THE NEW LAND - REVISITED

Parashat Lekh L’kha

Cheshvan 13, 5784 / October 27-28, 2023

Torah: Genesis 12:1 – 17:27

Haftarah: Isaiah 40:27 – 41:16

---------------------------------------------------

This d’var torah is offered in memory of Yitzchak Rabin, whose yahrzeit is Wednesday, Cheshvan 11/October 25. Y’hi zikhrono liv’rakhah – May his memory be a blessing.

This d'var torah is offered in memory of all the dead Israelis and other residents in Israel, whether murdered by Hamas or in combat, and of the dead civilians in Gaza.
 
This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for all who have been wounded in the Hamas terrorist attack and in fighting against terrorists.

This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Chanah Bella bat Kreina and Devorah bat Feigel.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Lunch and Learn meets Mondays at 12:30 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live. NO meeting on October 30. On Monday, November 6, we'll be at BT Shabbat 118b, page 189 of Ein Ya'akov (Glick edition) Volume 1 –  "אמר רב נחמן תיתי לי דקיימית שלש סעודות בשבת"    

"R. Nachman said: 'May it be credited to me, that I fulfilled the obligation of three meals on the Sabbath."' 

Ein Ya'akov (Glick edition) is available for on-line reading or as a downloadable PDF at:

https://hebrewbooks.org/9630   

A pointed Hebrew text version with different pagination is available at Sefaria: 
https://www.sefaria.org/Ein_Yaakov?tab=contents  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Check out our wonderful community, and get lots of info about our various programs and becoming a Member at: https://bnaihayim.org/ 
----------------------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Van Leeuwen has a blog which you should read at: 
https://rebjasonblog.wordpress.com/blog/ 

Dr. Steve Pearlman writes up the "Midrashim of the Week", which you should read at: 

https://midrashsrp.wordpress.com 
------------------------------------------------------
Please feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chaverim Yekarim / Dear Friends:

 

I originally published this d'var torah in October, 2015. There may be more than a few of you who think that I was naive to publish it then, and more so today. Even with the latest atrocities by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah, and the rage that I am struggling to control, I stand by what I wrote then, for a simple reason. I truly believe that unless and until there is peace between the two nations living side-by-side in their own lands, they will consume each other, like the ouroboros of ancient mythology.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

THE NEW LAND

"And the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your land and your birthplace and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.’" Genesis 12:1-2

In his book "Genesis – Translation and Commentary", author and literary critic Robert Alter writes, "The name Canaan is never mentioned, and the divine imperative to head out for an unspecified place resembles, as Rashi observes, God’s terrible call to Abraham in chapter 22 to sacrifice his son on a mountain God will show him."  

Rashi: God did not immediately reveal the land to Abram, in order to make it beloved in his eyes, and to give him a reward for each and every word. Similarly, …. (at Genesis 22:2) "on one of the mountains that I will tell you about." 

This is how it is with Israel today in its search for peace. Israelis and Palestinians, all descendants of Abraham, are in the psychological "land" of their ancestors, a land we might name "conflict and terror". The "new land" of peace is seemingly distant, its exact parameters unknown. Yitzchak Rabin, z"l, a former general, a man of war, heard the call to go to that new land, and he sacrificed his life in answering that call. Five years later, Ehud Barak’s government fell because the Palestinians refused to heed the call.

 

Thousands of people have died because the call for peace has been drowned out by other calls for death and destruction. Israelis will have to give up the notion that they can indefinitely subjugate an occupied population that may soon outnumber them. Israelis will have to make other sacrifices in order to reach the new land. So will the Palestinians. They must give up their generations of hatred and the unrealistic, impossible goal of "return" within the present state of Israel. If the physical land is not divided between them, with each making the necessary political sacrifices, the psycho-spiritual land of peace will never be reached, and the physical sacrifices of their children will continue.

 

Only by going forward to the new land, together, will these peoples be truly blessed.

October 22, 2015

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harachaman hu yivarekh otanu, kol yosh’vei teivel, kulanu, yachad b'virkat shalom.
May the Merciful One bless us, all the inhabitants of the world, all of us, as one, with the blessing of peace.
 
Rabbi Richard A. Flom - Rabbi Emeritus
Temple B'nai Hayim
http://rav-rich.blogspot.com/  
.אֵיזֶהוּ חָכָם? הַלוֹמֵד מִכָּל אָדָם
Who is wise? The one who learns from every person.
Ben Zoma - Pirkei Avot 4:1
------------------------------------
Cyber Torah list management (no salesman will call!): 
To subscribe to Cyber Torah, and receive Cyber Torah every week in your mailbox, send an e-mail with the subject heading “Subscribe Cyber Torah” to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net     
Send requests for dedications of Cyber Torah in honor of a simchah, in memory of a loved one or for a refuah shleimah to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net 
To unsubscribe from Cyber Torah, send an e-mail with the subject heading “Unsubscribe Cyber Torah” to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net