As I landed in Philadelphia this past week, on vacation with my children, the pilot joyfully announced, “Welcome to the city of the birthplace of freedom.”
Yesterday morning, my parents drove us past Independence Hall, the place where the United States Constitution was debated and adopted. My father asked, “Does anyone know what happened here?” My daughter, almost 7, answered, “Yes, grandpa, it is the place where the Jews got their freedom!”
While this was not the precise answer, it did ring true of the teaching of our Torah this week. The Jews received physical freedom in the Exodus and spiritual freedom at Mount Sinai. Yet, true religious freedom started with Abraham, when God told him, “Lech lcha,” go to a place where I will show you. Abraham had the courage, and if you will, the chutzpah, to put aside all that he was brought up in, to not only create a tradition from something he could not see, but to in fact BELIEVE in a God not in front of him, but rather present in every direction.
Lech lcha- go to a land….may also be interpreted as go to yourself. What is in your heart’s journey that has not yet been discovered? I was reminded of this by both the pilot and by the large edifice of Independence Hall.
Thankfully, our Torah reminds us of this lesson each and every week.
