The Nature of Our Calling was published October 14, 2021 in Jewish Exponent.
Parshat Lech-Lecha
Dedicated to All the sacred work of menschwork.org and my father Lester Zevit, Eliezer Shimon b. Shoshana V’Ahron Yosef HaKohen (1938-2020).
“Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, his daughter-in-law Sarai … and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they had come as far as Haran, they settled there … and Terah died in Haran. God said to Abram, Lech lecha (“get yourself up and go” or “go towards your Self”) from where you dwell and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you…and you will be a blessing …” (Genesis 11:31-32, 12:1,2)
While this week’s parsha starts at Bereysheet (Genesis 12), in the Torah scroll there are no chapters and verses, only columns, indentations and a little space between the five books.
Honoring this, one can see from the text above that the idea that Avram wakes up one morning to a unique Divine realization and call to go to Canaan, is a recommitment and reaffirmation of the journey he was on — not a “eureka!” moment. Even the character of Avram’s father, Terah, so textured by midrash and interpretative stories, is more than an idol-maker that Avram challenges and breaks from (Genesis Rabbah, chapter 38).
It is Terah who takes the initiative to leave his ancestral homeland, fueled by the death of his son Haran, and enables the extended family (including Haran’s son Lot, of future fame), to leave painful memories and explore new horizons. Terah dies in a city midway between Ur and Canaan, named after his deceased son, consumed by grief as his son’s name indicates.
Perhaps the Torah narrative is inviting us to look at what we leave behind that in fact goes with us — mourning, grief or trauma that is unaddressed goes where we go. We may even break free physically and yet become immobilized, and even meet our end as Terah did, in the place internally, or in external work or family circumstances that carries the name and burden of the very past we left.
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