The Eternal As Our Compass
A D’var Torah for Lekha
By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman

The Eternal As Our Compass

A D’var Torah for Parashat Lekh Lekha

By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman (AJR ’11)

Perhaps you are familiar with the opening phrase of this week’s Torah portion in which God speaks to Avram and tells him “Lekh Lekha-Go Forth, and leave your native land and your father’s house.” Much ink has been spilled exploring the meaning of these opening words; the command to leave behind all that is familiar. But this week, I want to focus on Avram’s destination. There is an interesting lack of clarity as to where exactly he, and by extension, we are meant to go.

The complete opening verse states: And the Eternal said to Avram, Go forth from your native land, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” (Gen. 12:1)  And thus, the story of the founding of the Jewish people begins with a command to journey to an unknown place. With no exact coordinates, Avram must access both the quality of trust and the power of his imagination. He is asked to journey into the unknown with God as his compass.

The Torah seems insistent on not revealing the destination point but repeats this vague language throughout the Israelites’ wilderness wanderings. Just after receiving the ten commandments at Sinai, the Eternal tells Moses “”  (Make for me an altar of earth…in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned, I will come to you and bless you. (Ex. 20:21) The locations of such places are unnamed. God will apparently select them in the future. How we might establish such a “home for God’s name” is revealed through the many mitzvot which are detailed in the Torah. These human actions pave the way for a new society; one in which the impoverished, the widow, the orphan and the stranger are both loved and cared for.

Notably, the exact location where a new society is to be established is repeatedly veiled in mysterious language. More specifically, in Deuteronomy, when referring to the site of a future house of worship the Torah refers to this place as, “…the place where the Eternal your God will choose to establish the Divine Name…” (Deut. 12:11). In fact, as the Israelites come ever so close to entering the Promised Land, the Torah uses the phrase, “the place that God will choose- המקום אשר יבחר” no fewer than twenty one times.

Later in Deuteronomy, the specific boundaries of the Promised Land are in fact given, but I am suggesting that the great emphasis on an unknown location (that God will choose at some future time) places the focus of the brit (the covenant between God and the Jewish people) not on a relationship to a specific piece of land, but rather, on the relationship between the Eternal and the people, whereby the people carry the responsibility to establish a society guided by tzedek u’mishpat– justice and righteousness within The Land. (See Gen. 18:19)

And although the coordinates of the Promised Land are mentioned in Deuteronomy, what becomes evident is that this land is promised only on condition that the Israelites follow God’s laws. Its coordinates are chosen by the Eternal One, as are its occupants and the length of their sojourn. To bring the point home, we read in Leviticus 18:28 the following verse: If you make the land unclean, (engage in immoral acts) it will vomit you out too, just as it is vomiting out the nation that was there before you.

We have lived through two harrowing years of terror, war and destruction in the Land that the Eternal chose. The pain, suffering and loss for all, have been catastrophic. There is no going back. The resulting destruction, suffering and grief create huge questions, anxieties and choices. How can we possibly repair, heal and build a peaceful and just society for all?

At minimum, we might find a useful approach to these challenges in this week’s Torah portion. The Eternal demands a new path forward – Lekh Lekha. This situation is calling for a journey of both imagination and trust, toward an unknown destination. Both of these qualities, imagination and trust, are critical for healing and rebuilding to be accomplished.

In an interview in 1929 Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination encircles the world.” The power of imagination allows for the flourishing of progress toward noble goals. Imagination moves us from what is to what is possible and, if grounded in love, moves us to what is just and right.

Imagination offers us a glimpse of an exalted reality while trust provides us with the emotional stability to pursue a new path toward an unknown destination; a destination that lives in the imagination of God.

Indeed, our Torah herself lays out a beautiful vision in which love for our neighbor and love for the stranger guides our behavior. (Lev. 19:18, Lev. 19:34, Ex. 22:20, Deut. 10:19) So, let us move forward, Lekh Lekha, with the Eternal as our compass, with Love as our roadmap, with the trust of Avraham and the imagination of our prophets to envision a future in which all may live unafraid and secure under their vine and fig tree. (Micah 4:4)