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Drash for Shabbat Lech L'cha By Jeanette Shawl - October 19, 2007 Genesis chapter 12 unfolds within a simple backdrop, colorless and spare in description. Nature, such as river, valley, sunset, night, oak trees, dust and stars, is plainly presented. It is within this nondescript world that the words are spoken which would shift forever how most of humanity would view God. Lech L'cha is spoken, heard and carried out. Abraham begins the journey that will generate three major religions. Speech and action, request and response are the forces through which we watch Abraham emerging as the patriarch who will carry the light of monotheism on his journey. Lech L'cha, most often translated as simply "Go Forth," is rich with other interpretations: Go forth by yourself; Go forth into your self; Go for yourself. And finally there is the intriguing interpretation from the Zohar: "Go to yourself, to know yourself, to refine yourself." Regardless of how I read those opening words, I find myself returning to fill in the spaces left by several questions. The Eternal One neither identifies his self, nor addresses Abram by name. Abram knows who is speaking--the voice is familiar. The command is unquestioned, as though coming from an intimate, loved one. Abram has been told to leave the familiar places of land, birth and his father's house. God tells him to go forth "to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and it will be a blessing." Abram answers not with words, but with faithful action. He takes Sarai, Lot, their possessions and the people they had gathered while in Haran and begins the journey to an unknown place. But still I return to these questions: how is it that God's voice was so familiar to Abram? How long had Abram been listening to the Voice? Abram's Call Go
forth from here! The Voice entered Abraham Listened Abraham, vessel for the
Eternal's Who, now, still hears the
call? Shabbat Shalom.
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