Destination Unknown

Rabbi Melanie Aron

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Several years ago I gave a sermon about those times in one's life when things don't turn out as expected; when we say to ourselves, wait, this isn't what I signed up for. Loss, illness, disability, all of these disruptions of our life plans mean that we find ourselves dealing with challenges we didn't expect. It is as if we have signed up for a trip to Paris and wake up and find ourselves in Constantinople.

But perhaps even harder than finding oneself in an unexpected destination is heading off without knowing where one is headed. This is the situation that Abraham finds himself in at the beginning of this week's Torah portion, when God asks him to leave his land, his birthplace, his family's house and head off to an unknown destination- el haaretz asher areka, to the land that I will show you.

Imagine your husband or wife coming home and saying we're moving. "Where to?" you ask. "I'll tell you when we get there", is not the response you were looking for.

Rashi and other traditional commentators focus on the commitment that Abraham showed in responding to this incomplete command. One might see it as analogous to those traditions we follow, whose real purpose is not evident. When the Torah tells us, "thou shalt not kill", "thou shalt not steal", it is easy to understand the reason for these laws. But the Torah also includes other commands whose reasoning is not so clear cut. Jews have struggled with these chukkim through the centuries.

Some sages believe in providing our own reasoning for these commandments and write about taamei hamitzvot, the reasons for commandments, such as shatnez, the restriction on wearing wool and linen, or kashrut, with its many seemingly arbitrary provisions. They reach into their own experience and the teachings of our tradition to puzzle out explanations for what the Bible leaves unexplained.

Other scholars argue that providing an explanation can get us into trouble. If our explanation turns out to be unfounded, our reason for obeying the mitzvah will disappear. Perhaps a modern example of this are those who claim that the reason kashrut banned the eating of pork is that if it is not cooked fully it can lead to trichinosis. Those same people often went on to argue that now that we understand how to prepare pork, kashrut is unnecessary. Better this second group of sages say, not to make up reasons but to follow the mitzvoth out of commitment, as Abraham left Haran, and allow the meaning to emerge from your actions, as Abraham over time understood more fully the meaning of his journey.

For me though the significance of Abraham heading off to an unknown destination is something a little bit different. Often in life we want to know everything before we make a move, but in truth we are always to some extent heading off to an unknown destination. We are always, as the Tanchuma says of Abraham, "A man who set out and did not know for which place he was destined."

You can visit the high schools or colleges among which you are choosing, research your potential new company, talk to all the neighbors near the house you are thinking of buying, or in the retirement community you are considering, but your destination is still at some level unknown. What will it really be like at that new school, will the new job work out, will this house or retirement community really be a home for me? At the moment of transition, we have to leave the familiar, without really knowing what it will be like in the new.

Abraham, father of the Jewish people, is called ivri, the one who crosses over, and we the people of Israel are also given the name, ivrim. "Lech Lecha" is an experience we will have many times in our lives: so long as we live, at every age, change is a constant in our lives. Rabbi Ken Weiss writes of Abraham; "Abraham didn't just move physically, he transitioned with grace and conviction." Josh as a descendent of Abraham, we pray that is how it will be for you and for us all, that when the circumstances arise when we must move physically, we will be able to do so with grace and conviction. Shabbat Shalom.