Hello and welcome to my Torah thoughts.

This shabbat we read the third parsha (Torah portion) in the bible.  It is called Lech l’cha, and it means, “Go to yourself.”

If you recall from the end of the previous parsha, Avram’s father led the family away from their home town and they got as far as Charan where Terach (Avram’s father) settled and eventually died.

Now, haShem (god) tells Avram, “Lech l’cha,” or, Go to yourself.  The verse continues with Avram being told not just to go to himself, but also away from his land and his birthplace and the house of his father and to a land that haShem will show him, and that Avram will be made into a great nation.

Avram, who is 75 at this time, takes off with his family and entourage and, after he settles in the land of Cnaan, god tells him that this is the land god will give him and his children.

A famine strikes the land and Avram goes down to Egypt where he becomes wealthy and the Pharaoh takes Sarai, his wife, because he is told she is Avram’s sister.  When he discovers the truth he returns Sarai to Avram and sends them on their way back to the land of Cnaan.

Shortly after they settle in Cnaan, Lot (Avram’s nephew) and Avram decide to part ways with Lot moving to the Jordan valley near Sdom and Amorah (Sodom and Gomorrah).  HaShem then tells Avram to look in the four directions and see the land god will give to Avram and his offspring, and to walk around and check out the land.

It was during this time that the kings of Shinar, Elasar, Aylam, and Nations fought the kings of Sdom, Amorah, Admah, Tzvoyim, and Bela who had been rebelling for several years.  They fought in the valley of Sdom and the four kings defeated the five rebellious kings and in the process also captured Lot.  Avram heard his nephew was captured and went out and attacked and defeated the four kings and freed Lot.

After the war, god tells Avram that he is protecting him and that his reward will be great.  Avram responds by asking if his servant Eliezer will inherit his reward seeing as Avram has no children.  God responds by saying he will have offspring that will eventually number like the stars in the heavens.  God continues by saying that he is giving Avram this land and Avram asks god how he will know that he will inherit it.  God responds by telling him to do a ritual that puts Avram into a deep sleep where he learns that his offspring will be slaves, but will eventually return to the land when the sins of the Emorites (who currently live on the land) are completed.

At this point, Sarai gives her servant Hagar to Avram in the hopes she can provide children to Avram.  Avram listens to Sarai and takes Hagar and she becomes pregnant and Yishmael is born.  Thirteen years go by and god again appears to Avram and tells him that she is making a brit (covenant) between himself and Avram and that Avram will be the father of many nations and so he should change his name to Avraham to reflect that.  The brit has god giving the land of Cnaan to Avraham and his children and Avraham and all the males in his household will circumcise their foreskins at the age of 8 days.

Also god tells Avraham that his wife’s name is Sarah and to stop calling her Sarai, and that she will become nations and that kings of nations will come from her.  Avraham laughs at the thought that a 100 year old man and a 90 year old woman will produce a child and god says not only will they have a son in a year’s time, but that he should be called Yitzhak (which is laughter in Hebrew), and that god will establish a brit with him.  Also Yishmael will father 12 princes and be a great nation.

The parsha ends with Avraham circumcising himself and every other male in his household on that very day.

All in all, a fun and exciting parsha don’t you think?  Now the last two years, I have focused on the inner journey the parsha alludes to.  Why not?  After all, the name of the parsha is about going to yourself.

Today however, I would like to focus, not on the journey itself, but on one or two aspects.  Specifically I want to look at what this parsha has to tell us in regards to the feminine, or the interaction between the feminine and the masculine.

The first thing that I see is something that we actually saw in parsha Breisheit (Genesis) that we read a couple of weeks ago (the very first parsha of the Torah).  In that parsha, we saw Chayah (Eve) eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and then give Adam the fruit and he ate it, no questions asked.  Later, when god asks him about it, his answer is that she gave it to him, no questions asked.

In our parsha, we see Sarai giving Hagar to Avram, and he takes her, no questions asked.  Later, we see her upset with Hagar and Avram tells her to do as she wishes with Hagar.

The theme we are seeing here, and one we will continue to see in upcoming parshas, is that the women are in charge.

Now, I believe that we all have a feminine part and a masculine part, and so this translates to us being able to identify those parts and relying on our feminine sides to guide us, no questions asked.

And why not?  This parsha shows us that even when the resident feminine aspect is enslaved (Hagar can be translated as: the resident), it still can talk directly to the divine.  We see this in the parsha when Hagar is pregnant and runs away and an angel of god talks to her.

Another thing we see in the parsha is the fear of the masculine.  Now, I am not going to say that our masculine part is the ego; however, I do find it interesting that it is the masculine that is afraid of dying when the beauty of the feminine is revealed to the world.

Specifically, I am talking about when Avram goes down to Egypt, he is afraid that the Egyptians will kill him because Sarai is so beautiful, and so he tells her to lie and say she is his brother.  Interesting, it is because of her that he attains great wealth.  However, he loses his source of wealth when Pharaoh discovers that Sarai is his wife, and has them escorted out of Egypt.

What we can learn from this is that when one’s masculine side is willing to let one’s feminine side be revealed and shine in the world, the world will respond in a positive way, in a way that provides abundance to the person.

However, to reveal one’s beauty is a very scary and vulnerable thing, and a person is very tempted on revealing it in a safe, but dishonest way; in a way that is not truthful.

If a person can keep their integrity and just reveal their full selves, the male and female sides in intimate partnership, then I believe that person will receive all that they need from the world around them forever.  However, if a person hedges, and does not reveal their feminine side in an honest reflection of oneself, our parsha tells us that when the truth is discovered, we will be disconnected from our worldly source of abundance.

May all of us allow our feminine sides to shine and connect us to the divine in an open and unfettered way, and not be afraid of the consequences.

If you want to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.