Lech lecha ~ the journey of a soul

~ How do you explain the opening of what God tells Avram, "lech lecha"? Why say it like this, and not just the simple "lech", "go"?

בראשית י״ב:א׳-ג׳

(א) וַיֹּ֤אמֶר ה׳ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ׃(ב) וְאֶֽעֶשְׂךָ֙ לְג֣וֹי גָּד֔וֹל וַאֲבָ֣רֶכְךָ֔ וַאֲגַדְּלָ֖ה שְׁמֶ֑ךָ וֶהְיֵ֖ה בְּרָכָֽה׃

Genesis 12:1-3

(1) The LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.(2) I will make of you a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing.

תהילים נ״ו:י״ד

כִּ֤י הִצַּ֪לְתָּ נַפְשִׁ֡י מִמָּוֶת֮ הֲלֹ֥א רַגְלַ֗י מִ֫דֶּ֥חִי לְ֭הִֽתְהַלֵּךְ לִפְנֵ֣י אֱלֹקִ֑ים בְּ֝א֗וֹר הַֽחַיִּֽים׃

Psalms 56:14

For You have saved my soul from death, my foot from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

Note that the verse in Psalms has the idea of a soul walking. I want to remind us that death, here, is not necessarily the opposite of life: there are many people who can walk on earth and are already dead. 

As Reb Zalman Schachter Shalomi once wrote: “To be granted an extended life span is very beautiful, but if you don’t have extended learning, you’re just dying longer, not living longer”.

So let's revisit this idea: that one of the possibilities for understanding of this text is the path of a soul. How does a soul come into the world? What are we, each of us, here to do?

If Avram is the archetype of the voyage of a soul of Israel, our souls descend to this world so as to better ourselves. Each of our individual trips is different, we each have something else to work on. But the path, says Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, is the same: there is a cycle - we are either going from low to high, after coming from high to low.

Our souls, being created in the upper realms, come down to this world, to grow and receive more and more awareness. For Judaism, our souls are a composite of five different levels: nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah and yechidah. Each of those levels are indicative of a level of awareness, or spiritual maturity. All humans that are born and live, get, in a smaller or larger degree, the three first levels. The last two have to do with internal work, with living with the awareness of our connection to all humans and to all living things. 

And to get to work on those levels, which are higher, we must be here, in contact with other humans and other living things, aware and connected to their sufferings, mysteries and greatness.

In Avram's case he comes from Ur Kasdim, from his father's house, from a place of idolatry - just as the haggadah reminds us, our story begins from g'nut, from disgrace, and ends in shevach, in praise.

Avram, it should be noted, does not begin the process of the trip by himself. The trip, the journey, is actually started by his father. It is by continuing the travel of an idolater that Avram gets to be called by God.

בראשית י״א:כ״ו-ל״ב

(כו) וַֽיְחִי־תֶ֖רַח שִׁבְעִ֣ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֙וֹלֶד֙ אֶת־אַבְרָ֔ם אֶת־נָח֖וֹר וְאֶת־הָרָֽן׃(כז) וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙ תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת תֶּ֔רַח תֶּ֚רַח הוֹלִ֣יד אֶת־אַבְרָ֔ם אֶת־נָח֖וֹר וְאֶת־הָרָ֑ן וְהָרָ֖ן הוֹלִ֥יד אֶת־לֽוֹט׃(כח) וַיָּ֣מָת הָרָ֔ן עַל־פְּנֵ֖י תֶּ֣רַח אָבִ֑יו בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מוֹלַדְתּ֖וֹ בְּא֥וּר כַּשְׂדִּֽים׃(כט) וַיִּקַּ֨ח אַבְרָ֧ם וְנָח֛וֹר לָהֶ֖ם נָשִׁ֑ים שֵׁ֤ם אֵֽשֶׁת־אַבְרָם֙ שָׂרָ֔י וְשֵׁ֤ם אֵֽשֶׁת־נָחוֹר֙ מִלְכָּ֔ה בַּת־הָרָ֥ן אֲבִֽי־מִלְכָּ֖ה וַֽאֲבִ֥י יִסְכָּֽה׃(ל) וַתְּהִ֥י שָׂרַ֖י עֲקָרָ֑ה אֵ֥ין לָ֖הּ וָלָֽד׃(לא) וַיִּקַּ֨ח תֶּ֜רַח אֶת־אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֗וֹ וְאֶת־ל֤וֹט בֶּן־הָרָן֙ בֶּן־בְּנ֔וֹ וְאֵת֙ שָׂרַ֣י כַּלָּת֔וֹ אֵ֖שֶׁת אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֑וֹ וַיֵּצְא֨וּ אִתָּ֜ם מֵא֣וּר כַּשְׂדִּ֗ים לָלֶ֙כֶת֙ אַ֣רְצָה כְּנַ֔עַן וַיָּבֹ֥אוּ עַד־חָרָ֖ן וַיֵּ֥שְׁבוּ שָֽׁם׃(לב) וַיִּהְי֣וּ יְמֵי־תֶ֔רַח חָמֵ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים וּמָאתַ֣יִם שָׁנָ֑ה וַיָּ֥מָת תֶּ֖רַח בְּחָרָֽן׃ (ס)

Genesis 11:26-32

(26) When Terah had lived 70 years, he begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.(27) Now this is the line of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot.(28) Haran died in the lifetime of his father Terah, in his native land, Ur of the Chaldeans.(29) Abram and Nahor took to themselves wives, the name of Abram’s wife being Sarai and that of Nahor’s wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah.(30) Now Sarai was barren, she had no child.(31) Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, 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.(32) The days of Terah came to 205 years; and Terah died in Haran.

Now a big deal is made with the comparison between Noach and Avram. Which one was better? Really, we will never know. The dispute is old as the Torah itself, since the stories are linked by the very same verb, hithalech, translated as walk but really meaning walk yourself. It is the reflexive action of the root hey lamed chaf. The two stories are further connected by the word "tamim", blameless. But what if the stories are here to teach us different lessons regarding the pathways and doings of a soul? Then none need to be better than the other, they are merely complementing each other.

בראשית ו׳:ט׳

אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת נֹ֔חַ נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו אֶת־הָֽאֱלֹקִ֖ים הִֽתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹֽחַ׃

Genesis 6:9

This is the line of Noah.—Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; Noah walked with God.—

בראשית י״ז:א׳

וַיְהִ֣י אַבְרָ֔ם בֶּן־תִּשְׁעִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְתֵ֣שַׁע שָׁנִ֑ים וַיֵּרָ֨א ה׳ אֶל־אַבְרָ֗ם וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֵלָיו֙ אֲנִי־אֵ֣ל שַׁדַּ֔י הִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ לְפָנַ֖י וֶהְיֵ֥ה תָמִֽים׃

Genesis 17:1

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Walk in My ways and be blameless.

Noach begins blameless, and ends disgraced in his tent, cursing his own child and grandchild. Can a soul come to this world and debase itself, forget its connectedness with the presence of God? Can the pain of coming down to this world become anger and rage? Can the brokenness and destruction in the world enter own very hearts and make us blame everything and everyone, cursing our way through life? Sure.

Avram begins walking, and then receives the command to be blameless. Avram will only speak up when the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are in the brink of destruction. Avram fights for Lot, ties up his very son for an almost sacrifice, but never speaks up about those moments. Noach never ever speaks up - it is only when he curses his grandson to get to his son that he actually speaks.

So maybe Noach is a soul that stays in the first three levels, and feels no connection to people. This is why, says Menacham Mendel, that the ark has three levels. But imagine that the story of Noach wants to teach us something about raising our own souls. Imagine, for a moment, that the teivah, the ark, the boat, is a symbol for our own souls, our own words, our own prayers.

בראשית ז׳:י״ח

(יח) וַיִּגְבְּר֥וּ הַמַּ֛יִם וַיִּרְבּ֥וּ מְאֹ֖ד עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וַתֵּ֥לֶךְ הַתֵּבָ֖ה עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃

Genesis 7:18

(18) The waters swelled and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark walked upon the waters.

It is the very destruction caused by the waters that raises the ark, and makes it "walk". In that sense, we can only experience hope if we experience chaos and destruction. We can only raise ourselves higher if we are seeing those who are bent into pulling everything to the lowest common denominator, and we resist that, and we go high precisely because we see others going low.

Now, what about us?

This moment of the year is supposed to signify the culmination, the reaping of everything we experienced in the past two months. The beginning of the work of teshuvah, of return, that is done on the last month of the Jewish year, Elul, passing to the highs of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and the slow descent to regular, common life, of after Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.

The work of those last holidays are very much physical: we build a sukkah, in which we shake the four species, we dance with the Torah. It is all physical to counterbalance, in a way, the very intellectual and spiritual experience of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. We begin our decent to the walk of the rest of the year. That walk is symbolized by the next verse:

בראשית ל״ב:ב׳

וְיַעֲקֹ֖ב הָלַ֣ךְ לְדַרְכּ֑וֹ וַיִּפְגְּעוּ־ב֖וֹ מַלְאֲכֵ֥י אֱלֹקִֽים׃

Genesis 32:2

Jacob went on his way, and angels of God encountered him.

It is at this moment that Yaakov realizes how much he has been blessed. He is at the very stage when, after leaving Lavan's house, he has enough to separate the family into two camps, to save some in case Esau attacks. It is at this moment that he says one of the most beautiful prayers: I feel small, katonti, faced with all the blessings You, oh God, have given me.

At this point our souls, too, are called to bless our abundance. All that we take for granted. All that we worked for. All that we received.

Because in six months we begin our ascent again, by revisiting the collective birth of our people at Passover.

May we encounter the courage to name our blessings as we go into our ways, inspired by Avram and Sarai, and by Noach, and later by Yaakov. Shabbat Shalom.