I am craving Shabbat. I am yearning for its rest. I am longing for its peace.
Like an engine running at full bore, our souls have been guzzling gallons of spiritual energy. And we’re tired. Our tank is running on empty. The red light is on. We need to fill up, to recharge … to rest.
The election this week culminated a time of great anticipation and concern. Waking up on Wednesday morning, some felt relieved and elated, grateful that the candidates they supported were elected. They look forward to the changes they hope the new administration will make, and new policies they will pursue.
Others woke up with a sense of sad disappointment, anxiety, and dread. Many are worried about what the new administration will do, and how that will affect them, their loved ones, and the country.
All of us wonder what the future will bring.
In our Torah portion this week, Abraham and Sarah are also asked to consider a future shrouded in mystery.
The Holy One says: “לֶךְ־לְךָ – Lech L’cha – get yourself going to the land that I will show you.” God asks Abraham and Sarah to uproot themselves completely from the life they had known, and to journey forth toward a land and a future they could not foretell or foresee, a future of promise or peril. In exchange, God promises a future of blessing, in which they will become a blessing to all the nations of the earth.
The Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter of Ger, wonders why God did not show Abraham and Sarah what lay in store for them. “Why,” he asks, “did God not show Abraham the place immediately?”
The answer, he suggests, is that God is much more interested in yearning and desire than in knowledge and surety. “It is certain,” he writes, “that longing is more important before the Blessed One.”
Ever since Abraham and Sarah set forth from Haran, our people have traveled a journey of longing. It was our yearning for freedom that brought us to Mount Sinai, and our yearning for holiness that lit the torch we carried through history.
It was that same longing that drew our people to these shores, lit by a different torch, one shining from the raised arm of the Statue of Liberty.
What makes us Jewish is what makes us Americans. The longings and aspirations that inspired our nation and its founders are the same longings and aspirations that inspired Abraham and Sarah and us who have followed.
As Americans and as Jews, we long for freedom. We believe in service and sacrifice. We believe in doing the right thing even when no one is looking, in justice, fairness, integrity, and righteousness.
We long for a world enlightened with wisdom and understanding, in which we see all people as created in God’s holy image, of infinite and equal value, where we cultivate compassion and love, humility and forgiveness, graciousness, gratitude, and respect.
We long for a world liberated from persecution and coercion, where people are free to pursue their dreams and to explore their fullest potential, no matter their race or religion, their sexuality or gender or country of origin.
We long for a world where we protect the vulnerable and the weak, where we welcome the stranger, where we stand strong against oppression and tyranny, and join together in the pursuit of peace.
This is what we yearn for. This is what we long for. This is who we are. This is what we believe.
The Sefat Emet also taught that God’s command to Abraham “לֶךְ־לְךָ – Lech L’cha” can be translated differently. “לֶךְ – Lech” in Hebrew means “go” and “לְךָ – L’cha” means “to you.” In asking Abraham to go forth, God was really asking Abraham to return to the core truths he knew to be right.
So where do we go from here? The answer is: we return to ourselves. What God needs us to do in this moment is to lean into our longing. What we longed for before the election is what we must long for after the election. What we have championed for centuries is what we must champion going forward. What drove Abraham and Sarah toward a promised land of blessing must be what drives us still.
So take this Shabbat and rest. Bring your longing and your yearning to our sanctuary and let our collective prayers remind us of who we are and what we believe.
And after Shabbat, let our longing lead us forward, to transform our nation, and our world, into a promised land of blessing, that through our unwavering commitment and belief, we like Abraham and Sarah before us, will be the blessings through which all the peoples of the world will be blessed.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Dan Levin
Temple Beth El of Boca Raton
