WHEN GOD SAID “LEAVE YOUR COMFORT ZONE”
This week’s Torah Portion, Lech L’cha (Gen. 12-17) begins with God instructing Abram (his name is changed a little later) to leave everything he has known and travel to the place God will show him. Later in the portion Sarai, his wife, takes the decision to ask her personal slave Hagar to bear her husband’s child. Finally, right at the close of the portion, God instructs Abram to circumcise every male in his family and among both the Israelite and the foreign born slaves. Including his thirteen-year-old son Ishmael. Oh, and himself. At the age of 96. Not exactly the Garden of Eden or the rainbow from the previous portions of Genesis!
I of course did not list all the subjects and stories included in this week’s portion, but if you aren’t at least a little uncomfortable by now you might need a dose of introspection. This is a transformational portion, we are turning the ring on the camera lens to draw in closer and focus on fewer people. We began with the creation of everything, then the destruction of almost everything and then we began to trace OUR family’s history. Avram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah and with the birth of his first son, Ishmael, we become a tribe. Yes, our tradition does not flinch from the difficulty of children who do not share a mother, and thus do not have the same status in the family. How we treat those who are “inferior” to us tells us much more about ourselves than about our “lessers”.
So from this less than comfortable portion we can learn at least two things: family is a dynamic arrangement, certainly with polygamy, and having a covenantal relationship with God is not only an intellectual or spiritual exercise if you’re not a woman. There is a price to pay for Jewish men who bear “the sign of the covenant” on their bodies. Thank God we are allowed to use anesthetic!!! I certainly asked my pediatrician to do so when my sons were circumcised, and I encourage any future parents to consider doing the same. If the Bible says women will give birth with pain and we developed epidural medication, why in the world wouldn’t we want our youngest children to get expert medical treatment with pain relief? Doctor in the morning, baby naming ceremony later in the day, no one really HAS to see the surgery other than the doctor and father, it’s just a custom that we make it a public event. It just might make us all a little more comfortable.
Hope to see you at Family Services at 6:30 pm Friday!
Rabbi Leah Benamy
