Lecha Lecha, Go Out and Get 'Em!

This week we read Parashat Lech Lecha, and today I had the joy of joining in some leaving and searching of my own. Our kindergarten teachers, Avi and Danielle, appeared in full costume as Avram and Sarai, brooms in hand as walking sticks, and led their troupe of five-year-old followers through the building in search of Eretz Canaan.

At every doorway, the little ones peeked in and asked, "Is this Canaan?", a scene straight out of Are You My Mother? In each room, teachers and students dutifully checked their classroom, reported that Canaan wasn't there, and sent the travelers off with wishes of good luck. The search finally ended on the fifth floor, in the second grade classroom, where the older students explained to their younger friends that yes, they had arrived in Eretz Canaan, a land that would one day become Eretz Yisrael, and eventually Israel. Just down the hall, a couple of middle schoolers practicing their Torah reading paused to reminisce about their own kindergarten journey to Canaan with Avi and Danielle.

Lech Lecha is one of the most wonderful parashiot to teach children (though honestly, they all are, even the most difficult stories). It raises so many questions: about the text, about our people's history, about ourselves, and about our future. Across every grade, those conversations are alive in our building, whether students are hearing the stories from their teachers, acting them out, parsing the biblical Hebrew, or practicing the now-familiar verses with friends in the hallway.

As I followed Avram and Sarai's little flock, I found myself thinking about the parasha's opening words. God's call to Avram is one of the Torah's most intense demands for faith: leave your home, leave everything you know, and follow Me into the unknown. And yet, within that call is something empowering. "לֶךְ לְךָ" (lech lecha) can be read not only as "go forth," but as "go to yourself." The journey outward begins with a journey inward.

To take big adventures and big risks, to try things that might not work out, or that might change everything, whether in the ways we expect or in ways we never imagined, we have to know ourselves. We need to be grounded in confidence, curiosity, vision, and passion.

Earlier this morning, I led a tour of my own. I wasn't searching for Canaan; I was welcoming a prospective parent (it's admissions season!). We talked about the importance of understanding yourself: noticing even what you don't yet understand about yourself, understanding yourself in relationship to others, and understanding yourself as part of something larger, like a people. This kind of anchoring belongs at the heart of elementary education. It is what truly prepares a child to "succeed" in "real life." No matter where you go or what you are searching for, you always have yourself as a guide and as an inspiration.

At the end of every day, and especially at our eighth-grade graduation each year, I can hear a voice in my head cheering our kids on: "לֶךְ לְךָ"! Go out into the world with confidence, curiosity, and a sense of mission.

On the subject of leaving the country you are in on a mission, thank you to all the Beit Rabban community members who are traveling to Israel to vote in Tuesday's election!

Alon Muroch

Amy Klein

David Lazerson

Ehud Barak

Morit Gaifman

Talia Gillis

Shimon Shmooely 

Tzemah Yoreh

Yaara Ben Devorah

Yonatan Linenberg