Lekh L’kha: Going Forth Toward Who You Are Becoming

I recently taught about the Torah portion, Lekh L’kha, in a Neshama Body and Soul session. We started the teaching just after we warmed up. The questions came at the end, while everyone was holding a plank.

That was on purpose. When we move our bodies, we open up more deeply and more quickly than when we’re sitting still. A question you might brush off sitting in a chair lands differently when your core is working hard and legs are starting to shake.

Setting out without a map

In Lekh L’kha, Avram and Sarai, before they become Avraham and Sarah, are told to leave their home and go to a land that God will show them. No map. No address. They set out without knowing exactly where they are going, much like we do on so many of our own life journeys.

Their journey is both physical and spiritual. They leave the familiar for the unknown, and along the way, they enter into a covenant with God. Their names change too, reflecting a new chapter in their lives and a new understanding of who they are.

Go to yourself

Lekh l’kha means “go forth,” and the Hebrew can also be heard as “go to yourself.” The 19th-century Ishbitzer Rebbe, in his work Mei Hashiloach, reads it that way. He understands it as a call to move toward our true selves, to discover who we are at our core, and who we are becoming. I find that powerful.

Going forward means getting somewhere new, and it also means discovering something new within ourselves. Avram and Sarai don’t arrive as the same people who had left.

I wonder how many of us are waiting to see the whole road before we take the first step. And I wonder what we would find out about ourselves if we were to go anyway.

Lekh L’kha asks us to move, not back to who we once were, but toward who we are capable of becoming.

Questions to take with you

• When do you feel most like your authentic self?

• What have you discovered about yourself along the way?

• Is there a journey or risk you feel called to take, even if you don’t yet know where it will lead?

You don’t need a class to try this. Take a walk around the block, or hold a plank if that’s part of your practice, and bring the questions with you. See what comes up when your body is moving.

May we have the courage to take the first step before we can see the whole road ahead, so that we may discover who we are becoming.

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Neshama Body and Soul brings strength training, prayer, and Torah together for groups of all ages, from three to 93, mat-based or chair-based. If you’d like to bring it to your community, let’s find time to talk.