This week we are just three weeks into our most sacred text. Bereshit, the book of Genesis, the first book of the Torah. 

The world was created. We had our first murder. The world was nearly destroyed. We were told that would not happen again, at least not by water. The tower of babel and the confusion of languages. and then a long genealogy. We met Abraham. Three weeks.  

We are told that Noah was righteous in his generation and Abraham was righteous.  

I asked our Torah School kids what righteous means. It means being right, being correct, doing the right things.  

What was it that Abraham did that made his righteous? What is it that we can do to emulate Abraham? 

Our portion begins with the words, Lech Lecha. Go. Abraham is told to go. To leave his land, the land of his birth, his father’s house and go to the land that G-d will show him. Pretty powerful stuff, pretty powerful language. Why does he have to leave everything he knows? To focus. The Hebrew construction is a bit odd. Lech Lecha often gets translated as go forth. But the Hebrew offers another clue, Go to yourself.  Find yourself.  

Leaving is hard. Making space for something new with its promise of being better is hard. Yet, that is exactly what Abraham needs to do. What G-d demands him to do. He is forging a new path, a new future for himself and his family, both Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael. He, in the midrash, smashed the idols of the past. 

For some, these last few weeks have been about smashing the idols of the past. For others, it didn’t happen the way they envisioned.  

Cat Zavis said: “Some continue to embrace the idolatry of the past, an idolatry that makes us believe that we are safe when we isolate ourselves, when we demean and oppress others, when we build walls. But in truth, we are safe when we are in community, when we see and uplift the Divine within one another, and when we build bridges and solidarity. Sometimes we harden our hearts and fear takes over. We have a choice. Are we willing to leave behind the idolatry on which our country was built and forge a new path? How might we do so? Can we take responsibility for the injustices of the past and build a future on justice and liberation for all? Being alive is truly miraculous. This is our time. We are all here for a reason. How will we show up and meet this moment? Let’s start by being together in a beloved community to nourish ourselves and dream of a future where everyone is nurtured and held in beloved communities.” 

Here we are, in beloved community, still in community. Many of us came from somewhere else, leaving behind the places we were born. That term that Cat Zavis used, beloved community, is one that Martin Luther King first used, is the name of a group that Josh Stober and I are participating in. We’re reading the book, Healing Resistance, trying to find a way to build a community that takes care of the most vulnerable, the widow, the orphan, the stranger amongst us. A world where people work together with the police and are not afraid of them, a world where people are respected and yes, loved. 

Abraham did more than just leave.  

He rescued his nephew Lot who was being held captive after which he broke bread with the King of Sodom, Malchizedek.  

He argued with G-d not to destroy Sodom and Gemorah. If there are just 50 righteous people…all the way down to 10. That is why our minyan is 10. 10 is the number for community. We are not meant to be alone. We are meant to be in community. Look around you. We here are in community. All of us together. Sometimes we agree and sometimes we don’t but we are all here.  

There is a power in being seen. Abraham…and Sarah do that. He saw the injustices of Sodom and Gemorah. He tried to protect the most vulnerable there. We nned to be seen…and to see. Look around you…we are building a community where people are heard and seen. Where people show up. Where people care about one another. 

Later we are told that his (and Sarah’s) tent were open on all four sides, so he could see who was coming. They practiced radical, audacious hospitality, from which we get the concept hachnasat orchim, welcoming guests.  

We are told that we should emulate G-d, “Just as G-d is merciful, we too should be merciful. Just as G-d is kind, we too should be kind.” The midrash continues that G-d’s kindness includes clothing the naked, Adam and Eve, feeding the hungry with manna in the wilderness and burying the dead. Abraham’s kindness includes feeding his three guests, even interrupting his conversation with G-d to rush to do so. 

Abraham certainly wasn’t perfect. He tries to pass off his wife as his sister. Twice. He throws Hagar (and Ishmael) out of the camp at his wife’s insistence as we will see next week. He almost sacrifices Isaac. Yet he gives us a model. Pirke Avot teaches, “In a place where there are no menschen, strive to be a good person.” That’s the message of Abraham. Be kind. Be loving. Be hospitable. Protect the vulnerable.  

G-d promises that Abraham and his descendants will be a blessing. They will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the beach. 

Some of you may be feeling tired this week. Between the time change and the election cycle this has been a week like none other.  

Yet our haftarah offers comfort. 

The ETERNAL is God from of old,
Creator of the earth from end to end,
Who never grows faint or weary,
Whose wisdom cannot be fathomed—
Who gives strength to the weary,
They shall run and not grow weary,
They shall march and not grow faint. 

Anne Frank said, “It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” 

The world is not yet as we would like it, as G-d and Abraham envisioned it. We learn from the Best Exotic Hotel Marigold: Everything will be alright in the end so if it is not alright it is not the end. The only real failure is the failure to try, and the measure of success is how we cope with disappointment. Remember you are everything, or you are nothing.”

Pirke Avot teaches: “Ours is not to finish the task, neither are we free to ignore it.” We are here in this time and place for a reason. Be like G-d. Be like Abraham.