El ha’aretz asher areka – “to the land that I will show you.” Avram is asked to step out of his familiar landscape, to leave behind the forces – from childhood and ancestral inheritance – that keep him entrenched, and to move forward on a path toward an unknown and uncertain destination, to a land that he cannot yet see, but is promised that he will be shown.
This call does not include Avram’s name. It is a timeless call that whispers to each one of us on every single day: Leave behind the past, leave behind the stories and wounds of childhood, leave behind the heavy weight of legacy trauma, leave behind what keeps you stuck – and follow Me to a land that you cannot yet see or even imagine, to a way of being that will unfold and reveal itself slowly as you go.
“To the land that I will show you.” We do not make this trek alone. God walks with us and wants to show us something, wants to show us what it feels like to be ourselves, to be free to move and know ourselves and therefore also to know God. There is a sense of emerging – el ha’aretz asher areka – to the land that I will slowly, gradually, continually show you. What is emerging is of course not entirely clear, but we can sense into it and know that something inside us is indeed emerging, something new and unfamiliar and magnificent, something never yet seen before. It is you, the most divine you, that is wanting to emerge. Lekh likha. Go towards yourself, your highest self. God wants to show you who you are, who you could become, who you are evolving to be.
“To the land that I will show you” is a process. It is as if you are on a path surrounded by fog, no idea where you are going, and a Guiding Light illumines before you only the very next step. Avram walked up and down the land. Vayelekh, vaye’etak, vayisa, vaye’ehal, kum hithalekh, so many words for travel in this parsha, a slow movement towards Self, a gradual blossoming and emerging. Tradition says Avraham endured ten trials or perhaps ten growth experiences, ten places where God pointed the way, gradually waiting, with great patience, for the full Avraham to emerge. God holds and guides and molds and waits, yes, waits for each of us to realize and understand – to hear the constant whispered call – and be ready, at each point, for the next step. We are each an Avram slowly becoming an Avraham.
Photo by Frans van Heerden at Pexels
