Start here · day 4 of 14 · One family is called
לֶךְ־לְךָ
One man is asked to leave
Genesis 12
First, read it
Genesis 12
Read it before the notes below. They are worth more once you have your own impression of it.
Open Genesis 12Then, the idea
A man called Abram is told to leave his country, his birthplace and his father's house, and go to a land he will be shown. He is not told where. He goes.
The promise made to him has a shape worth reading twice: I will bless you, and you shall be a blessing, and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Being chosen here is a job, not a prize. Everything the Bible later says about this family stands or falls on whether the rest of the world is better for them.
One word of Hebrew
לֶךְ־לְךָ
lech lecha — go, for yourself
Two words that almost rhyme. It can mean 'go forth', and it can mean 'go to yourself' — go to the person you would only become by leaving.
And one question
He is asked to leave everything familiar with no destination given. What would make you say yes to that?
Nobody is marking this. Sit with it on the way to work.
If this one landed: The whole Torah, a portion a week.