Lech Lecha 2007
Rabbi Tziona Szajman
The book of genesis is the story of our encounter with God, from
creation; to Noah to Abraham… our inheritance is an intimate
connection to God in direct communication, and signs around us.
Lech Lecha, Go to a land that I will show you and I will make of you a
great nation. Just as visible as Noah’s rainbow, the land of
Israel, the people of Israel, are sings of our covenant with God.
A famous midrash on today’s parasha tells the story of Avram as a young
boy, working in his father’s idol shop. He is disturbed to see
the poor bringing their meager food as offerings to the idols. He
realizes that the idols don’t eat, they don’t answer prayers, they are
empty shells and in anger destroys all the idols but one. In this
last idol’s arms he places the weapon of destruction and tells his
father it was the idol that smashed up the store. When his father
doesn’t believe him, he responds: then why do you worship them?
The scene is completed, an explanation for Abraham’s willingness to
accept an unseeable, all-powerful God.
Our heritage is a belief in God, the one God, who is unseen except in
creations left to us. A God unseen and unheard is much harder to
hold onto than an idol… It is more challenging to put one’s
belief in God, rather than in money, superstars, politicians,
power… all today’s idols. And yet here we are, in this
synagogue today, putting our belief in God, in the God of our
ancestors, the God of our children. We use the liturgy of our
ancestors, the language of our ancestors, as will our children…
My most spiritual prayer experiences have been outside the synagogue,
in open wilderness, on hilltops, under trees. Having the evidence
of God’s creation and beauty around me enhance the traditional
prayers. As a rabbinical student I struggled to pray in the
walled confines of the synagogue. My teacher, Rabbi William
Lebeau said something to me that stays with me until today: “Know
before whom you stand”. As I take my three steps forward to
approach God in my amida, I remember that I stand before God, humbled
by God’s creation and spirit.
Abraham Joshua Heschel, great Conservative rabbi and teacher said: “The
act of prayer is more than a process of the mind and a movement of the
lips. What marks the act of prayer is the decision to enter and
face the presence of God. To expose oneself to God. (Man’s
Quest for God, p. 61) Prayer is about a sense of awe and wonder,
a sense of the ineffable. Modeh ani l’fanecha, a morning prayer
thanking God for a new day, thanking God for continued life, not just
my own, but of the world of plants and creatures around me.
Heschel saw God as Creator and Sustainer, as Life-Supporter and as Guide.
With prayer and mitzvoth we have the ability to become prophets, to
live with the voice of God within us. With prayer we open
ourselves to God, with mitzvot we carry God out of the synagogue into
the world with us. Heschel took God with him into civil rights
activism, into teaching, into tikkun olam. God is visible when we
raise our prophetic voices, when we stand up for the orphan, the widow,
the stranger. Prayer is the beginning of the journey when we
allow God’s presence to enter us, guide us, support us.
In Lech Lecha, Abraham begins a journey. It is a journey we
inherit today, a journey of becoming. Prayer can be
transformative, if we remember before whom we stand. God can be
our motivation, our destination, and our companion all at once.
Like Abraham, we have only to let go of the comfort of our physical
idols, and grasp on to the ineffable, God’s holiness.
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