Parashat 3 - Lech Lecha – Go, you go!

Gen/ Ber 12:1 – 17:2

Blessing for the Torah:

Baruch atah YHVH, Eloheynu, Melech ha-O’lam, asher bachar banu m’kol ha-amim,

v’natan lanu eht Torah-to. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”

(Blessed are you, YHVH, our Elohim , King of the Universe,

you have selected us from among all the peoples,

and have given us your Torah. Blessed are you, YHVH, giver of the Torah. Ameyn.)

Torah Readings:

1. 12:1-13
2. 12:14 – 13:4
3. 13:4-18
4. 14:1-20
5. 14:21 – 15:6
6. 15:7 – 17:6
7. 17:7-23

Maftir: 17:24-27

Haftarah: Isaiah 40:27 – 41:16

Many who are responding to the call of the restoration to the Hebraic roots of our faith realize that a paradigm shift is required. The magnitude of this shift in our way of life and thinking is far greater than what most of us have realized. Many on this journey continue to seek the safety of that which is known; very few seem willing to abandon everything that seems safe and normal to pursue a Messianic dream along a journey that is filled with uncertainty risk and even danger. Those who embark on this “risky” journey are usually willing to lose everything they have to get there. How about you?

This Messianic kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field …. a pearl of great price – Mat 13:44-46

And by the way the losses cannot even begin to compare with the gains!

We are not waiting for the rapture, we are waiting to return to the land of Yisrael. The sages tell us that to live outside the land is like living in idolatry. It is only in “eretz Yisrael” that we will be able to once again begin to fully obey the Torah and walk in the footsteps of our Moshiach.

      The promised blessing in “waiting” is found in the scripture from this week’s haftarah - Yesh/Is 40:29-31 - He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might He increases strength.

Isa 40:30  Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men stumble and fall,

Isa 40:31  but those who wait on יהוה renew their strength, they raise up the wing like eagles, they run and are not weary, they walk and do not faint.

The Hebrew word for “wait” is “kava” and means to be stretched while enduring the tension of waiting.  Those that endure this “stretching and tension” of waiting for the Messianic kingdom to come will know and experience an ever increasing newness and vigour of life. This is the promise of YHVH.

This same Hebrew word for waiting is found in Psa 37:9  For evil-doers are cut off; But those who wait on יהוה, They shall inherit the earth¹. Footnote: ¹See vv. 11, 22, 29 & 34, Mt. 5:5.

Hence the title of this parasha “lech, lecha!” Go – you go! We see this is the pattern of our fathers, may we be granted the favour to follow in their footsteps.

Background History.

The book of  Yasher from chapter 11 onwards records a very interesting history about Avram. (This book  Yasher is mentioned in Josh 10:13 and 2 Sam 1:18)

The Book of Jasher, however, as well as some other Midrash literature, speaks about Terach (Avram’s father) being a general in King Nimrod’s army when Avram was born. Because of an astrological omen, Nimrod decided to kill all new born children in his kingdom, since he was afraid that a new king had been born that would oust him from his throne. Terach gave Nimrod a newborn child of one of his maidservants and said that it was Avram. By this ruse, Avram was able to survive the first attack on his life and was hidden in a cave for 13 years. This was the first of the ten great trials that our forefather was exposed to.  

The second test that the Midrash literatures tell us about was when Avram refused to worship his father Terach’s mighty ones (gods) of wood and stone. He also challenged King Nimrod’s idolatry and was therefore imprisoned for 10 years and afterward thrown into a burning oven together with his brother Haran. YHVH delivered him from the test by a miracle, but his brother was consumed by the flames. 

Because of all this Terach decided to leave Ur; in order to have peace in the family. He had planned to travel all the way to the land of Kana’an. He never succeeded in reaching it, but stopped halfway, in Charan, which is in the southeast part of what is known today as Turkey.

Aliyah Rishon 12:1-13

Gen 12:1  And יהוה said to Aḇram, “Go yourself out of your land, from your relatives and from your father’s house, to a land which I show you.

“Lech lecha” –could also mean:  go, you go; go for your own sake; and go to/for yourself, toward your true self. These are the first recorded words spoken to Abram.