Shabbat Parashat Lech L’cha Moving From the Scary to the Sacred

Dear Friends,

Lech L’cha [Go forth] implies an imperative to move forward. These are the opening words of our weekly Torah portion. Lech L’cha [Go forth].

This is what God communicated to Abraham in our weekly Torah portion. And, this is what we too must confront. But, what is our direction?

With so many scary things in our world….think Halloween….think elections…think whatever your personal challenges might be…and, in the face of all of the scary things in our world, we must move forward.

Given that God did not specify to Abraham what his final destination would be, we understand that we have to make due, as did Abraham, with being guided by what we perceive to be a sacred direction.

When God said to Abraham: Go forth to the Land which I will show you, God was essentially saying: Follow me, as best as you can, to a sacred place – to a place of greater blessing.

Each one of us can augment the sacred in life by making conscious choices that increase the possibilities of healing, of comfort, of community, of love and of inspiration.

May we always be guided by our sense of the sacred and may we move forward step by step from the scary toward the sacred and from strife toward greater, and more lasting, peace.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire congregation for the very beautiful bouquet of flowers that you all sent me this past week. Please know that it is very much appreciated.

And, as a reminder….this coming Thursday morning at our regular morning zoom minyan, we will celebrate the bat mitzvah of Leila Coltrain. Mazal Tov to Leila and to her entire family. Leila will also lead part of our Friday night zoom service next Friday as part of her bat mitzvah celebration! It is so good to be a part of our wonderful community and to be able to celebrate together!

I look forward to seeing you at our future services and activities and thank you once again for your involvement in our sacred community, Rodef Sholom Temple!

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Gilah Dror