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Writer's pictureLeann Shamash

The Voice: For Parshat Lech Lecha

Updated: Oct 27, 2020



You hear The Voice

a whisper in your ears

Lech L'chah

Pick up and go

Abandon your home

Leave what you know behind

Forego the comforts

The familiar

Lech


You stop and listen

Was that a voice?

Was it real or perhaps the wind ?

Do you turn away?

Pretend you do not hear?


You think

Be safe

Take no chances

Stick to what you know

Your street

Your bed, your pillow

Your pots, your pans

Your home

Your comfort

Your space


The Voice comes again

Louder this time

Lech

Like the pounding of waves,

Gales of wind


You pretend you don't hear

You are not courageous

You are comfortable

Leave a game half played?

Dinner half eaten

Dishes in the sink?

Maybe another time

Perhaps tomorrow

Your eyes closed tight

Behind your eyelids

You see so many stars,

beyond them

lies the unknown

Ma'ayin yavoh Ezri?

Who will help you

Who will take your hand

shepherd you

From known to unknown


Again

Lech

It is clear now

With a voice like thunder

Is it an order, an invitation?

A request you cannot refuse?

Can you run?

Should you hide?

You are confused, uncertain


Who are you at your core?

Behind your eyelids

Beneath your skin

Where is your courage?

You hear the voice

Calling you, again and again

Lech

nudging you forward

Lech

more insistent now

You hear the voice

Your eyes open

The stars are gone

And the world begins

You move

One step at a time

Tiny steps, many steps

Courage is no more than

Taking steps one by one

Toward the voice you hear

That you feel in your bones

Each step brings you closer

To your destiny

Past those stars in the sky

Whatever that destiny might be



לך לך

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ׃ The LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.


Translation taken from Sefaria

Genesis 12:1

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