Lekh Lekha

Sefat Emet in Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis p 88
Go to the Land that I shall show you- where I shall make you visible, where your potential being will be realized in multiform and unpredictable ways

Abraham and Sarah heeded the call lekh-lekha (go forth) and embarked on the inward journey towards self-awareness. Every one of us can take the spiritual journey. If we are willing to leave behind limited and habitual conceptions of ourselves, we will discover that we indeed are expressions of infinite life, which animates us and flows through us, the breath of life that is the sound of the letter ה hei. We each have a unique and irreplaceable contribution to make, each of us an emanation of Life Unfolding.

Professor Eitan Fishbane, JTS expanding on Sfat Emet's commentary.
"Artzecha ארצך is interpreted to mean the word artziut...meaning your earthiness, your landedness. Your 'stuckness' in superficiality and mundane concerns and consciousness. This is the struggle of being human.
How do we see beyond our own narrowness of vision? Artzecha means with your whole-heart"

The Chassidic Masters
"From your land" -- from your will (eretz, the Hebrew word for land, is etymologically related to the word ratzon--will). "From your birthplace" -- from your emotional and behavioral self (which is the product of a person's environment). "From your father's house" -- from your intellect (In the terminology of Kabbalah, the intellect is referred to as the father within man, since it is the progenitor of and authority over his feelings and behavior patterns).

Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn
The first is a call to go out and leave the familiar – his family, his comfort zone, and his sense of stability. This is in order to leave behind whatever may hold him back and face the unknown potential and blessings that can come from following God’s path. As the commentator Or HaChayim teaches, “lecha” refers to the call to go to our best self, or as the Zohar says, it’s the challenge to get to know and fix ourselves. The second “lech lecha” is a call to sacrifice, to turn everything, even his child’s life, over to God. It’s a test of faith against instinct, a leap into the unknown, even into terror.
What’s the common thread? Both instances of “lech lecha” require that Avraham proactively face whatever comes next and make something meaningful out of it, even if he must transcend himself and his circumstances.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Abraham, at the start of his mission, was told to leave “his land, his birthplace and his father’s house,” to free himself from the pressure to conform. Leaders must be prepared not to follow the consensus. One of the great writers on leadership, Warren Bennis, writes: “By the time we reach puberty, the world has shaped us to a greater extent than we realise. Our family, friends, and society in general have told us – by word and example – how to be. But people begin to become leaders at that moment when they decide for themselves how to be.”

Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar
I wonder what Abram heard. We know what God said, lech l’cha, you go. But what did he hear? Did he hear words, phrases, fragments of words like the whisper that sometimes comes to you when you are quiet enough to pay attention. Or perhaps it was like a tug in your heart, a sensation, an invitation to take a step, one step away. Or maybe he had a dream that was so real that he woke with a start and knew what he had to do. There was no hesitation, no conversation, no wavering. Abram said nothing, asked nothing. With clarity and faith, he was compelled into motion.
Abram was called -- called upon to leave all that he knew, to discover a new way of being in the world, to evolve into a leader, a visionary a man who hears the will of God and aligns himself with the Creator. The 19th-century Chassidic master and biblical commentator Sfat Emet imagines that God’s call to Abram was a call toward greater and consequential purpose: Now surely [each] person was created for a particular purpose. There must be something we are set to right. We are all called to live in alignment with our life’s purpose. This is at once comforting and confounding. We want what Abram was promised, a life that is abundant with blessing. We are all called into being. There is a myriad of possibilities to self-actualize, to discover our purpose, to have a meaningful life, to impact our world, making it safer and more compassionate.

• Has there been a moment in your life that felt like you were being called to journey? How (if at all) does the idea of the journey resonate with your current experience?
• What (if anything) prompted your journey?
• What did/do you need to leave behind to go on the journey? What do you take with you?
• What did you discover / are you discovering?
• What does it mean to you that Judaism began with a call to journey?

Abraham, at the start of his mission, was told to leave “his land, his birthplace and his father’s house,” to free himself from the pressure to conform. Leaders must be prepared not to follow the consensus. One of the great writers on leadership, Warren Bennis, writes: “By the time we reach puberty, the world has shaped us to a greater extent than we realise. Our family, friends, and society in general have told us – by word and example – how to be. But people begin to become leaders at that moment when they decide for themselves how to be.” - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks