Making sense of the sedra: Lech Lecha
Abraham and the journey that never ends
Rabbi Ariel Abel is based in Liverpool
Go, find yourself! This phrase sticks in my mind since I reflected recently on a video presentation on theology and British Jewry by Miri Freud-Kandel and it is the meaning of this week’s parsha, Lech Lecha.
The journey to find God is incomplete for Abram until he completes a journey to find himself. I use ‘Abram’ because until God renames him, that is what he is. Even his name is not complete. Or perhaps, his name is incomplete because he is.
Abram has no voice of his own until he is put through a lot of pain. Some people are destined to pass through this world without having a voice, others go through a lot of pain to acquire it. “Ha” is no more than clearing one’s throat to get ready to speak, but it is voice. That is where the final piece of the puzzle slips into place for Abram, when he becomes Abra-ha-m.
‘Ha’ is said to represent God in his life, the ‘heh’ of the Creator’s name, YHWH. God was already in his life; Abraham has discovered him, God had spoken to Abram, God was there. But God had not yet given Abram his voice. Abram no doubt was able to speak – he had spent 75 years talking to his wife, his brother Haran, his father Terah, anyone worth having a conversation with. But Abram did not yet have the voice of which I speak. That voice is the voice that is fit to speak up on matters godly.
The voice of Abraham is the one that pipes up when it is controversial to do so. The Abrahamic voice is the one that runs contraflow to populism and off-the-shelf religion. The Abrahamic vocal imperative is the one that can clear its throat and object to the wanton destruction of five towns in the fertile valley of Sodom, notwithstanding the crimes that the locals have perpetrated. The Abrahamic call even represents itself on Godly promises to turn inherit the earth: “How do I know that I will inherit it”?
Abraham represents what we have not yet learned to say from our souls. All we came to this earth to do is to distinguish ourselves as human beings gifted with the power of speech. What we say is at least as powerful as what we do.
A new American President has been elected on the strength of what he has told his people. On any given day in our lives, something will rise or fall inside us or beyond us on the strength of what we have said to others. Therefore, be not afraid to speak – to speak up, even. The sound or pitch of our voice is not our voice, it is the message our voice carries. Even if a person has no vocal chords, the message we articulate will carry further than any world class opera artist. Even Moses spoke through his brother, and in doing so, he spoke truth to power, bringing about the most famous national liberation movement in word’s history: Israel.
Abraham set into motion for us a journey that never ends, for each and every one of us to find the courage to speak up. At this time, more than any other, the nation that Moses began needs every personal voice available to state its case fearlessly. May the ‘ha’ stuck in our throats become the ‘heh’ of divine interpolation, as we speak out for the welfare of every Jew. May we all be blessed to see Israel restored to peace within its borders, and the hostages returned home.
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