Congregation Beth Shalom

Torah Portion: Lech Lecha
Book of Genesis
Chaps. 12:1-17:27
November 3, 2011

Life is a journey.  Discovering fulfillment and meaning involves a willingness to take the “road less traveled.”  Abraham is given a simple command by God: Lech Lecha-literally, “Get out of here! Go forth from your father’s house to the land that I will show you (Gen. 12:1).” Abraham’s response? “Abram went forth as the Lord had commanded him (Gen. 12:4).”  In this risk-filled act of compliance was Judaism born.

Whether it be the journey of an individual or an entire people, no world-changing event or act of greatness has ever occurred standing in place.  This past week, Dorothy Rodham, a woman who overcame years of struggle to become a powerful influence on the life and career of her daughter, Hillary Rodham Clinton, passed away at the age of 92. Dorothy’s story was a journey that can be told of any number of people in our times and former generations.  

Her obituary in the New York Times notes, “Her childhood had been Dickensian.  She was abandoned by dysfunctional, divorced parents at the age of 8 in Chicago, sent unsupervised on a cross-country train with a younger sister to live with unwelcoming grandparents in California and, at age 14, escaped into the adult world of the Depression as a $3-a-week nanny.”

On her own, she attended high school and graduated as a top student.  Needing to work to survive, college was out of the question.  She moved back to Chicago and became a secretary.  After years of lonely toil, she married and raised three children.  Her daughter, Hillary, said, “I’m still amazed at how my mother emerged from her lonely early life as such an affectionate and levelheaded woman.”  How amazing is it?  From all appearances, she was a woman who did not allow fear or self-pity to cloud her vision or disrupt her journey.  Dorothy would later stand with her daughter as she took the Senate oath of office and she was by Hillary’s side when she began her campaign for the presidency and when she finally bowed out.

Abraham’s journey would see his first-born son banished from his home because of Sara’s jealousy, his nephew Lot taken captive, his son Isaac almost sacrificed on Mt. Moriah.  Still, he journeyed on. Abraham did not fear nor lose faith.  He followed his passion, gave meaning to his life, became a role model to his children and children’s children, and a father to the Jewish people.

Today it is our turn to hear the command and to go forth.  Lech Lecha!

Rabbi Howard Siegel