Discussion Plan: What is the Meaning of “Blessing”?
Can people give blessings, or only God? If people can give them, do you think there is a difference between a blessing given by God and a blessing given by a person? Explain.
Can you ‘give a blessing’ without blessing someone /something?
Is there a difference being blessed and being a blessing?
Could you ‘be a blessing’ if you had no effect on those around you?
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?
When God tells Avram “Lech lecha” he mentions three kinds of leaving:
Leave your country
Leave your birthplace
Leave your father’s house
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’.
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.
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).
Go! Leave where you are for somewhere else
Go for yourself! For your own benefit — (eg: financial or physical benefit)
Go to yourself! Getting to know yourself better
Go to the person you will become! Growing up, becoming a better person
Kate, age 6: “I’m excited about starting a new school, I’m going to learn so many new things.”
Eli, age 5: “we went to the lake for the first time I thought I would be scared to go in the water but I learned that I really liked it!”
Zaitlan, age 8: “Going to summer camp last year was my first time away from home – I really became more confident and independent.
Ronnie, age 7: “We are going to visit our grandparents in Texas – I am really excited”
Kate: “I’m going to miss you when you leave, but I know the job in Boston pays a higher salary.”
David, age 9: “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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