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And it became the focus of our Yom Kippur Panel Discussion, led by our deep and thoughtful participants, Nathaniel Bergson-Michelson, Stan Mainzer, Heidi Schell, and Zoe Steinberger. (youtube.com/watch?v=FhLMqbk1ZQA, starts at minute 19)
Their inspiring remarks were still ringing in my ears when I began reading the new year’s Torah cycle and began with the Book of Genesis. Although we tend to think of our matriarchs and patriarchs as very different kinds of people from us who lived in very different times and conditions, each year I am reminded how much the themes of Genesis resonate in our times.
When we meet Abraham and Sarah in chapter 12, they are in mid-seventies and mid-sixties, respectively, and they are, one might imagine, envisioning living the rest of their lives in quietly in Mesopotamia. And then in one significant moment, their life is turned upside down. Seemingly without warning, God instructs Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”
A while back a version of this story was told on television, and God’s voice is presented in a most interesting way. The story makes many of us imagine that God speaks to Abram with a booming voice out of the sky, but that is not what was portrayed on the small screen. Instead, God’s voice is portrayed as Abram’s own voice. As Rabbi Levi Meier wrote in Ancient Secrets, “what Abram most certainly heard was an inner voice, something inside of him. And the inner voice is a silent voice.”
This moment, Rabbi Meier explained, is the kind of call where “you hear an inner voice that you feel is a higher voice, a divine voice that tells you to redirect your life in a certain way.” And, of course, most of us simply resist both the voice and the call. It’s too scary, too inconvenient, and too uncertain. Even Moses and Jonah resist the call at first, but not Abram.
And notice that God does not even so much as inform Abram where God is leading him or how long the journey will take. God continues to promise him, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.”
How did Abraham and Sarah summon the courage and the strength to pack up everything they owned and set forth with their nephew Lot, along with all the people they had acquired, and journey into the unknown? Yes, the Torah tells us that God gives them some significant assurances, but the details are quite fuzzy. They don’t know what the tangible rewards will be, and God doesn’t promise that everything will turn out fine.
There is one clear message, though: “you shall be a blessing.” It’s the very fact that Abraham and Sarah do not know how the story is going to end that makes them so special. If they had only looked at what was good for themselves, they wouldn’t have been responding to God’s call in the fullest sense, and they would not have been on their way to becoming a blessing.
“If you follow the call of initiation,” Rabbi Meier teaches, “whatever you do will be a blessing for yourself, for the people around you, for your family, for your country, and for all of humanity. You shall be a blessing.”
Abraham and Sarah had enough faith to trust in God’s guidance and God’s words. When God tells them to “lech l’cha,” to go to a land that God will show them, God is asking them, above all, to have faith, to try something new. Yes, God promises them much in return, but ultimately, they must decide whether they are willing to take a risk.
All change involves some loss, a relinquishing of control, and a feeling of insecurity. In this story, Abram teaches us that this is what it means to be a blessing and models for us some timeless lessons.
First, the first step to becoming the most blessed part of ourselves is when we hear the call and pursue it. Second, becoming a blessing requires making ourselves vulnerable. And third, though the process may well be difficult, even scary, the rewards may be so many that they are beyond measure, like the stars in the sky.
It is a gift that each year we can begin anew and refocus our lives. May we hear the call that summons us to journey into unknown lands. May we rise to wondrous heights. And may we be a blessing.
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