Maureena’s Torah Reflections
Parashat Lech lecha. Genesis 12:1-17:27
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” (Gen. 12:1)
Avivah Zornberg, a Jewish biblical scholar, wrote that God spoke to Abram from within himself—from his deep sense of dissatisfaction. It was a divine–human urge, “mysteriously originating within Abram himself.” The impulse arose from Abram’s discontent with his life. Sarah, his wife, was barren; his family, idol worshipers, were barren of spirit. “I must get out of here,” he may have thought. But where to go?
“To the land that I will show you,” came the divine reply. Trusting, Abram set out and became a wandering nomad until he reached his destination.
Reflection:
Acting on divine–human urges can be costly—but deeply rewarding. What restlessness or divine stirring within you led you to make some of the decisions you made? OR, “What restlessness might be stirring within us as a community of faith?”
Prepared by Prof. Sr Maureena Fritz
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“Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies.”
Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: Nostra Aetate, No. 4