Download the discussion plan here: Word 
PDF 
Discussion Plan: Leavings
Download the exercise here: Word PDF
Exercise: Circles of Attachment
What in your life are you most attached to? Think of your home – if you were to leave home, what would be most difficult to leave behind? What not as difficult? Draw three circles. In the center put the thing it would be most difficult to leave, then move out in the circles with things that would be less difficult to leave (from hardest to less hard). Pick a different community you are part of (school? sports team?) – what would be hardest to leave behind if you were leaving that community?
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Exercise: Different Journeys
Use the images below to answer the following questions:
Images are provided through open domain or license from Shutterstock
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Leading Idea: Circles of Attachment
When God tells Avram “Lech lecha” he mentions three kinds of leaving:
Several scholars have noted that it seems strange to list the circles of attachment in this order. The text from Nechama Leibowitz and the commentary Haktav Vehakabala both offer an interpretation for this.
This next set of exercises and discussion plan explore these different ‘layers of leaving’.
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Discussion Plan: Different Meanings of “Lech L’cha”
Read the sentence on the left – which kind of “Go Forth!” do you think is invoked here? You can mark more than one, but make sure you can explain what you mean in each case. If you mark more than one, explain what it would mean to ‘go’ for each one you marked (eg: going camping might be ‘go forth’ because going to camp means you are moving geographically, but it also may be ‘go to yourself’ because when you are camping you discover you are now capable of doing things that you never would have thought you could do).
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Go! Leave where you are for somewhere else |
Go for yourself! For your own benefit — (eg: financial or physical benefit) |
Go to yourself! Go to greater self-understanding (to understand who you are now better) |
Go to the person you will become! The person you will one day be — fulfilling your destiny, or becoming a better person |
| Kate: “I’m going to miss you when you leave, but I know the job in Boston pays a higher salary.” | ||||
| Eli: “I went on this retreat to get in touch with the ‘real me’ – it was very cool. I learned lots about myself.” | ||||
| Zaitlan: “Going to summer camp last year was really important – I really became more self-confident and independent.” | ||||
| Esti: “We are moving to Israel – I don’t want to go, but my parents say it is the only place we can truly grow up to be ourselves. But I think I am my best self right here.” | ||||
| David: “Getting up early for basketball training is not fun, but I know that I’ll appreciate the fact that I made this effort when I make it to the championships.” | ||||
| Sam: “Once a week after school I go with my mum to the home where my grandparents live. I help them to go down to the dining room and sometimes I sing for them because they like that.” |
Go back to the Biblical text – if we view Avram’s journey through each of these lenses, how might we understand the meaning and significance of his journey?
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Secondary: Circles of Attachment
Haktav Vehakabala
Nehama Leibowitz: from Studies in Bereshit, pp.113
“לֶךְ-לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ”
“get you out of your country, and from your birthplace, and from your father’s house…”
Scholars have spoken about the unusual order of ‘leaving’ here. The verse should have read, in the ordinary way: “מבית אביך, ממולדתך ומארצך” (from your father’s house, your birthplace and from your country.”) This is the logical sequence, since a person first leaves home, then his place of birth and then his country.
The commentary הכתב והקבלה (Haktav Vehakabala)* suggests that there we are referring to a spiritual rather than physical withdrawal, beginning with more distant connections and ending with the most personal. Leaving your place of birth is not so hard as cutting the connection to your family. First, therefore, Abraham was told to cut his connection with his country, then his city and finally the most intimate bond, that of home.
*Haktav Vehakabala was written by Rabbi Yaakov Tzevi Mecklenburg, a German Jewish scholar of the 19th century. Rabbi Mecklenburg served as Rabbi of Koenigsburg, East Prussia for 35 years (1831-65). Haketav Vehakabbalah was first published in 1839.
Nehama Leibowitz -1905-1997, was a famous Israeli Bible scholar who developed a particular style of Bible study that was very popular around the world.
Picture source: www.lookstein.org/nechama_
Download the leading idea description here: PDF
Leading Idea: Different Meanings of Lech L’cha
‘Lech l’cha’ is generally taken as an expression meaning “Go forth”. But this isn’t the only way of reading it. While Lech l’cha on its own is a command (like sit! or stop!), lech on its own means ‘go’ and l’cha’ on its own generally means ‘to you’. What might these mean when put together?
In this unit we explore the following different readings of the phrase ‘Lechl’cha’.
Each of these offers a different understanding of Avram’s journey. The resources here both provide voices from within our tradition that speak to these interpretations and resources for students to apply the distinctions in their own lives and thus to come to internalize the different meanings as resources for making sense of different kinds of ‘Lech!’ in their own lives.
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Activity: Blessing of the Kohanim
This is the way Kohanim hold their hands when giving the priestly blessing – the fingers form a Shin to represent Shaddai (God’s name.) Can you hold your hands this way? Look up the blessing Bamidbar 6:23–27.
Image from: http://ggorelik.narod.ru/LeHaim_W/LeHaim_W1.htm
Image by Kleuske – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20497346
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Activity: Blessing the Children
This custom is a nice way of bringing gratitude and spirituality into your family on Shabbat and at other special occasions. There are different customs as to when the blessing is recited. Some families bless their children immediately before or after Kiddush. Others prefer to bless just after lighting the Shabbat candles. Usually the person giving the blessing places one or both hands on the child’s head. Some parents bless each child in succession, others bless all of the girls together, and all of the boys together, while other families have developed their own rituals around this practice.
In Pairs, take it in turns to give the blessing one to another – do it with Kavanah (focused intentionality). What did it feel like to give the blessing? What did it feel like to receive the blessing? (Physically, how did you experience it? How did the relationship with the other person feel during this experience?)
The words of the blessing are taken from the priestly blessing (Bamidbar 6:24-26) and traditionally the introduction is constructed differently according to the gender of the person being blessed. Some people like to ‘mix this up’ and include both male and female figures in blessing their child.
For males:
יְשִׂימְךָ אֱלהיִם כְּאֶפְרַיְם וְכִמְנַשֶּׁה
May you be like Ephraim and Menashe.
For females:
יְשִׂימֵךְ אֱלהיִם כְּשָׂרָה רִבְקָה רָחֵל וְלֵאָה
May you be like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.
For both genders, the rest of the blessing is:
יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ
יָאֵר יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָּ
יִשָּׂא יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלום
May God bless you and guard you.
May God show you favor and be gracious to you.
May God show you kindness and grant you peace.
