Last week’s Torah portion (i.e., parashat Noach) introduced us to Abram (אַבְרָם), the descendant of Noah’s son Shem, who was the great-grandson of the patriarch Methuselah – a man who who personally knew Adam and Eve and upheld the original promise of redemption given in the Garden of Eden. Just as there were ten generations from Adam to Noah, so there were also ten generations from Noah to Abram (see Gen. 11:10-32). And just as Noah became the father of 70 nations, so Abram (through Shem) would become the father of the Jewish people, through whom the Promised Seed – the Messiah and Savior of the world – would eventually come.

In our Torah portion for this week, parashat Lekh-Lekha, we read that Abram was 75 years old, married to (his half-sister) Sarai, and guardian of his nephew Lot (his deceased brother Haran’s son) when he received the promise of divine inheritance and left Mesopotamia for the Promised Land: “And the LORD said to Abram, “Go from (i.e., lekh-lekha: לך־לך) your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you:
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In Hebrew, the phrase lekh lekha means “go for yourself” (lit. “walk [הָלַךְ] for yourself [לְךָ]”), though the sages interpreted it to mean “go to yourself,” that is, “look within yourself” in order to begin walking out your own journey into the promises. The realm of divine promise is only attained when we venture out in faith. Like Abraham, we likewise are called to leave everything behind and to go forth by faith to take hold of God’s promise for our lives…

 

Lekh-Lekha Podcast:.

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