzvah instructor and 7th grade Hebrew instructor for Temple Torat Emet of Boynton Beach. In October 2019 he was accepted into an accelerated track and received his smicha from Yeshiva Adath Wolkowisk and has been the Rabbinic leadership of Temple Torat Emet since August 2020. In September of 2022 he was appointed Rabbinic and Spiritual Advisor of the Florida Region of FJMC.
Choose Shabbat; choose to celebrate, to light candles, sing songs and learn a little Torah.
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