Genesis Cycle Three Lech Lecha 12:1 to 17:27

Lech lecha


In Lech Lecha (13:3) we read that Abraham continues on his journeys, spelled l’massa’v. What does this mean?

We travel every day. Each action of our body is a journey. Think of all that must happen in our brain cells just to open an eye. Sometimes we take small trips, to work, to school. Some of us fly across the ocean, drive to the next town, raft on rivers, back pack, hitchhike. We celebrate the journey. Think of Kerouac’s On the Road. Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley. Conrad’s Lord Jim. North. South. East. West. Think of our own forty years of wandering. Such journeys resonate through time, stay with us. Our sages say that dreams are journeys. Day dreams. Night dreams. Thoughts. Prayers. Visions. We are nomadic. Journeys bring healing and connection. And for this we crave.

The plural form (of l’massa’v) emphasizes that there are steps. Some are smooth. Some have bumps. We learn to integrate the bumps. When we miss the connection we don’t turn around and go home. We make reservations on the next flight. When our prayers seem to fall flat we don’t stop praying. We pray even deeper. The journey of life does not necessitate death (or going home) at every hurdle. As we chant every morning (in the Amidah) m’chayay hamatim. God brings life to the dead. He moves us through even the most terrifying circumstances.

A relationship is a journey. In a healthy one, when there’s a conflict we don’t threaten or moan and groan or disparage our partner. We problem-solve. We integrate the conflict. I can’t imagine Abraham divorcing Sarah for being infertile. Or going back to Haran because of drought or war. I can’t see him saying…this is too hard. Forget this. I’m finished. This is because Abraham realizes early on that he is a driving force for God. It is his responsibility to take step after step…to rise rung after rung…to a place of loving-kindness and knowing so he can satisfy his divine work here on earth. He will arrive home…no doubt…but the way is through return and therefore complete submission to the heightened force.

Looking closely at Abraham he is not described as is Noach. He is not a righteous man for his generation. According to our sages, this poses a question. Why is Abraham not being introduced with some praise (however questionable)? My opinion is that if he was already at a place of even partial knowing he would have a shorter path to travel. There wouldn’t be room for our many human imperfections. If Abraham can keep moving forward and keep transforming, step after step, the message is, so can we.

So then, as I’ve already inferred this parsha has to be about more than a man dressed in mid-east garb wandering through a desert with camels and all the souls they had made. More than droughts and strange wars and ancient kings who keep taking our wives.

The rabbis of the Zohar say this: Abraham rises rung after rung. And through contemplating the rungs, you contemplate the levels of soul and therefore the mystery of the divine (Matt, 32).

So here’s the first rung. YHWH had appeared to him (Gen 12:7). This is the level of Shekhinah where one grasps onto spiritual ascent. Then, after moving on to the mountains east of Bethel and setting up tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east, he builds an altar (cleaves to the Shekhinah) and heads south. Then he continually journeyed towards the Negev (south) until he was crowned with the south, his allotted share. This is how Abraham arrives at Chesed (loving-kindness) the beginning of the concealed realm. It happens rung after rung. And it doesn’t stop there. Abraham ascends up to Binah and to Ein Sof (Matt, 35) and then he descends from above to below…to the Shekhina…to the site of the altar that he had made there at first (13:4).

Therefore, the whole journey, rung after rung, is the process by which Abraham raises the Shekhina from below to above. She does not depart from the rungs and all unite (Zohar, Lech Lecha 1:84a)

Sometimes, when our carry-on bag almost fits into tight over-head quarters…when our lover is not listening…when the ferry has been cancelled because of foul weather…it may help to remember that we are in the process of raising the Shekhina. Sometimes, when our dreams are mocked, our goals belittled, our visions challenged by egos wearing the masks of kings…it may help to remember that this is our true journey and we are raising the Shekhina.

So may we remember. And may we rejoice in our oneness and our work and celebrate our journeys in this moment and always. Rung after rung. Step after step in the concealed and revealed radiance of YHWH.