You are here: Home » News » WWOT – Weekly Words of Torah: Parashat Lekh Lekhah

WWOT – Weekly Words of Torah: Parashat Lekh Lekhah

To inspire, guide, engage, enrich, and empower Conservative Jewish Women
By Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields, Executive Director, Women’s League For Conservative Judaism

Parashat Lekh Lekha is one of my favorite Torah Portions because it was the first Torah portion I ever learned when I began my studies at the Bialik School in Brooklyn, New York. I had, of course, learned the stories that took place in the previous two Torah readings – the stories of Creation; Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel; Noah’s Ark; the Tower of Babel. But this Torah reading I learned in Hebrew and even had to memorize the first words of the Parashah (Torah reading). If one really thinks about it, it is a very appropriate Parashah to begin one’s study of Torah because it begins the journey of our patriarch Avram, who eventually becomes Avraham. God tells Avram “Lekh Lekha” to go out from his father’s home to a place God will show him.

Jewish learning is truly a journey that is similar to Avram’s journey. There is always something to learn and see anew depending on what we have experienced during the previous year. That is the beauty of reading the Torah year after year. This week is a great time to look around your Sisterhood membership and see whose journey you really do not yet know anything about: Call that person to perhaps make a time to meet up with them and find out what their ‘story’ is. What has brought them to Sisterhood? To your Sisterhood in particular? What makes them tick? What gets them excited to get up in the morning? What is their Lekh Lekha story?  Where did they come from, and where do they see themselves going? We all have a story no matter what stage of life we are in and how old we might be. What is your story?

WWOT, Weekly Words of Torah will be a brief paragraph prepared weekly by our new Executive Director, Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields, presented in our “This Week @ Women’s League.” WWOT will provide meaningful thoughts related to the Weekly Torah Portion, an event on the Calendar, a Prayer, or something of Jewish interest, to inspire, guide, engage, enrich, and empower Conservative Jewish Women. If you have any particular interest in future topics, or want to send Rabbi Wolintz-Fields an email, you can contact her at ewolintz-fields@wlcj.org. Read previous Weekly Words of Torah here.