Parshat Lech Lecha – Rabbi Goldin

13 Oct 2010
OU Press

Finished and Unfinished Journeys

by Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, author of Unlocking the Torah Text

Context:

God appears to Avraham and launches Jewish history with the commandment: Lech lecha mei’artzecha…, “Go for yourself from your land, from your birthplace and from the home of your father to the land that I will show you.”

Avraham responds by journeying to the land of Canaan; and the story of our nation begins.

Questions:

God did not specify the destination of Avraham’s journey. The text, however, indicates that Avraham left his home “to go to the land of Canaan.”

How did Avraham know where to go?

Continued here: link

Adapted from one of the multiple essays on this parsha in Unlocking the Torah Text by Rabbi Shmuel Goldin.