Shalom. I am Rabbi Johnny Ginsburg, Skokie, Illinois. This is Divrei Torah is a like Parshat Lech, Lecha. Now at the end of the portion of Noah last week, God describes how Abraham’s father started a journey leaving from their area or the geld is not stopped halfway to land of Israel. And one could say in a positive side that Abraham’s father started the journey, but Abraham now completes it, because at the beginning of this portion, God calls Abraham and since Lech, Lecha go for it from the place that you know. So everything you know and go through a place you do not know that I will send you, and then I will of you a great nation and you will have a covenant of experience. Now, one of the questions is why Abraham.
We, of course know he is the first Jew. He began his monotheistic journey and while in great spiritual adviser at all time, but why him? But there is a legend that has thought the Jewish kids in Sunday school, it is not in the Bible that the rabbi said, that when Abraham is going up, he figured out that there had to be one guy and his father was an idol maker. He actually crafted stone idols, it his work room and sold them as gods.
And so Abraham wanted to respect his father he knew that was not the right path and so, one his father went out to lunch and said, “Abraham, mind the store.” Abraham then destroyed all the idols, which the Torah says that they can do in those days, but he left the biggest one there and he put a hammer and chisels which Abraham used to destroy the idols in the hands of this big idol. And when his father came back, he said, “What happened to my inventory?” Abraham said, “Well, they were all in a big fight. They were jealous of each other and the biggest one destroyed all the others one.” His father said, “That is ridiculous. You know I have make them on a stone and my worked a little back. They cannot move? They are just stone.” And Abraham said, “Dad, see? God is the true way.” And that is why God merited too thought of Abraham’s merit.
But it was a test. It was one of 10 tests that Abraham faced. That guy said according to the rabbis, God gave Abraham. And that is an issue for us to ponder about the task that we faced in life and the way which we deal with those tasks or whether God always comes out the victor in the test that we faced.
The next major question in the Torah portion is how are they going to convinced Sarah? And imagine that coming to Sarah and say, “Honey, God just talked to me and told me that we have to leave everything. The business and the house and our family, everything we know and go to a place that we do not know.” Well, and then Sarah will say, “Why would we do that?” And once I heard Peter Pitzele, who was a great teacher of literature and of tax. He does cycles drama through the texts.
Post this question and I posted that then to 10th graders and I had all the boys trying to be Abraham and the girls be Sarah. They all try to calm in Sarah, that things will be great there. We will get better job, a bigger house, nicer community and Sarah went budge. But one 10th grade boy, the end of all the others trying said to Sarah, “Honey, I do not really know who does God is and I did not ask for it. But I just feel so overwhelmed by the power of this voice and I know deepest in my heart that this is true message that we are in the brink of a huge journey, the most important journey in history. To bring this guy, the one guy of the universe, unseen and unknowable to the world. We have to take this journey to do that. And this 10th grade girl here in says, “Then I will go.”
Once you give people a spiritual message, a higher level, there is just crash materialism in life, the highest level of self-actualization and existential reason for going. She wanted to go. It took great courage to do that and so, Lech, Lecha stand for of these things about the importance of spiritual journey, about listening to the call of God about the tests that we take, about being faithful to God. And about sometimes you have to take steps that seem a little insecure to take giant steps to make a huge change for us and for the world.
