Parsha Lekh L’kha – Go Forth! – The beginning of G~d in Search of Man

God in Search of Man! What kind of joke is this! Like G~d the Almighty can not find Man. He is all powerful you know, so how could He lose us? I give credit to the concept to Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, may he be remembered in peace, who wrote God in Search of Man, A Philosophy of Judaism in 1955.

G~d made us with free will, free choice, and of course we needed something to choose between, that is Good and Bad. Unfortunately we, that is mankind, chooses Bad very often, because of the quick and enticing rewards. We so often ignore the long term benefits of Good, because the results are somewhere in the future, delayed gratification as some call it. Every time we choose the Bad, it removes us further from the Good, and consequentially further from the Source of the Good, that is the One, Almighty G~d, Creator, Lord, King of the Universe, may His Name be Blessed Continually.

Thus we are lost from G~d because we choose to be in our own world of those self centered, Bad decisions. And as we are free agents of free choice, G~d has limited His right to interfere (at least too much, and when not asked to interfere). So how is G~d to find us, that is to connect with our daily lives in His Good ways?

That story begins right here in the Torah Parsha Lekh L’kha, with a man named Abram. Being the son of an idol maker, he must have been in the thick of the god business of his day. Likely a good businessman, artist, artisan, and merchant, he was probably a seer and priest of some sort as well. Imagine growing up in a family environment where people were coming to buy your idols all day, and some would ask if you had any special insights for them, that is are you a seer. Others might ask if you could make some special request from the gods these idols represent. You must be closer to the gods than regular people as you make the idols, thus you must be a priest, and intercessor between man and the gods. What a head trip to live in such a family.

Then the real G~d speaks “Lekh L’kha” go forth, leave your family, cross the Tigress and Euphrates rivers, and go to a new land! Must have been a hard decision. And Abram had the faith to obey and DO IT! at 75 years old. G~d was looking for a man who would listen to His voice, trust, and obey. This is the beginning of a story thousands of years long, with a series of people willing to listen to His voice, trust, and obey.

 

Here are some study notes:

Parsha Lekh L’kha 5771.doc
Parsha Lekh L’kha 5771.pdf