Parshas Lech-Lecha: Stars of Blessing

In this week’s Torah portion, Lech-Lecha: Bereishit (Genesis) 12:1 - 17:27, we meet Abraham, the first Patriarch, and his wife Sarah, the first Matriarch. Known as Abram and Sarai at the beginning of the portion, they leave their home and venture forth according to God's call: go out into pagan society and transform it into a monotheistic culture. A visionary blessed with the Almighty's presence, Abram embarks on his journey with a hopeful heart that any idolator he meets has potential for knowing God and serving God. His every action inspires and enlightens those around him.

God reassures Abram that his lifelong journey will culminate in blessings for his family, his country, and the world. He and Sarai will parent a great nation as numerous as the stars in Heaven. His descendants will have a country of their own. This nation will uphold and teach moral guidelines for living to all people of the earth. The ones who bless the nation of Israel will be blessed; the ones who curse the nation of Israel will be cursed.

Abram encounters hazards on his journey, safeguarded by God's love and protection. His cheerful spirit and friendly personality attract many converts along the way. When Abram is 100 years old, God changes his name to Abraham, father of multitudes. Sarai gets a new name, too, Sarah. The childless couple receive God's promise of a son to be born next year.

The portion closes as Abraham endorses the Holy covenant by circumcising himself and the other men in his household.

Our Haftarah portion this week, Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 40:27 - 41:16, compliments the Genesis reading with references to Abraham's adventures in Canaan, including a miraculous military victory engineered by God against four powerful pagan armies, a testimony of God's blessings merited by a righteous man. Isaiah makes clear that God will always bless a holy Israel and vanquish her enemies.

The Torah portion declares that Abraham is the progenitor of a nation as numerous as the stars. In 2016, Christopher Conselice, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, said there are about 100 million stars in the average galaxy. That would include The Milky Way, planet earth's galaxy. So, the nation of Israel should number 100 million!

In 2023, the number of Jews in the world was estimated at 15.7 million with 7.2 million living in Israel.

Our Divine destiny of 100 million Jews seems as unreachable as an unreachable star.  A history of genocide and a century of abortion practice have taken their toll. A tendency to forsake monotheistic worship in favor of all sorts of isms hasn't helped the Jewish nation negotiate the many challenges thrown at us. Our Torah reading and Isaiah's prophecy remind us that only a holy nation will receive God's blessings. One of these blessings is abundant and healthy children.

Contemporary Judaism now agrees with the Satanic Temple that abortion is a religious right/rite. Many rabbis preach this from the pulpit and in the public square. The public perception of Judaism today differs from that of the Satanic Temple only in the fact that no Jewish temple has yet opened an abortion clinic and the Satanic Temple has opened two.

Abraham serves as an excellent example for pro-life Jews who traverse the broad landscape of Jewish abortion advocacy and culture driven by agnosticism and paganism. Not to be deterred, we continue on our journey with a kind and friendly spirit to inspire our Jewish brothers and sisters to choose life. Each one has an inherent Jewish soul that knows and loves God. It may be suppressed and damaged beyond human repair, but God can work wonders in a human heart.

Let us go forth again today imagining a future multitude of Jews as numerous as the stars in the Heavens. If God blesses our work, we may fulfill His promise of 100 million. Abraham and Sarah, we thank you for starting us on our way. Now, it's up to us to complete the mission.

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Cecily  Routman

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.