As we prepare to read this week’s parsha, Lech-L’cha, the one where Abraham receives the call from God and sets out on his journey to become the father of the Jewish people, I have been making arrangements and fielding questions about how to prepare for the journey into nature that will be our school Fall Shabbaton at Camp Ramah. Where will we stay? What kind of clothes, bedding and other supplies will we need? How far will it be from one place to another? And will there be smores? There is a lot to consider and many details that families coming for the first time want to know about. Abraham and Sara also head off on their journey with a band of people, including their nephew, Lot, all of whom are following their vision toward a promising, but unknown destination. In contrast to our journey into the woods, Abraham, Sara and their followers have no human guide to tell them what to expect, or what they need. They take all they can and set off into the wilderness, equipped with faith that God will in fact make their journey successful.
This week, I also had the privilege of attending the installation of my Rabbinical School Dean, Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld as the new president of Hebrew College. It was a joyous and inspiring evening. At the core of the ceremony was a panel of several of Rabbi Sharon’s former students who have become well respected leaders of the American Jewish community reflecting on the influence she had on their personal and professional development. They pointed again and again, to the ways that Sharon, often in a quiet unassuming way, by being true to herself, had shifted their perspective and contributed to the sense of self that they bring into their work as leaders today, shaping the next generation of Jewish community. In this week of parshat Lech-L’cha, it is fitting that the focus of this installation fell largely on the legacy of a leader as it is passed down through the generations. This is, after all the promise God makes to Abram, “Go … to the land that I will show you…and I will make you a great nation, and I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.”
It is striking that, in this parsha, one that is largely about legacy, Rabbi Sharon chose to speak about mission, both personal and communal. She spoke about the initial words of the parsha, “lech l’cha”, an unusual formulation of the Hebrew word “lech” meaning go, together with “l’cha” usually meaning to you, or for you. Here though, these words are spoken as an imperative, “Go!” Rabbi Sharon explained this as God telling Abraham, “I need you” to help fulfil the what the world needs right now. God has a message for the world that must come through Abraham, and for that to happen, he needs to get up and go out into the world, set off physically on a journey. But, the word “l’cha”, go to yourself, also implies an inward journey, one that Abraham needs to undertake to better understand and to fully become himself in this world. This dual understanding of the words lech l’cha, Rabbi Sharon pointed to as a the core mission of Hebrew College as a Jewish educational institution. To push students to explore and develop their own identity, while learning to bring the best of who they are out into the world to work towards its perfection. This is a lofty goal, and one that I believe should be the highest hopes of any Jewish Educational Institution.
Later in her address, Rabbi Sharon pointed out that although our sense of Abraham setting of as a trailblazer, breaking free of his family, makes a powerful story, it is not entirely true to the text. At the end of last week’s parsha, Abraham was part of a journey led by his father, away from their home city to the land of Canaan, though they only get as far as Haran. Why did Abram’s father set off on the journey? What was he searching for? What did he intend to do? We don’t know, but we do know that Abraham is not the first to set off on this journey. Rabbi Sharon pointed to the legacy of her own parents, of blessed memory, and the important lessons she learned from them, that gave her a basis for her own journey.
Setting off, this weekend into the woods, with our MWJDS community, a community of parents, children, teachers and students, I think this last lesson is the most powerful; the impact of our parents’ journeys into themselves and into the world, even when we don’t recognize the connection to our own endeavors. How often do we look at our children and see ourselves reflected in them? And how often do we see in them qualities that are uniquely their own? Looking to the future, we will surely see them set out on journeys that we can only imagine, and journeys that we cannot imagine. What a wonder it is to think that they will look back at the journeys we take with them as they basis for the ways they will shape the world.
Shabbat Shalom, and may you be a blessing.