Lech L'cha 5781: "World on Fire"
The world is on fire.
No, I don’t mean literally, though we are seeing unprecedented fires out West, most likely exacerbated by climate fluctuations. I don’t even mean rhetorically, though God knows the words we’re hearing — and sometimes saying — are certainly inflammatory.
I don’t even necessarily mean now, though of course it is burning now.
This week we find, in the Torah, something new. We’re in Parashat Lech L’cha. “Get up and go,” (1) God says to Abraham, the world’s first Hebrew man, the original Jewish founding father. Go from your home, from your birthplace, from your father’s house, to the land I will show you.
Meaning you haven’t seen it yet. Meaning that it is unknown.
This week we step into the unknown. As a people, as individuals.
Abraham answers the Call, walks off the map. Into danger, into possibility.
Why?
I mean sure, God said so — but lots of people ignore messages right in front of their faces.
The Midrash talks about Abraham’s choice to follow the Voice.
“Rabbi Isaac said: [Abraham’s journey] can be compared to a man who was traveling from place to place when he saw a birah doleket — a castle all aglow.”
According to the Midrash, the man asks, “Is it possible that this palace lacks a caretaker?” And the owner of the palace looks out and says, 'I am the owner of the palace.”
You probably get the point. Abraham looks around at his world. He asks, “Is it possible that it lacks a caretaker?” And the Blessed Holy One looks out and says, “I am the Sovereign of the Universe.” (2)
What is this bira doleket? Why is the castle aglow. Doleket like l’hadlik ner. To kindle light, like Shabbat or Chanukah candles. Maybe it means the lights are on. Like the motel commercial, “We’ll leave the light on for you.” It means in a world with all sorts of double-talk and distractions, there is a Force of Blessing. Abraham looks for order in the world, and finds God, and in the process founds a new spiritual tradition.
But there are lots of ways to talk about light. A deleikah and also be a blazing inferno. The term birah doleket, which we might translate ambiguously as “a palace aglow,” could also be translated as a burning palace. A palace scorched by fire.
And.
And there is also loss and annihilation. It burns like fire. The fire of hate and bigotry and subjugation and the sacrilege of white supremacy. The scorch of the sun baked into air pulsing with triple-digit temperatures. The heaving flames of cruelty and cynicism and lies.
The world can feel the flames. Immigrants hiding in shadows, trans folks afraid to walk home, workers of color forced to inhale infected air, women whose equality is still subject to debate. But that doesn’t mean everyone names the fires. Some people go about their business, keep their heads down, ignore the flames.
And, in the midst of all this, here comes Tuesday. We don’t know what will happen. We get a say, of course, but the ultimate decision happens out there. We’re not in control of it.
It is up to the Jew to name it.
It’s only after he looks that God calls out to him. Moshe! Moshe! Like Abraham was called. Avraham! Avraham!
(When God calls you twice, you know it’s serious.)
A double call, for a double fire — burning with threat, burning with blessing. Moses sees the flame of blessing within his world. And Moses’ also sees the fire of injustice of his enslaved family in Pharaoh’s Egypt.
turn and look.”
And, having done so, find the courage to see what must seen.