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Decisions, Decisions…

This week we read the parsha of Lech Lecha and it begins: Va'yomer Hashem el Avram lech l'cha mai'artz'cha…("And Avram understood the message of HaShem to be: 'Go for you (for your benefit) from your land…')[12:1].")

I get way creeped out when I hear people say that HaShem told them to do anything. Just this week, I'll admit, I was discussing this concept and dismissed it as ridiculous. It, to me, denies the heartful compassion and innate intellectual ability we develop as human beings. Or does it? It might be easy to translate this part as HaShem told and often that is precisely how it gets translated. But… okay, follow me a minute as I sort of unpack this one.

Okay, sometimes when something is on our minds, you know how it is suddenly everywhere you look? I call it synchronicity, some people call it random, meaningless coincidence and others call it being directed. And all are correct, I suppose, if we believe them wholeheartedly. So, maybe what some call synchronicity, others call divine direction, while others call hunches and chance. And maybe, thinking that way only reinforces the idea that G-liness is everywhere and in all things and in all actions, large and small, mundane and breathtaking. And, most assuredly, I must bear in mind, the next time I hear someone say they were told, that we all plug-in in our own way, and that acknowledging that heartful compassion and innate intellectual ability I referenced above, it's hard not to connect those very things to the source of the universe, no? I mean, there probably is something to be said for the "G-d is a verb" business, right? Stunning actions, by that rationale, spread sunny rays of the purest form of Source/G-d/G-dliness/Universe/Whatever all over the place. And maybe some of those rays of postive action translate to someone else as a sign, as a validation, as a signpost to someone else, and other places as a direct communication. Who is to say, really? Ya nevah know. We choose words and concepts that sit well within in and maybe it's just a mater of semantics…?

So, we don't really know what made our matriarchs and patriarchs do as they did. Perhaps strange coincidences, perhaps, unencumbered by so much stuff and ultra-busy lives, people generations and generations ago could listen to their own pure selves and really hear, and maybe it was understood that listening and acting upon clear signs or strong hunches was connected to honoring a divine place within themselves.

Food for thought. Food for thought.

View Comments (3)
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