"Lech lecha - go!"(Genesis 12:1) Marcheshvan 12, 5781/October 30, 2020 Out of the blue. "Lech lecha - go!" G-d tells Avraham. "Go from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house." To where? "To the land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1) "Lech lecha - go!" G-d tells Avraham, go to yourself... "to the land that I will show you." Tradition tells us that Avraham had been a rebel from his early youth. Legend has he shattered the idols in his father's shop, all but one. And then pointed toward the dumb idol when his father, shocked at what he saw, demanded an explanation. "He did it," Avraham said, still pointing at the standing idol. Young Avraham was rewarded for his troubles by being cast into a fiery furnace by Nimrod, King of Ur. But that was a long time ago. Avraham, now seventy five in years, had been fixated on the One G-d for many years, One G-d who created and controlled His creation. A G-d whose presence instilled a certain order in the world. Yet Avraham had never met that G-d. He spent his days and nights focused on a G-d he never met. And then... "Lech lecha - go!" G-d comes a-calling! Out of nowhere. And Avraham's bags are packed even before G-d can say "And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will aggrandize your name, and you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you." (ibid 12:2-3) Go, G-d says - go into the unknown and I will promise you the world and beyond. And the only thing that matches G-d's outlandish promises of glory is Avraham's faith: his deep and abiding trust in G-d. G-d will spend the rest of Avraham's life making him promises. Of blessings, of seed, of land, of a great nation and of a fellowship between the nations in his name. And Avraham will spend all his days dealing with famine, with rivalry, with war, with barrenness, with his wife's beauty and her temperament, his faith being tested time and time again. And his faith never wavers. Avraham had been looking for G-d. But G-d had also been looking for man. For twenty generations since Adam walked out of the Garden of Eden G-d has been looking for man. In the nadir of G-d's relationship with man He found favor in Noach, who built a boat and saved his skin and humanity with it. Noach's mission had a beginning and an end. G-d was searching for more. He wanted a long term relationship with man, a relationship, for all purposes, with humanity. And Avraham, searching, questioning and faithful, was G-d's in. But as in all true relationships it wasn't just one way. Just as G-d was testing Avraham, Avraham was testing, and teaching, G-d. He taught G-d that if he was to become the father of a nation that he (Avraham) needed to first sire a son, or give his inheritance to his servant. He taught G-d that in order to achieve justice He must mitigate His anger with compassion. as in the story of Sodom. A courtship was taking place between G-d and Avraham, each side mapping out its territory in the relationship, together creating a covenant that would bridge the millennia. Along with Avraham's embrace of G-d a new element in the relationship between man and G-d emerged, that being time. G-d's promises would take time, much more time than Avraham had, to be fulfilled. "You shall surely know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them, for four hundred years." (ibid 15:13) Four hundred years! What would have been a death sentence for another man, was a precious gift for Avraham. He, like G-d, could also see far into the distant future. A friendship was forged. A bond was struck. Man and G-d would never be alone again. The prophet Isaiah refers to Avraham in G-d's name as "Avraham ohavi - Avraham My friend," or "Avraham My love," either translation applies. Avraham the searcher discovered that the same unfathomable, infinite and all powerful G-d who created existence could also be a Companion, a Friend and a Love for life. G-d discovered the same about man. The rest, with all its ups and downs, is history. |
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk, as Yitzchak Reuven zooms in on Lech Lecha, in which Avraham gets a call from G-d! Avraham is a game-changer in G-d's world, and it is an exciting time to be on the Temple Mount! It was a classic story of love at first sight, between Avraham, searching for G-d, and G-d, searching for man, but it would take unprecedented faith in HaShem and His promise to make this beautiful new friendship a lasting reality. Can the descendants of Avraham's sons Yitzchak and Yishmael become friends today, and can the new friendship become manifested on the Temple Mount? Exciting times and fateful decisions lie ahead! |
Positivity & the Holy Temple: Why the Holy Temple? Why should we want to build it? Why do we need it? How will it be good for the Jews? How will it be good for the world? "Any prayer, any supplication, which will be made by any man, or by all Your people Israel, who shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house." (I Kings 8:38) The Holy Temple is the Place to pray and the Place where your prayer will be answered! |
"Lech Lecha! - Go!" G-d tells Avraham: go to Canaan... go lecha - to yourself! Explore the world that G-d created! Explore your relationship with G-d, your reason for being! Be a spiritual pioneer, honest and fearless, and you shall be blessed, for freeing yourself of society's bonds and walking with G-d is the blessing itself, and all who bless you will themselves be blessed! Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1 - 17:27)
Parashat Lech Lecha is read on Shabbat:
Marcheshvan 13, 5781/October 31, 2020 |
Haftarah For Shabbat Lech Lecha Isaiah 40:27 - 41:16: "Why do you say, O Yaakov, Why declare, O Israel, “My way is hid from HaShem, My cause is ignored by my G-d”?
Do you not know? Have you not heard? HaShem is G-d from of old, Creator of the earth from end to end, He never grows faint or weary, His wisdom cannot be fathomed.
He gives strength to the weary, Fresh vigor to the spent... " |
Knesset Member Ariel Kelner Calls Upon Israel To Ascend The Temple Mount! Knesset Member Ariel Kelner (Likud), the head of the Knesset's Temple Mount Lobby, which met last week, ascended the Temple Mount yesterday, where he delivered this appeal to the people of Israel. |
The Flag Of Israel: 72 Years Old Today! The flag of Israel was officially adopted on October 28, 1948, five months after the establishment of the state of Israel. May the flag of Israel soon fly over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the place of the Holy Temple, the beating heart and soul of the nation of Israel, and all the world. "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." (Isaiah 56:7) |
Temple Mount Activist Summoned By Police For Recording Invitation To Gulf Arabs To Join Jews On The Temple Mount Temple Mount guide and activist Michael Miller was banned from ascending the Temple Mount, and ordered by police to an investigation. The reason? Last week Michael Miller recorded himself delivering a message in English welcoming Gulf Arabs, whose leaders have just opened diplomatic relations with Israel, to join Jewish worshipers on the Temple Mount. |
Thursday, Oct. 29: Temple Mount Closed To Jews This Thursday the Temple Mount will be closed to Jews, due to a Muslim holiday (birthday of Muhammed). |
Temple Mount Muslim Waqf Under Attack (By Muslims) Recent verbal threats and insults made by the Palestinain Authority and by the Muslim Waqf on the Temple Mount against Israel's new peace partners, the U.A.E. and Bahrain, including a verbal attack on visiting Gulf Arabs on the Temple Mount last week, has prompted indignant responses by Emitari and Bahrainis on social media. |
On The Temple Mount: Ascending The Temple Mount On The 855th Anniversary Of Rambam's Historic Ascent Today I ascended the Temple Mount to mark the 855th anniversary of the Rambam's (Maimonides) historic ascent to the Temple Mount on the 6th of Marcheshvan, where he prayed, in "the great and holy house." |
Commemorating The 854th Anniversary Of Maimonides' Historic Ascent To The Temple Mount, Pt 5 Rambam's Life in Egypt: Twelfth century Israel, violently torn between the Christian crusaders and their mortal enemies, the Moslems, was too harsh and hostile an environment for Rambam to remain in, and after his his visit to the Temple Mount and the cave of Machpela in Hevron he continued on his journey southward and westward where he settled in Fostat, a large city of 200,000 inhabitants. |
Commemorating The 854th Anniversary Of Maimonides' Historic Ascent To The Temple Mount, Pt 4 Rambam's Personal Reflections on His Journey to Israel
and the Temple Mount: Rambam, in describing his experience, writes, "I entered the Great and Holy House and prayed there, on Thursday, the 6th of the month of Marcheshvan, " refers to the Temple Mount as "The Great and Holy House." |
Today: Trial For Jews Who Said "Shema Yisrael" On The Temple Mount Last night, at the close of Shabbat, Israel kicked of its official rainy season, adjusting the summertime prayer for dew to the winter time prayer for rain and for dew: תן טל ומטר - ten tal umatar! |
Commemorating The 855th Anniversary Of Maimonides' Historic Ascent To The Temple Mount, Pt. 3 Yesterday, the 6th of Marcheshvan, was the 855th anniversary of Maimonides' historic ascent to the Temple Mount. For a description of Rambam's perilous journey, we we have the words written in his own hand... |
Commemorating The 855th Anniversary Of Maimonides' Historic Ascent To The Temple Mount, Pt.2 The land of Israel, in the 12th century, was the epicenter of the now centuries old conflict between Christendom and Islam. It was the time of the Second and Third Crusade. |
Shavua Tov From The Temple Mount! Today marks one week since the government imposed Corona restrictions on ascending the Temple Mount have been lifted, and over 500 Jews have reconnected to the holiest spot on earth over the past seven days. |
Help To Build The Holy Temple In Our Time: Donate Generously To Help The Sacred Work Of The Temple Institute! Every contribution helps to rebuild the Holy Temple in our Time! |
Blessings from the holy city of Jerusalem!
Yitzchak Reuven
The Temple Institute |
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