Rabbi's Message

As we continue to process the results of the election, I want to acknowledge the emotions that we are all feeling after months of divisive campaigning and these nerve-racking last few days.  We knew that the election results would disappoint some and satisfy others.  As Rabbi David Wolpe remarked after the election, “Resilience is the quality required when the world does not go as you wish, and graciousness the quality required when it does.”  It is holding on to traits like these that will allow us to move forward as individuals and as a nation.  

Speaking of moving forward, our Torah portion this week, Lekh Lekha, seems made for this moment.  God’s call to Abraham to go out from his home and found a new people marks a moment of transition, similar to what we are experiencing now.  What has always fascinated me most about God’s call to Abraham is that, though God tells Abraham to go, God doesn’t tell him where to go.  El Haaretz asher areka, says the text, “to a land that I will show you.”  We know that this will be the land of Israel, but God doesn’t say that here.  Why not?   The 20th-century Israeli Rabbi Yehudah Henkin had a unique take on this verse.  He thought that it wasn’t that God didn’t tell Abraham where he was going, rather God wanted Abraham to learn to see the land through God’s eyes.  God wanted to help Abraham see the land as God sees it.  To see the land not only for what it is but also for what it could be.  God’s eternal vision has a perspective that is hard for us as human beings to grasp, so God had to show it to Abraham. And perhaps it was by giving Abraham this perspective that he was able to overcome the many trials he encountered on his journey.  

We also encounter challenges on the way.  And what helps us to confront and move through them is also what helped Abraham on his journey.  His family, his faith, and an ability to see the world through God’s eyes.  This perspective is one of history and of values that ought to guide all of us throughout our journeys.  The truth is that, despite what the pundits say, we do not know what exactly will happen, for better or for worse.  We know the world is unpredictable, in its pain and in its beauty.  So we still move forward, asher areka, towards an unknown future, where we do our best, like Abraham, to be a blessing for ourselves, our community, and our world.