"Outahere!"

  Last week I wrote about Genesis in general. This week I want to look at two words that begin this week’s Torah portion; in fact, together they are the very name of the sedra. God tells Abram (he’s not yet Abraham and Sarah is Sarai, but we’ll stick with the more well-known names), Lech-l’cha! “Go forth from your country, from your place of birth, from your father’s house, to the land I will show you!” In short, like Harry Kalas, Philadelphia Phillies announcer, God said, “Outahere!!”

  God knew that Abraham wasn’t part of his parents’ world. His idea of the Divine Presence was different. Abraham believed in one God, and while his family members probably weren’t idolaters, they surely didn’t have Abraham’s faith. He and Sarah had to start anew. Whether or not they would leave on their own isn’t known, but to show us the significance of this unprecedented journey, it had to be God to give them the go-ahead, permission and encouragement to seek their own spiritual way in a new land. 

  When they left it is said that accompanying them were “the souls they had acquired.” This is interpreted to mean that there were others who linked their spiritual future to that of Abraham and Sarah. These “souls” were converts.

   Converts (better, “Jews-by-Choice”) take a Hebrew name of their choice but they are “son/daughter (ben/bat) Avraham v’Sarah.” They are immediately brought into the chain of tradition. Just like the patriarch and matriarch their journey, while not filled with physical danger, often is replete with emotional difficulty. They leave their “father’s house.” Every now and then I have to catch myself from assuming the person’s adoption of Judaism is no big deal until I think how I would feel if my child went forth from my house, i.e. my religious tradition. Yes, it is hard on the parents, but it is hard on the offspring as well. In most instances the Jew-by-Choice doesn’t want mom or dad to be hurt, embarrassed, even humiliated by their decision. Think of it this way and you too will realize the power of that opening sentence in the sedra we read this Shabbat!