Lech lecha

After two weeks where we have seen described in Torah the creation of the world and the experience of humanity writ large in the paradigms of Adam and Eve, Noah et al, this week the Torah focuses in on its main concern – us. The Jews - the People of Israel. Nearly four thousand years of history began with just two words; God’s call to Abraham – lech lecha – Go….

The words though simple offer a large variety of possibilities. Lech is a simple command from the verb h-l-ch to go or walk. Lecha is often translated as the preposition l which means to, or for, with second person pronominal suffix echa. In other words, to, or for yourself. ‘Go for yourself.’ ‘Go for your own sake’, or ‘Go it alone’. Abraham is traditionally seen as being asked to leave the idolatry of his father’s house which will corrupt him if he stays. But equally, as the first monotheist and founder of a new faith, wherever he goes, his uniqueness will isolate him from those around him.

But lecha can be translated also as a more emphatic version of the command Go. ‘Go… go’ God is saying. ‘Go quickly’ No time for consideration, of weighing up the odds. Any reflection will result in hesitation, in the decision that it is more sensible to stay than to go. In the Torah, where the Hebrew is written without vowels, the two words look exactly the same. L-ch, l-ch. Go, go – the urgency is evident.

Traditional midrash – the rabbinic interpretation of biblical events - combines both readings of the words in weaving a story of how Abraham first discovered the one true God against a background of idolatry and persecution at the hands of the king Nimrod. He flees for his life and in that flight sets the pattern of Jewish existence. To leave without preparation, without time for hesitation; to leave in order to escape death - it is a pattern we all recognise. Many of our community experienced such trauma in the Shoah, or felt the dislocation fleeing Communism. It is not just the disruption of normal life, not just the finding yourself in a strange place with strange language and customs. It is also the separation, the tearing apart of the close knit fabric that makes up the Jewish family. So many individuals had to leave loved ones to perish in order that they could survive.

Today, for a brief moment in our long history perhaps, going, leaving, moving does not come with the urgency of escape. But it is still necessary. The child must leave home in order to establish him or herself, - to develop as an independent person, create new relationships, new families. Sometimes the parent will share in the experiences of their offspring, sometimes the child will go it alone. Either way, the decision to go is one full of possibilities as rich and as significant as that of Abraham’s four thousand years ago.