Rabbi's Sermons

Shabat Shalom,

“And the Lord had said unto Abram, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.” ^{Genesis 12:1}, so begins the portion of this week, Lech Lecha, and so begins our Patriarch, Abraham, his voyage to a new life, to a new place, to the unknown!

Compared to the epic odyssey of our father Abraham, I also made several life changes, leaving behind houses, kinship, friendships. Like Abraham, the first time I left Mexico to Israel, I made Aliyah to the Promised Land. Years later, it was to return to Mexico, and years after, to return again to Israel, then to Costa Rica, and this time, exactly 207 days ago, to reach Shreveport, Lousiana. Here, like Abraham, I have found new friends, a new culture, new culinary tastes. It is surely a story that will be familiar to some of you, who had have come to live in this city, or the stories of immigrants – Olim to Israel.

When I arrived in Israel, it wasn’t, like Abraham, to form a Brit, a covenant, but to live it. When people asked me back then, why did I make Aliyah, or today others ask me, why did I leave Israel? I usually answer with the story of ‘Lech Lecha’. When I lived in Israel, I felt an integral part of a Jewish society that lives its day-to-day Judaism. A society where Hebrew is part of its daily routine and the everyday language. A society where for 50% of its inhabitants, Shabbat is not considered the best time to visit the synagogue, but just the opportunity to finally wake up late and rest, or walk in the parks, beaches or beautiful places that Israel has to offer. Israel is a place where your Jewish identity becomes part of almost seven and a half million people, a tiny part of the population of the country. When someone leaves Israel tough, that same Jewish identity, like that Abrahamic covenant, becomes more intense, strengthened, and has an important sense in life. Even walking the street wearing a kipa, which happens to be something common in Israel, becomes something very significant here in the USA! It is like living Judaism by a positive choice, rather than by default. You cease to be one of the grains of sand promised to Abraham, as it is written: "…in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore" ^{Genesis 22:17}

The covenant with Abraham is something out of the ordinary, in the history of religions. God does not make a covenant with Abraham... He does it with future generations as well! With you, sitting here now, too! There are many verses in this Parasha, like the following, that indicate this: “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” ^{Genesis 12:7} - “for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed for ever. ¹⁶ And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered” ^{Genesis 13:15,16} - “Look now toward heaven and count the stars, if thou be able to number them.” And He said unto him, “So shall thy seed be.” ^{Genesis 15:5} -“Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates” ^{Genesis 15:18}. And finally, in chapter 17, where the pact is found, in which I will ask you, to please count how many times the expression "and thy seed after thee" appears:

“⁷ And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. ⁸ And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” ⁹ And God said unto Abraham, “Thou shalt keep My covenant, therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. ¹⁰ This is My covenant which ye shall keep between Me and you and thy seed after thee: every manchild among you shall be circumcised.” - I think you get the idea.

If we consider that there is a significance in each word in the Torah, and if the expression "and thy seed after thee" appears five times in four verses, Darsheni - Obvious! The Tora is trying to tell me something! I wonder, how would the Eternal make a pact, with someone who does not exist yet?

It is written: " Thou shalt keep My covenant, therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations"; How could Abraham Avinu commit himself to fulfill something like that? You yourselves... How could you commit to continue your Jewish legacy in the generations that follow you? Any educator or rabbi will answer you immediately, with one word: EDUCATION! Chinuch in Hebrew, and there are those who jokingly say that it was not Chinuch, but Chituch, in Hebrew "cutting", referring to the Brit Mila, of course, the circumcision pact. If we remember that Brit Mila for Abraham's descendants is for Jews and for Muslims, we can understand that it is only Jewish education that, in the eyes of the great rabbi teachers, is the only way to fulfill our part of the pact. Chinuch is not an option, it is one of the ways to fulfill the covenant itself, and it is the only way to continue the idea of “thy seed after thee”, as it appears five times in those four verses. Millions of Muslims and Christians have circumcision done for their sons, and that does not make them part of the covenant with the people of Israel, through Isaac and Yaacov. It seems that having Brit Mila isn’t enough, and without pretending, God forbids! to diminish its importance, Brit Mila is not the only way to maintain our obligation to the pact with our father Abraham... Just as our patriarch began his journey, it is our duty to continue his path, teaching our next generations our Faith and our beautiful legacy. In our Jewish school and with our Jewish education in the community or at home, is not an option... It is an obligation “mideoraita - from the Torah”! It is a way to fulfill the tradition that only via education to our next generations, we may keep alive, since it began with Abraham... more than 3000 years ago.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi David Laor

November 8^th, 2024