Go forth!

(Genesis 12:1)

Marcheshvan 10, 5779/October 19, 2018

"Lech lecha - Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1) These are the very first words that G-d says to Avraham (still known as Avram). Lech lecha - go forth, but also, literally, go for yourself, go to yourself, pursue your true self, or as Shakespeare worded it, "To thine own self be true."

That's quite an introduction. And it gets better: "And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will aggrandize your name, and you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you." (ibid 12:2-3) It was an offer Avraham couldn't, and didn't refuse: "And Avram went, as HaShem had spoken to him, and Lot went with him, and Avram was seventy five years old when he left Haran." (ibid 12:4)

What inspired G-d to take Avraham under His wing, as it were, and to shine His Presence on Avraham? Of Noach we are told that "Noach found favor in the eyes of HaShem," (ibid 6:8) That is, G-d has His eye on Noach from the very start. And it is safe to assume that had G-d not favored Noach from the very beginning then He would never have set out to extinguish all life on earth save Noach and the animals he preserved. Noach was a part of G-d's plan. But Avraham was seventy five years when G-d reached out to him. What was going on in Avraham's life for those first seventy five years? This obvious question occupied our sages, and via a very close reading of the Hebrew verses which first introduced us to Avraham at the conclusion of parashat Noach, our sages determined that Avraham was an iconoclast at a very early age. Growing up in a world that was awash in idolatry, young Avraham was literally an idol smasher, having taken a stick to the clay idols in his father's "Idol Depot" store in the city of Ur, shattering them. This began for Avraham a life of searching for meaning in life and for a guiding force in creation. This intellectual quest led Avraham to the conclusion that there was one G-d in the world who caused the sun to rise, the winds to blow and rains to fall. Avraham was in search of G-d! In other words, Avraham was the man, the son of Adam, that G-d had been waiting for for twenty generations! So when G-d fully revealed His transcendent self to Avraham, telling him "Lech lecha - Go!" He was both embracing Avraham, introducing Himself, and setting Avraham forth on an adventure that would transform his intellectual epiphany of the One G-d into a personal relationship of faith and trust, of give and take, of acceptance of G-d's will, yet also of questioning and prodding G-d when he didn't fully understand G-d's will. A true friendship. G-d has been searching for man ever since Adam hid himself in the midst of the trees, prompting G-d's first and most enduring question of man: "Where are you?" (ibid 3:9) Now Avraham has emerged from the shadows, back into the light of G-d's love for man.

Noach was given a single task to perform, which he performed to perfection. Noach was called upon to rescue the world from physical destruction. He performed a super human task. He was, literally, a superhero. But Avrahamwasn't a superhero, nor was G-d looking for a superhero. Avraham, as we will see, was human, and that was what G-d was looking for: one good man, not to rescue the world from physical calamity, but to rescue mankind from spiritual oblivion. This was a task that required more than a single lifetime. This was a task for the generations. Leaving all that was familiar behind, and traveling to an unknown land was just the first of many trials that Avraham performed for G-d. Protecting Avraham from harm and blessing him with a son in old age were just some of the miracles which G-d performed for Avraham. A two-way relationship has begun between G-d and Avraham, a two-way relationship that has continued between G-d and Israel and between G-d and all mankind, ever since.

Lech lecha - by leaving behind all the vanities and idolatries that man had immersed himself in, and setting forth on a journey to his inner self, by being true to his own self, Avraham was becoming the man that G-d first created - in G-d's image. The new found friendship will soon become a covenant between Avraham and G-d, and a covenant between G-d and the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, forever!

-The Temple Institute