This week’s Torah portion from Genesis 12:1 begins with God’s
call to Abraham to “go forth from your land, your birthplace, your father’s
house, to the land that I will show you.” Ever since I heard the Debbie
Friedman/Savina Teubal song version
at a friend’s daughter’s bat mitzvah, I have treasured this free interpretation of the passage for
its sense of possibility:
L'chi
lach [Go forth], to a land that I will show you
Leich
l'cha [Go forth], to a place you do not know
L'chi
lach, on your journey I will bless you
And
(you shall be a blessing)3x l'chi lach
L'chi
lach, and I shall make your name great
Leich
l'cha, and all shall praise your name
L'chi
lach, to the place that I will show you
(L'sim-chat
cha-yim [to the joy of lives])3x l'chi lach
Noah embarked on a lot of adventurous journeys in his life, from
wilderness trips at age 13 to a year in France at age 17 to a challenging
college far from home, and we cheered him on from the sidelines. He knew he had
our blessing for finding his own way in his own time, though he blamed himself
for not being focused on one definite direction like the high-powered high
achievers he assumed were all around him. Maybe I was so intent on encouraging
his exploration that I didn’t do enough to reassure him that he was a blessing
for us and that he would always have safe harbor at home. How I wish he could
have felt blessed on his journey instead of cursed. How I wish he could have
lived long enough to connect with a sense of spirituality that I always felt he
had inside him.
How I wish that we were not on this grim journey of our own
into unknown places after he put an end to his journey. Because it’s hard now to
see his life as a blessing.
On your journey, Noah, we would have continued to bless you
and delighted in all the new lands you surely would have found.
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