By: Romi Morales
PARASHA: LECH Lecha – Chapter 12
Undoubtedly one of the most fascinating figures in the history of Am Israel is our first patriarch, Abraham. The story of this character, not only teaches us how to successfully face the challenges and trials that destiny puts us day by day; or the importance of acting according to ethical and moral values (such as kindness, hospitality, solidarity, mutual responsibility, etc.), but also, how to be leaders, pioneers, entrepreneurs and innovators in different areas of our lives. In this short article, we will delve into some of the messages of this parashah, in order to understand some of its teachings for the Tnuati environment.
“Lech Lecha ” – (Go to yourself) – On the essence of Leadership
Every leader, in order to inspire others needs, first of all, to connect with himself, with his own truth, with his dreams and with his deepest ambitions. Anyone who wants to lead needs to transform all of this into a clear vision of where they want to go and be clear about why. Every leader, in order to motivate others, must also be clear about his or her mission, what mark he or she wants to leave on the world and what he or she is willing to do to achieve it. Every leader, in order to impact and influence his environment, must understand and clearly define what his objectives are, that is to say, what he hopes to achieve with all this process he is starting. And for that, every leader must necessarily go through a deep process of introspection and self-knowledge, he must learn to identify his own voice, in order to strengthen it and listen to it, even when there is a lot of noise around him.
The parashah begins with God’s request to Abraham to go “to himself”. Although the request sounds strange, this point will undoubtedly be fundamental to understand the central place that Abraham will occupy as a leader in the history of our people. It is only by taking this first step, perhaps the most difficult of all, that Abraham will be able to transform himself into the person he became in the end.
“Lech (…) Me Artzecha” – (Go from your Land) – On the essence of Pioneerism.
God’s second request to Abraham is to leave his Land. In a way, we could conclude that what God is asking our patriarch is to leave his “comfort zone”. That is to say, here God extends an invitation to Abraham to explore and conquer other territories in the physical and material aspect. On the other hand, in the ideological and spiritual aspect, the invitation is to dare to explore a new paradigm in the history of humanity: monotheism. In other words, God is asking Abraham to leave his land, to the land that He will show him, in order to become the first of our chalutzim.
Abraham, as far as we can see in our sources, accepts the challenge. Together with his wife, nephew and other people who had begun to follow in his footsteps, they leave Ur for a new land, still unknown to all of them. The adventure of leaving was not easy and neither was the challenge of settling in Eretz Cnaan. However, Abraham’s optimistic vision, his high conviction in the path he has undertaken, the understanding of the processes that need to take place until reaching the final goal, the sincere faith in the rational, objectives and values that sustain his actions, is what, at the end of the day, allows him not only not to give up, but to achieve his mission while becoming a source of inspiration for many of those he met throughout his life and fundamentally, for the rest of history, for all of us who are part of his people.
“Lech (…) Me moladetcha” – (Leave your homeland) – About what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
When we speak of the homeland, we generally refer to that place to which we feel attached, either because we were born there or because we have adopted it as our own by choice. Generally, this bond is affective and has been built from a series of historical, cultural and social experiences that have contributed to consolidate the person in his or her particularity. Evidently, here God is asking Abraham to perform an extremely difficult action: to leave the language, traditions and culture one knows; to leave one’s friends for the unknown; to leave one’s history. Everyone would agree, at first glance, that this is not something that anyone would be willing to do, unless they can visualize a unique opportunity on the other side of danger and uncertainty. When this happens, people are more willing to take on the responsibility of directing, organizing and leading the processes that allow them to explore and exploit these adventures to the fullest. Today, we call this type of person an entrepreneur.
The entrepreneur is the one who identifies an opportunity and based on this, creates an initiative and plans the processes to achieve it, even if this means assuming certain costs, risks or dangers that other people would not be willing to assume. An entrepreneur is usually creative and manages to bring original answers to the externalities that are presented in his way because great is his eagerness to reach the goal that has been defined. An entrepreneur is flexible, has the ability to adapt to changes, but at the same time is perseverant and self-confident, so he does not give up and moves forward with passion and security towards the vision he believes in.
Undoubtedly Abraham has all the characteristics of an entrepreneur. Although all his environment, surroundings and what is known is presented as the natural, the obvious, the evident and the safe, from a very early age he manages to anticipate the trends of the place and envision a future where the ideas that govern the world may be different. Abraham agrees to God’s request because he understands that the step he needs to take to have a real impact on society is to change his environment. To take distance and start teaching, educating, influencing other people to carry out this great project that today we know as Am Israel.
“Lech (…) Me Beit abicha ” – (Go from your father’s house) – On the essence of innovation.
Abraham was born in Ur, in a totally different context than the one we know today. Abraham’s father, Terach, was an artist and his job was to create statues that were used as gods in a society where idolatry was deeply rooted. Abraham grew up watching his father give form to these gods and his logic and rationality prevented him from thinking that something created by a human being could be more powerful than this one and create all the wonders that exist in this world. According to our sages, Abraham tried to explain his ideas to his father, but his father was not ready to understand them. Terach and Abraham were standing in different paradigms. Each of them saw the world differently and therefore also their place and their way of intervening in it.
Unlike Teraj, Abraham continually reflected and was willing to question the ideas of the moment. His critical thinking is what allowed him to take the first step towards the unprecedented cultural, political, religious and social innovation that he spearheaded. Abraham’s intellectual curiosity, his open-mindedness is what allowed him to study other options and not close himself to the first one that presented itself, as was the case with Terach. Abraham is also shown as a person capable of responding positively to adversity.
The fact of not giving up in the face of difficulties, learning from negative situations, accepting them in a constructive way and continuing to work with courage and determination, is what allowed him to continue looking for ways and solutions that would bring him closer to his destiny.
When God asks Abraham to leave his father’s house, in a way he is asking him to make room for innovation. God, with this request, invites Abraham to think differently, to renew, to discover, to perfect, to progress, to change, to alter, to invent, to modify, to improve many of the ideas, values and principles that governed society until then. And Abraham succeeds. And Abraham succeeds.
By way of conclusion.
In recent times, leadership has come to the center of attention in both the social and professional worlds. Today, every person is expected to exercise leadership from whatever place or position he or she occupies.
Also within the framework of the Tnua, every madrich or madricha aspires that their chanichim and chanichot acquire all the knowledge, tools, abilities and skills to become the future leaders of our people and in every project they carry out wherever they are. However, this is not the only thing we aspire to educate. At Tnua, we also aim to educate young pioneers, who will be at the forefront and who will pave the way for all those who come after them. We aspire for our young people to be strong and courageous and to build paths that will allow the next generations to venture into life, to grow, to develop their potential and to continue to develop more and better paths in the future. And, in addition to this, we hope to train enterprising people, that is, people who take the necessary risks to push forward all those who do not feel comfortable with the reality as it is and want to be part of the processes of improvement and change. . And, in addition, we trust that our young people will be able to innovate, that is, to be those who, based on everything they have learned, based on the values, ideas and principles of Tnua, based on the formative and significant experiences they have acquired over the years within the framework of Ken, will be those who manage to renew, to bring added value, a plus to their communities, societies and the world in general.
This idea may seem very ambitious to some. Others may think it is a very naïve ideal for educators in the 21st century. Personally, I believe that this parashah shows us that throughout our history we have had exemplary figures that even today have a lot to teach and from whom we still have a lot to learn. Abraham Avinu is one of them. How proud we are to be part of his story and that he is the origin of ours.
