Lech Lecha: the roots are the destination

Lech lecha- Go to yourself.

This might be one of the most powerful messages of the Jewish tradition- and such a modern one: the first calling of the first Jew is to go towards himself.

And in the case of Avram, as he is still called at the beginning of the parasha, this implies one of the most difficult tasks asked from any human being: to leave everything he knows and comes from behind.The verse is unequivocal, and in a way, merciless:

 לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵֽאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ:

Go from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. (bereshit 12.1)

Not only is Avram called to leave where he is coming from. He doesn’t get to know where he is going.

Every year, when we get to lekh lekha again, I am amazed at the modernity of the message.

While we Jews come from one of the oldest spiritual traditions in the world, our founding movement seem to be an invitation to break free from tradition.

Such an anticipation of contemporary western individualism:

First, it reminds us that we are here to become- that our life is a project.

That is because, in a mystical perspective, our neshama came down on this planet for a reason- in kabbalistic language, we call it a tikkun (healing).

We all came down to repair some things.

And our lives are the playgrounds for that. Remember this the next time you are facing a challenge. It didn’t come by chance. It is your next invitation to grow.

And so becoming who we are seems to imply, according to the verse, leaving our roots.

Is it really so?

For the Kedushat Levi, it may be the opposite:

לכל מקום שאדם הולך הוא הולך לשורשו 

wherever a person goes, they go to their root.

What does that imply?

That what we call our roots may not be what we think it is.

My roots is not where I come from. It’s where I’m meant to go.

And her is an important reminder of the difference between our relative, human conditioning, and our true nature, which is unconditioned, and although hidden, always available: 

For the chasidic master, our real roots are not necessarily where we were born, who our parents were, and what culture we grew up in.

Those are called social conditioning and cultural identification. 

But we are much more than that. Although he is not mentioning it expressly in his commentary, The Berditchever rebbe seems to be operating along the lines of the classical Jewish mystical understanding of our supernal roots: our real roots are not down here but beyond.

As the maharal of Prague taught: the human is an upside-down tree. Her roots are in the sky.

And as Etty Hillesum wrote, the sky is within me.

So leaving behind our worldly roots, as Avram did, means going towards our deeper, truer, although invisible roots: 

This is our true identity, who we are at core, our Neshama. 

In that sense, going towards ourselves is returning to who we truly are. Lekh-lekha is  teshuvah (return).

Yes our true nature is always there, waiting for us to turn towards it- to realign with who we already are, at core.And perhaps our first task, just like Avram, is to accept to break through from the known and to keep walking towards ourselves, knowing that the way we reveal itself as we walk.

This is Avram’s story. This is our story.

We are still at the beginning of a new year.

What is the familiar space, the comfort zone, the type of idol worship inner space you know you need to leave behind?

Don’t seek for certainty. Don’t try to know the destination. It will show itself in asmuch as you show up. It will reveal itself as long as you give yourself.

Just trust the path.