Parshat Lekh L’kha

This week’s parashah begins with God’s call to Avram: “Lekh L’kha — Get going!” That phrase, which literally means “Go for yourself,” can be interpreted to mean: “Go for the sake of your own essence, for the sake of who you really are.” We are not asked to be more than we are capable of being. But we are asked — all of us — to be the people that only we can be.

One day Zusia of Hanipol wept, and his students asked him why. He replied: “When I go to the world to come, they will not ask me, ‘Why were you not the Ba’al Shem Tov?’ They will ask me, ‘Why were you not Zusia?'”

We all have lekh l’kha moments, when we feel called upon to stretch ourselves, to leave behind what we are comfortable with. We can understand those moments as calls to be the person that God knows us to be, but that we ourselves do not yet know — to “get going” for the sake of who we really are, for the sake of the difference that only we can make.

• Shabbat services at The New Shul are on Friday evenings from 6 to 7 pm and on Saturday mornings from 9 am to 12 noon. The kiddush this Shabbat, October 12, is sponsored by Patti Evans and Andy Gordon in honor of the upcoming marriage of Patti’s daughter Sarah Evans to Jacob Thomas.
• Childcare is available from 10 am to 12 noon on Shabbat mornings. Beyond Bim Bom for grades 2 to 5 meets this Shabbat from 10:15 to 11:30 am
• Minyanim during the week are on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am and on Wednesday mornings at 7 am.
• On Sunday and Monday October 20 and 21, The New Shul will host two lectures by Dr. Ruth Satinover Fagen, sponsored by the Women’s Jewish Learning Center. On Sunday at 7:30 pm: “Fear, Sin, Longing and Desire: The Purpose of the Mishkan.” On Monday at 11 am: “Searching for Truthful Judgment: Justice in the Rabbinic Legal System.” The lectures are free and open to all.