During the portion of Lech Lecha, Abram hears an inner call to go to a place he does not know, a place that will be shown to him. He leaves his ordinary, comfortable reality behind in search of this deeper understanding of life. He and his wife Sarai journey together, but they are childless. Something impedes their creativity. They yearn to be generative, for the opening of the womb. In the crucial final chapter of Lech Lecha, Genesis chapter 17, that opening presents itself. YHVH places the letter “hay” into each of their names: Abram becomes Abraham, and Sarai becomes Sarah. The letter “Hay” in Hebrew is the sound of openness: Halleluyah; the sound of breath; and a key letter in the name of God: YHVH. Inserted into their very names Abraham and Sarah, the “hay” represents an expansion of awareness, the awareness of the presence of YHVH, God within them as well as all around them. Along with this expansion, Abraham must also open himself further: he is commanded to circumcise himself. Circumcision in the Torah is an act of opening. Moses is said to be of “uncircumcised lips”, meaning impeded speech. In an important passage in Deuteronomy, Moses instructs us that we must circumcise our hearts, that is, remove the sheath from around our hearts, and stiffen our necks no more, so that we might uphold the cause of the powerless, and befriend the stranger. Abraham’s circumcision must be understood in this consistent Biblical context. It is the sign of his radical willingness to be generously open and deeply committed to Life, to the presence of God in everyone and everything. It is the mark of the covenant that Abraham now willingly enters with YHVH, Life Unfolding. As Abraham’s spiritual journey continues, this commitment he now makes to be vulnerable and open is going to allow himself and Sarah to conceive a child, to be vessels of life. The child’s name will be Yitzchak, “Laughter”…unfettered joy. Thus the portion of Lech Lecha, “Go Within Yourself”, ends. As Vayera, which means “He Had a Vision”, opens Abraham is now sitting in the entrance of his tent, his wide, open tent. And the Parsha begins with these enigmatic lines: “Vayera eilav YHVH b’elonei mamre”. This is often translated as “YHVH appeared to him by the oak trees of Mamre”.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 13:58:17 +0000
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