Avraham Avinu: Parashat Lech Lecha, Kol Shalom, 2025

Parashat Lech Lecha marks a turning point in both human and spiritual history.

This Parasha truly begins the story of the people of Israel, through one man: Avraham

Avinu, our patriarch Abraham.

Abraham was born in Ur Kasdim, a prosperous civilization dominated by idolatry.

According to the Midrash, his father Terach was an idol maker, and it was within his own

home that Abraham began his spiritual quest.

One day, when left alone in the shop, he smashed his father’s statues and left only one

standing, with a stick in its hand. When Terach asked what had happened, Abraham

replied, “The biggest idol broke the others.”

His father, furious, shouted, “That’s impossible — they have no life!”

And Abraham answered, “Then why do you worship them?”

That symbolic moment represents the birth of monotheistic consciousness — the

realization that behind the universe there is one creative and moral force.

For that reason, Abraham is called the first “Hebrew” – Ivri.

The term comes from ever, meaning “side” or “bank.”

Abraham is haivri, “the one who stands on the other side” — not only geographically,

but spiritually: the one who dares to think differently, to cross the boundary of

conventional thought.

While the entire world served many gods, Abraham had the courage to stand “on the

other side,” to discover unity behind diversity.

His faith was neither passive nor naïve; it was a faith of reason, courage, and action.

He was able to leave his land, his family, and his culture to follow an inner voice that

called to him:

“Lech lecha – Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house,

to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1).

Abraham is the spiritual pioneer who begins a journey into the unknown, not out of

ambition, but out of moral conviction and trust in God.

Unlike Noah, he does not simply accept or obey; he argues, questions, and negotiates.

He is a man who forges his own destiny.

At the same time, he is a man of compassion: he worries about the righteous of Sodom

and dares to argue with God on their behalf. His heroism is not just of the sword, but of

the soul — the courage to confront injustice even in heaven.

His morality did not end with his own family; and it extended beyond his people. In this

sense, Abraham was a warrior of justice.

Many commentators, among them the Sefat Emet, note that the Torah could have said

simply Lech — “Go.” But it says Lech lecha — literally, “Go to yourself.”

Abraham’s journey is not only geographical but it is psychological as well. Lech Lecha is a

call to every human being to step out of our habits, our inherited biases and clichés. It is a

call to leave what is familiar and comfortable, in order to discover our true self, our true

purpose, and our own inner voice.

Lech Lecha is the first spiritual calling in biblical history.

Each of us has our own Ur Kasdim — our zone of comfort or security.

God invites us to leave it, not to lose ourselves, but to find ourselves.

Abraham’s journey culminates in the promise of a land:

“To your descendants I will give this land,” says Genesis 12:7.

It is not merely a geographic promise, but an existential covenant. From that moment on,

the Land of Israel and the people of Abraham become spiritually intertwined.

Modern Zionism, in its deepest essence, was not only a political invention to seek refuge

from European antisemitism, but a contemporary fulfillment of the promise of Lech

Lecha — a return to the land that symbolizes beginnings, commitment, and responsibility.

Just as Abraham heard the voice that called him to walk toward an unknown land, the

Jewish people in exile heard that same inner voice urging them to return to their roots, to

rebuild their national home.

The return to Israel, after millennia, is — in my view — the modern echo of “Lech Lecha.”

In Lech Lecha a division and rivalry are also born — one that runs through history: the sons

of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. Both are blessed, yet their paths diverge.

God promises Abraham:

“As for the son of the maidservant, I will also make him into a great nation”

(Genesis 21:13).

The Midrash teaches that when Abraham dies, Isaac and Ishmael come together to bury

him (Genesis 25:9*). That small yet powerful gesture suggests that at a deep

level, reconciliation is possible.

When the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael remember that they are indeed the children

of the same spiritual father, this can guide them toward the peace that Abraham dreamed

of — a peace based not on fear or advantage, but on mutual dignity and the recognition

that they are brothers.

Lech Lecha reminds us that faith begins with a step, that Jewish identity is born from

the courage to be different, and that the journey toward God is also a journey toward

ourselves.

Like Abraham, every generation is called to cross its own river — that is what makes us

Hebrews: the willingness to leave behind what no longer gives meaning, and to move

forward, toward a place, where hope, justice, and the promise of peace, are possible.