I am fairly certain I speak for everyone when I say this, but G-d does not talk to me on a regular basis. If I were to wake up one morning and hear G-d’s voice thundering in my ears, I would surely think I was crazy. This is no surprise to me though, for who am I to be spoken to by G-d? I am just an ordinary Jewish boy from California who, like anyone else, struggles with connecting to G-d.

What is to say anything was different for Abram in this week’s Parsha, Lech Lecha. In every incident in the Torah where G-d has spoken to man, a ‘chosen’ man in particular, there has been something special or unique about them that we are told made them deserving of a G-dly encounter. In the instance of Noach, in last week’s parsha, we are told “Noach was a righteous man, perfect in his generations; Noach walked with G-d…” and in nearly every case thereafter, there is a similar introduction explaining why they are chosen by G-d. However, this is not the case for Abram. Abram is introduced simply as the son of Terach, brother to Nachor and Haran, and husband to Sarai and nothing more. Abram was a simple man, and yet all of the sudden G-d chooses him to be the father of great  nations and commands him לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵֽאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ “Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.”

What is even more surprising, is that Abram actually listened to G-d! Abram immediately left his home and traveled to a land that G-d would ‘show’ him. Again, I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say this, but who in their right mind would be willing do something like this!?
Clearly Abram did not see himself as an extraordinary man either, yet when he heard the word of G-d he was unfazed and did as he was told, accepting that he would be the father of many great nations – a task that no simple man can easily handle.
Interestingly, when G-d said Lech Lecha he was not talking only to Abram, he was talking to all of mankind, and Abram was the one who responded.

This can teach us something very important. Just like the rest of us, Abram was no extraordinary man, and when G-d spoke to Abram, he was really speaking to all of us. G-d surely does not expect us to run away from home and hop on a plane to Israel, but He is telling us that we all have the obligation to get up from where we are comfortable and set out to truly find and connect with G-d.

We must take action, like Abraham, and hear the call from G-d. For some, this may actually be defined as a flight to Israel, as for others it may be keeping Kosher, or davening on the daily. We learn from Lech Lecha that within all of us is a desire to find a connection to G-d and we must go out of our comfort zone to search for what that connection may be.

Hopefully you, like Abraham, can find your connection with Hashem.
Shabbat Shalom!

Eitan Feifel
WC Regional Board
San Diego Chapter