Recently a congregant approached me. He had been asked to give a talk at his wife’s church on his faith journey and he was perplexed. “Jews don’t have faith journeys,” he told me.

We met for lunch and I helped him prepare his speech. I love this kind of thing. It is one of the best parts of my job. Helping people understand that they are on a journey.

We are talking about this this morning because we are about to read about Abraham. Abraham was on a journey.

“Now the Lord said to Avram: “Go. Go forth. Get out of your country and from the land of your birth and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great and you will be a blessing. And I will bless those that bless you and I will curse those that curse you. All through you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

It seems to start in the middle of the story. Who is this Abraham? Where did he come from? Why him? Why now? Those are questions worth thinking about.

Abraham is a universal figure, sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims. I still love Bruce Feiler’s book, Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths. And a new one to me, referenced on the High Holidays, and loaned to me by a congregant, But where is the lamb, about another journey Abraham was on later. I encourage all of you to read that one.

Abraham is not a perfect figure, none of us are. Twice he goes down to Egypt. Twice he pretends that Sarah is his sister, not his wife, putting her at risk. We read one of those incidents today. His relationship with Hagar is, shall we say, interesting. And then there is his relationship with his sons, one he sends out in the desert with only a days worth of bread and water. One he takes to the top of a mountain and almost sacrifices. It is all part of his journey.

Nonetheless, he gave birth to something greater than he. He was the first person to recognize that there is only one G-d. In every middle school history book in America, we learn that Abraham is the father of monotheism. Most Jewish kids hearts’ swell with pride.

The start of that journey wasn’t easy. Let’s look at those three phrases:

Lech lecha. Go forth. Leave. Go to yourself. Perhaps the first “find yourself moment”.
Me’artzecha, From your land, your country.
Me’modeleta, from the place of your birth.
Me beit avicha, from the house of your father. From your family. From everything you know.

Concentric circles. Think about that for you personally. Leave everything you know behind. What would you need to leave behind? In increasingly difficult circles.

This journey is actually backwards from a normal journey. Usually first you leave your house, then your city, then your country. It is hardest to leave your own family. It is one of the Erik Erikson stages of psychological development. You have to be able to differentiate from your parents. You have to become independent.

To a land that I will show you. Yep. You don’t even know where you are going. You’ll know it when you get there. How does he even pack for this kind of jounrey? This is not quite like leaving for college—although that has some of these elements. This is a deeper leaving. A deeper person. Abraham is becoming “self actualized..” This then is the deeper meaning of the words “your land, your birthplace, your father’s house.”

But we can go still deeper. We can dig the wells of the words of Torah still deeper. We learn from the Chassidic commentators that Eretz, the Hebrew word for land, is related to the Hebrew word, ratzon, will and desire. So this is about leaving your natural desires and rising above them. Your birthplace, moledtecha, is about leaving home and the security. Beit Avicha, your father’s house is about being a mature person with transcendent intellect. In the Kabbalah, the intellect is from the “father within man” and rules over feelings and behavior. Being able to master these three areas leads to the pinnacle of achievement, the top of Maslow’s pyramid.

But still higher, off the charts, is a higher self. The highest self. The spark of the Divine, the core of our soul, that G-d breathes into us. That is what G-d wanted to show Abraham. That is the land, the eretz that G-d will show Abraham.

When we look at this deeply, the order now makes sense. When we go through this journey, step by step, then G-d will bless us and make our name great.

Not everyone is on the same journey. Not everyone has the same experience of G-d. And that is OK. We even talk about it in the amidah itself. In the Avot prayer we say, “v’elohei Avraham, v’elohei Yitzchak, v’elohei Ya’akov, the G-d of Abraham, and the G-d of Isaac and the G-d of Jacob. Of course, I add the matriarchs too. English professors want to take a pen to this. Why the extra words? We could just say, “And the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” The rabbis teach because each of them, each of us have a different experience, a different understanding of the one G-d.

We are all on a journey. I invite you to think about yours as you listen to one person’s personal journey.

Then we sang Debbie Friedman’s song, “Lechi Lach”:

Lechi Lach
L’chi lach, to a land that I will show you
Lech l’cha, to a place you do not know
L’chi lach, on your journey I will bless you

And (you shall be a blessing) l’chi lach
And (you shall be a blessing) l’chi lach
And (you shall be a blessing) l’chi lach

L’chi lach, and I shall make your name great
Lech l’cha, and all shall praise your name
L’chi lach, to the place that I will show you

l’chi lach
(L’sim-chat cha-yim) l’chi lach
(L’sim-chat cha-yim) l’chi lach

That’s it. The journey is what brings us joy.