Lech Lecha: Just Do It

This week's parsha opens with Gd telling Avram: Go! Leave your past behind. Leave your (aged) parents. Leave (the customs of) the country of your birth. Start anew! 

Avram is told to re-invent himself. Adolescence means transitioning into adulthood, it is a metamorphosis from the pupal stage  Avram’s adventure is his  maturation.  He will not be an heir, he will be a founder.  Avam must break away from the shackles of the past to become the best possible Avram, he must become  Abraham. The story alerts parents of the necessity of this process.  In the most traditional homes, the warning leads to guarding against its occurrence.

Rashi comments on the lecha, for you:

לַהֲנָאָתְךָ וּלְטוֹבָתְךָ

 for your own benefit, for your own good

Rashi sees the developmental aspect. Avram will derive a subjective benefit, a hanaah, from the leaving and (blindly) following Gd’s command. He will personally improve and grow. The action will be transforming.

Avram will also benefit from this in a manner that is conspicuous. He will become a great nation. This development devolves from an interaction of the person Avram had become up until this time; the bravery and experiential learning he will have by setting out on his own; and the Divine decision that chose him. All of these aspects are related, but each has a degree of independence.

The continuation of this Rashi could reflect the  next verse.

The verse says:

וְאֶֽעֶשְׂךָ֙ לְג֣וֹי גָּד֔וֹל    I will make of you a great nation 

Rashi continues:

שָׁם אֶעֶשְׂךָ לְגוֹי גָדוֹל   there I will make of you a great nation

The verse says

וַאֲבָ֣רֶכְךָ֔    And I will bless you;

Rashi says:

כָּאן אִי אַתָּה זוֹכֶה לְבָנִים    here you will not merit the privilege of having children

Rashi may be going back to fundamental understanding of the word   ברך   Baruch. It means “bending” and the common usage means bowing in submission and gratitude , which we translate as “bless” But the agricultural meaning is the planting of a branch of a tree, from which another tree grows.  It is an act of reproduction.

The verse continues:

אֲגַדְּלָ֖ה שְׁמֶ֑ךָ    I will make your name great,

Rashi says:

וְעוֹד שֶׁאוֹדִיעַ טִבְעֲךָ בָּעוֹלָם  Furthermore, I shall make known your character throughout the world

In the verse,  שְׁמֶ֑ךָ, shimecha, could be translated as your name, or, your reputation. Your coin, טִבְעֲךָ

I find it interesting that Rashi puts  לַהֲנָאָתְךָ , lehanosecha, for your personal benefit - which I understand as your personal growth - before וּלְטוֹבָתְךָ. Uletovasecha,  your good, which I understand to mean the list of  gains.   The personal improvement is needed to acquire the great nation status, and perhaps, the family.  

Avram was not a teenager when he started this adventure. He was 75 years old. I, at 74, find this a great encouragement. Life changes after physical maturity can be productive and impactful. Despite the common belief that older people become irrelevant, some of their  actions can change the world. And I keep writing these essays.

Abraham is told to go to a new land. They invade an inhabited district. From the perspective of a citizen in a prosperous land, this is a crime. This is, at least, illegal immigration - and possibly an attack. The state has an obligation to defend against such an action. Build a wall. Call out ICE

The(illegal) immigrants’ perspective is desperation. I am   viscerally familiar with the odyssey of my parents’ generation. They were disenfranchised by Poland, the land of their birth, the land that their ancestors had inhabited for generations.  They were left to persecution by their enemies, both foreign and domestic. There is no doubt about the life and death stakes, since their kin were decimated by murders that were justified purely based on their affiliation with Abraham and Sarah. Trying to escape, even if the odds of dying in the attempt were overwhelming, was the nobler alternative. Can these people be blamed for creating a state to protect them and their seed from a continuation of this effort at extermination? 

When Gd told Abram to go forth, Gd was establishing Abraham and his offspring, as foreign invaders. This status has never left the Jew, in all the lands of the dispersion. To some, this alien status follows the Jew into Israel, into Tel Aviv. It comes from the Bible.

The dream of the Promised contributed to maintaining the alien status of the Jew. Even when travel to Palestine was impossible, knowledge of Gd’s promise to Abraham was a justification for a claim of dual loyalty and disenfranchisement.

In the parsha, Avram defeats the most powerful expeditionary force in the world to save his nephew. He has liberated the area that will become the land of Lot’s descendants from the Empire and Avram  could have claimed title. He does not. Israel, Abraham's descendants, are  told to respect the territory of Ammon and Moab.

In our world, every space has been conquered, often many times by several tribes. The invader label, the immigrant designation is a populist convenience.