Parts Unknown: Parashat Lekh L’kha

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Parashat Lekh L’kha
Genesis 12:1 – 17:27

My dear brother,

The bags are packed and we will be leaving at the crack of dawn. I have spent a lot of nights looking up at the stars of the sky, wondering about what to do. It grieves me that we are parting under such circumstances, but, as God is my witness, it is for the best.

I don’t know what has happened to our father. In the old days people called him “Terah the Explorer” because he was willing to set off from Ur to distant Canaan. But now look at him! He has stopped in Haran and given up his journeys. What is holding him to this place?

He can tell that I am disappointed and ashamed of him. We can’t talk to one another anymore. We have fought about it too many times. When I gaze at the stars in the sky I become convinced that there is a truer future ahead for us, that the world must change and be different. But Father is afraid and has turned backwards. I can’t believe he doesn’t know that the idols are all wrong, but he keep marketing them as false security to vulnerable and naive people. “How can you support these lies?” I yelled at him. “How can you pander like this to the base fears of others?” And he screamed at me that I did not want to get along with the people; that I did not respect the ancient ways, the old way of life. Terah the Explorer! What has happened to his courage and his dreams? That’s when I lost it completely and I broke the statues. And then, shaking with rage and humiliation, he threatened to break me into pieces.

People have been looking at me with suspicion and mistrust. My different faith makes them nervous and resentful. The broken idols confirmed to them that I am a violent troublemaker. I fear their threats to jail me and throw me into the fiery furnace. And Sarai suffers, too. Thank the One God that she is with me in this.

We want to find a way to make a difference in this world. To be a blessing. Yes, this has been our homeland, our birthplace, our family nest. But it has become impossible to stay here any longer. God is telling me to move on. So we will become refugees and strangers. I still don’t know where we will end up.

Hear me brother! We don’t think it will be any easier anywhere else. But at least we will not be tearing ourselves up as a family. Although Father does not understand it this way, I feel I am actually being faithful to his best self. I am the son of Terah the Explorer.

Nahor, please watch over our father. Despite everything that has happened between us, I love him and will miss him.

Your faithful brother,
Avram

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Greenstein


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image:  “Father & Son Trip to Norderney” © Kai Engel altered and used with permission via Creative Commons License

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