To Go For Yourself: The Lech Lecha Challenge

Exactly twenty years ago this Shabbos, my sister and I stood before the bimah of our conservative shul for our B’nai Mitzvah. Before the congregation, we gave our own interpretation of this week’s Parsha, Lech Lecha, in a way that made sense to a 13- and 12-year-old. Admittedly, I don’t remember the entire sum and substance of our speech, but I do remember one major theme: Never give up. Indeed, so begins the story of Avraham Avinu.

Immediately within the first lines, HaShem gives the first “command” to our first patriarch:

The L-rd said to Avram, “Go – from your land, your birthplace, and your father’s house – to the land that I will show you.

(Bereshis 12:1).

The phrase “lech lecha” has multiple interpretations. The most common, of course, is “Go for yourself.” Rashi states that HaShem tells Avraham Avinu that to “go for yourself” is “for your own benefit, for your own good” to make him the father of a great nation. And to paraphrase Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik in Abraham’s Journey, Avraham Avinu had to leave his past behind, erase his memory, and emigrate from his country to a new land altogether. This represents the first of ten tests of faith that HaShem gives Avraham Avinu to establish his permanent standing as our founding father.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the phrase “lech lecha” appears only one more time in the Torah. As we will read in next week’s Parsha, Vayeira, HaShem repeats this phrase in the context of Avraham’s final test: The Akeidah. In each of these moments, HaShem asks Avraham Avinu to test the outer boundaries of comfort to determine his fealty to Him. As such, to “go for yourself” represents a commitment to exceed one’s limitations. Of course (as a spoiler), Avraham Avinu passed every single test that HaShem gave him in act and in complete faith, never giving up on HaShem‘s promise to make him the father of the Jewish people.

Looking back twenty years since my B’nai Mitzvah, I have given considerable thought on how I’ve taken on the “lech lecha” challenge to better my life and push myself in ways that I never thought possible. Nothing better characterizes my “lech lecha” than my decision to become a Ba’al Teshuva. Growing up in a secular home, it did not occur to me when I read the Maftir or half the Haftorah (my sister read the other half!) that I would become Shomer Shabbos and Shomer Kashrus, or that I would learn a page of Talmud a day. In fact, I dropped out of Hebrew school the day after my B’nai Mitzvah! But not long after I started writing in this blog 11 years ago, I realized that my love for the Jewish people and the Land of Israel could not be limited to the Jewish advocacy world alone.

When I returned from Israel in January 2015 following a Zionist advocacy trip, I wrote that if Jewish students, particularly in the United States, “light[] a candle on a hate-filled campus, it will only combat the darkness that has been cast upon us.” But I took it upon myself to continue learning the basics of Jewish law and observance. In my mind, I had to embrace Judaism if I wanted to truly connect with why the Jewish people were given the Covenant at Sinai and why Avraham Avinu was directed by HaShem to go to Eretz Yisrael. For the next six years, I spent considerable time learning from Rabbis associated with Aish and Chabad to learn both the why and the how behind Jewish observance. It was only when I moved to New York City over six years ago where I could finally merit to live in a kosher home, keep Shabbos, and embark on a journey that brings me joy every single day.

But that decision did not come without sacrifice. At times, my commitment to my faith has been difficult for my family, for my oldest friends, and for my work-life balance. It meant asking for accommodations that I never requested before and having to answer difficult questions. It has resulted in missing important moments–good and bad–due to unavailability. And being openly and visibly Jewish has added another layer of concern when anti-Jewish hate crimes have skyrocketed.

The latter concern is especially relevant now in New York City. Right now, the leading candidate for Mayor of New York City is a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist who co-founded a pro-Hamas hate group when he was in college; refuses to condemn the genocidal call to “globalize the Intifada”; and engages in absurd selective outrage against Israel’s alleged “war crimes” while hobnobbing with an un-indicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. This election makes plain that the “lech lecha” challenge remains more relevant now than ever. Jewish New Yorkers have an important choice to make in response to what can be credibly seen as a threat to Jewish continuity in the biggest city in the United States. We are compelled, then, to “go for ourselves” for the benefit of our entire community–and the benefit of the City as a whole–to prevent Mamdani from taking office. And if, chas v’shalom, he wins the election, we will remain firm in our convictions and in our faith.

As most New York Jews continue going to the polls to declare their opposition to this pernicious threat, I look to Isaiah’s words found in this week’s, Haftorah, which I will read Shabbos morning, for further inspiration:

Fear not, O worm of Jacob, O men of Israel, for I help you — the word of HaShem and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I have made you like a new, sharp threshing iron with many blades; you will thresh and pulverize mountains, and you will make the hills like chaff. You will winnow them and the wind will carry them off, a storm will scatter them — but you will rejoice in HaShem; in the Holy One of Israel you will glory!

(Yeshayahu 41:14-16).

Be like Avraham Avinu. Do not give up!