Parasha Lech Lecha – Part 1

As with many of the early parahas in the Torah, Lech Lecha is so full of meaning that I could spend an entire year learning about it.

There are two thoughts that stand out for me, so I’ll talk about hose briefly.

First, this parasha contains one of my favourate lines. It’s one that really opened my eyes to the prophetic truth of the Torah. When talking about the book of Genesis, Nachmanides (and may others) use the phrase “The actions of the fathers are assigned to the children.” We could understand this on two levels. On a microcosmic level, we see that what happens to the characters in these early stories will be repeated by their children. But on the macrocosmic level, these stories set up the guidelines for the basic interactions between Jews and non Jews for all of history.

G-d starts the parsha by telling Abraham to "Go from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. (Genesis 12:1) I could talk about that line for pages, but instead I want to talk about what G-d says a few lines later. I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and through you, will be blessed all the families of the earth." (Genesis 12:3) G-d tells Abraham that he and his descendents (the Jews) will be under G-d’s protection. Nations that are good to the Jews will prosper, those who treat them poorly fill falter, and the whole world is going to be changed by the Jews.

Poland was a nothing country. They passed a set of laws that were amazingly good to the Jews. The Jews flocked there and Poland became a major power. Poland then turned on the Jews and look at them now. Same thing with Spain, Germany, Turkey and countless others; you can literally chart the rise and fall of most of histories empires based on how they treated the Jews.

Rabbi Ken Spiro explains: “Part of it, by the way, is not so supernatural, because if you have a group of people living within your country -- an educated, driven, dedicated, loyal, creative, well-connected people -- and you're nice to them and you allow them to participate and contribute in a meaningful way, your country is going to benefit. If you crush those people and expel them, you're going to suffer, because of the economic fallout. But, of course, there's much more going on than just that.”

Next, I want to talk about the personal connection with this parasha.